Gonna hold a contest/tournament to give away some Steam keys

[Squire Grooktook]

So I've been saving up Steam keys that I don't want/already have from bundles and whatnot, and figured I'd hold some kind of contest or tournament to give them away.

Games I got

Spoiler

Steam:

Space Pirates and Zombies
Aura: Fate of Ages
Pain Killer Redemption
FTL: Faster Than Light
Trine 2: Complete Story
Mark of The Ninja
Eets Munchies
FEZ
Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken
A Virus Named Tom
Limbo
Bastion
Satazius
Gorky 17
Two Worlds II
Darkest Hour: A Hearts of Iron Game
Naval War - Arctic Circle
The Binding of Isaac
VVVVVV

Desura:

Reflex
Roaming Fortress
Eryi's Action

A lot of you probably already have a lot of these games, but if you missed some of the bundles maybe not. Not to mention a lot of these come with trading cards.

I was thinking I'd either have a fighting game contest or a bullet hell shmup scoring contest. I've put it to a vote and so far I've gotten two votes for bullet hell, which I'm kind of leaning towards myself since some people I know don't know how to play fighters. I'd like to hear what people here would prefer also.

Furthermore if it is bullet hell, how would people feel about it being for a higher difficulty or normal mode? On one hand I think games like Touhou or Cho Ren Sha 68k are more fun on the harder difficulties, but some people are less experienced and have trouble with easy mode, so I don't want to make it too intimidating.

 

[Genericaster]

What would the vidya choices be for each option? I'm assuming that the PC would be the default platform for your contestournament.

I mean, I personally do not have very nice things to say about bullet-hell shooters, so I'd most likely just choose the fightans option by default, but still.

 

[Squire Grooktook]

What would the vidya choices be for each option? I'm assuming that the PC would be the default platform for your contestournament.

For both genres, I'm mostly thinking of games that are simple and easy to pick up and play, since a lot of my friends are newbies to the genres (part of the reason I wanted to do this). And yeah pc for emulators/freeware(ish).

Fighters:

Spoiler

Samurai Showdown 1 or 2

Probably what I'm leaning towards most heavily at the moment. Simple but deep gameplay, some fun party elements, cool theme and ideas.


Last Blade 2

Maybe a bit more advanced than the above, but I think some people will really dig the swordplay.


Marvel Super Heroes and MVC1

Because most of my friends probably won't be able to do the infinites lol. That and the gameplay is still pretty damn fluid.


Fighters History Dynamite: Karnov's Revenge

Awesome cult classic SF2 style fighter. Diverse and fun to play characters, simple and easy to pick up and play but teaches great fundamentals, great pacing to matches.


Super Gem Fighters Mini mix

Simple party fighter but plays enough like a fighter and is pretty fun.


Stuff that I'm leaning away from:


Super Turbo

Because everyone will just pick Ryu.


Vampire Savior

It's fast and fluid but I think it takes some execution and getting used to the system to really understand that, otherwise it feels clunky if your a newcomer.

Shmups

Spoiler

Dodonpachi

The very first "true" bullet hell shooter, the one that invented and than popularized the sub-genre. It's not hard to understand why it was voted best shmup of all time 5 years in a row. The level design is amazing, the mechanics are simple to grasp but deep as hell, the sprite work is colorful, the cheesy heavy metal soundtrack is awesome, and all and all it feels like a great balance between old school and more modern design sensibilities.


Cho Ren Sha 68k

Often touted as a bullet hell shooter that feels more like an "old school" shooter. It has some dense and crazy patterns, but generally encourages you to stay mobile and be dashing all over the place rather than micro dodging through tiny gaps. The scoring system is incredibly simple and intuitive (kill all the enemies and grab all the power ups, you'll get more points for picking up power ups if you're not getting hit) but takes a lot of real skill to master. Hard mode also adds a lot of randomness to enemy behavior that makes the game very twitchy and reflex focused.


Touhou: Mountain of Faith

Probably the simplest scoring system of all the Touhou games, and also has all the things to love about the series (creative enemies, rng heavy bullet patterns, tight difficulty but gives you a lot of resources). While death can be very punishing, playing safe and good dodging fundamentals can keep you alive for a VERY long time.


Eden's Aegis

Pretty high quality Cave style freeware shmup. Scoring is like a simplified Esp Ra.De (kill enemies with your secondary power to transform their bullets into score items).


Esp Galuda

The only shmup with a scoring system based on gender bending. It's a bit easier early on, which might be preferable for newcomers, and the bullet time mechanic is a really cool way to plan ahead for stuff or bail you out of tough situations. The difficulty spike on the final boss though is AWESOME.

I mean, I personally do not have very nice things to say about bullet-hell shooters, so I'd most likely just choose the fightans option by default, but still.

You are a terrible person and you just made yourself a powerful enemy.





*EDIT*

Also one of my friend suggested hosting a tournament for both and splitting the game rewards. I had thought of that myself but forgot, so I added it to the poll.

 

[Verstande]

So are you making a tournament in SG or what? I don't understand what you're doing here.

 

[Squire Grooktook]

So are you making a tournament in SG or what? I don't understand what you're doing here.

If I was doing SG this wouldn't be in general game discussion lol.

I would do SG but a lot of my friends don't have it. As I said in the op and some of the replies, I want to host either a fighting game tournament (I listed a few games I might pick) or a scoring contest (listed a few options there too) for games that are easily obtainable (playable online on ggpo/supercade or easily available due to freeware or emulation). Winner gets the steam keys. I can't decide which genre between the two so I'm putting it to a vote (keep in mind though that some of my friends from off site have also placed some votes, so the poll here might not reflect that).

 

[Vadsamoht]

If some of your friends are good at fighters, and others are good at bullet hell shooters, then why not choose a type of game that is completely new to both?

 

[RexLeRouge]

I was gonna vote for shmups only, and then I saw that you put Pocket fighters...
So I voted both. Why not run a Touhou fighter tournament?

 

[Squire Grooktook]

If some of your friends are good at fighters, and others are good at bullet hell shooters, then why not choose a type of game that is completely new to both?

Actually most of them are not good at either lol

I was gonna vote for shmups only, and then I saw that you put Pocket fighters...
So I voted both. Why not run a Touhou fighter tournament?

I personally don't like the Touhou fighters. Iamp is okay, but I'm not really into it.

 

[RexLeRouge]

I personally don't like the Touhou fighters. Iamp is okay, but I'm not really into it.

Me neither. I like them, but I would choose vsav or pocket fighter 100x other them.

 

[Pfantzypantz]

This seems like it could be some nice casual fun, I'd probably join up if fighting game gets chosen, as I'm the stinky at shmups

 

[Vadsamoht]

One other thing, if it's some sort of high-score competition then you won't run into issues with people's connections.

 

[Squire Grooktook]

Keep in mind I still have 3 votes from people off site, so the poll here might not reflect the final result.

One other thing, if it's some sort of high-score competition then you won't run into issues with people's connections.

Yeah, that's a plus. Otherwise if it's a fighter this will probably be done on either Supercade or GGPO, whichever is preferential to most people.

Also how would people feel about saying screw the poll and go with the "both" option? My main reason for not springing for that at first was because I was unsure of how to split the games.

 

[Sanger Zonvolt]

Sounds fun, I'll play in whatever in chosen.

 

[Pfantzypantz]

Both would prolly be best, so that more people could participate.