High Score Competition #164: U.N. Squadron

[j.fitzenr]

Level 4: Mobi-chan (Shoot next to the 3rd ground missile launcher thingy)
Level 5: Mobi-chan (Falls from top of the screen after destroying all rock pillars, can be hard to catch, gives you a laser weapon)
Level 6: Mobi-chan (Shoot the ground at the beginning of the top path)
Level 9: Mobi-chan (Drop a bomb right after the conveyor belt building)

So that's what those dudes are! 

Anyway

I think all these powerups and hidden things are just random invisible shots, but I can't tell if they may be enemy drops or something so...

Level 3: In the second field of mines, there's a health power-up somewhere about halfway through, near the bottom of the screen.

I'm so tired and distracted today that I died on the Level 4 Carrier boss, which has brought shame on my family.  Maybe I'll be better at this game after a few beers tonight.  And I still can't decide on which character to make my runs with.  I love Greg on a few levels but the level 5 and 7 bosses spank my Greg like no other, and I think there's zero chance I'd ever be able to get past 9 or 10 with him.  Well there's zero chance I'll get past them anyway, but it's a much larger, bolder, more painful zero with Greg.

[yamatetsu]

Inching along. 97,530

[harveybirdman]

So I'm pretty much not going to be competitive in these so here are sone future suggestions for games.


Fast lane
Rod Land
Mirax
Rhoga Armor Force.

[popsicle]

Probably the worst screenshot ever.  140,030

Got past the third turret boss by unloading the cheaper of the special weapons.  Used the middle guy.

[pbj]

I get a close a few times but still can't beat the damn tank.   

[tomstewdevine]

75,430

Got past the stealth but died shortly in the next level.

WakiMiko, what game are you the best at? you are an incredible gamer.

Only was able to play 10 games this weekend, hopefully I can play it all night tonight.

[yamatetsu]

I get a close a few times but still can't beat the damn tank.   

Try to get the plane into a position that lets your shots barely graze the first homing missile launcher. If you do it right, you cannot be hit. The big missiles should barely go over or under you.
If you can't find the exact position, stay in the vicinity, keep firing and dodge the big missiles by twitching a bit up or down and then return to the position.

[WakiMiko]

I finally 1CC'd it: 1,211,080 with Shin:



You get a huge 500k bonus for beating the last boss:



Furthermore, your leftover money is converted into points. So you were right j.fitzenr, saving money does contribute to your score.



Everyone is happy! I like the Playboy bunny:




I love shumps so I really enjoyed this game. Not too easy and not too hard. In fact, as far as shmups go, it's quite on the forgiving side. You get all your "lives" restocked after each level and the items you can buy help out quite a lot.

WakiMiko, what game are you the best at? you are an incredible gamer.

Haha thanks, but like Yam I don't think there is such a game. I just play what I think is fun.

[j.fitzenr]

Welp, playing for 2nd is way better than the "playing for not last" that I usually would be doing!  Nicely done!  I've been stickin' with Shin too, and think it's made my life a little easier overall.  Again, congrats; but I'm glad I'm not going to lose by a million! 

I agree on the difficulty; for me this game was always sorta modestly hard but nowhere near many other shooters.  Probably because I'm quite ADHD; one little lapse doesn't necessarily ruin the run, which doesn't necessarily make me punch walls

I would've loved to see your work on Level 9.  On my credit-spam runs I've been able to beat the last few levels with only an extra credit here and there including the final boss so I feel like I'm only a few days away from a 1cc being at least plausible... except level 9 which makes me cry tears of pure rage and has me spamming credits like nobody's business. 

[WakiMiko]

Thank you!

I got the super shield + napalm for level 9.  Hardest part are the platform thingies by far, they take forever to destroy. I just spammed the hell out of them. The last one "transforms" when you think its dead and gets even meaner. I'm not even sure if you can fully destroy it. I just dodged its shots until it was off screen.

The boss isn't that bad actually, there is a safe spot at the bottom. Only the mines and planes can hit you. I just stay close to him and use what I have left on my subweapon.

Edit: I don't have a recording of my run, but maybe this will help you. Played by the host of STG Weekly which i posted earlier in this thread.

[yamatetsu]

Or have a look at this one : One credit, max difficulty, no special weapons, WITHOUT GETTING HIT EVEN ONCE.

[WakiMiko]

Or have a look at this one : One credit, max difficulty, no special weapons, WITHOUT GETTING HIT EVEN ONCE.

That's tool assisted though.

[j.fitzenr]

That's tool assisted though.

Naw that's actually me left handed on a PC keyboard but I did it before the official competition period and I was drunk so I didn't feel it was fair to submit the score. 

But seriously isn't it amazing sometimes how much, or, how little, you can learn from watching a TAS? 

[yamatetsu]

That's tool assisted though.

Oh. I didn't know about those. So this is what it would look like if someone were able to play the perfect game.

It shows me enough of the game to almost kill my motivation for going on. Kudos to you for beating it !

[tomstewdevine]

81,830


(Me heading towards a higher score)

On the 3rd stage I went with the 40,000 defense shield, but when I got to the towers I didn't have the power to take them down.  Granted I can reach that stage again I'm going to get the smaller defense shield and some sort of secondary weapon.

[yamatetsu]

150,280

[BorgDog]

Only played it a few times so far, but made it to battle the stealth.  Hopefully have time to play more this weekend. Thought I'd at least show I was participating 

44,030

[j.fitzenr]

I haven't had enough time to really devote to improving, but... I think I'm getting worse.  I've only managed to find the time to play maybe four or five runs a day, if I'm lucky the past few days but they've all sucked!  I've got a wedding to deal with and work all weekend so I think my strategy now is; spend Saturday afternoon with a Redbull and a few hours of uninterrupted playing, eat dinner, then spend Saturday night with a few hours of uninterrupted playing and a six pack.  We'll see which one does the trick. 

[tomstewdevine]

Last night I got a little bit better than I had before, but it is such a small increment that it won't move me ahead of anyone, but on a side note, I can get past that Stealth Jet no problem now, but these towers I'm not doing so hot on.

[WakiMiko]

Last night I got a little bit better than I had before, but it is such a small increment that it won't move me ahead of anyone, but on a side note, I can get past that Stealth Jet no problem now, but these towers I'm not doing so hot on.

Buy the cheaper weapon and you can destroy the forest boss on the first pass easily.

[j.fitzenr]

Last night I got a little bit better than I had before, but it is such a small increment that it won't move me ahead of anyone, but on a side note, I can get past that Stealth Jet no problem now, but these towers I'm not doing so hot on.

Buy the cheaper weapon and you can destroy the forest boss on the first pass easily.

This.  All you have to do is destroy the core section and the rest goes up, so once you get past the first giant turret, just spamspamspamspam and you'll knock it out. 

Also, one stupidly obvious thing I had forgotten and sorta missed the first few times; if you DON'T get it on the first pass, the goal is to get LOW; as soon as you're past the last turret you can drop below and if you're below turret level you're pretty much in the clear until you turn around.  I kept zipping around trying to dodge up in the air because apparently I think I'm good at video games, which I'm not.

[popsicle]

238,310 - a milestone for me.  Having fun

[pbj]

  I've got a wedding to deal with and work all weekend so I think my strategy now is; spend Saturday afternoon with a Redbull and a few hours of uninterrupted playing, eat dinner, then spend Saturday night with a few hours of uninterrupted playing and a six pack.  We'll see which one does the trick.

Son, you may have a problem.

[yamatetsu]

213,080

[j.fitzenr]

Son, you may have a problem.

I have plenty and at least all of them involve alcohol and Redbull. 

Sadly this time my problem involved having a lot more real life stuff to do that so tragically interrupted my chances to spend an entire Saturday playing a video game that came out when I was 4.  Life is hard. 

[Mr_Numbers]

Scores updated and less than 12 hours left! 

[yamatetsu]

259,960

[popsicle]

Good job, Yam! 

Too tired to fire up the cab.  It wouldn't help anyway

[lettuce]

---gosh-darn--- can't believe I missed this competition this game is the tits!!....it's sequel is awesome too!

[yamatetsu]

Good job, Yam! 

Thanks ! That was a really frustrating one. It cost me a good chunk of sunday to finally beat that chopper boss in level 5. This is what I don't like about the game, being able to breeze through the levels after having played them again and again and then just being obliterated by a bullet-sponge.

[j.fitzenr]

Leapfrogged!  Dammit, I know I could've broken through too...  Nicely done   That Chopper boss was evil, fo sho. 

So wait, now do I pick a game and make a new thread?  And... do I get a point?  Like, I have a point, in a competition? 

[tomstewdevine]

Leapfrogged!  Dammit, I know I could've broken through too...  Nicely done   That Chopper boss was evil, fo sho. 

So wait, now do I pick a game and make a new thread?  And... do I get a point?  Like, I have a point, in a competition?

Thats right Fitz, you got next pick, and you are on the board. Nice work man. Now pick a good one or everyone will hate you..... no pressure or anything. 

[yamatetsu]

The chopper is actually fairly easy to beat, if you health bar is big enough you can just fly under him, dodge the bullets as good as you can and spam the cheaper super weapon like crazy. That gets him down in a hurry. Took me 'til yesterday to figure that one out, otherwise I'd probably at least be cursing at the next boss now 

As for getting a point in a competition ...

Unofficial overall compo score board

[j.fitzenr]

Thats right Fitz, you got next pick, and you are on the board. Nice work man. Now pick a good one or everyone will hate you..... no pressure or anything. 

The chopper is actually fairly easy to beat, if you health bar is big enough you can just fly under him, dodge the bullets as good as you can and spam the cheaper super weapon like crazy. That gets him down in a hurry. Took me 'til yesterday to figure that one out, otherwise I'd probably at least be cursing at the next boss now 

This is why I think I enjoy the game so much; I feel like eventually, I figured out something about each boss that made it manageable, up to around 5 or 6 obv.  Could be dumb luck but it seems like a well designed game in that sense- there's a method to most of the madness. 

Anyway, I'll throw up the next thread/game tonight when I get home.  I have two ideas, but the one I really want to do is a little off-the-wall.  This might be my only chance tho...  stay tuned!  I guess we could just do Carrier Air Wing too... ;P

[harveybirdman]

Make it a good one. 

[WakiMiko]

Yay 3 points!
This was a great game, I enjoyed it a lot. Also places 2-4 were pretty damn close points wise.

Unofficial overall compo score board

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=136713.0;attach=328400;image

Very cool, thanks for putting that together.

Anyway, I'll throw up the next thread/game tonight when I get home.  I have two ideas, but the one I really want to do is a little off-the-wall.  This might be my only chance tho...  stay tuned!  I guess we could just do Carrier Air Wing too... ;P

Off-the-wall the wall is good, the less people that have played it, the better! But ultimately you should just choose what you like best. I think the only rule is that the game must not have been picked before.

[j.fitzenr]

I relented on the game I really wanted to pick.  It'll make me keep competing until I get to pick again!  We got more airplanes involved tho so bring it!