There's a Fine Line Between Rookie and Pro in Sine Mora

I never heard of this game.

EDIT: Fucking finally!

Hoorah

@AlexanderSheen said:

I never heard of this game.

EDIT: Fucking finally!

NVM... comment weirdness...

It's the Wild Wild West

This looks pretty great.

Robotic tentacles!

Is this really all MGS is up to?

Insane difficulty just looks like standard fare for a bullet hell shooter.

@Mumrik said:

@AlexanderSheen said:

I never heard of this game.

EDIT: Fucking finally!

Finally first?

Yes.

Coming soon... the game's already not living up to its title.

the graphics were impressive

@giant_frying_pan said:

Insane difficulty just looks like standard fare for a bullet hell shooter.

If even that. I would hate to know what Ikagaru is classified as if we use this scale.

Damn, I'm down for this. Do your thing, Grasshopper, we love you.

That screen shake effect every time you kill an enemy is nauseating.

@giant_frying_pan said:

Insane difficulty just looks like standard fare for a bullet hell shooter.

A genre that's pretty much impenetrable for most people who haven't been keeping up with shoot 'em ups over the years.

I had some mad hype going into this trailer until I saw that it was going to be X-Box Live exclusive. Be that as it is, it will probably be a year or LONGER until I even get a chance to play this. Thanks, Microsoft. Ass. :(

@giant_frying_pan said:

Insane difficulty just looks like standard fare for a bullet hell shooter.

No kidding. "Normal" looks like what I would expect for a "Beginner" difficulty on a bullet hell game.

It's a bullet-hell. You added more bullets in the hard mode :I
 
"Rebooting the genre"? Fuckin come on guys. Rebooting the genre would be adding in new mechanics, throwing out the spiral of glowy pellets n makin it feel tactile and like things have weight, or maybe adding in some RPG elements, or blending it with a beat-em-up, or giving it fun interesting characters or SOMETHING. This is just a bullet hell shooter.
There's a million things that tentacle eye-monster could've done, and spawning a big circle of orange dots was the least interesting.

@I_smell said:

It's a bullet-hell. You added more bullets in the hard mode :I "Rebooting the genre"? Fuckin come on guys.

Maybe someone can correct us, but don't contemporary shoot 'em ups already do this?

Also:

If someone's going to make a shmup with an "insane" difficulty, they at least should make it insane.

Maybe what they meant by 'rebooting the genre' is that the ships aren't creepy anime lolis.

@giant_frying_pan said:

Insane difficulty just looks like standard fare for a bullet hell shooter.

yea, Insane doesn't look that insane to me. maybe that one boss battle but kinda tame compared to CAVE games.

If by rebooting the genre they mean throwing more money at it and replacing trigger-happy music with stock chill-out lounge crap then sure.

Rated M for language - Wonder if that means its rated M from the language coming out of your mouth when you play it on insane!

@I_smell said:

It's a bullet-hell. You added more bullets in the hard mode :I "Rebooting the genre"? Fuckin come on guys. Rebooting the genre would be adding in new mechanics, throwing out the spiral of glowy pellets n makin it feel tactile and like things have weight, or maybe adding in some RPG elements, or blending it with a beat-em-up, or giving it fun interesting characters or SOMETHING. This is just a bullet hell shooter. There's a million things that tentacle eye-monster could've done, and spawning a big circle of orange dots was the least interesting.

Well, Sine Mora is not a bullet-hell. What you don't see in the trailer, is the timer - our "insane" is first and foremost insane because of the tension added by the shorter time limit / countdown. You need to be precise to gain time (from shooting down the enemies), while dodging the bullets.

And for the reboot ... yes, it is a new type of shmup: there will be a deep storyline with "interesting characters" (as you wish), and this timer mechanics is also a new, fresh idea in a shmup genre. Check their facebook page, and you can see the characters and more additional infos. https://www.facebook.com/sinemoragame

Jamestown already accomplished this in a better way by having more than just normal and hard difficulties, allowing casual players to gradually increase the challenge and get good at the game as it went on.

And just for the record, here's the "How to play" document for Sine Mora:

BASICS

Sine Mora is a horizontal side-scrolling shooter, a so called shoot'em up (STG). The player's airplane is viewed from the side and the stages are presented in cross-section, so the airplane appears to be flying through the backgrounds. The scrolling in the game is continuous, such that the player is led through a stage by the game.

On occasions there is also a degree of freedom, when the player can move up or down on the playing area, which can be taller than the screen. The focus is almost entirely on annihilation of the various enemy units. Also, the player must navigate through the environment, as invariably contact with the various background elements results in the death of or damage to the player's airplane.

Most importantly, Sine Mora is a shooting game with time extension based progress.

GAME SYSTEM

Shoot down enemies to add time to the counter. If you get hit or collide, you receive a time penalty. Each stage has several checkpoints, where the timer is reset – your time mass will be stabilized. Your goal is always to get to the next checkpoint.

You are able to upgrade your primary weapon in 9 steps. Primary weapon upgrades are permanent.

Use your sub-weapon to damage particularly strong enemies. It can be also very useful to control the chaos surrounding you, but always keep in mind: your sub-weapon stock is limited.

Use time manipulating capsules to your advantage: Story mode is limited to the Speed Up capsule, which slows down the time around you for a short while. Arcade Mode adds variation with two additional capsule types. In each mode, your capsule pool is limited.

Pick up the floating power-up tokens. These can upgrade your primary weapon, replenish your sub-weapon stock and capsule pool or have other useful purposes.

ADVANCED

Arcade mode has an additional game element: the Rank System.

Player rank is indicated below the score counter on the HUD. There are three different ranks: C, B and A. Every new play session starts with a C rank and playing through the game will slowly raise the rank to B then A automatically.

The player is also able to speed up the rank change by various actions (holding the fire button, picking up specific power-up tokens, etc). Enemy resistance is more fierce on a higher rank: they release more bullets which can reach the player much quicker.

If the player is using a sub-weapon, a capsule or is hit, the rank meter will drop down a bit. However, the more time you spend on a higher rank, the more bonus score you'll receive at the end of the stage.

SCORING

Each enemy destroyed will reward the player with score. Remaining time at the checkpoints is also converted.

If the achieved score is higher than the player's previous score, it will be uploaded to the respective leaderboard.

Consecutive kills can raise the score multiplier. This multiplier is nullified if the player decides to use a sub-weapon, a capsule or is hit by enemy fire.

Players are also able to collect score tokens during the game and build up a token-chain, as the value of these tokens will raise upon successful collection. If a floating score token is missed (the token permanently leaves the screen), the chain will broke – the next token that appears will have the minimal value again.

Additional – bonus – score can be gained at the end of the stages, based on player performance (hit ratio, number of hits taken, etc).

GAME MODES

STORY MODE

Play through the story from the beginning to the end. Finishing every stage on Challenging difficulty unlocks an alternative narration and a chance to see the true ending. You are also able to start the game from any previously unlocked stage and continue to the end from that point.

On Normal difficulty, initially you have 8 chances to continue.

On Challenging difficulty, initially you have 5 chances to continue.

ARCADE MODE

Play the game from the beginning to the end. This game mode is focused on action – the story-related cutscenes are not included.

On both selectable difficulties you have only 3 chances to continue.

SCORE ATTACK

Tailored for short play – you are able to select any previously unlocked stage in this mode. When finishing a stage, you do not proceed to the next stage. Also, you are not able to continue after death.

BOSS TRAINING

You are able to practice previously encountered boss enemies in this mode.

Continue stock is unlimited.

Source: http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?p=758196#p758196

Rebooting the genre might have been a little much.. at least for what was shown in this video. On the surface it looks like any other shooter ever, only with better production behind it.

@shmupfan: Thanks for the detailed breakdown. This game already looked good to me, now I want it all the more.

How cow, this game is gorgeous!

Lines like those are what put me in rehab.

"Rebooting the genre?" what a completely douchy thing to say.

#1 vertical shmups are better

#2 insane mode looks like a hard mode at most .. no suicide bullets ?

#3 progear did this better

Wh... why is this game rated M?

Actually, don't tell me, I'd rather be surprised

Steam powered. Fuck yeah!

Those're some hellish bullets there, yessiree.

@AngriGhandi: Maybe they slip some gonads into the levels, R-Type style

goddamn it.. was hoping for psn

This looks so normal for a Grasshopper Manufacture game.

I dont see any rebooting going on here.

This looks good.....loved the music and the backgrounds.

Rebooting the genre is, I guess, because they tried to make the game more accessible to those that don't use to play this type of games, while keeping it challenging for the usual gamers.

It's a way to say: "we made it more casual friendly to try to get some sales more".

I never liked this type of games, though. I'd rather play ace combat 6, and I don't even like that game either.

@envane said:

#1 vertical shmups are better

#2 insane mode looks like a hard mode at most .. no suicide bullets ?

#3 progear did this better

On #1: I tend to agree (not sure why this is, but yeah), but this is a home release, so a horizontal works better for your average 16:9 TV.

As for rebooting the genre, and the whole time element thing: so, it's like Kenta Cho's Torus Trooper, only not completely batshit insane and from a different angle? Seems cool, not sure it's "rebooting" or anything. Most shmup's have a good hook (Espgaluda has the trance thing, Ikaruga has the colors, Tumiki Fighters has the Katamari element and I guess Mushihimesama's thing is the batshit insanity level of explosions?), and time's the hook in this one. But hey, I'll give it a shot I guess.

Didn't it look more like a standard "hard" than a Japanese shooter insane?

"Insane" difficulty actually looks pretty tame.

Rebooting the genre is, I guess, because they tried to make the game more accessible to those that don't use to play this type of games, while keeping it challenging for the usual gamers.

The weirdest thing is the M for language.

@MrSpoon: Goddamn I want to watch me some Airwolf now.

I want hear this games M rated language.