Electric Underground Podcast

Are Fighting Games Improving? EVO 2023 Extensive Discussion with Quash (Guilty Gear XX Player). In today's epic video, Quash and I discuss the past, present, and future of fighting games, leading up to our thoughts on EVO 2023. And for the first time in a long time, I'm actually interested and excited to watch it this year. As of late I have been playing a lot more Tekken and Virtua Fighter, but I'm also interested in a lot of games being played. We go over our thoughts an avalanche of topics, such as: The decline and future of 3D fighting games, Sales vs Tournament entries, Steam Charts vs Tournament entries, the homogenization of game mechanics, the importance of netcode for upcoming pro players, sluggish UI Design, the issues with online Matchmaking, the function of rank modes and why they need fixed, Differences in perception in JP and NA scenes, is the EVO gladiator format still the best, or should they start to look more into leagues? The Final Year of Tekken 7, should Marvel happen every year, the sleeping giant that is the Street Fighter IP, the uncertain fate of Project L, the importance of graphical presentation, my love and concern for Virtua Fighter and Dead or Alive, and so much more. The games and tournaments we discussed are: Street Fighter 6 - 7k entrants Guilty Gear -Strive- 2.4k entrants Mortal Kombat 11: Ultimate - 449 entrants Tekken 7 - 1.5k entrants The King of Fighters XV - 666 entrants Melty Blood: Type Lumina - 554 entrants Dragon Ball FighterZ - 838 entrants Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 - 1.3k entrants

Shmups VS Speedrunning, Natural Vs. Fan-Made Meta | Ft. @neoxaquas . Today's topic has been a subject that has fascinated me for a long time, the difference between shmup scoreplay meta and speedrunning time meta. What's interesting is that for a long time, I've heard speedrunners talk about scoreplay in the tone of an outdated style of competitive design. Like if you watch the history of speedrunning video by Karl Jobst, he describes score play as essentially the ooze from which the glory of speedrunning was born. This makes some sense if you only look at speedrunning from their community perspective. However, over the years I have become more skeptical of community / fan made meta (see my discussion of the subject with the Crimson Blur about Melee) and in today's video I am joined by Aquas who is the perfect guest on the topic as he has world records in both speedrunning and shmup score play (a rare accomplishment!). We cover a variety of fun topics, including his world record progression in Pink Sweets, and the heart of the conversation for me is what are the strengths and weaknesses of fan-made meta, like speedrunning, and what are the strengths and weaknesses of natural built in meta like scoreplay. In the end, I find that I greatly prefer the natural meta of scoreplay (and fighting game tournament play) because it is less arbitrary and prone to manipulation from fellow players and outside forces (besides the developer). However, this doesn't mean that I don't think speedrunning in itself isn't a cool idea, and I even offer what I think is the best solution for the issue in the form of what M2 Shottriggers have been doing with their shmup ports. Imagine if Nintendo actually put some care into their wave of ports and re-releases, and included speedrunning modes and leader boards in their ports. Also I love that Aquas brought up how heavily nostalgia plays into a speedrun game's popularity, because there are tons of speedruns that I think could be fascinating (Dead to Rights Super Cop), but sadly the non-nostalgic games tend to be extremely under-explored. That being said, there are also issues that can rise up from relying solely on the natural meta of a game, like Battle Garegga and its infinite milk, so again I think this is where having robust ports with patches really smooths out a lot of issues, other wise competitive score play is going to rely very heavily on replay analysis and community leader boards and we've seen enough "I GOT A CHEATED RUN PAST THE MODS!" vids for a lifetime.

JRPG Is NOT Discrimination and Why Genre Terms Matter (NOT POLITICAL). All bad ideas seem to spring from RPGs, am I right ;-) Today I am discussing this viral topic of how Game Journalists are pushing for the genre term "JRPG" to be discontinued and why I think this phenomenon is happening. Additionally, I am making this video because I do think that accurate and objective genre terms are really important for communication, review, discussion, and especially discovery. Genre is how most players find new games that they like, and that having a natural network of games that share a core design is EXTREMELY important, no matter what my fellow hipster millennials say about living in a post genre world. So I am making this video because I find discussions of genre really interesting and how this trend of making regional based discussion of games some kind of taboo is very short-sighted and ultimately pointless. Also I explain that the term JRPG is not purely a regional description, it is an artistic movement just like German Expressionism. So a developer who is not from Japan can also make a JRPG, and a Japanese developer can make a western role playing game as well, it's about design composition, not nationality. Once again this whole discussion is mostly about giving people who consider themselves industry insiders some kind of artificial authority and credibility without having to discuss games and their actual game play mechanics or design.

The History Of Beat Em' Ups - Part 2 (AVP Invented Character Action). The extensive history of one the greatest video game genres, Beat em' Ups, continues with our expert guest Kriegor! And we tackle the 90's golden era titles! In today's video we talk about the golden era of the genre (in my opinion) and we even see the birth of the mechanics and design that would go on to define "character action" and action rpg games like Dark Souls, Ninja Gaiden, Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, Godhand, Resident Evil 4, and so many more! What's great about today's discussion is that we are not just giving out release dates and behinds the scenes facts, what we are doing is heavily diving into the design and mechanics of the games and tracing the genre's design philosophy and evolution over the years, which I find deeply fascinating. If you are a fan of action games, character action, beat em' ups, and gaming I think this vid has a lot of fantastic insights that even I didn't know until talking to Kriegor.

UNPROFITABLE CONTENT: Why CAVE Doesn't Make Arcade Shoot Em' Ups Anymore :-( Today I am digging into a question that has come up ever since I began playing shoot em' ups (shmups) as to how CAVE went from the "most prolific" shooter developer of all time (according to Guinness World Records) to a studio that hasn't made a new arcade game in the past decade. It's going to be a very long, depressing, and interesting journey and today I am doing my best to sort through all the public information I can come across. Most of the data is from financial reports that CAVE make to their shareholders, but I also dug through VGcharts to see the sales data of the Xbox 360 era releases (a high point in most bullet hell players minds). ONE IMPORTANT NOTE is that I do not claim that the information we review in this analysis is 100% accurate. @boghogstg and I did our best to sort through and analyze all the scattered information we could, but these reports are very difficult to interpret and then there could be all these crazy unknown factors that we aren't even aware of. However, I did do the best I could to cross verify the information we came to with stock value data and so forth. So if you watch this video and have more accurate information, please post in the comments and I'm going to make a pinned comments that compiles all updated info. For those new to CAVE, their famous games include: Dodonpachi, Guwange, Ketsui, Deathsmiles, Mushihimesama, Futari, Esp. Ra. De., Espgaluda, Dangun Feveron, Progear, Akai Katana, SaiDaiOujou, DaiOuJou, Dodonpachi Ressurection, and many more! Same CAVE didn't follow a touhou model, but that's the topic of another video. Link to raw data: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BPKoII4JKHGMlpAPkDHInKEsEbxZWot1

You are NOT Too OLD to Play Difficult Games! Ever since I have started this channel and have covered difficult arcade genres like Shoot Em' Ups (shmups), Beat Em' Ups, Fighting Games, and Run N' Guns, I often notice in the comments section that many people will say that they can appreciate the difficulty and challenge of these video games, but sadly the are just TOO OLD to be able to keep up with them. Reaction times are often cited in these comments as well. In today's video I wanted to engage in a bit of a rant/pep talk with this mentality because I do not think it is actually accurate. Skill in these genres comes from many different areas such as visualization, mental planning, the ability to think abstractly, practice, experience, the study of routes and mechanics, and the development of automatic responses that don't require "frame perfect" execution. It is my hope that this video will help players who are stuggling against the difficulty walls of these genres break through them and enjoy the purest experience that these games have to offer. If you enjoy this topic and want to learn more, but sure to check out my "How to Shmup" tutorial series in the playlist.

The History of Beat Em' Ups (Part 1 - The Pre-Final Fight Era  1980-1989). Beat Em' Ups is one of my favorite genres of gaming.  However, the history of this arcade staple isn't really widely known or  discussed. Today I am joined by Kriegor, a man who knows a ton about the  genre's history in detail, and we go through the first era Beat Em Ups,  the Pre-Final Fight Era. We have termed this era "Pre-Final Fight"  becuase, as we discuss at the end of the video, this Capcom classic  CHANGED EVERYTHING. Which is crazy to think about how important Capcom  is for the arcade genres. Not only did they define the fighting game  genre with Street Fighter 2, but they also defined the Beat Em' Up  formula with Final Fight 1. The games we discuss in this episode are:  Samuraï, Swashbuckler, Spartan X, Nekketsu Koha Kunio-Kun, Double  Dragon, The Ninja Warriors, P.O.W.: Prisoners of War, Ninja Gaiden,  Golden Axe, Dynasty Wars, River City Randsom, Teenage Mutant Ninja  Turtles, Crime Fighters, and FINAL FIGHT! I'm not sure how many of these are availible on modern consoles like  Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox, or Steam (PC), but I imagine a good  many :-) I know Final Fight is in the Capcom Beat Em' Up Collection,  which is pretty sweet!

What is a Shoot Em' Up? Defining the Genre with Shmup Junkie. This video  has literally been years in the making. As much as we all the love  Shoot Em' Up (shmup, STG) genre, what's embarrassing is that, up to this  point, over all these decades, there has never been a solid criteria or  definition of what a shmup even is. For a genre that is so fundamental  you'd think this would have been established by now, but due to the  nature of online discourse, this question has never been resolved. Over  the years, I have worked on what I think are the 3 criteria of what I  believe consitute a shmup, and in today's video I explain these criteria  and run them by fellow youtuber, Shmup Junkie, to hear his reaction and  thoughts. We not only talk about shmups, but also related genres like  run n' gun, rail shooter, gallery shooter, first person shooter (fps),  third person shooter, single screen games, metal slug, contra,  platformers, twin stick shooters, Star Fox, Doom, and many more! I think  we have a fantastic discussion and I do think this is one of the most  important episode of The Electric Underground :-) I am now going to list  off some algorthym tags: Nintendo Switch, Steam, Bullet Hell, PS4. PS5,  Xbox, PC, Indie, Hidden Gem, Sega, CAVE, Touhou, Battle Garegga,  Longplay, 1cc, Podcast.

Fight N' Rage Developer Interview! The Creation of the Best Modern Beat  Em' Up! I'm very excited for today's guest, Sebagames, the developer of  Fight N' Rage, my favorite Beat Em' Up of all time! In today's episode  we discuss the history of the game, his story and motivation to get such  a massive undertaking completed as a solo developer, and of course the  possibility of a sequel and what the developers thoughts are on his  "creative crisis" in regards to making a follow up. We also discuss  classic arcade based design, such as Fight N' Rage, Alien Versus  Predator, Final Fight verus the modern simon says style design of  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shredder's Revenge, River City Girls, Scott  Pilgram, and these types of games. Another aspect of the episode is  talking about how insperational the story of Fight N' Rage can be for  other indie developers, but how often the stories of indie devs are  overlooked in favor of older studios like Square and their tale of  creating Final Fantasy. Fight N' Rage at the time of this recording is  on massive sale and I strongly strongly recommend picking it up on  Steam, Good Old Games, Nintendo Switch, PS4/PS5, Xbox and wherever else  the game pops up.

True Last Boss - Amazing or Awful? A Shoot Em' Up (Shmup) Debate. True  Last Boss, the TLB, they are a signature aspect of shoot em' up, shmup,  design. Are they fair? Are they outdated and stealing your money? should  they be mandatory? Should they be optional? What about TLB's appearing  in other genres? Should Super Mario have a true last boss (giga Bowser).  What about secret super bosses in RPGs? Today the crew gets back  together and Aktane, Boghog, and myself debate this idea. It was a  really fun conversation and definitely subscribe to Aktane's channel and  check out Boghog's upcoming shmup, Gunvein! It's going to be great 😃

The discussion of how massive and omnipresent the tactic of nostalgia in  today's video games and film is a common topic. Very few would deny how  potent nostalgia is and how companies will not hesitate to use it. In  today's video though, I want to go beyond the usual conversation of the  behavior of the studios and companies (the suppliers) and instead focus  my attention on the consumers of nostalgia. Why is it so compelling to  us? How has it become so pervasive in all of our media? And analyze why I  believe the millenial mind (I am one myself) is espcially supseptible  to the powr of nostalgia and how we can bend ourselves into logic  pretzles to both justify nostalgic pandering and deny it at the same  time. I also go over how I think this addiction to nostalgia has altered  our current artsist practices and why everything these days seems to be  a copy of a copy.

Are Shoot Em' Ups Worth Full Price? What Makes Video Games Valuable? Videocast Discussion w/ Aktane! With massively popular games coming out right now like Elden Ring (and other Dark Souls like games) the question of how much a video game is worth, especially for older genres like Shoot Em' Ups or other arcade games, is coming up more and more. In a mainstream audience's eyes, its hard to deny that a genre like shmup is often considered less valuable then a massive sprawling RPG like Elden Ring of Final Fantasy 7 Remake. So today, among many other topics, Aktane and I discuss what type of content could be added to modern shmup releases to increase their value and what is particularly appealing to newer players!

Schildmaid MX Developers Interview! New Indie Shmup Podcast! Today on  the podcast (videocast) I sit down with the developers of the new indie  shmup Schildmaid MX! In this episode we talk about the history of the  game, the journey of the indie game makers, discuss the process of  releasing an indie shoot em' up in the year 2022, the infamous barrel  roll, releasing on itch.io, developing with Unity, publishing on  Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox, Steam, and even more in depth topics too.  Going over my review, we also share our thoughts on gameplay mechanics  like aspect ratio, bullet canceling, rank, and scoring! 

You can buy the game on Itch.io (which I think pairs very well with  playnite): https://hitp-studio.itch.io/schildmaid-mx 

Background music and game ost by Ed Tremblay of Bullet Heaven: https://mudprintsmusic.bandcamp.com/album/schildmaid-mx-original-soundtrack

FRESH PERSPECTIVE! Shoot Em' Up Discussion With A New Player, RJB! In  today's episode of the Electric Underground Videocast I discuss the  genre with a new a player, RJB, to get a fresh perspective on shmups and  to hear his feedback on what ideas and elements of the genre are  currently connecting with new players. I really enjoyed the discussion a  lot and learned quiet a bit about what elements of the genre we can  market research and work towards finding wider appeal. It definitely  sounds like the Nintendo Switch, Crimzon Clover World Explosion, CAVE,  bullet hell, the PS4, and multiplayer shmups are routes worth exploring  in the future. We also talk about game journalism, arcade sticks,  controllers, shoot em' up reviews, game length, roguelikes, audience  expectation, and the different Magic the Gathering player types and how  they would apply to shmups. RJB also did seem to really connect with my  idea of bringing Guilty Gear style graphics to bullet hell (come on  Platinum, that's what the people want).

Shoot Em' Up Youtubers Unite! An Honest Discussion of the Ups and Downs  of Shmups On Youtube. In today's episode of the show (with video!), I am  joined by Shmup Junkie and Ed Tremblay of Studio Mudprints to catch up  on how they have been doing and to talk about our experiences with  making content around the best but extremely niche video game genre,  shoot em' ups (shmups). Topics of today's show include our thoughts on  mini consoles like the PC Engine mini, the ethics of being a fair  reviewer without selling out, the difficulty of getting an initial  audience, the catch 22 of not doing the same style of content too much,  but being punished when trying something new. We also cover our personal  highlight and lowlights and some really cool upcoming projects! 

Subscribe to Shmup Junkie: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb6Y45xtdYojo2-x9LHI8mQ 

Subscribe to Bullet Heaven: https://www.youtube.com/c/StudioMudprints 

Music From Ed's Shieldmaiden MX Ultra Arrange: https://mudprintsmusic.bandcamp.com/album/schildmaid-mx-ultra-arrange

Ketsui World Record Interview with Moglar5K, Featuring Jaimers! Earlier this year a speedrunning content creator, fireb0rn, made a video about Moglar5k being a speedrunning child prodigy and changing how Hollow Knight's speedrun is played. After Hollow Knight and speedrunning, Moglar5k then proceeded deep into the arcade genre of shoot em' ups (shump) and after years of practice, innovation, and grinding, broke the World Record for one of the best and most challenging shmups ever made, Ketsui. Moglar5k is one of the most talented gamer I have ever seen and one of the very few non-Japanese players to hold a world record in a CAVE game, especially a game like Ketsui which has an insane scoring history that has been pushed by the greatest players of all time. In today's interview, Jaimers (another very accomplished shmup player), Moglar, and myself discuss Ketsui as a scoring game and go over Moglar's amazing rise from fresh new face a few years ago, to one of the greatest shmups players active right now.  Also, if you want more history on Moglar's journey, there is another episode of the podcast from a few years ago where he, Kiwi, and myself talk about talent in the genre:

Dodonpachi SaiDaiOuJou World Record Interview! Questions For a CAVE Superplayer! In today's video I speak with Kayar, a world record holder for Dodonpachi SDOJ! In the interview we talk about his recent superplay and his history as a player. Like his first 1cc, his beginnnings as a touhou

Shmups On A Speedrunning Podcast! Mark Joins the FrameSavers to Discuss the Dodonpachi Score Glitch! Back from the vaccuum of the internet, I am happy to present an episode of my favorite speedrunning podcast, The Frame Savers, where I am a guest and try my best to introduce the infamous Dodonpachi Score Glitch and the competative shmup score scene to a speedrunning audience. This episode was recorded about two years ago, but was not online that long as the host podcast, The Frame Savers, got cancelled shortly after the episode aired. Rather then letting the ep fall into the void of the web, however, I have been given permission to re-upload and present it to my audience :-) I've also done a bit of remastering on the audio side of things. ENJOY!

Part 2! Electric Underground Podcast: Inside Japanese Arcades with TwilightEX. In this episode of the podcast TwilightEX and I discuss the Japanese arcade scene and I try to learn more about what the social environment in Japan is like.

Surprise!! As a new perk for my Patrons I have decided that I will release the audio for new Electric Underground Podcast Episodes early, since there is usually a delay between when I finish the audio and have the video ready to upload :-) This video will premier at the end of shmup kumite as a surprise, so keep it on the down low ha ;-)

Cheers!

August 1st is now officially Shmup Day! Today the Shmup Wiki, Hall of Records, Shmup Leaderboard, and Calice Cup are all announced! In this episode, I talk with Plasmo (Shmup Historian) and Queen Charlene (Creator of Shmup Wiki) about these new projects, their potential to grow the genre, and what the future holds for the genre!

Check out the Shmups Wiki:

shmups.wiki/library/Main_Page

Hall of Records:

shmups.wiki/library/STG_Hall_of_Records

Shmup Open Leaderboard:

electricunderground.io/shmup-leaderb…d-philosophy/

Calice Cup:

calice.snowcrash.fun/tournaments/

Also, if you enjoyed this podcast I now have a weekly exclusive Patreon podcast called 7th Day Electric :-)

Patreon

www.patreon.com/electricunderground

Website:

electricunderground.io/

Twitch:

www.twitch.tv/the_electric_underground

STG Revision 2020 Discord:

discord.gg/snRueeH

In this second part of the episode, we talk about the  topic of Japanese world record verification and the future of world  records and score keeping. We also talk some trash on Twin Galaxies  (which is always fun). We talk about our issues with TG's ignoring of  Japanese world records, being generally shady, and their current silly  record submission practices (which Pearl had a delightful experience  with).

Tracks:
1 = OC Remix, Temple of Life, from Life Force
2= Shrine of Farewell from Hellsinker (Mario Paint Remix)
3= Ojamajo DoReMi (Mario Paint Remix)
4=Fly me to the Moon (from Eva)

speedrunning.

Tracks:
Opening = Swans: Mother of the World
2nd = Bomberman 64: Second Attack Metal cover by ToxicEternity
3rd = Lower Nofair Metal Cover by Steamage (I learned to play this on guitar in highschool, ha)
Closing = Super Mario RPG, Battle with Smithy metal cover byRichaadEB

A really fun episode with fellow Shmup Slam Co-Host, KZ the Kusoplayer.   In this episode we talk about the struggles of being midtier players  and  the scene's tendency to only pay attention to top tier level play.  We  also talk about the grind, getting into scoring versus survival  only,  and other attitudes we've run up against.
I'm super proud of how this episode turned out, so please check it out.

Today the podcast is graced by Frenetic, a co-founder of  STG Weekly, contributing member of the overall scene, shmup evangelist,  and awesome host of many shmup-meetups over the years.

We talk  about the start of STG Weekly, his history with the genre, the Cali  arcade scene, as well as some ideas for hustling shmups to a wider  audience. We also discuss my idea for a shmup meetup for next year:  Shmup Invasion 2020.

A crazy huge episode. 

Topics Covered:

-EUP Discord Closed

-Greatest Shmups of All Time List

-Why community matters with guests Dingo and Shoryusatsu

Much  love for all the members of my discord, the whole thing was so much  fun! Also, my infinite apologies to Dingo and Shoryusatsu for their  episode getting caught in development hell.

In 1876 Leo Tolstoy published War and Peace.

In January of 2019 Softdrink and Mark MSX recorded a 2018 Shmup year in review episode and talked about Everything. 

Seriously though, I think this is a killer episode and huge thanks to Softdrink for being such an awesome guest.

twitter.com/Softdrink_117