Pyroclastica

Some time back in January/February, I got in my head that maybe I could become a shmup guy. Didn’t really have any basis for this, simply a fleeting thought. Without looking anything up or trying to learn anything at all about the hobby, I figured I should at least beat Gradius on the NES, since that was the original shmup. My thinking was, if you can’t beat that, then you are not cut out for any of these types of games
So, I’ve been practicing Gradius off and on, a few times a day, since earlier this year. The run I’ve just completed is a totally legitimate run, no deaths, save states, no Konami codes, a real “1cc.”
I did have to use a LOT of save states to practice, but I knew I could not claim victory and say I’ve “beat” this game until I put it all together for 1 perfect run. The date stamp on this post is when I’ve finally done it.
If you are going to attempt this, (which you should!) then do not make my mistake and go playing it on the Switch virtual console. I was practicing back and forth between this and the Analog, and this is the type of game you WANT a d-pad for. The analog stick makes things so much harder than they need to be. Almost all of my Analog runs went better than my Switch runs. Obviously the pictured win is a Switch run, but I don’t suggest that at all. I think I only did it by coincidence.
Leading up to this finish, I had so many blown runs where I wanted to do the warp after the Moai heads because I wanted to skip Stage 4 (reverse volcano). However, I messed this up enough times that I ended up getting really good at the reverse volcano and wouldn’t have even needed to skip it. But, of course, on the run that’s actually successful, I did do the Moai skip correctly and didn’t have to do reverse volcano
This game inflicts something on you psychologically where if you practice the later levels for several hours at a time, you become terrible at the earlier levels. I assume that’s due to the importance of getting powered up early. Get good at shield management (and/or get good at unlocking turbo mode) and you really flounder without it.
After spending some time with this game, I started to really “get” how the game is trying to tell you when to be careful vs when to be aggressive. It feels good to get in the zone like that; for a game so simple, the whole system is shockingly well-made once you start thinking about it.
I think I’m on the way to doing what I originally thought, which was ‘become a shmup guy.’ Pls suggest me beginner shmups on Twitter and Mastodon!

Gradius