SOTM February 2018: Kingdom Grand Prix & Blazing Star

[NERDtendo]

February's shmups of the month are Kingdom Grand Prix & Blazing Star!

[Rules for both games]

Default settings, 1 credit

[Hi-Score format]

Player - Score - Stage - Character - Platform

Kingdom Grand Prix:

1.  kuze - 353,710 - 5 - Miyamoto - MAME 
2.  Kidpanda - 259,631 - Stage ? - Necro - Mame
3.  c0nn0r - 199,960 - ? - Gain - Saturn
4.  NERDtendo - 138,322 - 3 - Myamoto - King of Air Multi (MAME)  
5.

Blazing Star:

Autofire:
1.  Jeneki - 10,011,200 - Stage 6 - Peplos - Mame - Autofire FUCK YES 

No Autofire:
1.  Jeneki - 11,254,540 - Stage 4 - Windia - MVS
2.  Chosen One - 9,713,000 - Stage 4 - Windia - MVS
3.  daskrabs - 5,273,880 - Stage 4 - Hellhound - MVS 
4.  Kidpanda - 4,966,510 - Stage 4 - Dino246 - MVS
5.  c0nn0r - 1,072,520 - ? - Hellhound - MVS
6.  gusmoney - 699,800 - Three - Hellhound - MVS
7.  NERDtendo - 421,090 - Stage 2 - Windina - MVS

Strategy Guides are available here:
https://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1896

 

[egg_sanwich]

Solid choices. Autofire ok?

 

[kuze]

Chicken is no need!

 

[NERDtendo]

Solid choices. Autofire ok?

Autofire is fine. Note it with your score.

 

[Kid Panda]

Just to let you guys know, using autofire in either of these games affect scoring/gameplay.

 

[c0nn0r]

Blazing Star

c0nn0r - 1,072,520 - ? - Hellhound - MVS




Kingdom Grand Prix

c0nn0r - 199,960 - ? - Gain - Saturn




Both games are excellent. I'm a huge Raizing/8ing fan, so I knew I would have a good time with Kingdom Grand Prix, but I did not realize that Blazing Star is also a great game. I've had it for a while, but always kinda passed it over because I'm not a fan of pre-rendered graphics, but BS is quite classy. Even the constant "BONUS" kinda grew on me.

I also had a blast playing these games on Friday night because my wife was out with her friends and I took the opportunity to try streaming on YouTube for the first time. Had a great 2 hour session, made a fool of myself, and had at most 1 or 2 views. I'm on my way to LowTierHusband levels of content quality!

 

[The_Chosen_One]

It’s coming back to me, but I think my all time high score was around 9 mill years back. Hopefully I can break that barrier this month.

Chosen_One - 6,137,220 - Stage 4 - Windina - MVS

 

[daskrabs]

daskrabs - 5,273,880 - Stage 4 - Hellhound - MVS

 

[NERDtendo]

NERDtendo - 421,090 - Stage 2 - Windina - MVS

 

[kuze]

kuze - 353,710 - 5 - Miyamoto - MAME

 

[Jeneki]

A friend of mine told me that Peplos with autofire is hilariously broken so I gave it a try. Was not disappointed.


Blazing Star
Jeneki - 10,011,200 - Stage 6 - Peplos - Mame - Autofire FUCK YES

I can get some MVS / Windia / No Autofire runs in if that's more comparable to what others are doing.

 

[NERDtendo]

NERDtendo - 138,322 - Stage 3 - Myamoto - King of Air Multi (MAME)

 

[gusmoney]

gusmoney - 699,800 - Three - Hellhound - MVS

 

[Kid Panda]

SOTM February 2018: Kingdom Grand Prix & Blazing Star

Kidpanda - 1,408,760 - Stage 3 - Peplos - MVS

Kidpanda - 259,631 - Stage ? - Necro - Mame

 

[Jeneki]

I love that kidpanda actually fits in the name field in Blazing Star.

 

[Kid Panda]

I love that kidpanda actually fits in the name field in Blazing Star.

I was kinda worried that it didn't but lol'd when it did. I'll be out there in about a week, you can show me how you did that score. I can't wrap my head around it.

 

[Kid Panda]

SOTM February 2018: Kingdom Grand Prix & Blazing Star

Last score for the day.

Kidpanda - /


Oops, got a better score.
Kidpanda - 4,966,510 - Stage 4 - Dino246 - MVS

 

[Jeneki]

I found some more farming points. The stage 3 boss gets really silly when you milk the green bubbles before it drops out into orbit, I got around 4 million there alone.



Blazing Star
Jeneki - 11,254,540 - Stage 4 - Windia - MVS - Autofire No

There are several enemies you don't want to kill too fast, as they will launch destructible projectiles that produce medals. Killing large swarms with a charged shot seems to give more than rapid fire. There's also the special item that makes tons of powerups and skyrockets rank for more enemies, but I can't figure it out. :/

Here are some milk points I found:

Stage 1: elevators come out of the ground and launch tons of shit. Don't kill the spawn point before everything is out.

Stage 1 boss: kill the top half as fast as possible, then shoot above the lower half to farm missiles until time runs out.

Stage 2: big purple ships will launch more missiles if you let them live a bit. In the second half, purple robots that appear in pairs will launch tons of missiles if you don't kill them immediately.

Stage 2 boss: kill the first part (arms and tail) asap. Them hang out at the bottom hitting the bombs for medals.

Stage 3: lots and lots of medals from enemy generators on the floor, let these live as long as possible. The Y lucky panel only appears if you let the stopped turret section live for a while.

Stage 3 boss: kill the bottom tail with the 3-way shot. Now you can farm the green bubbles. In the second half in orbit, you don't want the boss to die while medals are on screen or you will drop them. To get around this, I don't start shooting until after the large green bubbles.

Stage 4: The groud does not kill you here and you can fly under the midboss that appears from behind. Not much farming that I found other than segments on the snakes.

Stage 4 boss: Not sure yet, I just try not to die.

 

[The_Chosen_One]

Chosen One - 9,713,000 - Stage 4 - Windia - MVS

Still cracking away at it. Might get one more run in tonight.


The event item that gives you crazy power ups appears if you get an event item and don’t fire a shot until it disappears.

 

[Jeneki]

The event item that gives you crazy power ups appears if you get an event item and don’t fire a shot until it disappears.

Holy crap you're right. It's not that it's hard to do, but it goes against my shooter instincts so I keep screwing it up and shooting too soon. MUST. NOT. TAP.

It looks like you can start charging a shot, get the angel, release the charged shot, and that still counts as not shooting as long as you don't press the button again after releasing. That helps keep my bloodlust under control.

 

[egg_sanwich]

Really wanted to participate this month, Blazing Star is possibly my fav shootie on Neo. Travelling with the family this month so no dice though [emoji24][emoji24]

 

[c0nn0r]

Why did we have 2 games for this month?

 

[NERDtendo]

Why did we have 2 games for this month?

I wanted to do a Jamma shmup and a NEO GEO shmup.

 

[Jeneki]

I know the month's over, but I wanted to work on using the special bonus powerup item more. If you trigger it off the first angel, the second angel will appear just before the boss and you can trigger it again. This gets really dangerous though; I had so many powerups on screen that the boss' bullets turned invisible. Crazy stuff!

 

[The_Chosen_One]

I know the month's over, but I wanted to work on using the special bonus powerup item more. If you trigger it off the first angel, the second angel will appear just before the boss and you can trigger it again. This gets really dangerous though; I had so many powerups on screen that the boss' bullets turned invisible. Crazy stuff!

I did that once or twice and decided it wasn’t worth it, can’t dodge bullets you can’t see!