Arcane Arcade Knowledge/ Secret Shmup Writ

Because I live on the other side of the galaxy (Australia), I'm still waiting for my copy of the Retro Gamer Magazine with the M2 interview, so I'm filling the time by rereading Will Freeman's (@spadgy_OTA) previous piece on DoDonPachi.

In looking at this again I think about how much I would have appreciated this as a first time player (i remember figuring out for myself the shot laser thing back at the beginning :| ), and also just how arcane and particular the intricacies of these games are with no real clear way to find out about them. They are like such locked boxes that we slowly have to tease the truth from. While, yes, I did derive some joy out of slowly piecing these things together from a host of different sources (as well as repeated play to get a tacit understanding), in the end I think I'm a bit jealous of those who have started their shmup journey with this piece.

_DYR