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YouTube shmup superplays have got me thinking: are bullet hell shooters that much harder than shooters that don’t throw out 100,000,000 bullets? I’ve crossed four out of six stages on DoDonPachi, all of Touhou Komakyou: Embodiment of Scarlet Devil on Normal, 3 1/2 stages out of 5 of Mushihime-sama Futari ver 1.5 Maniac, and five stages out of six on Giga Wing. To compare, I can’t even clear the second stages of Raiden or Truxton II–you’d think that they’d be easier since they’re “ordinary” shooters, but you’d be dead wrong. Older games tend to rely on aimed “sniper” shots to kill you instead. Whereas bullet-dense shooters are about analyzing patterns and finding gaps in them, older shooters are about being alert at all times; blink and you’re very likely to get hit out of nowhere.

And with that said, I’ll probably get in a round of Raiden right now. (I’d try its sequel except that it’s impossible to “emoo”late.) Maybe it’s just me not getting enough practice in.

EDIT: Barely made it to stage 1-3. Now, in a ypical 6-stage “danmaku” shooter, stage 3 wouldn’t be too bad, but here, I’m already on edge when I get halfway through stage 1-2. It certainly doesn’t help that the player ship has a delayed-detonation bomb, as opposed to the instant-invincibility bombs of newer games.