PEG's video: Kyukyoku Tiger Arcade - Full Run 1-ALL Clear 2 694 850 Pts

Full run of the first loop of Kyuukyoku Tiger / Ultimate Tiger (究極タイガー), known as Twin Cobra outside of Japan, is the 4th shmup developed by Toaplan. Stage Listing: 00:00 - Intro / Stage 1 04:37 - Stage 2 08:51 - Stage 3 13:03 - Stage 4 18:04 - Stage 5 22:59 - Stage 6 28:37 - Stage 7 33:11 - Stage 8 37:41 - Stage 9 41:50 - Stage 10 48:06 - Final Boss 53:03 - 2-1 58:49 - 2-2 Kyukyoku Tiger is the game where I think Toaplan really started to up their game and establish the legendary shmup formula they are known for today. It's builds on previous titles such as Tiger-Heli and Flying Shark and delivers a more refined gaming experience all around, albeit with a higher difficulty than those games. This time you have 4 different weapons to choose from and must fight through 10 long levels all with end of stage bosses. Like previous Toaplan shmups, KyuKyoKu Tiger requires the player to form specific strategies to deal with certain situations you will encounter. Namely, the bosses are not really enemies you can just "cowboy dodge" your way through, as they have patterns that will kill you mercilessly if you don't have a solid plan. Dying in this game has some pretty harsh consequences, where you are stripped of all your powerups and sent back to the previous checkpoint. These checkpoints range from fairly doable to incredibly brutal, especially the ones near the end of the game. It helps to have an actually recovery plan in place if you die in some of these more nasty checkpoints. In this run I was killed near the end of the first loop and usually that is a game over. Fortunately for me, this had happened before in previous runs and I had prepared for it. I devised a way to get back into a place where I could take out the final boss without just relying on insane dodging. Essentially it involves "cashing in" several lives in order to backtrack through previous checkpoints to a point where I could get enough powerups and the yellow weapon in order to take on the final boss with an actual change of winning. Watch stage 10 in the replay if you want to see how this is done. Speaking of the final boss, I hate to inform you but the scoring in this game is busted. The final boss has no timeout you can sit there forever with the yellow weapon and farm points indefinitely. I avoided doing this and instead just tried to kill it without taking a stray bullet, so I was perhaps a little too careful there, but I didn't want to drop this run like I had some of the previous ones. KyuKyoKu Tiger is a classic Toaplan game that inspired much more popular games like Raiden, so if you are a fan of that style of gameplay definitely check it out.