30.11.06

November Notables

Posted in everything, games, shmups at 9:56 pm by the2bears

The most exciting game released in November was Kenta Cho’s must have Titanion. I likened it to Galaga, but dessgeega kindly corrected me and commented that it’s more like Galaga 3 (Gaplus). For some reason I never saw that one in the arcades, but dessgeega is correct.

Part One was also a nice offereing, from Indiepath. It’s available for free on pjio and also sells for $1. I’m curious to hear how it does, as the price experiment is as interesting as the game.

Both Rect Winder and Omega’s spin on it, Rect Winder NT, provided quite a bit of fun.

Floati’n Assult was a cool little Flash shooter over at Oddbob’s Mersey Remakes, and The Blue Planet was a great visual change from the usual.

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Riders on the Storm: What’s New?

Posted in autofire 2007 shooter competition, everything, games, java, shmups at 9:36 pm by the2bears

Quite a few additions to Riders on the Storm. It’s starting to feel more like a game than a disorganized bit of chaos.

Collision detection has been implemented with enemy bullets and the mines released by the zeppelins. This results in a nice, abstract explosion. Your ship can overheat due to too much exposure to the flames, temperature is indicated by the guage on the bottom-left. The wind charge indicator has been moved to the top-left now.

I’m currently testing the game with the wind having no affect on your own bullets. I kind of like that better, though the enemy bullets are still affected. That’ll probably change, though the drifting mines make sense. I like the idea of blowing back an enemy’s bullet and getting a bonus if it hits and destroys them though.

Speaking of bonuses, I’m going to experiment with a multiplier tied to your ship’s hull temperature. The closer to death, the higher the score multiplier.

More enemies, moving flame emitters, and perhaps a boss are still in the plans. The latest versions are up and playable either through Java Webstart or a direct download from the project page.

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29.11.06

Platypus on PSP

Posted in everything, games, news, shmups at 12:59 pm by the2bears

I recently saw a press release from MumboJumbo indicating that Platypus has been released for the Sony PSP. The original version of the game was written by Anthony Flack, of Squashy Software. I’ve had the odd email with Anthony, he’s a nice guy, and I can’t help but think it would have been decent if MumboJumbo gave him credit as the original developer. Check out the Cletus Clay screenshots, very nice work.

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Noroi Chan

Posted in everything, games, shmups at 9:18 am by the2bears

Noroi Chan, by way of Doujinaroni, is a fairly typical horizontal shooter (the direct download link is here). Just ‘Z‘ (primary weapon key as well) your way through the story line. ‘X‘ is a super weapon that destroys bullets and ‘C‘ is a charged weapon.

You’ll need to use this charged shot to destroy certain bullets with ellipses around them, and doing so will clear the screen of all bullets. The second screen shot illustrates this, as the only way through that wall of bullets is to destroy the bullet indicated by the blue Japanese text.

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28.11.06

Last Hope

Posted in everything, games, news, shmups at 7:30 pm by the2bears

The official Last Hope Dreamcast website is up. There’s a preview of the soundtrack for downloading, as well as links to a couple sites online that are accepting pre-orders. My order’s already in at Play-Asia.

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