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[VGEsoterica]

I've played a metric shit ton of shmups in my life. Too many probably. I buy basically anything new that looks fun just to support the genre (as its getting thinner and thinner as years go on) and I have a closet filled with arcade PCBs for the shmups I love the most.

But I don't think I have encountered a shmup that "gives me the business" as much as Crimson Clover does. This game just 100% has my number and refuses to let me get even CLOSE to a 1CC. Even with the original arcade board and my own custom made arcade stick it is just out for my blood and it always manages to bleed me dry.

But that doesn't mean I dont love the game...quite the contrary actually. The fact that I struggle to improve basically hooks me in as any good bullet hell shmup SHOULD make you fight for your progression. Well unless you play on Switch...game is NOT easy on a standard Switch controller...gotta have that arcade stick

But GAF....what is the hardest shmup? Totally a subjective question I know but I love hearing what game just totally destroyed you and laughed while it did it. Because your "hardest shmup ever" might be someone elses "easy 1CC" and vise versa

 

[SF Kosmo]

Image Fight maybe.

 

[VGEsoterica]

Image Fight maybe.

Image Fight maybe.

thats why difficulty is so subjective...I did NOT find that too hard

 

[VGEsoterica]

I will say in the non bullet hell category R-Type Final gives me a hard time too

 

[SF Kosmo]

I still have nightmares about the later stages of the original Aleste/Power Strike on SMS. I get murked pretty quick in the second loop of arcade Fantasy Zone as well but I dunno if you're counting loops.

 

[VGEsoterica]

I still have nightmares about the later stages of the original Aleste/Power Strike on SMS. I get murked pretty quick in the second loop of arcade Fantasy Zone as well but I dunno if you're counting loops.

oh if we are getting into SECOND LOOPS then the most difficult game could be a LOT of things lol

 

[Holammer]

Not a big fan of Crimzon Clover, only played it for some two hours. I prefer the older "boomer shooters" like R-type or Raiden where you don't navigate a maze of bullets.

Touhou 15 is the most difficult one I know. The series is already famously difficult as it is, but Zun (the creator of the series) wanted to spice it up and was inspired by IWBTG, so the game tries to kill the player constantly, but there are plenty of checkpoints & respawns are quick.
There's even a lore explanation/excuse behind the unfair difficulty.

 

[RaduN]

Mushihimesama Futari Ultra mode, is imo the hardest. Also ironically, level 1 is probably the hardest level (not talking bosses).

 

[anthony2690]

Pink sweets.
I really wanted to love this game on the muchi muchi pork and pink sweets compilation on Xbox 360.

But I hate it, it just seems unfairly hard.

And I'm pretty it's only possible to 1cc by breaking the game with the infinite lives cheat during stage 3.




I liked muchi muchi pork though, but dropping £150 for the LE at launch on playasia was a bitter pill to swallow when I realised I don't like pink sweets at all

& Like all the other cave games more than muchi muchi pork too XD

Fun fact, the breast size of your characters on MMP determines how fast or slow your character moves.

 

[Impotaku]

Crimzon is tough but not unforgivingly hard unless you are playing on unlimited although i have the most fun in arrange unlimited mode but while it seems impossible to not take hits in the hardest modes there's always a way through it's like an insane puzzle game. My fave shmup on switch to be honest thousands of bullets & powerups flying about and it keeps running like a dream not like a cave slideshow. As for hardest i have ever played not sure if crimzon is at the top there are way harder shmups than that.

 

[fart town usa]

Salamanderz kicked my ass last night. Granted, it was the first time I've ever played it but man, that game got brutal with a quickness. Losing your powerups and being slow as hell, not to mention that it has horizontal stages and I've always found horizontal shmups to be way more difficult than vertical.

Radiant Silvergun is brutal too cause I've never quite wrapped my head around the gun system and which one you should be using.

Strikers 1945 II was also pretty tough but mostly because the hitbox seems big and the bullets can be hard to see.