3rd Blog Anniversary!

And here we come to three years of logged shmupping.

No big additions to the collection besides the fact that after taking the plunge for a Neo Geo AES I finally dedicated myself to playing some games on it. It might seem that three titles weren't that much of a dedication though, but I assure you that each one of them was totally worth it. Ironclad and Viewpoint were both enlightening tough rides, and Andro Dunos served as a colorful throwback to less powerful 16-bit systems. For my next Neo Geo achievements I have my eyes set on Prehistoric Isle 2 and Sonic Wings 2.

This last year a good portion of the shooting games I played were chosen because I took part in competitions with fellow gamers around the globe. It certainly fuels the motivation to play stuff I wouldn't dare to approach on a regular basis, such as Sol Divide. I was able to 1CC all of them, not always within the given time frame though, with the exception of Judgement Silversword. This game is simply a beast, I shall throw a party for the closest friends at my place if I manage to clear it someday. As for the competitions themselves I believe the most important thing is to have fun. Shmupping is a rather lonely hobby, so having someone somewhere sharing the game with you is some kind of a gaming miracle.

As always I appreciate all the support and constant motivation from comments and constructive feedback. Special thanks go to fellow gamers and shmuppers Jorge, StarMist, Battletoad, Ben and Ben - for the partnership, corrections, contests, hints, shoutouts and occasional tomfoolery. As promised to Nick in one of my previous comments, pretty soon I'll write something about my personal methods for shmupping. Not that they matter much, I just want to throw something different to celebrate 200 1CC posts.

Let the 4th year begin.