It's impossible to top the ambidextrous Ikaruga video we posted last week; that guy instantly made every other SHMUP video irrelevant until someone figures out a way to beat one with his crotch.

But this more boring Ikaruga vid of a SHMUP master beating it on hard sort of emphasizes something that I've noticed before: although SHMUPs tend to be brutally difficult, if not impossible to beat for the average gamer, the masters make it so easy as they just park their ships in that one pixel window that allows them to destroy the next wave without dying.

I love SHMUPs almost theoretically: the freneticism gets my heart raging like no other type of game, even as I find myself hurtling controllers around and screaming at the top of my lungs in frustration at some arbitrary design cheapness. Playing the average SHMUP is like dating some extraordinarily cruel, obnoxious woman whom you are nevertheless attracted to for those very qualities: you can't figure out if you love or hate her, and have no idea whether you want to caress her or just run before she beats the crap out of you. Florian Eckhardt

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