spatular

yeah people swap them out for better parts - usually sanwa or seimitsu parts - and some sticks do come with these installed already. and more specifically for shmups - seimitsu sticks are supposed to be better - because you don't need to move the stick as much to hit a switch so you start moving quicker. not sure it makes as much of a difference for the buttons? (i don't use sticks, got one and modded it and stuff but never got on with it. it has a cool green ball top though so that's good) i'm still playing DOJ, it's great fun, still thinking i should swap to a ship with more bombs, did try a non expert ship but it seems pretty underpowered, the expert ones make the game more fun imo.

i'd give it a try if/when it gets cheaper. played the old phone version a bit and it seemed pretty fun, not sure how this one compares to the phone one, and there's a version on steam too (edit - too slow as above!), steam one has 58 songs, switch has 100 apparently. https://store.steampowered.com/app/744060/Groove_Coaster/

If you like Deus ex I'd recommend the dishonoured games and the recent prey.

checkpoints that put you back to before where you died and take away all your power ups. It’s like the game saying see this bit you couldn’t do, try it again, but this time we’ve made it much harder. Not fun at all imo. So stuff like r-type.

do you know if it can be set it to arrows only? (as in no X/O/A/B etc.)

^ yeah i went from playing beat saber on psvr to rift too and similarly struggled a bit at first with the shape of the controllers, but got used to it pretty quickly - you can get grips which make the controllers more like the moves - not tried them so don't know if they're any good mind. the rumble is better on psvr too. but the rift has the massive advantage of custom songs. i didn't notice much difference in visuals going to an original rift, think i prefered the psvr there because of the lack of god rays.

^ i think it's more complicated and harder to get into than beat saber and pistol whip (and probably not as good either), and like most rhythm games it gets better the harder the difficulty level. i'd agree the first two difficulty levels are a bit boring but then there's a bit of a step up to the next one, i've not played it that much but just about enough to play on the 3rd difficulty level which is much better and quite fun. so yeah i haven't played it enough to make a proper judgment, would say it's not as good as beat saber (but then what is?), but if you're prepared to put some time into it there is some fun to be had.

the 8bitdo m30 and recent saturn usb pads are switch compatible and have great d-pads but yeah no good for handheld mode. i've been playing doj a bit and really enjoying it, have played it a lot before on ps2, but not much on the 360, so it's nice to go back to it. always been pretty rubbish at it, it's relentless but i love it. i'm playing the black label version as i think it's supposed to be easier? i used to always play the green expert ship but was thinking i need to switch to one with more bombs but looking at some replays pretty much everyone seems to use the red expert ship so maybe i need to switch to that instead. i need to practice stages 3 and 4 but the stage select on the 360 version is a bit rubbish and no help at all unless i'm missing something - you start non-powered-up and seemingly on low rank. no easy way to play the ps2 version without it looking rubbish so maybe i'll look at setting up mame. saw a video where the player doesn't pick the bombs up straight away, waits to use a bomb before picking the new one up or you'd waste it - pretty simple but it blew my mind - i'd never thought of doing this before.

^ you can’t rapid fire so I guess that person is really fast on the trigger or it’s a mod or something. had a go on the new level, seems pretty fun

there's a list here, not sure how up to date or acurate it is mind: https://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=62430 i don't really know but was interested too, found this which you may have already seen: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1668613306 i think revision is supposed to be good so guess i'd concentrate on that... hopefully someone with better info replies

Thanks! yeah pretty sure i copied that from somewhere (MrMonkeyMan replay iirc) many years ago, still find the last pattern really hard. good luck with it! i want to play some DOJ but no where near a 1cc, can't even get to the last stage. not a stick but this arrived yesterday:

if you're after good value, i forgot to mention crimzon clover on steam, its brilliant and often on sale for ~£2

for modern/bullet hell stuff, these are just my favorites, there's loads more of good ones especially on steam and 360, and i'm probably forgetting loads too: steam - blue revolver, mecha ritz, and the cave stuff but think the 360 versions are supposed to be better, but they're probably easier to get hold of on steam (deathsmiles, mushihimesama, dodonpachi daifukkatsu/resurrection) 360 - espgaluda 2, mushihimesama futari, dodonpachi dai ou jou, - and basically anything by cave switch - rolling gunner PS4 - ketsui, esp ra.de. psi (also on switch), and ikaruga - not bullet hell and on any of the above. as for dodonpachi on steam/360 there's a few different versions - daifukkatsu/resurrection (dfk) is on steam/360 - it's a great game and has auto bomb so is more beginner friendly but i prefer dai ou jou (doj) which is on the 360 but not sure if it's region free. there's also sai dai ou jou (sdoj) on 360 (as pictured above by sharak) which i haven't played that much of tbh - it's even harder than doj which is saying something! edit - for different versions i'd get the version you're most likely to play/have the best controller for.

cheers! yeah that's the ps4 version

got a replay sorted eventually... watching it again i get really lucky at points, makes me want to try and get a cleaner run - probably not good for my sanity this replay malarkey. it's pretty shabby, not sure i'd recommend watching it. used a bomb on stage 1, not sure why i didn't restart, stage 4 went well but used too many bombs before that (although didn't die in stages 2 and 3 so there is that) so had no bombs for the mid boss where i'd normally use one but got lucky, and again for the boss i'd usually use another bomb there too. stage 5 went well till the mid boss where i used too many bombs, killed it too quick and got more small enemies after it than usual and got really lucky not to die there, 2nd half of stage 5 was a mess of luck and bombs, especially the bit where the round enemies come up from the bottom of the screen which is quite easy if you do it right but i messed it up big time. think the key to getting it done was to actually use all my bombs, usually i die with bombs in stock all the time.