Ikaruga [DC, GC, XBLA, PC]

true on all accounts

though i still say marketting wouldnt hurt it
i just cant tell you how many times in the store we get

"i saw this ad for this game i dont know what game it was but i want to buy it"

and your 175% right on games needing to be released globally

i think the same thing could be said for Shenmue II on Xbox, i mean hell even GS and EB owned stores imported it for their customers that pre-ordered
i mean we got 6 copies of it and im sure VGD and NCSX sold alot of the import as well


which is why i said early that people need to go out and buy this rev

one has to hope that the success this is having will only help see R-Type Final and Gradius V get released here, and maybe if those do well enough well see more released here

im a big fan of supporting games when theyre released here

why ive only imported like 2 games and those were games that never saw the light of day here

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Originally posted by Mr_Furious
Can anyone give an example of this type of shooter? I believe the shooter genre has been a niche genre for almost 20 years. The fact is, mainstream U.S.A. lacks the hand/eye coordination and just gets frustrated so they simply don't play them.

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Thats such a stupid argument I cant believe it. Mainstream America "lacks" a basic motor function of the human body. You've got to be fucking kidding me. As much as the Jerry Springer Show or American Idol may argue otherwise, we are not apes.

The reason why shooters don't sell as well as other genres, straight up:
01. Most of them look like ass... sure there is a great purity in their look, but its not supergreat, especially from screenshots.

02. Shooter game companies have consistently focused on their hardcore fans, which creates a series of games that are all exponentially harder than the last. Someone who tries to get into them gets creamed after four seconds, and then quits.

There have been times when Ive tried to play a new arcade shmup. I put in my 50 cents, and I abandon the machine after a minute. Why? Because I get fucking slaughtered right away. This is not the way to attract fans to the genre. Id rather waste 50 cents on a reese's peanut butter cup that didnt fully leave the coils in the snack machine than waste 50 cents to get assraped on some random shmup.

Lets face it - the only way to really enjoy shmups is to really get hardcore into them, get killed, put your time in, etc. etc. Its fucking mind-numbing. I've tried to get really good at Radiant Silvergun, and after repeating the same damn levels 80 times I just wanted to play Quake III and kill people indiscriminately. It was seriously horribly repetitive and boring. I mean if you like that thing Im sure there is a great essence in there, but many will not care to find it. Its like training for the goddamn marathon - AND THERE IS A REASON WHY SO FEW PEOPLE RUN THE MARATHON.

Seriously, the learning curve and the barrier of entry to enjoying shmups is way too fucking high to attract new customers to the genre.

03. The COMPANIES think of shmups as second rate. Dont believe me? Fucking look at Mobile Light Force. The box looks like ass, the translation is as cut rate as it comes, and it costs a whopping $15. And these games are not really advertised, either. When the companies admit defeat before release, then there is no hope for them in the marketplace.

I dunno, this whole situation is kind of a Catch-22. Ikaruga never would have come here if not for the thousands of people who imported it in the US. On the other hand, since most of the audience for the GC release already own Ikaruga, there isn't much of a market.

So I don't see how people like myself, who don't plan to purchase Ikaruga on GC, are to blame if no further shmups reach the US.

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Originally posted by diffusionx
Thats such a stupid argument I cant believe it. Mainstream America "lacks" a basic motor function of the human body. You've got to be fucking kidding me. As much as the Jerry Springer Show or American Idol may argue otherwise, we are not apes.
.

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There have been times when Ive tried to play a new arcade shmup. I put in my 50 cents, and I abandon the machine after a minute. Why? Because I get fucking slaughtered right away. This is not the way to attract fans to the genre. Id rather waste 50 cents on a reese's peanut butter cup that didnt fully leave the coils in the snack machine than waste 50 cents to get assraped on some random shmup.

Lets face it - the only way to really enjoy shmups is to really get hardcore into them, get killed, put your time in, etc. etc. Its fucking mind-numbing. I've tried to get really good at Radiant Silvergun, and after repeating the same damn levels 80 times I just wanted to play Quake III and kill people indiscriminately. It was seriously horribly repetitive and boring. I mean if you like that thing Im sure there is a great essence in there, but many will not care to find it. Its like training for the goddamn marathon - AND THERE IS A REASON WHY SO FEW PEOPLE RUN THE MARATHON.

Seriously, the learning curve and the barrier of entry to enjoying shmups is way too fucking high to attract new customers to the genre.

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I like how you translate my point into me saying that mainstream U.S.A are fucking apes, which I never said yet you prove my point about the lack of hand/eye coordination skills further down. Bravo! You read way too deeply into my post and deciphered from it what you did. The truth is, hand/eye coordination is a skill that a lot of people don't have. I didn't mean they have no hand/eye coordination at all but rather the skills of "good" hand/eye coordination. Like I said, you proved my point further down in your post and I thank you.

You do have some good points though and I agree :)

they dont knwo all those DC ones were sold in the US



they see it as 5K sold of the JAPANESE release of Ikaruga on the DC

in video games you vote with your dollar

buying the japanese one is a vote for japanese shump releases

buying the US one is a vote for US shump releases

if people complain "No good shumps get released here" then when one does you dont buy it cause you allready have the import well your not helping the situation your just perpetuating it





I dont know programming im not a programer im an artist but would it be that hard to program an AI for a shooter that adapted to the skill of the person playing it

so that the mainstreamer who has never played a shooter in his life can try it out enjoy it and want to improve in it instead of being smacked down 4 seconds into the game and never looking at it twice

while also allowing the hardcore shooter freak to get a challange out of it and not feeling it was a cake walk

to me that sounds like the solution but again i dont know programming so weither or not an adaptive AI could be implemented i dont know

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Originally posted by sleeveboy
So I don't see how people like myself, who don't plan to purchase Ikaruga on GC, are to blame if no further shmups reach the US.

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You're not to blame. It's the company's fault. I'd never blame you for wanting a game, just the company for not providing it :)

That's part of why I'm getting Ikaruga again. It also has some extras on it that are pretty cool... I also just like buying GC games.

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Originally posted by Shin Johnpv
they dont knwo all those DC ones were sold in the US

they see it as 5K sold of the JAPANESE release of Ikaruga on the DC

in video games you vote with your dollar

buying the japanese one is a vote for japanese shump releases

buying the US one is a vote for US shump releases

if people complain "No good shumps get released here" then when one does you dont buy it cause you allready have the import well your not helping the situation your just perpetuating it

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Trust me, Japanese companies count on the sales of their games to importers. I used to work for a major Japanese company that delayed games for U.S. release on purpose, simply because it cares more about it's on Territory over it's U.S. counterpart.

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I dont know programming im not a programer im an artist but would it be that hard to program an AI for a shooter that adapted to the skill of the person playing it

so that the mainstreamer who has never played a shooter in his life can try it out enjoy it and want to improve in it instead of being smacked down 4 seconds into the game and never looking at it twice

while also allowing the hardcore shooter freak to get a challange out of it and not feeling it was a cake walk

to me that sounds like the solution but again i dont know programming so weither or not an adaptive AI could be implemented i dont know

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I don't know but I'm not sure it'd be necessary. Many shooters provide infinite continues and start you off where you died. How much easier could you get. The trick to shmups is patterns and bullet dodging. If that were changed depending on the skillset of the player then how could he/she ever memorize it?

As pointed out before, the problem is that Joe Casual isn't playing a shooter for score but simply to beat it and there in lies the dilemma.

Here's an incredibly difficult suggestion to implement that will make shooters easier: less bullets. :p

Not so much true of Ikaruga where there is less bullets on easy (though it should have been reduced further on the latter stages), but more for shooters in general where the difficulty levels don't really work. That is easy isn't actually easy by any stretch of the imagination.

Unlockable extras, like Mars Matrix, also helps keep the interest going. Point based instead of time based to feel more like a reward and to encourage smart playing rather than 'bomb bomb die bomb bomb' play.

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Originally posted by Mzo
I also just like buying GC games.

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same here

unless theres a HUGE feature or something im missing or the GC rev is horrible compared to one of the others (Spyhunter for instance) i go with the GC release on multiplatform releases

i want to see it get more 3rd party support and thus i support it with my dollar