Gradius!!!

hunterw · Post by **hunterw** » 25 May 2007, 18:38

For those not in the know, Gradius is an ongoing 2d side-scrolling shooter franchise from Konami. These games are really notoriously difficult - combine tons of memorization with crazy Japanese reflexes and you have what it takes to beat them.

Gradius 3 is the first one I played, back in SNES days. Hours of fun, and plenty of controllers hurled in fury! I did eventually beat #3, but that's old news...just recently I've rekindled my old love with Gradius 5 for PS2.

Gradius 5 is the new hotness, and after countless hours I've finally managed to beat it (took 14 credits). So I'm feeling pretty good about myself, not a bad Gradius player at all...playing on mere normal difficulty.

Then I find this 2GB .divx (that's streamable, amazingly), and now I don't feel so hot about my Gradius skills.

I don't think I've ever seen a game video that is more impressive than that. Gradius 5 on absolute maximum difficulty, all stages, no deaths. Utterly un-fawking-believable.

manored · Post by **manored** » 25 May 2007, 18:48

Personally I find these games boring... I prefer the 3d ones :). Especially ww2 ones since I think missiles remove a great part of the skill element of those games.

Guessmyname · Post by **Guessmyname** » 25 May 2007, 18:54

Looks like Ikaruga

Post by **jcnossen** » 25 May 2007, 18:59

I find it hard to believe that it's more impressive than things like Quake done quick or HL done quick replays. I tried a lot and can't even repeat the bunnyhopping in HL like those people can.

KingRaptor · Post by **KingRaptor** » 25 May 2007, 19:26

Haha, Gradius. I played III on my SNES emulator...savestates FTW kekekekekeke

Now I only need to figure out how they manage to win on the hardest difficulty with no deaths on Einhander (best side scroll shooter IMO).

hunterw · Post by **hunterw** » 25 May 2007, 19:28

bunny hopping in half life 1 or any half life 1 based game is as easy as:

alias +bhop "alias _special jump;jump"
alias -bhop "alias _special"
alias jump "+jump;wait;-jump;wait;special"
bind space +bhop

ffs all you have to do is hold down space and you never touch the ground. works real good in CS1.6 with the anti-bhop crap they put in, completely nullifies it. god CS1.6 is such a pile of crap.

ANYWAY back on topic, this is like 13546 times more impressive than QDQ or HLDQ. if you've played gradius then you can attest to the fact, not opinion, fact that this is the most unbelievably godlike feat a human can accomplish in life.

rattle · Post by **rattle** » 25 May 2007, 19:30

jcnossen wrote:I find it hard to believe that it's more impressive than things like Quake done quick or HL done quick replays. I tried a lot and can't even repeat the bunnyhopping in HL like those people can.

It's a lot easier in Q3 although I suck at it.

Anyway -> http://speeddemosarchive.com/

hunterw · Post by **hunterw** » 25 May 2007, 19:34

rattle wrote:
jcnossen wrote:I find it hard to believe that it's more impressive than things like Quake done quick or HL done quick replays. I tried a lot and can't even repeat the bunnyhopping in HL like those people can.
It's a lot easier in Q3 although I suck at it.

hunterw wrote:bunny hopping in half life 1 or any half life 1 based game is as easy as:

alias +bhop "alias _special jump;jump"
alias -bhop "alias _special"
alias jump "+jump;wait;-jump;wait;special"
bind space +bhop

ffs all you have to do is hold down space and you never touch the ground. works real good in CS1.6 with the anti-bhop crap they put in, completely nullifies it. god CS1.6 is such a pile of crap.

now seirously wtf have you people not clicked the link and watched the streaming video or what

Comp1337 · Post by **Comp1337** » 25 May 2007, 19:44

Buffering: 0%

And where's the fun in bunnyhopping console style?

hunterw · Post by **hunterw** » 25 May 2007, 20:47

Guessmyname wrote:Looks like Ikaruga

Yeah, here's a similar video for ikargua on hard

Ikaruga never really did it for me, there's just not enough variety, both in the stages and in the complete lack of powerup/ship configurations. They have the light/dark thing, yeah it's a good idea, but that's really all that's there!

rattle · Post by **rattle** » 25 May 2007, 21:02

You know that bunny hopping is more than just holding down a key and wiggling the mouse a bit. It's fun in Q3, seen some awesome videos with people jumping over (nearly) half the map.

Anyway, that embedded divx player crashes when ever I switch to fullscreen or windowed mode and it reaches the end of useable video data. Although the first 50 MB of it were impressive. I'd have lost all three lives within the first stage probably.

Go play Super R-Type, that was fun.

edit: Hm I remember nice a dual run of Ikaruga where two players mimicked each other perfectly.

Ishach · Post by **Ishach** » 26 May 2007, 02:52

Have you tried out Cho Ren Sha 86k hunterw.
http://www2.tky.3web.ne.jp/~yosshin/my_works/index.html

Graphics are pretty low-res but they still look really nice.

I can get to level 6 without using a continue B)

I agree with you about Ikuragua, I bought a dreamcast to play some 2D fighters and decided to download Ikuragua as well, and it wasnt half as fun as reviews and stuff made it out to be

KDR_11k · Post by **KDR_11k** » 26 May 2007, 07:11

The Inverted Castle blog calls Hitogata Happa the best shmup ever.

Hm, freeware game posting time!

Kenta Cho's games
Galax
Frequon Invaders
Every Extend
Warning Forever

(list cropped to remove non-shmups)

hunterw · Post by **hunterw** » 26 May 2007, 08:51

Ishach wrote:Have you tried out Cho Ren Sha 86k hunterw.
http://www2.tky.3web.ne.jp/~yosshin/my_works/index.html

Graphics are pretty low-res but they still look really nice.

I can get to level 6 without using a continue B)

Only made it to level 2

I don't like that I have to spam my shoot key over and over again, that's annoying. Other than that it's a pretty good little overhead shooter. my favorite of this type of shmup is Raiden 2...just you and the enemy ships and gunfire to worry about really.

Gradius is so much more cerebral. Every level is completely different from the last, and each present unique challenges. Watch the asteroid level's boss for instance. The boss sprays about 2341235215 bullets out every second. The only thing that keeps you alive is the asteroids that you had to kill throughout the entire level.

The simple fact that there is terrain and walls in and of itself is a huge, seperate dimension, let alone all of the other complexities. The powerup system requires a lot of thought - what slot am I on? How many powerups do I need to get to the correct slot for what I need?

Ship configurations add another dimension, and every one requires a completely different skill set from the last. The guy in this video uses a ship layout that I couldn't even build until I unlocked it by finishing the game. Playing the game with my layout is astronomically different.

In conclusion, play Gradius.

Caydr · Post by **Caydr** » 26 May 2007, 17:52

A good classic is "Raptor: Call of the Shadows". DOS. Good game though.

rattle · Post by **rattle** » 26 May 2007, 18:19

I've played the demo years ago and got the full version just recently... it's boring after a while though after maxing everything out.

zwzsg · Post by **zwzsg** » 26 May 2007, 19:31

Raptor is way overrated. It has ugly graphic and unimpressive weapons.

Tyrian's my fav PC shmup.

Caydr · Post by **Caydr** » 26 May 2007, 19:51

rattle wrote:I've played the demo years ago and got the full version just recently... it's boring after a while though after maxing everything out.

Yeah... there's not enough reason to keep playing after the first campaign or whatever it's called. Fun while it lasts though.

KingRaptor · Post by **KingRaptor** » 26 May 2007, 20:16

zwzsg wrote:Tyrian's my fav PC shmup.

Damn straight!

smoth · Post by **smoth** » 26 May 2007, 21:36

Bah, I still more the demise of the local raiden fighters jet game at my college theator. Panda and played the shit out of that.

Spring RTS Engine

Gradius!!!

Gradius!!!