600 1CCed shmups!

Time to break the blog flow once again to quickly talk about the milestone of 600 shmups beaten in a single credit and, as a bonus, dabble about the state of affairs in my neck of the woods.

This last hundred took me almost 4 years, which means things have slowed down to an average of two shmups a month, sometimes more and occasionally less. At least I haven't failed a single month and was always able to write about at least one game, which is a good number during those hectic months where work and real life decide to unite and give us a hard time.

Speaking of which, real life has brought about a new aspect that's kinda bugging me as of late. I don't know if all readers are aware of this, but I own every single game I play and write about in physical form (bar the digital-only of course). I have always thought of myself as a player above all and secondly a collector, but unfortunately the collecting part has taken a hit in the latest months thanks to the inexplicable policy adopted by Brazilian customs, which is a complete mess of an organization and has always worked with no standards whatsoever. This lack of standards has worsened as of late, to the point of denying entry to the country of many of my recent purchases and is making importing impossible.

Before anyone throws out the question, it's important to mention that the blockade to imports is a real lottery. I have friends who are getting their packages normally, the same packages that have bounced back for me. "Bounce back" is a soft way to put it though, since there's no guarantee the packages will go back to their origin or just get lost in thin air, which has also happened in the past but very, very scarcely.

If this keeps going on I'll seriously contemplate abandoning collecting. I'm pushing 48 this year, perhaps it's the way the universe found to not so politely tell me "hey, bud, how about moving on and focusing on other ventures?".

In the meantime, shmupping continues. 

Top 5 hardest 1CCs in the last hundred, in no particular order:

• Raiden Fighters (Xbox 360)
• Raiden DX (Playstation)
• Aero Blasters (PC Engine)
  
• Dodonpachi Daioujou (Playstation 2)
• Radiant Silvergun (Saturn)

Honorable mentions are Dodonpachi Daioujou Black Label Extra on the XBox 360, which in my opinion is just as hard as White Label, and gravity arena Terra Lander on the Playstation 4, a game with a couple of insanely tricky levels.

Top 5 easiest 1CCs in the last hundred, in no particular order:

• Image Fight (NES)
• GG Aleste (Playstation 4)
• Space Elite Force (Playstation 4)
• Moon Cresta (Playstation 2)
  
• Huge Insect (NES)

Honorable mentions in the easy category are 1942 on the NES, Twinkle Star Sprites - La Petite Princesse on the Playstation 2 and Red Death on the Playstation 4.

There was one shmup I could not beat during this last cycle: Iro Hero for the PS4. Not because I was incompetent, but because there's a bug that makes the last boss invincible and doesn't allow you to complete the game. I contacted Red Art Games (retail publisher), eastasiasoft (publisher) and Artax Games (developer) a few times already, but they all disagree about which company is supposed to come up with a patch. A few other shmup enthusiasts have also tried, unfortunately to no avail. I even got to the point of reaching out to Sony, but as expected they don't give a s#%t about it either.

Total number of console shmups beaten by system:

Total number of console shmups beaten by genre:

During the last hundred blog entries, at 19 posts the NES beat both the Playstation 2 and the Playstation 4 by one game only. It's just normal to see the NES getting ahead as the most played console due to its extensive library, but my feeling is that it's just a matter of time for one of the Sony systems to take the lead. As for the Mega Drive, there are only a few shmups left for 1CC attempts. Which one should I target next, I wonder?

No love was given to the Sega 32X (understandable), the FM Towns (impossible, my Towns is dead) and the Neo Geo (inexcusable). It is my intention to play Zaxxon's Motherbase 2000 and another Neo Geo shmup soon, I just haven't decided which one yet.

Other prospects for the future include moving on to a few old acquaintances I've yet to actually try to beat, such as Battle Garegga, Border Down and R-Type Final. You can never take for granted any available time you get to play, and a classic example of this is how a week at home ~ on vacation ~ helped me practice and quickly get the loop on Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu Ver 1.5, which had been on my radar for months but remained pretty much untouched until the last couple of weeks.

And I didn't forget the requests received many years ago, such as Kingdom Grandprix. It seems however that my dream of having Mahou Daisakusen / Sorcer Striker released in physical form won't come true any time soon. I probably won't get through the series in order, at least not the way i'd like to.

As always, thank you all for keeping up with me and my shmup rants notes. Hopefully some of you might still be here if by any chance I'm able to make to 700 hundred 1CCs!

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PS. It just seems I won't escape the fate of owning a Nintendo Switch. Pokémon has become quite a big thing at home as of late, if you know what I mean.