Sunday 25 April, 2004

STILL playing this game. I'm going back to try and make higher scores on the lower levels.

I've hit Extreme 14 in lock mode. Doubtful if I'm capable of going any further, but it's worth a shot.

Going from extreme 14 to hard 1 is weird. After playing extreme, hard mode feels like slow-motion - almost like bullet time ^_^

And by the way - EVERYONE should d/l this game. It's free!

OMG. You must be some sort of shooter maniac. I've never been to good at shooters and I seriously respect those that have the skills to breeze through them. Are you a Treasure fanboy? :-)

I'm really more of a strategy-game (TB and RT both) geek myself, but I have a soft spot for "very small plane" vertical shooters like Parsec 47, Ikaruga etc. Actually I absolutely SUCKED at shooters until about 2 or 3 years ago. I started in the arcades (where I stayed, there was a relatively-cheap one) and slowly got better (or so I think :D) .

Seriously, I am probably the most uncoordinated person I know, but playing shooters is a skill. You start out dying every 5 seconds, then every 6... and after awhile you realise you somehow aren't dying. It's weird, kind of like that scene from the Matrix (which movie I refer to all too often when discussing shooters). Still, I'm not a SHOOTER GOD or anything yet; I haven't done a one-coin clear on any game. :(

As for Treasure, I haven't had the pleasure of owning any of their games; none of them have been released on a platform I own. I did play Ikaruga a lot on a friend's machine awhile ago; it's one of the most beautiful games I've seen, and the gameplay is just amazing. I'm seriously considering purchasing a 'cube just to play that and Animal Crossing (and maybe a couple other games too).

Funny story: In stage 2 of Ikaruga, there's a stretch where you fly through this huge room with moving platforms and have to avoid crashing into them. Having watched a true wizard at work once (he finished the game with 1 coin), I knew a little secret: you can squeeze between the platforms even when they appear to be adjacent to each other. I lined the fighter up for the gap, put the controller down (the sequence, IIRC, lasts for 10-20 seconds), and enjoyed watching my friends' stupefied reactions. :D It doesn't take much skill to do that, as long as you line it up precisely, so you too can amaze your friends...

BTW, have you downloaded Parsec 47 yet? Do it - it's free!

I've just downloaded it and I'll give it a little run tomorrow (most likely). It is amazing how one gets better with practice. I noticed this a lot when playing Metroid Fusion. All of a sudden I had stopped button-mashing and was anticipating enemy attacks and whatnot. Cool!