World's Greatest Shmup Player Competition Debuts
May 18, 2007 5:48 AM | Simon Carless
At the shooter oasis that is Shoot The Core, Posty has revealed the first annual World's Greatest Shmup Player Tournament, which "...will be held on June 9th and 10th as part of the Midwest Gaming Classic at The Olympia Resort Center in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin." Dude, Oconomowoc!
Anyhow, this actually sounds like fun: "This tournament, co-sponsored by Twin Galaxies, Shoot The Core and the GOAT Store, LLC, will be held to declare the best overall shmup (or "shoot em up") player in the world! [The tournament] combines many of the best games in the genre into a unique challenge designed to put the skills of players to the test in a way which has never been attempted in a traditional video game tournament."
The only slightly odd thing, as far as I can see, is the organizers won't tell you what games are being prepared, beforehand - so you basically have to 'know' all shooters to some degree, a rough task when a lot of them are fairly memorization-based! But if you can master them, that's why you're the World's Greatest, I guess.
[There's more info on the Midwest Gaming Classic events available, incidentally - the Midwest Pinball Tournament is also taking place there, and yes, there are women's and kids' versions of the shooter tournament too. Wacky.]
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5 Comments
i'm trying to come up with the appropriate scathingly sarcastic comment about how insane and ridiculous gender segregation in a videogame competition is (it probably would have begun with "oh boy!"), but i'm just too stunned. i suppose i can add that i would kick all their asses at shooting games.
and that "shmup" is an awful word.
dessgeega | May 18, 2007 8:59 AM
Better provide some free transport for the bullet hell psychos in Japan or the whole thing is a sham. :)
Goosey | May 18, 2007 10:04 AM
I'm claiming "Bullet Hell Psychos From Japan" as the title of my next band/album/movie.
packratshow | May 18, 2007 1:46 PM
The term "shmup," as far as I can tell, originated from the website shmups.com, and if not there then from reviews in old Eurogaming magazines.
Anyway, this is a class of game that I am resolutely not too interested in, precisely -because- of the memorization. Defender was insanely difficult and immune to such things, and a lot of Zanac's coolness comes expressly from its dynamically-changing gameplay. Making the player memorize patterns just to survive is bad design, end of line.
John H. | May 18, 2007 5:19 PM
I'm undoubtedly one of the worst shooter players....
And I don't mind the word "shmup", only because it's less tiring to type out, or say.
Although I also use the term scrolling shooter. :3
Meg | December 26, 2008 9:24 PM