I know the title of my blog seems to indicate that you should never, I say, EVER continue whenever you play an arcade shooter. Of course you shouldn't! At least if you want it to count. You should only be playing on one credit, only. The score you end that credit on is YOUR score! That simple number is your accumulated accomplishment, and given if the game had a fair scoring system, it's something that you should be proud of. It's like leaving behind your own legacy. When you continue, that score resets, but you're given more lives. But still, that score you've put in no longer exists. The games that suck don't reset the scores after you continue, because that would make having a score pointless.
EOJ, a very skilled player over on his blog at
Danmaku Dreams, recently posted a very interesting tidbit on Japanese Pro players. They do continue! But only for practice:
So what's so bad with continuing in an arcade game? Nothing really. The top players and the mediocre players alike continue to practice the later levels of games in one sitting. It maximizes your time, and in Japan, most people have little time to waste. So it only makes sense.Of course, once a Japanese player gets good enough, they won't need to continue to practice later levels as much, and that's when they start score-attacking, and posting scores. So they continue in order to practice, but always submit scores acheived on 1 credit (as you all should!). Sounds like a time-effective way to improve your strats and reach a good score, doesn't it? Especially if the game doesn't have a home port with a practice mode to practice on at home.-----
I'm the type of guy who feels like slapping someone's wrist whenever they're reaching over to add more credits to continue, so reading this was interesting to me. I see it this way because from where I come from, I've heard and read from too many people who badmouth shooting games as these short, easy-as-pie games you can beat in twenty minutes that offer no replay value whatsoever. Whatever. These people lose all of their lives in the first level and "credit-feed" their way to the end and throw their hands up in the air and go, "That's it?" It's those people I dedicate my credit-Nazism to, and hopefully by now they are a shrinking minority.
Hell, I use savestates all of the time on MAME to practice bosses and later levels. I never count the score of course. I would continue for practice if I died in the heat of the moment and wanted to go on to see the end, but I would never count that as an official run.
Obviously this "never continue" mindset is detrimental when taken too far, since it can suck out the full enjoyment of a game. A shooter is a short game anyway; it represents an unfolding narrative canvas with a beginning and end (for the most part). Since I never continue, I rarely--if ever--see my main characters survive to the very end, victorious from having faced insurmountable odds. Instead, I am always met with a crushing defeat every single day whenever I fail to beat it on one credit. That must accumulate to a very bleak, hopeless, and self-defeating outlook on life.
New High Score: 7.833.550 - Stage 4 - Bolt/Nail
