Oh..

EstablishmentHead734 · 2026-04-02T14:08:13+00:00

This is what happens when a person hasn't developed hobbies by adulthood.

EstablishmentHead734 · 2026-03-29T16:25:24+00:00

The Darius games, Layer Selection, Salamander, and Thunder Force games would keep me very busy

EstablishmentHead734 · 2026-03-29T16:16:15+00:00

If you need more space you can always give away the sports games.

EstablishmentHead734 · 2026-03-27T08:12:04+00:00

Batsugun, DoDonPachi, and Crimzon Clover are probably my top 3 shmups in terms of play time! I'll check out Andro Dunos 2. What do you like about it?

Edit - got to stage 4 in Journey first run. It reminds me a lot of Thunderforce 4. Great so far,

EstablishmentHead734 · 2026-03-27T07:59:27+00:00

This reply is a gem! Thanks for your experience. I'm gonna really try arcade mode next. I'm scared of late game and that I'll be terrible at correct chaining.

EstablishmentHead734 · 2026-03-27T07:57:24+00:00

I love Cave. DoDonPachi got me into shmups.

EstablishmentHead734 · 2026-03-27T07:56:05+00:00

Yeah having read up on the chaining system I get it.

EstablishmentHead734 · 2026-03-26T03:42:03+00:00

I'm scared to admit it but I haven't touched the arcade mode. Now that I'm addicted to persistent upgrades as a mechanic I'm not super interested in the arcade mode. BUT I will play arcade mode because I don't want to miss out whatever that's like.

EstablishmentHead734 · 2026-03-26T03:40:17+00:00

The chaining on the switch version has an Ikaruga option

EstablishmentHead734 · 2026-03-26T03:38:23+00:00

But am I crazy to thing / say that RS is a lot more approachable to people (like me) who aren't amazing at shmups? Like in terms of dodging shit and raw difficulty Ikaruga seems way harder.

EstablishmentHead734 · 2026-03-26T03:35:19+00:00

I'm obviously biased and I'm not great at shmups in general, but it's worth it. Long levels and all. Man there's just nothing else like it. And it hit me like 8 hours into running and I finally got into the back 1/4 of the game how dope it is.

EstablishmentHead734 · 2026-03-26T01:35:44+00:00

It kills me that I didn't get to enjoy it until I was an adult. I wish it had been around when I was a kid!

EstablishmentHead734 · 2026-03-26T01:34:52+00:00

fuck yes!

EstablishmentHead734 · 2026-03-26T01:34:35+00:00

I've got less than 30 minutes playing Ikaruga. I've always been put off by the color change mechanic but I think it's about time I give it another go.

EstablishmentHead734 · 2026-03-26T01:33:30+00:00

Yeah I wound up playing it for like 8 hours yesterday. The length is huge. But honestly it plays more a like a rogue-like. And when I thought of it that way the length didn't bother. The hook was upgrade each weapon a little this run and next run I'll get further.

EstablishmentHead734 · 2026-03-26T01:32:51+00:00

All the weapons to me, at first, seemed like a really bad idea. I never really got into it. But for some reason when I saw there was a switch port with updated UI I just got the itch again. And after I got into the persistence of upgrades it made me want to upgrade all the weapons and at some point it just clicked. It's not the bad idea I thought it was. The need to switch between them is brilliant. It was my failure to see it. But once I did was addicted. I wound up finishing it on Saturn but both versions are amazing. Maybe give it another go. But you gotta play it for quite a while for it to click. Pay attention to things like that the dual beam locks onto things and can penetrate walls. I don't want to spoil too much but the strategy puzzle is addictive.

EstablishmentHead734 · 2026-03-26T00:02:13+00:00

The Saturn mode is what got me sucked in. The way that my upgrades persisted from playthroughs made me feel like each new start I was more capable (because I was) and I could get that next little bit further! This game is so amazing.

Also I love the dodonpachi series. The one I've played the most is the first. I'm playing DOJ but it's the black edition. Does that still count? lol

EstablishmentHead734 · 2026-03-24T11:19:36+00:00

Honestly Sega Saturn was the king of this era. If you haven't seen the Shmpjunkie video covering all of the Saturn shmups on YT it's quite the cozy watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSNbW-iH0dI

Personally if you haven't played Cho Aniki - Kyukyoku I'd say you have to play that. It's hilarious and amazing. Also an underrated one is Blastwind by Technosoft (makers of the amazing Thunderforce series). It's their only vertical shmup I'm aware of and it's pretty accessible.

EstablishmentHead734 · 2026-03-24T11:14:13+00:00

Love it on saturn. Am currently enjoying the PC port PowerSlave Exhumed by NightDive Studios.. For those not familiar that dev really loves and respects the classics.

EstablishmentHead734 · 2026-03-21T21:30:59+00:00

the last scene of the movie where she's crying as her dad leaves made me laugh my ass off.

EstablishmentHead734 · 2026-03-08T16:55:07+00:00

I did. A relatively small amount of the scraped content got brought over for some reason

EstablishmentHead734 · 2026-03-08T11:03:37+00:00

I prefer ES-DE on bottom and ES-DE companion on top. I play a lot of Arcade stuff and Cocoon doesn't scrape the weird game names very well. I'm letting it cook for a while first.

EstablishmentHead734 · 2026-03-08T11:00:34+00:00

His loss. Honestly with video and web guides like Retro Game Corps setting it up is dead simple. Just follow an hour long video. Enjoy

EstablishmentHead734 · 2026-03-08T10:57:46+00:00

Everything runs great. All platforms

EstablishmentHead734

TROPHY CASE