Shmup celebration in full steam yeah!

I’m always drifting from one subgenre to another, and in March I’ve covered quite a span of time in the history of shooting games. The oldest ones were Gradius on the NES and Astro Warrior. This version of Gradius is still great to play – a lot easier than the original, but charming and excellent for NES standards. Astro Warrior is just as much fun, I just wish there were more stages than just those ever-looping three.

I also launched myself in the mission of 1-lifeing Darius II on the Saturn. Darius II is one of the reasons I fell in love with the genre, and the Saturn port isn’t as easy as one might think. I’m glad I pulled it off, I think I might try the PS2 version next because, you know, I can’t get enough of Darius.

I’m not really fond of evil labelings such as “euroshmup”, but a few weeks ago a had a teste of what it’s like with X2 on the PS1. It wasn’t the greatest experience ever, but I can’t say it was a disaster either. Does anyone know if the soundtrack was ever released?

One minor and easy achievement this month was Aegis Wing on XBLA. This is the first downloadable game I beat – I know I’m late to the party, but only now I’m getting used to playing games that don’t come in catridges or CDs. In my case, Aegis Wing was mainly used as relaxation during those break spells from Homura and Blue Wish Ressurrection, which I’m still playing and hoping to 1CC soon. I’ll probably be moving to Batsugun on the Saturn afterwards, since I spent a couple of hours getting acquainted with this game a few days ago. And last but not least, I got back to Raiden Trad on the Mega Drive. I feel I needed to face this fear I have of the checkpoints in this game. Nerdy note: I always thought “Raiden Trad” was a cooler name than just plain “Raiden”.

The mission I received for Shmuppreciation Month is Game Tengoku aka The Game Paradise.  Wacky, fun and not as difficult as it looks from the pseudo-Psikyo gameplay style. My best score currently stands at 13 M, reaching loop 2-5.

Is this too much shmupping for one month? I don’t think so, in fact 99% of my gaming time is spent on them!