I haven't really been an active member at Gamespot in the past few years so I thought I should do a mini update on my profile, or something similar. I suppose my main reason for slowly fading away from the Gamespot scene was Palgn, a fantastic Aussie gamer forum. At the time I joined it was a rather small community and everyone knew eachother. Gamespot being the polar opposite having eleventy billion members, finding worthwhile members is a chore. I still lurk your blogs though so I haven't exactly lost touch where you guys are at.

Real life stuff isn't really that interesting to read on a gaming website so I won't bother going through everything that's happend in my life since my demise into obscurity!

Actually, the only thing I really want to talk about is my new ( well back in 2008 ) found love of Japanese shooters/ Shmups. I've had a Japanese Live account for years, mainly to download quirky gamerpics and such. Oneday a demo showed up of the marketplace, that being RAIDEN FIGHTERS ACES. I instantly fell inlove with it, at the time I had a high disposable income (was working fulltime & still living with my parents) So I headed over to playasia and imported at Japanese arcade 360 console along with a handful of games. At the time there was only 2 shmups avaliable RFA & Castle Shikigami 3, both fantastic games.


DoDonPachi

Since then the 360 has become the go-to console for import shmups, shmups in general actually. At first I thought it seemed expensive buying these games (since they mostly look like they belong on XBLA) I've come to realise though that these are upgraded version of the legit Arcade version. With unlimited replayability and the 'just-one-more-turn' factor some of these games have become my most played 360 games.

It was always a genre I've overlooked but it's now one of my favourites, at the very least I suggest checking out the Ikaruga and Triggerheart Excelica trials on the marketplace, who knows... you maybe become addicted like me. When you do get in the zone and start dodging the crazy number of bullets headed at your ship you really feel like a zen master.

If you do happen to own a NTSCJ 360 for whatever reason I suggest checking out the following games;

Raiden Fighters Aces
Castle Shikigami 3
Deathsmiles
Raiden IV
Shooting Love 200x
Otomedius G
Ketsui
Espgaluda II Black Label
DoDonPachi Black Label Extra
Mushihimesama Futari 1.5


*Castle Shikigami 3

Happy shooting, or not.

Until next time.