How to Get Good at Shoot 'Em Ups - Dominate the Screen
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- Опубликовано: 7 июл 2024
- Want to learn How to Get Good at Shoot 'Em Ups and Dominate the Screen? Shooter 101 is now in session with my Top Tip to practice and get good at shmups. I've gotten quite a few requests to make some How To Get Good videos as well as recommendations on good Starter Shmups, so I'm combining the two in this instructional video.
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Using Blazing Lazers aka Gunhed on the TurboGrafx 16 / PC Engine, I'll show you key areas to hone your skills and practice. It's a perfect starter shoot em up for beginners.
I'll also show you HOW to Practice, with 3 Methods to guarantee you improve faster and more efficiently. Whether you prefer old school retro shooters like me, or Bullet Hell / Danmaku style shoot 'em ups like Dodonpachi, the one method I cover and 3 ways to practice will help you get good and make future Shmups easier to master.
Blazing Lazers is readily available on the inexpensive PC Engine Mini and TurboGrafx 16 Mini, as well as other emulators and releases for you to play. In fact I used the PC Engine Mini in the making of this tutorial. It's a great retro gaming mini console and Blazing Lazers is a really fun game to learn.
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I knew this channel had great content up til now, but you keep surprising me with how learned and well-organized your newer vids are! I AM one of those people that loves Shooters but have been notoriously terrible at them for a long time (often never making it past the first stage). I really appreciate this video taking the approach to help people who want to get into the genre actually LEARN. Thanks, dude, you're the best!
Thank you that's always great to hear. Trying to cater to those who aren't the greatest at these games but really enjoy them is what I am going for with this video and any I do in the future. There are plenty of great, high level tutorials and advanced tactics for advanced and competitive players. And while I am certainly good at the games, and could be competitive if I put that same kind of time into them, I'm in no place to tell other pros how to play or improve. I've always wanted to get more people into the genre and was a big reason I pushed the PC Engine Mini so much, so I'm happy to know it's well received.
@@ShmupJunkie Congrats! You've probably sold a lot more people on it!
I'm the same. Always enjoyed Rtype and Lifeforce as a kid, I've got them on emulators, and a few other shmup games on my xbox, but have never been great at them.
Shmup junkie is the "go to" for shmup content like maximillian dood is to fighting games.🤘
Dominate the screen, Play within the pattern, Hold your ground... I say these cues to myself everytime I play a shmup now. It's really helping!!
It’s like the mantra of shooters 😆. Ohmmmmm... ohhhmmmygodImgonnadie 😂
Keep Calm and Shmup.
@@ShmupJunkie 😂😂😂😂
@@ShmupJunkie lol
I consider myself pretty experienced with shmups and even I learned something new with this video. The whole deal about watching replays of great players is spot because that actually helped me conquer Radiant Silvergun. Shmup Junkie you got some great content here sheesh, I am now a fan. Totally directing this video to whoever needs it.
Thanks man I’m stoked to hear you and some others are finding it useful. I wasn’t sure how it would come out or if anyone would care enough when I set out to make this.
No one has ever made a video like this. This was really some great advice!! I love Blazing Lazers. I can get to the last stage, but just cannot beat it. My plan is to just keep practicing over and over. Right now I'm working on Truxton and just playing that game over and over....then I want to move on to Grind Stormer. Keep up the great work on this channel! 😊😊
Those are some amazingly hard games you are practicing. Grind Stormer especially that’s got to be the hardest shooter on the mega drive period imo. BL is a pussycat by comparison 😅. Using that weapon takes practice but once you get good with it you can see the results like in this vid. The last stage and boss become much easier. Glad you liked it and I hope to make more of these.
Man, I gotta say, your channel is amazing! I discovered it about a month ago, been going back and watching your past vids. The passion you have exudes everywhere in your vids. Keep going and thanks for the content and knowledge.
Thanks! I’m really glad you did find me and the algo is doing it’s thing and getting me out there. I had a lot of fun with my older videos and it hasn’t even been a year yet since I started. It’s cool knowing my old work is still getting views. My editing has a come a long way but I still enjoy the old raw content too. Thanks for supporting me here I appreciate it.
You’re right. Weapon IV & “F” subweapon is very effective! But heart still yearns for Weapon II and shields. 😩
Reluctant Hero I used II forever along with the shield it gives you a cushion to screw up. I just never expected IV to wreck so much house until I gave it a chance. At least on stage 9 it’s my go to now.
I never get tired of playing Blazing Lazers! It is easily one of the best games on the TurboGrafx-16,
and the ring weapon makes the levels such a breeze, because of such awesome shield protection!
Yeah that ring weapon was kind of a hidden super weapon. It’s the least interesting to look at so wasn’t used much. We all wanted the II or III weapon, but once figured out how good IV is when fully powered it’s hard to go back. It’s main downside was if you do get hit and lose its protection you’re pretty exposed. It’s not a great option until near fully powered.
I've been meaning to buckle down and get decent at this genre for ages, since I love playing them but have been consistently terrible at them. This video and channel is exactly what I needed! Thanks for this and keep up the awesome work!
You're welcome and I'm stoked to hear that. I've only made a couple of these so far and I'm about due for another. This first one got such a good response it motivated me to build on it. I hope the few practice methods help, but always pick something fun and that you want to keep playing. Too many people make it into a chore and it defeats the purpose. Picking a game you enjoy so much that you want to master this the way to go.
I'll definitely be using using these tips to improve my shoot 'em up game. I have a BIG soft spot for shmups but I'm not too good at them. I also got a Blazing Lazers ROM for retroarch since I never had a TG-16 growing up (I was a Genesis/Mega Drive kid) so I'll definitely be using that as starter. Great content as always!
I hope you enjoy it. BL definitely has a lot of secrets baked in to make finishing the game easier as you are learning it like the golden lives that allow you to respawn. We all took advantage our first handful of times through the game and it's still convenient versus going back to a checkpoint.
Chapter List
0:00:00 - Intro
0:01:37 - HOW to PRACTICE and Get Good FAST - 3 Tips
0:04:46 - NUMBER ONE TIP to Get Good
0:06:11 - Blazing Lazers
0:07:32 - DOMINATE the Screen
0:09:49 - Bubbles! - Playing within the Bullet Pattern
0:11:49 - Final Level - Making it Look Easy
0:14:45 - Note on Competitive Gaming and Scoring - Recommended Reading
0:16:14 - SHMUPS for a Good Cause - 100% Donated to Help Lebanon
0:16:35 - COMING SOON!
Finally got around to watching this! Excellent advice, I am going to discipline more like how you mention here, I have often found myself jumping from game to game and not focusing on the ones I want to finish first. Your videos are really well made and easy to understand all the points you mention
Thanks man. Honestly, I am guilty of the same and jump around from games all the time as I play casually more often than anything else. But doing these videos has forced me to focus on each one more to improve in them, so I can make better gameplay recordings.
I’ve been just recently getting into shmups via the Cotton games. This video has definitely helped me immensely. As someone who primarily plays RPGs (I also enjoy racers and fighters) I have been looking for something new and shmups seemed like a good option. Thank you again for this!
You’re definitely welcome. This was the very first video I made like this. If you’re looking for a lot more tips I did a much more recent one called Learn to Shmup in 7 days. I really expanded a lot on the earlier videos and combined a lot of great tips and game suggestions into it. It’s a fun watch and you may find some of it really useful too. Either way I’m always thrilled to hear about more players getting into the genre and seeing how much enjoyment the games have to offer.
You did a great job clearly and simply explaining how to dominate and hold ground vs being dominated and pushed around. You’re going to help so many people get into shooters again! 💪🏼
That’s the goal! I’m trying. I also need to make clear in my next video like this, that shooters are also about having fun with them like other games and not just about getting really good and scoring. While important parts of the game it’s also pushed it into a very small niche. We treated them like any other games back in the early days and just had fun with them regardless of how far we got. And for a lot of more casual players they need to know that’s cool and how most including myself usually enjoy them.
This is good advice for LIFE, not just shmups! I will share this with my kids 🙏💛
Advice for life, dominate and don't let anyone push you around? haha I can't say that's a bad way to approach life. I'm kidding I figure you meant about practicing and knowing that failure is expected on the way to success.
Yes, exactly! I am a teacher and always say “practice makes progress!” What’s important is the context with this message and this is an engaging context. Great video!
For old and new shooter fans this video is invaluable in my opinion. Blazing Lasers is a blast no matter what skill level and I find it to be a good palate cleanser when I find myself shmup jumping from game to game. After a 1 CC I feel refocused and ready for the next game to 1 CC.
What a great video. I've really been getting into shmups more and more over the last year or so. I'm really glad you mentioned save states for practicing. I think a lot of people think of them as cheating, but they can really help you improve at games, especially ones without password sections.
Yes they get a bad rap, and rightfully so, because people cheat with them for legitimate competition which is expected. But they're invaluable for serious practice. Blanket calling them cheating is silly as the top speed runners use them to get good and competitive players do as well to maximize their time spent on improving. Just a matter of how you use them. If you abuse them to never really learn a game to beat it properly, then you'd just be cheating yourself. Otherwise a nice tool to have that I wish I had trying to beat RType as a kid lmao.
Your presentation and production is top notch and this was a really interesting and helpful video. Thanks!
Awesome, thank you for the feedback! I'm glad it was fun and you got some insight out of it. This was the first one I did like this.
Another excellent video dude! This has been my biggest problem when playing shooters. I never really just stick to one. That's the reason I rarely ever get through them without credit feeding lol. Way to go and thanks for breaking it down. Suuuper helpful!
Thanks I really do appreciate that. It seems obvious to stick to a discipline to perfect it, but there are so many great games to play and lack of time, I'm guilty of getting caught up in it. Doing the brutal series has really forced me to focus more on certain games and become more clear that if I want to get good enough at any of them I have to stick with them.
100% agree with all that you’ve said here. You know that you are on the right path when you are no longer being bullied into corners (looking at you Raiden) and bombs are only for extra points at the end of each stage (any CAVE shooter).
I fell in love with shmups via three games that I could just not stay away from due to how fun they are: Fantasy Zone, TwinBee and (later) Mushihimesama Futari.
Thank you for reinforcing that a player doesn’t have to be competitive to enjoy this genre and that having fun is always the bottom line. It’s no coincidence that we don’t see many (I can’t even name one example) shmups that are player versus player.
I love what you are doing here, Man. Thank you.
Thanks and I'm really glad you're enjoying this and the other vids. I honestly wouldn't mind some PvP shmups as well it would cater to certain players. It certainly worked well for fighting games and FPS, but I don't see quite the same happening for shmups. But even those games some people just play for fun and against friends, doesn't have to be for bragging rights or mastery. Any game is just for fun to me, and everyone has their own idea of what that is. We do caravan contest on my discord every few months which seems to be the ideal way for shmups. Even though it's competitive, there is enough people where everyone helps each other out and shares their gameplay and tips. There are always great players that set the bar, but in the end everyone playing ends up having fun and hitting personal bests they never expected. It ends up most are still playing for fun despite we are all shooting for a personal best score. I guess it's how you approach the competitive aspect and inclusive you are, the right crowd and it becomes a good time. But myself included usually plays them all just for fun, so I'm always happy to promote that view. It's the only way the genre can become more mainstream. BTW I'm a big fan of Futari. I don't play a ton of Cave or am particularly great at any of them, but I really enjoy playing that one.
@@ShmupJunkie I'm not even slightly competitive. I haven't 1CC'd many shmups at all. I just can't stay away from them. It seems like nobody rides the fence on shmups. All in or all out, as far as being a fan goes, right?
Thanks for your reply! I'll stay tuned!
Excellent advice! The benefits of perfecting a game can prove invaluable helping players not only improve their overall skill in other games but it builds confidence in your ability to practice and improve.
And you know that better than anyone 😁. You’ve made mastering your favorites into an art form. It’s great to play for fun but it’s also more fun to play when you’re proficient at a game.
Really good video, enjoyable and straight to the point, which is great. I really liked the dominate the screen approach, for the shmups I actually do well this is exactly what I was instinctively doing, but I failed to do the same on other games and turned them into a much harder experience. Especially Cave games, where I used to stay back in the screen, which actually gives me a disadvantage to kill enemies as soon as they get into the screen. Good stuff!
Jogos Mofados Thanks. I’m glad you did find it useful. There are always exceptions but I’ve found it works for the majority of shooters especially old school ones. Bullet hell is a different ball game. It works for levels quite well but bosses are another animal that are much more about pattern recognition and extreme practice. I’m weakest in those games but a channel I’m going to collab with is the strongest there. Electric Underground if you haven’t heard of him. Old school is my game but if you’re looking for Cave style tips he is the man.
So I watched this last night out of sheer curiosity since I’ve recently started to dabble in shmups again. After playing the R-Type Final 2 demo, I pulled out the ol’ SNES and R-Type III and started going through it keeping in mind a lot of your tips. They were super helpful and I’ve gotten further than I ever have before so thanks for making this!
You're welcome man. A lot of these help me when making my videos too and practicing to get some good footage. RType III is a pretty damn tough game and a good bit of memory, especially stage 4 which there is no way to get through without memorizing it. I always suck at that level unless I just played it and still remember the route.
@@ShmupJunkie Yeahh, stage 4 was particularly trying due to the intense memorization and puzzle aspects. I made it to the second boss of stage 4, but just couldn’t quite get past his “super fast” phase after an hour of attempts. Still though, that’s twice as far as I ever made it when I was younger. Nice to see I can still improve even as an old fogey, hahaha!
I wasn't expecting legitimately good advice. RUclips click bait has jaded me to such things. But you called me out. I absolutely panic and evade to the edge of the screen. I kind of assumed I'd gravitate to a more offensive posture as I got better, but it's dawning on my now that I'm just reinforcing bad habits and slowing that growth potential. Definitely making me reassess how I play.
It's very timely you just came across this... it was my first ever instructional video. I'm actually working on one right now that'll be out this weekend or next called Learn to Shmup in 7 Days. And you can bet that one of those days focuses on controlling the screen space and routing the stage, eliminating threats before they can fire. It's applicable to to at least 90% of shooters, so I'm glad you found it useful. I was hesitant to even make any instructional videos, but the first was received well and subs have been asking for more.
@@ShmupJunkie Wonderful, I look forward to it! My personal motive for getting better at shmups is to better appreciate an art form I love but don't know particularly well. Much how someone might take a film studies class to better appreciate movies, I'm realizing that there's a lot of nuance and decades of evolution that I've not been experiencing fully when I just casually tackling a few levels. I imagine there are many in your audience who aren't necessarily out to become 1CC masters, but have allowed your obvious passion for the genre to fuel their own and want to appreciate it to its fullest. Thanks for what you do.
A lot of reliable tech here,definitely know your stuff when it comes to talking shoot ems,lol. The pick one game idea really sticks with me. Been teaching myself the original Darius through the Genesis port,and that reminder of "play it and get better over time",has basically been my mentality for it. I started basically game overing at the first zone,and now I can ace the first couple no problem.
I still need to try that Darius Genesis port on my mini I've heard lots of good things about it. I used to play it most on the pc engine which were decent. Did you buy one of those physical copies or are you playing it on the mini also? Darius can get pretty long and harrowing with multiple paths so using saves to practice the later, harder routes will save a lot of time redoing the early stuff once you have it down. But I really need to try it on my mini.
@@ShmupJunkie I got a physical,but also have it on the mini. It's a pretty bang-on port,music and all. Been playing the physical a bit more,mostly just to use an original Genesis pad. I have been trying out the PCE port through the Switch collection,Darius Plus,right?
Okay. I love this channel. Just binged a bunch of your videos.
Time to prepare for Shmuptember...my favorite streaming month of the year.
I’m glad you’re digging it. Shmuptember, Shmuptober and Shmupcember. Three months of blissful death 💀
The first STG game i finished without save states was Super Aleste, thanks to the infinite continue, but im getting better and better at it, thanks to you man, next will be one of my loved ones, Dragon Spirit on the Famicom, that i always die on the final stages. Soon my PC engine arrives im trying Blazzing Lazers to my trial to finnish, thanks a lot from Brazil.
That’s great to hear and Super Aleste is a really fun game to start with. If you enjoy it you’ll certainly have a great time with Blazing Lazers too! It was the first game to use the trick where picking up special power up items allow you to respawn instead of going back to a checkpoint.
I'm binge watching all these lessons. Thanks for sharing the knowledge.
Super Star Soldier was the game for me with this method. Training on that game increased my shmup skills exponentially! Awesome video!!
super_retro_game SSS is a really tough game to learn on much harder than Blazing for sure. Trial by fire but makes you strong lol. I love it too it’s fun to play and has killer music. The caravan mode on that one is brutal to score really well. I can still rarely get over 500k on it still need more practice.
@@ShmupJunkie you defiantly got that right! i feel like challenging a harder shmup makes you have to adapt giving you a good understanding of how to deal with patterns in the specific game like you brought up. before you know if your learning techniques without even knowing it!
This video hit home! Been playing shooters since I first saw Galaxian at my local Strawhat Pizza, way... way back. The first shooter I mastered was Thunderforce III on Genesis and have been a shooter junkie since.
TF3 ain't a bad game to master first, it's a bit like Blazing Lazers to me only for horizontal shooters. Not overly hard and great to start out and learn on, compared to 4 which was awesome but also a harder game to just start with. And it's a great game too. I know some that prefer it to the sequel.
Fantastic video again buddy! Really enjoyed your tips and tricks! I'm happy that I'm proficient in most of your ideas here and there's deff some more fun tips you can still cover with different games! BL has a really fun progression I'm glad you picked it! It's for sure easier and less crazy on the tg mini, but still one of my faves! Keep them coming!
Thanks dude. Yeah I’m trying to keep the vids in bite size pieces and not for experts. There’s plenty of pros better then I to teach advanced tips. I want to bring shmups to the masses 😁. I’ll focus on something else useful next time maybe boss tips or something similar.
Great video man! Improvement in shmups is such an interesting topic that I often find myself sharing with others though you brought up some things that I haven't thought to mention when explaining this to others so it was refreshing hearing your angle! Furthermore, everything is laid out very well and I really appreciate the production quality. Keep em comin man!
Thanks I'm glad you found it worth watching. I tried to do something a bit different and focus on basics and what makes sense to me. I wasn't sure what kind of response I'd get when I made this first one and if people would like it. I'm not some big expert so I just tried to make it applicable to entry level players and not someone at the level of going for 1cc of games or scoring, at which point they know this stuff and have their own methods. There is a lot of high level, great videos like this out there by very good players, so I went the other direction to appeal to someone getting started and wanting to improve with basics, like methods to practice etc.
@@ShmupJunkie Definitely worth it and I like the approach because it's tangible for the vast majority of people interested in shmups. Most jump in without a clear plan of what they need to do in order to start seeing progress so this is a perfect remedy and the feedback speaks for itself;)
Thank you, I like everything you've uploaded so far.
Reinhart Sieger No thank you. Glad you’re enjoying them. People enjoying them is why I keep making more.
Hey mate, this was super helpful! The tip to control screen space made me immediately power on my switch and play Gunbird 2. The advice works a dream! Thank you for this and thanks for sharing your love of shmups with the rest of us
Dude Gunbird 2 is another animal that game is a beast. I was just playing it this week for my Dreamcast video I’m working on. It definitely helps there using the short range attack to take out bigger enemies quick before they can fire much. That’s one hell of a hard game though that I certainly am not good enough at to clear on a credit, but it’s damn fun.
Great video! Looking forward to the rest of the series.
Thanks! Glad you found it fun and useful. I've definitely got some ideas for a few more and then will see where it goes.
Another great vid man, extremely helpful. I’ll give Blazing Lazers a go now with these tips in mind 👍
Minty Retro Sounds good. I want to see video proof of completing the homework assignments on stage 5 and 8 😆 jk. Good luck man let me know how you do. You have a mini to practice on I don’t recall? Or you going to use the real deal. It’s great on og hardware of course but you lose the save states to practice spots.
I've been working on getting better at shmups for a few weeks now, and took your advice after watching this to focus on Blazing Lazers. About an hour ago I managed the 1CC (without using the extra lives/bombs Easter eggs) after going right down to the wire. No spare lives or bombs and finishing with just the basic pea shooter. Exhilarating doesn't begin to describe it. It was going to be the 1CC or the sort of agony that can put you off of a game for a while.
Thanks for the useful pointers in the video. I have to confess that I don't really vibe with weapon IV, even combined with the F powerup as too many shots still get through and I feel like the slow rate of fire of the rings leaves me exposed. Weapon II with either F or S seems to work best for me, though if I get powered down III seems relatively effective at lower power levels compared to the others.
I feel like I've got a whole treasure trove to explore, now that I've sharpened my skills at least a little, with the PC Engine's shooter library. I'll probably start with the Soldier series and go from there.
I've really enjoyed quite a few of your videos now, your passion for the genre really shines through. Keep up the good work!
That’s awesome man congratulations! That’s the kind of win with nothing left to spare coming down to the wire that you’ll always remember. Yea the IV weapon is an all or nothing approach. Unless it’s fully powered and maxed where it’s overpowered, anything less is porous and unreliable. I’ve always liked it for the last stage but if you mess up and get nailed you’re in trouble lol. Yes the Soldier games are a natural progression from Blazing and you’ll feel right at home. Though be careful as the first game Super Star Soldier is actually the hardest and can be unforgiving. The best difficulty progression between them is Final Soldier, Soldier Blade, then Super Star Soldier last. Anyone who can clear SSS will pretty easily blow through the other two. And if you’re looking for a good play through and pointers on how to clear any of them, look up Chinopolis clears of them on RUclips. They’re legit and will show you some useful strata. Good luck!
Been going through your videos and my man, you make some awesome videos. Definitely deserve way more subs and recognition. I only wish I found your channel sooner.
Thanks! It's only been a year if that since I started so I think it's going really well for me still being a noob at this. It's blown up more than I expected so far. I have a blast making them though so glad to see you enjoy my older stuff on here.
Thank you dude. Much needed and appreciated.
You're welcome I hope some of the stuff in there proves useful.
Loved the video. Thanks a ton for the help!!!
Thank you; I keep getting my butt kicked in R-Type Final 2 (I don't remember having so much problems with R-Type Final 1 but I'm a lot older now lol) so I made sure to watch this and your other Shooter 101 vid to try to learn how to play smarter. I appreciate all the work you put into these videos.
It's funny I just started getting into more shmups lately, and I can tell you from my own meager personal experience that not allowing enemies to put you on the defensive and trying to make sure you dominate the screen with aggression is absolutely the quickest way to succeed. The longer enemies are on screen, the more BS you will have to dodge while having to juggle new threats, and it's best to just not even give them the chance as over time they will put you into a corner with nowhere to go.
I was playing Radiant Silvergun the other day, and there is a part in stage one that showers the screen in a hail of crisscrossing bullets and it looked impossible. But by taking out the offending enemies right when they appear, they don't even get the chance and there are maybe half the bullets you would normally see, making a quick sweeping motion very easy and doable.
I think you are right on the money when you point out that it's the fact that these games scroll the screen for you that makes this by far the most optimal way to play. When I started out playing these games, I sort of viewed myself as having movement and positioning strictly as a defensive tool. Things really started coming together and I started beating bosses and stages when I realized it wasn't a defensive tool, but rather my strongest weapon.
Awesome video dude, I agree perfectly with your tips! I would never have 1CC Galuda 2 without training mode and super play videos!
DodonEnthusiasticArt thanks man. I use other long play videos too when I’m making my brutal shmups videos often. It helps to see how they play through some tough spots and gives me something to apply.
These are my favorite videos from you
Thank you. Only done a couple for now, but I will slowly try to add more as I have good ideas to add and talk about. A lot of people have liked these.
Great video!!! Thank you
More content like this, please. Super helpful, was able to adapt this for my Crimzon Clover run.
Funny you say that. Next video coming is Shooter 101 series. Learn to Shmup in 7 Days! Your ears must've been burning haha. FYI I did one more like this afterward, how to get good and make it look easy. Maybe you'll find something there helpful too.
@@ShmupJunkie Thank you so much. Been learning a lot and getting better. A life goal I have is to 1 credit clear deathsmiles, so I'll keep practicing and learning.
Great video. Glad I found your channel.
Thanks. When I first started making it and had the idea, I wasn't sure how it would turn out or if people would find it useful. But it got a really good response so I ended up even making another.
That was awesome advice, and i feel real motivated to get better at shmups now!
At a minimum I hope it helps improve your practice. It's very hard to get good at these games it takes a lot of time. So I approach it as fun instead of a chore and just play without judging. Anyone who makes it look easy has likely put in dozens if not over a hundred hours into a game.
@@ShmupJunkie whether I'm winning or losing in a shmup, I'm having fun so long as the game is well made. But yes, your tips have definitely blessed me with new *k n o w l e d g e* and I can't wait to apply it when I get a chance
Very good video! Some very helpful tips here.
Pearl Thank you. More for beginners of course which was the goal. But sometimes we all could use a reminder on some basics and how to practice better.
This is really great stuff!
Thanks. It feels good knowing a lot of people got something out of it.
Welp, i've seen this video before bed every day for the last week, and i've improved a lot on my shooter skills, and i would love more videos like these (also reffering to the other video that i will leave a comment too) since is yours the best channel in the genre, also i would you could talk more about the PC Engine, since it was the best console for the genre (not to forget the Saturn of course). Thanks a lot for the help with these primers, they are the best and i will re watch'em a lot more times! Wishing you the best today and always!
You are in luck! This Sunday is the next video called Learn to Shmup in 7 Days and it’s going to be awesome! You’ll love it and I’m excited to release it. Also, have you already watched my two History of PC Engine videos? If you’re looking for more they are really fun. I also have a playlist for PC Engine with some good videos for it like Nexzr. I’ll definitely be making more as I love the system. And I’m glad you are enjoying them.
@@ShmupJunkie actually, yes, i've watched them! And that's why i want more of it, they were kinda tragic while being a lot of fun, liked every minute of it, and yeah! I i have learned of a lot of awsome games for it from your videos, i discovered my love for the console late (30 years late), but still loving it. For me, is like that love that never was but you still wonder what could it be, nostalgic yet with a lot more to discover.
hey! back in the days we use pauses to get out of tight situations. There are even auto pausing turbo controllers for shooting games! it will slow down the game by keep pausing the game automatically so that you got time to react to the bullets.
Another thing is i don't see anyone in youtube or internet sharing a secret weapon on Gunhed or Blazing laser for the western gamers. During gameplay only power up number 1 and any sub weapon. Along the way keep collecting pearls. When you number 1 power up to the limit will have a five direction shot, keep it and don't switch, keep collecting pearls. When you reach Area 3 try to collect as many pearls as possible, this is the stage to collect sufficient pearls to get the secret power. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT! THROW AWAY ALL BOMBS ONCE YOU COLLECTED ANY, KEEP YOUR BOMB COUNTER ZERO. I forgot how many you need to collect before you get your special power, may 49 or 79 pearls. Once you collected enough, when you keep shooting at those power ups which keep changing eventually it will turn into a flashing pearls, this is for you to spawn immediately once you are shot down and gain a bomb. If you didn't collect any of this flashing pearls the game will restart further back rather than immediately. But this time it will turn into another Gunhed flashing and flouting. This is not a one up, this is the special power i'm talking about. Go grab it, your number 1 full power 5 direction shot will turn into 8 direction shot. This special power can combine with number 4 for maximum protection. I doubt weapon number 1 can combine with weapon number 4. This one is compatible with any sub weapon, my fav is homing missile.
just tried again on Gunhed version. Confirm it's weapon 4 with the special weapon. The criteria I stated above was derived from a gaming magazine years back and It was in Japanese, got it through trial and error. I remember it's no bomb and lotsa pearl.
That’s very interesting I have never heard of that trick before. I know all about the flashing balls to get special lives. You can even do a trick on the odd number bosses starting stage 1, where if you don’t fire at them and they leave after some time, the game gives you many special lives and bombs for stock as a bonus. So it’s easy to beat the game that way. But I did not know about this other trick. It seems pretty complicated to do but I’d love to try it one day. Thanks for that info.
@@ShmupJunkie Pls try and maybe do a video on this. I never see any video on this secret in youtube.
bro, I appreciate the focus on the 16-bit stgs :) in the mid to late aughts it seemed like lots of new folks got into the genre via Deathsmiles-era Cave stuff, which I love too, but you gotta give it up for the 16-bit classics ✌🏽
That’s what I play the most so I try to talk about what I know. Deathsmiles and Futari are my Cave favorites but I’m only just ok at the bullet hell games. So I have no business giving advice on them anyway. The old school shooters are where it’s at for me.
Excellent tips. I look forward to the next one. You began this series with one of my top favorites “Blazing Lazers.” Outside of the TG-16 and PC Engine MINI’s I am highly surprised this hasn’t been re-released on a shooter or classics compilation.
Mark Smith It’s a nostalgic favorite that I played to death back in the day. I’d love to see it on some collections as well as aside from turbo fans it’s not well known. It’s not hardcore enough for modern players who like to score. But it’s a great game for the average bloke to play and enjoy. The kind we ate up as kids and still remember. When I’m old and my reflexes are gone it’ll be the last one I can hopefully still finish haha.
Shmup Junkie I definitely own it 😁🎮. My TurboDuo and Turbo Express need some overdue TLC however I’m about to break out the old RF and TG-16 and give this game a workout. Man I miss it so much!
2 weeks late but dammit I already passed it on to a few friends. You're amazing dude and please keep pumping these videos out 👏👏
I just thought you weren't commenting on this one cause you're still sore about Blazing Lazers 😂 Pass it on for sure and be an ass like me and don't tell them about the secrets just like I didn't here. This is game training not cheap exploits video 😜
I will try this tips now. I watched some videos about how to learn shoot'em ups but this is the more didactic because english is not my native language. Thanks for the video.
You're welcome and I hope it is useful for you. I tried to keep it simple with less information, and just basics to practice.
@@ShmupJunkie I' aplying these tips with "Steel Empire" that is what I'm playing in this weekend.
I'm just getting into shoot 'em ups, and these tips are really valuable. I chose Mushihimesama on normal difficulty to do as my first 1CC.
Mushi is definitely not an easy game, not on normal. The novice and arrange modes are no problem at all, but normal gets really hard later so I wish you luck. If you don't yet, Mark from Electric Underground has some great videos on improving at bullet hell games specifically and tips. It's worth checking out.
@@ShmupJunkie I've played around 20 hours, and I can now do level 1 and 2 without losing a life quite reliably. The pre-boss area of stage 3 wrecks me, though. There's an extra life there if you destroy the enemy's left and right "arms" before the center, but it's so hard to get because there are super fast projectiles coming from the left and right. The bullets in this game are often super fast. The practice mode is nice, but too bad you can't start exactly where you'd like as you can with savestates. You can only choose the whole level, mid-boss, or boss.
Yeah, I watched some of Electric Underground's videos as well. I learned quite a bit from those.
@@Elintasokas Stage 3 is a common difficulty ramp in Cave games. Futari definitely gets hard starting on three. Four isn’t much worse though. Then five is a jump and the boss is no joke. I don’t really go for 1ccs so I haven’t with Futari yet, but I can usually get to stage 5 or the boss before I continue. She’s a tough one.
@@ShmupJunkie To me it looks like the difficulty ramps up on stage 3 in just about every shmup. I think it's because of the arcade origins of the genre, and many of these games are straight arcade ports after all. The game wants to hook you on the first and second stages, so it gives you a bit of an easier time. Then from stage 3 on, it gets really hard and you die, but you want to continue, so you feed credits in the arcade. It's intentionally super hard to clear them without feeding credits.
But yeah, this is the toughest thing I've ever played for sure. I play a lot of roguelites, and they're pretty hard by design as well, but nothing comes close to trying to clear this with one credit. There are so many bullets flying, and getting hit by one stray is so punishing. It's a great game, though, and it's pretty fun to slowly get better and better.
Excellent advice, and awesome video!
Thanks. It was the very first one of the few instructional vids I made.
@@ShmupJunkie 👍
This video has helped me greatly, and my play style has improved quite a bit. As I mentioned in the comments section at your very first video mentioning the Aleste Collection months before it came out, I was playing Shenandoah 1993 on the Switch, so I applied most the tips on the video. Now I say most, because unfortunately Shenandoah 1993 did not have any save states, which was a real bummer. But after enough time with the game, my newfound knowledge transferred to other games like Battle Garegga, Thunder Force AC, Thunder Force IV, etc. Now I primarily switched to Dangun Feveron on PS4 and was able to use save states this time, and even took the time to see how others got through levels or bosses that keep killing me in the heat of the moment.
I mean yeah, my copy of the Aleste Collection is on its way to my doorstep as of the time of this message. But Dangun Feveron is something I want to master before moving on. One credit clear sounds like a crazy feat. But you know what? I wanna get better and better. Any time I feel like I'm forgetting something or need that reminder on how to get better, I always retreat to this video. I'm still very much a greenhorn when it comes to shooters, but I do see some improvement in my play style. Thanks for sharing your knowledge on this video. It's short but very much detailed and easy to follow.
Thank you for that I’m honestly surprised to see how many people found it helpful. I said before I didn’t really know when I started the video how it would be received, since I’m not some big score expert. I’m glad I went through with it as a basic tutorial. I do hope you enjoy the new collection once you get to it. M2 definitely makes it much easier to learn games and improve in them with their feature sets. I would’ve loved to see a physical of Dangun Feveron but I’m glad we got a port at all.
I wanted to mention, if you don’t already know, if you’re looking for more advanced tips and specifics especially with bullet hell games check out the How to Shmup series by Mark from the Electric Underground. Much more detailed with specific nitty gritty techniques.
@@ShmupJunkie I've actually heard about Electric Underground in small doses. But never even looked at his channel, up until the moment you mentioned him. So I figured, why not?! I was bound to check it out anyway. Just 10 minutes in the first video about improving my game, and I'm already liking all the tips. And I learned quite a bit. Thanks for the recommendation, Junkie. As always, keep up the good work.
Great Channel and amazing vid.
Very good explanation.
What a great channel. I’m a beginner really and like to do things in a methodical way.
Glad you found this! Was my very first attempt at a video like this. My very last one I did called Learn to Shmup in 7 Days was really good and useful to a lot of people as well and covered a lot of stuff in a short amount of time. You might find more useful ideas there.
I subscribe to the three P's. Practice, practice, and more practice. My first shmup was Astro Warriors on the Sega Master System. What's really great about shmup's is most of what you learned in one game can be translated over to almost any other shooter made.
Completely agree on skills and experience transferring. Also why I recommend people try to focus on mastering a single game when learning as it teaches more than just jumping around to different games. The time will come for that too. And even for skilled players, practice is the order of the day.
Oh my god I played the shit out of Astro Warrior back in the day, and never beat stage 3. Damn that game was hard. Haha
I easily followed his advice of only playing one game because that's all I had: The "Hang On/Astro Warrior" cartridge (As a kid I thought it was all one title, as in "Hang on Astro Warrior, don't give up!") That and Cloud Master are two of my Master System favorites.
Been watching a bunch of your videos and also a few like this. I always started one of these shooters on any kind of emulator, browsing their libraries but thought they're too hard so I must suck at these games. I feel motivated now and go for it since the genre has a lot to offer. And finally beat a few of those started but never finished games. Decided to pick up R-Type on PC Engine and having a blast, thanks for these videos. Lords of Thunder, Crisis Force and Guardian Legend are next
RType is no small feat! One of the most unforgiving games to try to finish as some later levels are nearly impossible to recover from after dying. Very memorization heavy game. Lords of Thunder is very, very doable by comparison and nearly anyone can get through it with a bit of practice. It's a great starting point. If you can finish RType you can finish most horizontal games. It's quite an accomplishment. Just enjoy it though and don't beat yourself up or grind too much either. We played games like that for a long time as kids before finally memorizing the heck out of them and finishing them.
@@ShmupJunkie Yeah that's what I figured out too, playing games I beat as a kid is a different experience now. (Even beaten shooters like Isolated Warrior and Burai Fighter) When I went outside to play we were always telling eachother we got further in some game and reacted to it (no way/show it or you're lieing). And that was all there was to it. Now I think "How TF did I beat that back then?". Ah hehe yeah, I picked it first because I always liked it, with the shields and force slowly but steadily spinning around. There's something stoic and cool about it. Thanks for the advice, will not grind too much indeed.
Man, great channel and you're so damn skilled! Praise!
Thanks I'm glad you enjoyed this one. I am honestly not that skilled, not compared to the real super players and scorers out there. I am quite good at these older shooters though and especially the ones I've played a lot. If it gets you and others a bit more excited to play some of them then I'm doing my job. 😁
GREAT video, Shmup Junkie!! I've just discovered your channel, and I love it! Blazing Lazers has a special place in my heart, as I was actually able to win my TurboGrafx +CD by playing Blazing Lazers at the first stop of the 1989 NEC Playtour challenge! I credit my win with having mastered NES Zanac before that day (my first Compile shooter). Anyway, I digress, but thanks for posting the great content, you really speak the language of shooters!
That’s so cool! And a crazy coincidence. In one of my old videos, where I was reviewing the pc engine mini, I talked about how I won the CD system. It’s the “shooter crackpipe” video where I focus on the caravan shooters. Much more random in my case it was just a local promotional challenge at a mall and I happened to stumble across it. They were playing Cybercore in that one. I’d only played it for a weekend prior to that and can only credit dumb luck and just general skill with it, plus I doubt the competition was too great as it was more a marketing gimmick. But I’d never been able to afford one otherwise. I’m really glad you found my channel and I have a lot of pc engine content you’d probably enjoy a lot. Most recently a history of compile video that really blew up which clearly you’d appreciate. Hope you enjoy some of the other stuff as I’m glad you found the channel.
@@ShmupJunkie Oh I'll need to find that episode! Sounds like you were in SoCal too, did you win in 1990 playing Cybercore? That stop was at a mall in Mission Viejo, I was there too, but didn't win anything
@@jameshakola3603 Wow is there info on the stops and games played online somewhere? I was only 13 in 90’ so I can’t recall where we even were, as we didn’t go for that specific reason, but literally stumbled into it. But if there is more info somewhere I may be able to put some pieces together. It was definitely playing cybercore that I’ll never forget. But I have no recollection whether it was an official tour (which I clearly didn’t sign up for in advance) or something else.
@@ShmupJunkie Sounds like that's the one you were at! I was a little older (like 18) and kept a close eye on tournament news in the magazines, etc. If there had been another one, I bet I would have heard about it. There is only very scant info about the 89 Playtour Challenge, it was a bigger event that was a cross-promo with Vision skateboards, and had extreme sports demos and stuff. They held it at the CSU Dominguez Hills olympic cycle stadium. I did find the site of design firm which built the exhibit, and they have some cool images of it.
www.mcmillangroup.com/nec-play-tour.html
As far as coverage, EGM and Gamepro listed my win in separate articles, but not the winners of the later 1989 stops (I think there were five in all). And sadly I never saw any news about the winners 1990 event at all.
@@jameshakola3603 I guess we will never know for sure, as Mission Viejo is a good ways out of LA... who knows why we would be there. I think I was out with my big brother and we were at a mall for a completely unrelated reason. I saw an event happening with that game and demanded to get in on it. I can attest that there were some kids much older than I not looking too happy about losing to a 13yr old 🤣. Good thing I wasn’t there alone I’d have gotten mugged. Thanks for this info man I never had any clue about the tour and that it could’ve possibly been what I came across.
Wow... thanks for the advice man! 😀😎
KBXTheGameMaster Glad you found it useful. Tried to keep it simple. Can only practice so many things at once.
Great tips! Thanks for the video. As a person who is just recently getting started on the shmup train I find the majority of the difficulty I feel from Blazing Lazers (and other shmups) is avoiding the stupid weapon power ups that I don't want. Granted, I haven't gotten past stage 4 yet but I constantly get put into a bad position due to trying to dodge the trash drops lol.
Yes, that and keeping the best weapon for the the right stages. At least in Blazing they aren’t too tough to avoid. In some early Toaplan games the way they bounced around the screen and remain for a long time, avoiding them can get tricky haha. Tip for blazing. If you see the changing power ups that cycle, they stop when you shoot them. Don’t get them keep shooting them. They’ll eventually turn into a glowing ball. Grab the ball and it’ll kill everything on screen and give you a golden life. It means when you die you’ll respawn instead of going to checkpoint. You can stack up several or more easily over the first few stages helping you get farther in the game. And very useful toward the end when it gets much harder.
@@ShmupJunkie Awesome! thanks! Will give it another go tonight and ill be sure to utilize that! I did manage to complete Star Parodier the other night but man, that forced high speed tunnel "maze" in the later stages ate almost all of my lives by itself. ill have to practice that bit with save states. I just couldnt figure out what the game wanted from me. lol. Thanks again for the tips and i hope you have a great 2022!
Thanks for this.
Welcome man 🙏. The very first one I made like this and wasn’t sure if people would like or find it useful. Turns out they really did.
Interesting to see where #shmupsareshooters came from, I’ve used that. I’ll give this game a go and see how I get on too. Good vid.
Sometimes a random rant turns into a movement 😅. Blazing is classic Compile hopefully you enjoy it. It really does ease you into the game before the later stages get tougher. If you can manage to not fire or damage the first boss and let it time out, it’ll give you a huge bonus of lives and bombs.
Thank you thank you thank you!!!
Nice one!
Thanks! 😃
3 months after watching this video and finally getting more shmups and trying to apply everything I learned from youtubers, I gotta say that it helped me alot. For the shmups I recently got:
QP Shooting Dangerous - this game is actually easy but also abit tricky. What I liked about this game is that choosing a nice combination of weapon matters here. The tip where said that I shouldnt let the enemy overwhelm my screen actually helps.
Trouble Witches - the shop system in this game is great. Relying too much on your favorite spells can actually make this game harder cuz the prices go higher the more you buy it. As much as I love this game, it does suffer from the lack of practice tools like a saves state or even just a stage select...just Cotton reboot. I could have play it more but getting into 4th stage is too much of a hassle.
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Learning from those two shmups I mentioned, I think I still need to get more games that arent bullet heavy. I wanna try to see if my experience from bullet hells can really transfer to other games that are closer to classics. Anyways, sorry for making you read my duumb and confusing comment.
Nothing dumb about it, I'm glad you're sharing your progress with this. I've never played QP before but I hear you on TW. I guess it's just no their thing to include better practice modes. You see how it was for us learning many of these games as kids as all these old school shooters never had any such features or even close. Now we can just use emulation to practice but back then it was really time consuming. It's definitely different playing the older games vs bullet hell, but some of the skills will still transfer. You'll just find the speed of many games is higher and bullets can travel very fast in some. So the idea of controlling the screen and destroying enemies quickly still holds true for most.
safe states are pretty much all you need to beat any game ... :o
i very much enjoyed the video and would like to see more of these. it's good to know some basics to apply consciously for the next game. sometimes you play and don't really know or think about what lead to your success or failure.
ah, i wish i saw this before wasting days on area 9 lol. yeah, i am one of those people who say the last stage is hard :D. in blazing lazers, like many shooters, you can cruise through with ease on the right upgrades. but if you die it feels impossible to make a come back. the game felt super easy except stage 7 and 9 for me (i brute forced my way through 8 with shield :D). it's not gradius difficult after death though and it is definitely a good shooter for beginners. anyways, you got an awesome channel going.
Thank you glad you enjoyed it. Yeah save states are excellent as long as they're used well and not abused. A good tool to learn, but until you can beat a game without using them, you haven't really mastered it. I would have liked to spent a bit more time talking about Stage 7 also, but really there are no tricks to it. You just have to practice the hard sections like I explained until you can keep too many enemies from crowding the screen and it's not too bad. But it's harder than 9 for sure once you use the right weapon and practice a bit. If you lose your upgrade then prepare to get your dodge on lmao. Blazing is definitely on the easy side but good to learn as it has hard sections that require practice, so I wanted to use it.
Wow! Awesome Video! 👍 I will try and use these Tricks in Raiden 2 for the psone. ☝️😅Great Channel! Greetings from Germany...👋
ptk779 Thanks! I’m glad you found it useful. Raiden is great on the PS1 and these kind of tactics often work there too. Even though every game is different being able to control the enemies on screen is pretty common in most. Let me know if you make any good progress.
Good video keep the know how's on the game's 👍
Best tips...use save states to know the patterns and know your hit box:)
It's how the pros practice 💪
Dude thanks for you work amazing helpful.... Dominate the screen it will be my new tshirt :)
Haha thanks. Maybe that would make a good shirt like the idea. Btw the actual shmupsareshooters shirt I’m using actually exists. The wife made it for me way back and enough people asked about wanting it that we put it up on red bubble haha.
Great video my dude :-)
Thanks! I've been enjoying quite a few of yours as well. I also found your Switch input lag article and database which was really interesting... especially since I've been working on something related for the last few weeks. What I've tested on Switch so far has matched up with your numbers, but what I'm focusing on and finding really interesting is how it compares to the same ports on older analog consoles. I still have more games to test, but I am finding the Dreamcast port of Gunbird II less than a frame of difference vs the Switch in wireless mode using the Joycon. I'm still going to test Ikaruga and some others, as well as even older consoles to compare. I am curious if the Switch remains just a frame or less off from older console ports of the same games in handheld mode. That makes a lot of the complaints from many online kind of sour grapes, but I'm not jumping to any conclusions yet. No doubt the original PCBs and using MAME like in your article has far better performance especially for high level play. Or Shmupmame like in your other video which was also very cool to know. But if I do find that the majority of Switch ports esp. the Psikyo games are within a frame or less of their older counterparts on Dreamcast/Saturn etc. I'm willing to cut it a lot of slack.
@@ShmupJunkie oh that s really cool! I m fairly confident the Saturn ports will be responsive, but let me know what you find on the dreamcast gunbird 2 port :-) the dream cast can have some laggy ports, like 3rd strike on dream cast is really laggy. No idea why ha.
@@TheElectricUnderground My testing is all done and vid will be up this Sunday now, but it's not giving much away to tell you that Gunbird 2 and Zero Gunner 2 both run nearly the same on the DC as the Switch ports... about 6 frames. Ikaruga on the other hand runs even faster on the Switch than DC, but they're both fast in the 3-4 range. What really surprised me this week is my testing on the switch itself. I'm measuring with an LED at 240fps down to a quarter frame and expected the handheld mode to be fastest, with tabletop wireless and docked to be slower. At least using the Joycons. It wasn't. So consider my mind blown. Tested many times to confirm with consistent results. So Sunday is going to be interesting lol.
Amazing advise and tips man,im gonna start applying these principals today!
I hope you find a good game to start with. Would love to see your progress as well.
@@ShmupJunkieim thinking Rtype dimensions on the switch,id go blazing lazers but i havent pulled the trigger on a tg16 or pc engine mini yet.Maybe i can make a response video of sorts after ive put some work in?
@@lock7852 Whatever you like I will just be interested how you get along. I’ll be playing some RType soon myself for a history video I’m going to start working on.
@@ShmupJunkie just finally beat stage 1 no deaths,took a handful of trys but ive struggled horribly forever w this one so im already seeing results,i was more aggressive overall,felt like a boss man😎
@@lock7852 RType requires a lot of memorization too it’s just that kind of game. It’s always helpful if a certain area is kicking your butt to find a few videos of expert plays and see their strategies. I do it all the time.
Sweet! I gotta try this with Power Strike!!
Power Strike is definitely the kind of Compile game this type of strategy works with.
Holy shit. I played shooters as a kid in passing, but only really got into them about six years ago. I took the last year or so off - played some shooters here and there but needed a break and wanted to play some other stuff.
Long story less long - no three words have improved my game in a such a short amount of time than dominate the screen.
That's my space bitch.
Great video and advice. I started to get smushed at level 4 on Blazing Lazers so I'll definitely be playing again with your advice in mind. I think my biggest issue is that I am doing exactly what you say in the video, I'm letting the game dictate the terms and my play area so I need to gain control with some serious practice and experimentation to control own my space on the screen.
My biggest enemy though is my severe sleep disorder as I have to switch games a lot to stay awake, whilst I'm no shmup god I have a big love for the genre like yourself, and always have, and if I set my mind to it and get a few good days sleep (very rare), I'm extremely stubborn and will just keep hitting and hitting a game until I work my way past it. I don't give up and that is an essetial mindset to have when playing games in general but especially shmups. My advice to anyone starting out is don't give up and persevere using the methods in this video. If you want it and love it that much, in time it will come, but ultimately don't be put off by loosing, persevere, adapt, and overcome.
I've always been about playing for the enjoyment of the game and the challenge of beating it with as little continues or no continues, if possible. Score wise I only compete against friends if they start something, which they ususally regret because if I'm enjoying something, and score attacking friends is one of them, I'm relentless. It quickly becomes a battle they regret starting. Every now and then my friends will break my score and I'll keep attacking until I break it again, but no too much :0). Just have fun with it and learn to lose well and come back with more determination and better knowledge next time around.
Seriously excellent video mate, thanks for sharing your knowledge and really looking forward to the next one!.
Thanks my man I'm glad you enjoyed it. And I do hope you can get a few days of rest once this heat wave passes through. Sounds like we are both going through one on opposite sides of the world. You'll definitely get through Stage 4 with a little more practice I have no doubt. 5 is where save states will really come in handy to practice the harder portion over and over without starting from scratch. The main thing is get that IV ring weapon fully powered like I did along with the F power up, and just watch those couple sections on 5 I played and copy it close as you can. Take most of the targets out before they can attack. The ring helps clear out incoming bullets too. Don't turtle near the bottom of the screen but play up toward the middle/top and take it to them before they can get a shot. Same with the brains on 4. Play offensively and point blank them the moment they show up on the screen. You'll be competing with us on the next carvan before you know it. : )
@@ShmupJunkie Cheers dude!
Great video. I would also recommend Axelay for beginners.
Strangely enough it took me a while to get accustomed to Axelay the first time I played it. Something about the vertical sections and how it controls. I still only finished that on normal mode and need to try the harder setting. Really awesome game. I'm unfortunately not good enough at it yet to use as a training video. I need training on it myself haha
Great advice. I'm far too passive when it comes to shooters. When I played Dodonpachi, it took far too long for me to realise that the game was always herding me to the top corners of the screen and into certain death. I'd always just panic bomb my way out of trouble, and kind of assumed that was what EVERYONE did. When I changed my attitude, the whole game changed for me. I started to stand my ground more. And what do you know, far fewer panic bombs! I'm going to give Blazing Lazers a try tonight. I don't have save states with my hardware, but this looks like I might want to spend some time getting to know it.
You likely already know and follow him, but if you are looking for tips on more bullet hell oriented games like DDP Mark_MSX is your man on his Electric Underground channel. He has some fantastic how to shmup videos that are more advanced and focus on bullet hell games and techniques. As for blazing lazers it's certainly polar opposite from DDP and about as old school as it gets, but it's a good trainer for playing that older type of shooter. It also has lots of tricks for stacking lives to get farther into the game and respawn when you die instead of going back to a checkpoint. Compile threw a lot of secrets in there that can help players get through it once they find them. Of course now you have google so it's much easier haha
@@ShmupJunkie Yes, I've watched a LOT of Electric Underground :) . If you're interested, this is what happened when I played Blazing Lazers! ruclips.net/video/ONOD3PQCzZE/видео.html
@@vermillion16 I don’t think I’ve ever heard so much kvetching on stage 1 of Gunhed in my life 🤣 but it was entertaining so thx for the laugh. You have a bright future streaming comedic gameplay on twitch if you so desire. If you ever do try it again pick a power up you like and stick with it. The numeral II is fastest and wide so it may be your style. Get those along with the pink S shield and avoid the rest. That’ll carry you through much better. Old school checkpoints are brutal but Gunhed actually has a nice work around. You’ll notice some of the power ups change and cycle. When you shoot them they stop. Keep shooting them and they’ll eventually pop into a glowing orb. Grab that and you’ll get golden lives. Which means when you die you’ll respawn no checkpoint. These stack. You can get several on just the first couple stages saving up a good bit of respawns. Of course it’s not easy respawning into tough spots with no power up but it’s better than a checkpoint.
Amazing guide! How about a series of "How to get good" videos with each episode dedicated to a specific shooter genre in the future? Like one about bullet hell shooters, one about old school shooters like those on the 8 and 16-bit machines, one focused on strategic/methodical shooters like R-Type, one on games requiring memorization and so on. Something like that would be very cool and helpful.
That’s a very good idea especially about different genres and types. My personal weakness is bullet hell as I didn’t get into them until later so I don’t know if I should be dispensing advice on those, but for sure any of the older styles I certainly can. Btw for how to play bullet hell nothing beats the Electric Underground he is the man when it comes to those. He already has some great videos on improving at those games specifically worth checking out.
@@ShmupJunkie Cool! You can nix the bullet hell episode and focus on the classics then ;). I don't care very much for BH shooters actually, too busy and the pink bullet carpets basically looks the same in every game (to me at least). I just mentioned those to exemplify. Looking forward to more excellent videos. Keep up the great work!
Very good video thanks! (your english flow is very understandable for the frenchie I am ;-) )
Except the save states (I don't play any emulation, I prefer to play in the same conditions as we did in the past), that's exactly what i did to beat Gaiaes recently.
I am not a pro in shmups, I spent 2 weeks playing 3-4h only to that game, watching some longplay on the Net to see which weapons to use where etc. And I beat it!
Gaiares is a really cool game, one of my fav on the Mega Drive. I always like getting the giant laser on stage 2 from those flying octopus, and then try to keep it long as I can as it's really powerful. Also one of my favorite music tracks, I am sure you agree. That's not an easy game, you are better than you give yourself credit. I know some amazing french players... maybe it's in your blood.
@@ShmupJunkie haha thanks! Yes I agree I also make the most of my run with the G-Beam (you can take it from the first mid boss at stage1 ;-) ) but I also like to change punctually with the laser. In particular to defeat the Dragon and Amazon bosses. It is more powerfull than the G-Beam
Magnificent
great vid! i just tried out BL without your "spoils" at first and for the first 5 levels gravitated strongly towards III plus homing. afterwards i checked your vid and i def see your point about IV plus shield/F tho
btw a game which definitely improved my shmup skills recently was jamestown+. what makes it great for non-advanced players is that the stage design is memorable in a way which makes it easier to memorize and anticipate the incoming patterns compared to a BL with longer stages and samey-er backgrounds. it's also one of my fave co-op experiences of recent memory so one is not alone in gettin' gud :)
still you're absolutely right that BL is one of the best starting picks. it hasn't aged a day. still feels so tight and fresh.
Thanks. I love hearing this video was well received and helped a good few people. Everyone gravitates to III as it's the coolest looking but in the later stages it's a bit slow to be as effective. IV is great as long as you can keep it powered up, and stinks when it's weak. But that combined with the F for forward damage is super effective. That and II the deceptor wave are the ones I tend to use most toward the end.
Jamestown is one of those I've been meaning to play FOREVER as I keep hearing how good it is, but I've been really bad at keeping up with the newer releases especially on PS4. It's been on my list as I always hear raves about it from some people.
@@ShmupJunkie do it! i would be super curious about your take on jamestown especially because you're a bona-fide veteran of the genre. i'd just recommend playing your first playthru in co-cop because that 4real is THAT great.
its graphics are head and shoulders with the most gorgeous end-90s/late 32bit games, you name em. imo the classic ones which the pixel art of jamestown is closest to in style were the metal slugs (rather than anything cave for example -- just look at the crab level) which everyone knows comes as the highest praise :)
some of the ships in plus are OP but hey, it's still an amazing game. the soundtrack is also str8 up incredible and very unique -- way more cinematic than anything i've heard in a shmup, italo western arrangements etc. cannot recommend it enough. jam it and make a vid, i'm waiting :)
DgNono that sounds about as amazing as I’ve heard it is. Is it online coop or local only? I don’t have anyone local to jam on it with due to the lockdown so I may have to practice solo first. But great music is tops for me on a Shmup so I only want to play it more when I hear that.
@@ShmupJunkie ah, right... it's sadly only local co-op. but even if you don't have a hardcore gamer like yourself around, for example just a close friend or neighbor: i'm not too skilled, my neighbor friend (who got me into JT+) neither, but the game taught us. its course is different from the regular shmup in the way that you have a map from which you can access the levels in different difficulties. so you play them normal (which you will yawn through), then hard (same), then legendary etc.
by that the game makes one backtrack and unlock stuff. some dont like that about JT but imo it is another element that makes it feel special and stick out. after two sessions me and my friend became hardcore-ish, beating the final level on high difficulties. so even if you just geta a flat mate/gf/bf/mom/whatever who never binged shmups like yourself -- due to its learning curve anybody can get gud at it as long as they enjoy it :)
it's a lot of fun solo as well tho!
DgNono I would have to see if I could get the wife to play a Shmup with me 🤣 but if the normal difficulty is easy enough maybe? 🤔
What's funny is that two mobile ports CAVE made of their Dodonpachi Daioujou and Ketsui series are specifically tuned for you to get gud and are part of their Death Test series, not to be confused with Ketsui's "Death Label" Nintendo DS port. G-Mode had ported DDPDOJ for mobile to PC and Switch, and Ketsui for mobile as a Switch exclusive, so check them out if you need practice.
Good vid bud. My classic “practice” game is Kyuukyoku Tiger (Twin Cobra) on the Mega Drive. I don’t know what kind of magic Treco pulled when they ported it, but that game has the meanest AI possible when played on the higher levels. The enemies fly off screen and suddenly turn back to attack you in the back, shooting at you and ramming you at the same time, death bullets, etc...very nasty, but when I 1CC that one and play another game straight after, it is usually a cakewalk, or at least that’s what it feels like :p
I'd never played Twin Cobra before this only Tiger on the PCE, but I'd heard the reputation for the mean AI. It was really something else. Some of the bosses can be pretty tough too just with the pattern they spray. It was definitely one of the hardest MD games I'd had to play. It was a cool game but a bit torturous. 😅 It was pretty much one of those keep the screen clear or else games haha.
Shmup Junkie yeah, and if you die on the later levels, it is easier to just start a new game LoL
I feel I'm going to have to fire up Blazing Lasers on the PC Engine Mini now to try this. I would love you to tackle Border Down. I love that game, but I've never got beyond stage 2, and I have practiced, practiced, practiced previously lol.
Just did! Last week on top 5 hardest shmups on the Dreamcast. Killer game. Waaay harder than blazing lazers though. On a related note for my new video coming tomorrow on shmups for beginners I show a couple important tricks for blazing lazers. Kind of like the contra code where you can get a ton of extra lives and bombs on the first stage.
I never knew the ring blaster + full power was so damn epic. I mopped up on the last level the other night.
I also tried to best it with field thunder but got my ass handed to me on the very last part before the final boss. I used save states even!
Took about 100 tries to finally beat it with field thunder.
Chad Molitor Right! That’s why I made a deal of it in the video. Sometimes it’s about the right weapon. Field Thunder is terrible towards the end stages especially there. Only that ring blaster combo makes the stage and boss a breeze. And knowing is half the battle 😀
It’s the least impressive weapon but has some extreme utility. It’s also advanced though as if you do get hit and your weapon gets downgraded you’re not left with much.
@@ShmupJunkie yeah glad I watched this video because I could never get past that level before. That weapon makes it stupid easy.
It was a good lesson learned I tell you what
great video! shooting game never die!
Thank you. Shooters never die 👍 But in shooters we die a lot 😂
@@ShmupJunkie I know you have a few video series running at the moment, but I wonder if you would consider doing a video on Mister FPGA comparing it to real hardware and emulation for shooters (particularly interested in pc engine since watching your compile video). Just an idea I had when watching through you videos! keep up the great work :D
@@wesleyscott910 Way ahead of you man! I’m working on a Shmups on Mister video 👊. It’s going to take some time as I slowly play through different cores and test stuff while making other videos, but it’s in the works. And I’ll definitely spend time on pc engine. But if you want to know the PCE core in general is excellent. I’m going to talk about using real controllers with it too for those that want the option
@@ShmupJunkie awesome! looking forward to hearing your thoughts! I was looking around but couldn't find a recent link to your discord, would love to get involved with your community and take part in future events.
@@wesleyscott910 here you go discord.gg/GuJxQcxG. Would love to have you join us there
Coincidentally, I’ve found myself recommending the Skyforce series as a “my first shoot em up” because in order to progress the player needs to do everything you’ve instructed in this video.
I know a couple folks on my discord that are big fans of that game and recommended it too. I featured it a bit even in my Beginners Shmups video, but I haven't played it too much yet. It's on my Steam list though to check out.
@@ShmupJunkie I think you may be too advanced of a player to get much enjoyment out of it. Although both games have big difficulty spikes, I don’t remember how far into it that happens. Most average players likely farm the first few levels A LOT because you start out as a glass pea shooter. I believe it’s from Poland so it is pretty fitting that popcorn enemies take multiple hits for a good while before you can one shot them...on easy. Then again, you’ve previously mentioned liking RPG’s and Skyforce is all about the grind.
I need that Dobkeratops tee in my life. - David M
By all means grab one. The profits go to a good cause. I picked up a couple for myself to wear for videos too 😬
I learned how to play shmups using Life Force on the NES and then Whip Rush and Gaiarus on the Genesis. I wish I had save states back then.
Chris Sawyer Man Life Force was my first shooter love. I wasn’t great at them at the time and much better with platformers. But I loved it so much I kept playing it til I beat it. I still love it actually and go back to it. Gaiares will kick most peoples ass that’s a hard ass game to practice on lol. Save states are great. One of those things that are either super helpful to practice or a waste of time if you abuse them and never really get good enough to beat a game without them. If there is one game I wish I had it for back then was RType. Learning it the old school way was brutal. I didn’t beat that one for a long time.
Challenge accepted brother. I am going to take these tips, pick a game and beat it. I haven't really spent any time thinking about how I play shooters and that is the problem. I've been just reacting to stimulus on screen instead of thinking my way through the challenges. I'm going to get a white board and rub a few brain cells together to get to the end of a shooter.
Ha! You’ll have to keep me updated on which game you choose. Don’t go overboard with something crazy hard right off the bat. And watching some other videos of certain games can help out a lot for tough spots too. I’m curious now what you’ll end up choosing.
@@ShmupJunkie Well there are a few shooters I have put a little time into and enjoyed. The top candidate is Strikers 1945 one of my best thrift finds. Scored it for $2. With continues I can get to the final boss but would like to actually beat at the very least and possibly with no continues. If I can swing that maybe I'll consider the seemingly daunting task of a 1cc run. I've never tried such a thing but who knows.
Sinistron on the TG16 is the next candidate. I just happened into owning a copy and have put a little time into it. I've gotten to level 4 or 5 before having to admit defeat. I think with some note taking and strategizing I can beat it. Looking forward to giving it a shot at least.
@@JerryTerrifying any Psikyo game is never easy. Good on you just getting to the final boss. If you made it that far you’ll finish it with some strategy. Did you get it on PS1? Sinistron is tough one of the harder games too. It starts out way easy and then clubs you over the head toward the end as you discovered haha.
@@ShmupJunkie Yeah it's the ps1 version of Strikers 1945. I usually play on normal difficulty for anything ps2 and older. Most games PS3/360 and newer I usually bump up the difficulty. I think Strikers 1945 either has infinite continues or I run out on the final boss. If memory serves I can get to the final phase but that's where I either run out of continues or get frustrated and stop.
I've never been super into shooters. Rail shooters, light gun games and twin stick shooters are a little more relevant to my interests. Panzer Dragon, Omega Boost, Burning Force, House of the Dead, Time Crisis that kind of thing.
Every now and then I'll see a cool shooter and want to get into it but they're way more challenging games and I tend to get flustered with them more easily. But your channel has pretty positive energy and all the years of Bithead 1000 get me pumped up for shooters from time to time.
I have a decent selection of shooters sitting on my shelf that look awesome and I will mess around with from time to time but it would be nice to at least beat one or two of them. So I think I might make an honest effort to study some of the games, use some level select codes to practice trouble areas, make a few notes and make an honest effort to knock a few out.
So... I have recently grown to love a game called "Space Megaforce/ Super Aleste" for the snes (made by compile, yes the same compile who made blazing lasers.) And in the beginner shmups video i saw blazing lasers and when you mentioned the green power up changing sphere that will give you a special life if you blow it up i was like "wait..." and then i saw the shield power up (known as circle in Space Megaforce) and then laser i had to look in. But yeah i do reccomend you look into it and maybe crank the difficulty to hard or tricky (maybe even wild or hyper (yes two hard modes.)) It takes about an hour to beat without dying but stages 5 and 8 are claustrophobic as hell. But it is an enjoyable romp all the way through with unlimited continues allowing novices like me to beat the last boss. It should be familiar to you as as mentioned they are both made by compile. With a catchy OST and satisfying explosions i say play it. Also go in the settings and put it on stereo. Cheers!
Absolutely, I know the game very well too. Compile was my favorite dev from the time, and one of the aspects I really enjoyed is how they reused certain motifs and sounds across their games. You can play something like Gun Nac, and already hear sounds that you would hear in Blazing Lazers, or like you said Super Aleste. Even Musha had familiarities. It was kind of like the final fantasy games, where they had no relation to each other, but there were always recurring tunes, characters, or aspects that you knew you were playing something of the series. I did a long video on the history of Compile shooters a while back that if you haven't seen at all, you might really enjoy. Playing Super Aleste on Hard is right about where I top out, it feels perfect and going any farther would take a mountain of practice. I watched a playthrough on the hardest setting a while back and no way haha. But I can appreciate how well they designed all the difficulty modes. They really showed that a great shooter can be done well on the SNES and showed up a lot of other devs with that game. In an old interview Compile's president talked about how disappointed they were with existing SNES shooter performance and made it a goal to show what is possible on the hardware. They sure did!
imma get back into lunatic touhou and some nes shooters like contra and biyou billy because of you.
biyou billy? Man you got a death wish that game is brutal haha. It kicked my ass too as a kid.
@@ShmupJunkie yeah but you're an adult now. I'm sure you can accomplish anything if that you care about. Same for me. These games with their unfairness is what I use to anchor my life. On a day I can best a retro game that's difficult and unfair I know life's other challenges cannot phase me, that's why I okay them. Besides that I adore modern game design more cause it helps me relax. I've been playing assassin's creed valhalla very slowly to reward myself, especially since I hated Odyssey and origins.
“Living off cat food and showering once a week”
I felt personally attacked😂😂😂
Apparently there’s more of us out there than I thought 🤣
Love this video and have seen dramatic improvement in my game. Could we see a similar video for Gradius or R Type style games?
William McGuire Thats awesome! I didn’t expect such good feedback when I set out to make it. I was trying to decide if the next one should be on boss strategies or something else, but I think one for horizontal shooters is a really good idea. Some of this video still applies, but they are a different animal for sure. Thanks for the good idea! 👍🏻
@@ShmupJunkie Yeah man! Your videos are great. I'm just trying to understand how to maintain an aggressive position in horizontal space the way you do in vertical space.