Welcome to the Shoot Em Ups Thread! 
Share your experiences, suggest games, share replays and screenshots!
If you want to get into the genre feel free to ask questions, tips and advice!
in the last month this happened 3 times:
Then today…
Finally I made it!!!
It took 3+ months but I finally did it! 1CC (first loop) of DoDonPachi DaiOuJou (white label)
Sorry for the slight ot but I’m really happy about this and wanted to share
It took me around 5 to 6 months to achieve the 1cc, congratulations
Thanks!
It was, by far, the toughest 1cc I ever did, it really took sooo many hours and tries! Some other cave games, like espgaluda or progear, took significantly less time (10-15 days or so).
If someone want to dive into it: I would suggest to stick with Black Label that is “slightly” easier and have a smaller hitbox, I was too stubborn to give up beating white label at least once!
Think you have what it takes to beat Gaiares with 1 credit? No save states either. I made it to the 3rd stage and once I lost a life at the boss and had to start over without the power ups I obtained it became a suicide mission just to survive let alone make it back to the boss again. I’ll probably try again one day.
I tried it few years back: awesome soundtrack!
yeah it does have the “gradius syndrome” die once -> game over, but if I remeber there is a shield that gives you few hits that you can refill once in a while. Also weapon choice is important…
didn’t go for the 1cc at that time, I preferred shorter games rather then 1 hour console shooters.
But now I don’t mind some of those once in a while, I think my next console shooter is going to be Thunderforce IV (nasty and awesome ) but I will put Gaiares on the list!
Yeah I believe the shield lets you take 3 or 4 hits. You also have that thing thar follows your ship:
You can shoot that ball at pretty much every enemy to steal their power so you can get a new different type of weapon with every new enemy you encounter, cool concept plus it acts as a mini “shield” to absorb basic enemy shots if it’s in front of you.
Didn’t know it was a hour long, don’t know if I’d be able to last in that level of difficulty for that long, you don’t even get any options you just jump right into hell the moment you press start lol. Even better is that if you die in the middle of the stage you have to start all the way back from the beginning.
I actually would like to watch you or anyone try to beat this with one credit or even one life, I’d watch with popcorn lol.
hey @sonkun! I played few runs yesterday and today I recorded one, I died miserably at level 5 but I think with a little practice is quite doable. The only problem for me with this style of console shooters is that because they are so long I can hardly do 2 runs back to back 
Here is the replay, nothing special, the run ends at lvl 5 with the super-nasty midboss. I lost 4 shield hit at the end of level 4 so I think with a little more care lvl 5 can be can be done! I’ve also been too greedy trying to get the weapon at max lvl
Have a look at it, it might be useful (weapon choice) and inspire you to try!
Edit: I used Genesis Plus Gx (v.1.7.4.541229d)
Edit 2: I updated the core and the replay ends before it should… this is the core I used
There’s a total of 8 stages I believe, making it to stage 5 is an achievement in itself lol. I’m also assuming after you died and lost your power ups stage 5 then became your worst nightmare.
I think this is also why I end up catching a stray bullet, I’m always trying to max out a weapon on enemies that I capture. I don’t even know the amount of times you need to throw that ball to max out your captured weapon, I just keep throwing it at the same enemy type until my shots look bigger lol. Is it 3 times? Edit: I just figured it out, it’s until you reach the red bars where it says “LV-”.
Also how do I play that .replay1 file? I need to convert it or something?
Yes It should be three times I think!
Actually I got the weapon back but: no shield no party
Just place it in the save state directory of the core, in my case is:
retroarch_main _folder\states\Genesis Plus GX
then open the game and in the quick menu hit “Play Replay”
I updated the previous post with the core I used (windows), after updating the replay didn’t not work correctly, but with the core I shared above should work.
I was pulling my hair out looking for “replay” then did a Google search and found out Replay isn’t supported on Android which is what I’m using, that sucks.
On another note I just realized capturing the mid stage mini boss weapon helps a lot, I maxed out the mid boss of stage 1 and was plowing through everything with this:
Until i got greedy with the stage 2 mini boss trying to take his weapon and died lol. After I beat this game I found another underrated shoot em up I think you’ll like for Mega Drive.
Yes that’s what I used up until stage 4!
I’m gonna stick with that weapon then lol. Matter of fact I’m gonna give it another try right now.
I did few more runs, managed to beat level 5 and got to the boss of level 6 (it was almost dead!) and then I died
well, progress is progress, level 6 was kinda of a “mid-boss” rush, lots of fun!
Nice. I still haven’t gotten past level 3 yet lol. If I do beat this game the first thing I’m going to do is post a screenshot right in this thread of my retroachievement saying that I beat the last boss.
You will do it!
Few tips:
When you posted this the other day I found out that same day this game has different routes, didn’t even know at first. Makes for nice replay value. I’ve been playing this game only as if I’m back in my early 90s days where I only had but so many games so I had to make the best of what I had and keep playing it through trial and error until I finally beat it. I won’t lie though this game has been kicking my ass lol. I wonder how much further you got.
Yeah that’s a great way to enjoy gaming, I am doing like that since few years (mostly shooting games!) and I enjoy a lot the process!
The game is a little unforgiving but, like many console shooters of that era, memo is very important and once you figure the out a way you will progress!
I did only a couple of run and died again at the level 6 boss , but I think I will do it with a few more tries this week end!
Oh well…turns out I beat it tonight
Level 7 was a boss rush and level 8 was really short: basically just the last boss fight!
I have to say that the game was a lot of fun, well designed and with a nice sountrack!
The key to the 1cc, for me, was to get the laser weapon from the 2nd mid boss in stage 5: it does a lot of damage and makes the last 2 stages very manageable.
It was also important to learn the patterns of the two stage 5 midbosses and also level 6 boss (two encounter with it stage 6 and 7 )
The last boss was kinda easy!
Played with Genesis Plus Gx (v1.7.4 Gx7de0f0b) latest version from online updater
That’s amazing. Well if you want another challenge that may be harder you can try Eliminate Down. I posted pics of that one here. In fact I was using Gaiares to sharpen up my reflexes to take on THAT game which I think is even harder.
Not looking for challenges at the moment!
This year’s goal was to clear DaiOuJou, it took almost 4 months it was very hard for me and I really enjoy it, next year challenge would be Ketsui, but I’m not sure when I will start and I’m not sure if I’m ready yet, we’ll see
Gaiares was a good “surprise” because it was enjoyable and also relaxing somehow, usually 40+ minutes console shooter are a bit much for me because the drag to much and doing a run to get to the later levels is kind of a chore
Eliminate down is on my list but not very high, when I tried didn’t really click…
If you want to try some shooters for mega drive my suggestion would be Thunder Force III and IV, and if you want something a little easier (but still good!) Glaylancer is a nice option!
