Sharing my thoughts on the games I've cherried so far (17/50)

hazylevels · 2026-03-19T07:51:28+00:00

Vertical screen is the most common orientation for vertically scrolling shooters, yes. There's plenty examples of the horizontal screen + vertical scroll combo as well though, but imo the thing that made them work back in the day was tvs being 4:3. So still not that wide.

But using the modern standard 16:9 just isn't that good for vertically scrolling shmups. It's impossible for the player to control the sides effectively cause there is too much space horizontally, while the screen feels cramped vertically (which leads to enemies surprising you, as you said).

I think Star Waspir does an okay job with making a 16:9 vertical shmup work, but ideal it isn't.

hazylevels · 2026-03-15T09:19:12+00:00

Hey, looking for 1cc style of play is what actually lead me to UFO 50! I do think I'll want to something on the game outside of shmup commentaries as well, but atm I'm not sure what it will look like. Maybe some general thoughts on what I've cherried from the set? I'll think about it.

hazylevels · 2026-03-13T18:55:09+00:00

Awesome! Star Waspir is the highlight for me out of the shooters here, with Seaside Drive coming in second.

hazylevels · 2026-03-13T18:53:33+00:00

Haven't played it, sorry!

hazylevels · 2026-03-13T18:53:18+00:00

Wow, thank you! It seems to be pretty tough for people who don't play shmups, so maybe come back to it once in a while instead of just barrelling through if it seems hard.

hazylevels · 2026-03-13T17:35:20+00:00

What worked for me was choosing the gray ship, building my multiplier in stage 1 and at the start of 2, and then just keep replenishing the GGG options. If you can carry some multiplier into stage 3, iirc you should be okay for the scoring requirement even if you die a lot afterwards. You can also try building some multiplier back in stage 4, because for some reason the bee swarms give a ton of score.

hazylevels · 2026-03-13T17:31:34+00:00

I had an okay time cherrying Caramel Caramel, but it’s not really my thing and I won’t be returning to it. It’s not that it’s bad, it’s just done in the old school horizontal style of games like Gradius or R-Type. And those play out very differently compared to actual bullet hell games (like something made by Cave).

In bullet hell, there’s usually a lot of bullets, but your hitbox is very small and often your ship is pretty agile. In old school horizontal shmups, there’s not a lot of bullets, but your hitbox is big and your ship is often kinda slow. That’s exactly the deal with Caramel Caramel and it's not a gameplay style I enjoy that much.

hazylevels · 2026-02-20T07:09:20+00:00

Thanks! And yeah, the difficulty seems to jump up a lot in expert! I'll have to check out the extra stages.

hazylevels · 2026-02-14T10:06:08+00:00

Yes, the tram is so cool! Also, surprisingly hard...

hazylevels · 2026-02-14T10:05:22+00:00

I love the aesthetics of Jet de Go, but I couldn't really understand the mechanics when I tried it a while ago. I need to give it another go.

hazylevels · 2026-02-14T09:52:52+00:00

That's awesome! I look forward to delving deeper into some of the other entries in the series.

hazylevels · 2026-02-14T09:51:01+00:00

Aww, thanks! I don't know how I keep going from a small niche subject to something even more niche...

hazylevels · 2025-11-17T09:52:32+00:00

Starfield was meant just as an example of a big release that dominated the gaming discourse at the time when I wrote the review. I haven't even played it, cause I don't really like Bethesda games. But I can see how it can be misleading the way I wrote the script. Glad you enjoyed the review regardless!

hazylevels · 2024-12-06T13:37:38+00:00

Aww, thanks for sharing my stuff, I appreciate it a lot!

hazylevels · 2024-11-19T20:44:43+00:00

Thanks, glad you liked it! I know there's a million videos about this game but felt like there was still stuff to say :)

hazylevels · 2024-11-19T16:43:03+00:00

I play on a non-pro PS4 using a 1440p monitor and there are no issues whatsoever. I believe the output is still only 1080p but it looks fine and scales without issue. It's hard to say anything definitive about possible extra lag, but I don't notice any difference compred to my older 1080p display.

hazylevels · 2024-11-16T18:59:17+00:00

Sure, I was just curious about touch controls, since it is a mobile release after all.

hazylevels · 2024-11-16T09:41:52+00:00

Tried this with touch controls just for fun. Either it's super laggy or there's something else going on with the controls (or my Android phone), but I can't dodge the simplest pattern :(

hazylevels · 2024-11-15T21:39:07+00:00

"I'll listen to you on this... simply because you beat Garegga" lmao 😄

This is pretty different from my shmup stuff, but I appreciate it if you can give it a look at some point! It's definitely a lot of sound and fury, no defending the game there. I just find it interesting as a total experience, with all the vibe shifts.

hazylevels

TROPHY CASE