Forum Overview :: Short Dumbledores :: Re: I'll try this more simply

[quote name="Mischief Shai-hulud"][quote name="Bananadine"]What are the names of the good shmups you've played that don't allow continues?[/quote] All shmups have continues, but almost always have subtle hints that you should not. Most shmups reset your score to 0 if you continue, and others prevent you from posting to the high score table. Many home ports like Gradius V deliberately limit your credits at the start and miserly dole out more over time. Also, many shmups have final bosses or entire levels you will never see if you use a continue. I don't know how the one-credit rule started in Japan. Maybe arcades set rules that you can't continue if someone's waiting behind you. Maybe people competing against rivals for spots on the high score list decided it was a waste of money to continue since their score would be obliterated. Maybe it's because of Hudson adding "caravan modes" to its console shumps in the late 80s/early 90s where kids could take turns competing for score on 5-minute score attack stages, then held public tournaments for caravan mode players. I pieced these two rules together from random tips given at shmup forums and I've found that putting these rules into effect makes shmups 10 times more fun. If instead I say, "fuck it" and start continue spamming, the game becomes as tedious as a FPS with the god cheat on. I'd never seen these two rules listed before, and thought it would be helpful for beginners to have them listed in one place. On a more selfish note, I constantly see US and european indie developers making beautiful and creative shmups that play like shit, aka. "Euroshmups," while the japanese keep making technically excellent shmups that are the same anime bullshit over and over again, (not counting games like Radio Zonde and Hellsinker). I was hoping that if the video got kicked around the indie community a bit, we'd see some better shmups coming out from the west. If you're still confused, let me make one more analogy. You're playing a tony hawk game, and you're in an obstacle course filled with ramps, railings, halfpipes, and more. You have been given the goal of accumularing X number of points to finish the level. The sooner you do that, the sooner you can watch an in-engine cutscene of Bam Maguera kicking his father in the balls. If you screw up mid-trick, your skater will splatter his brains on the pavement and you will have to start all over again. So in the interest of prudence, you skate to the widest, flattest part of the course and perform 50 ollies. Is this fun?[/quote]