[AC] Pilot Kids - 2-ALL Clear - 6,980,400 Pts (Emma)

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The most unknown, underplayed and underrated Psikyo game.

Pilot Kids is one of the more mysterious arcade shmups.
Despite being a Psikyo arcade game from 1999, there is basically zero information about this game on the internet. There was zero footage of the 2nd loop, zero information on how to score this and BOS's 1-ALL survival clear was basically the only video for this game for years.
Every other Psikyo game is extremely popular and extremely well documented, so you can imagine this being very odd.

Part of this might be because it's not supported in Mame, so there was no accessible way to play this or practice this. You could play this in a separate Model 2 hardware emulator that supported it, but save states didn't work for it. Since entering the 2nd loop requires a 1cc and there are no continues in the 2nd loop, it was extremely hard to make progress in this in the traditional sense.

It wasn't until Pearl found out earlier this year that save states actually worked on an OLDER version of the M2 emulator that the floodgates were really opened and people could start labbing and practicing all kinds of strats. The savestates are a bit janky, but it was actually possible to see the entire game now and learn it.

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Like I said, Pilot Kids came out in arcades in 1999 and was made by Psikyo, one of the most prolific developers of arcade shmups at the time, with all of their games still being timeless classics to today.
This is one of the two shmups they made for the SEGA Model 2 arcade hardware, the other one being Zero Gunner 1.
The SEGA Model 2 is pretty fascinating in its own right in that only a handful of games were ever made for it, it was abandoned very quickly in favor of the NAOMI hardware that was taking the industry by storm by the time that came out.

Pilot Kids is interesting because it's basically Psikyo's RayStorm with a Toy Story aesthetic, with mechanics very differently from their other games.
It also has by far the most involved scoring system they ever made. There is an ocean of depth here compared to their other games, where most of the score in those mostly came from survival. Here you need to do all sorts of crazy mechanical setups to increase your score. There is also a Dangun Feveron element where more enemies spawn the faster you killed the previous wave.

It's also very clearly an unfinished game, that you can probably tell by taking one look at the 2nd loop. Psikyo kinda saw the writing on the wall with the Model 2, so they just quickly finished what they had and moved on.

The game has 2 main shots and 2 secret ones.
What's really wild here is that each shot has their own unique special shot and means of scoring, with different max multipliers for each. Basically every shot is a completely different game with a completely different scoring system and it's bonkers.
The unlock condition for the secret characters is also one of the most hilarious things I've seen.
Pearl made a good video documenting these, do check it out:    • Pilot Kids - Psikyo's most well kept ...  

Emma's special shot is being able to make webs by locking onto enemies.
The more enemies in the web when you destroy it, the higher the score multiplier to a max of x24.
Emma also has by far the highest DPS in the game if you pointblank and mash locks for the RayStorm full-lock explosion, making her the easiest to 2-ALL the game with.

The game is very hard like any Psikyo arcade game, but this is probably still one of the easier Psikyo 2-ALL's once you know what to do? It's very short at least.
The hardest part is just that you get no extends and no bombs. Dying in the wrong place (anything past 1-7), is usually an instant game over as well (if you die in the 2nd loop you never get full power back, which is kind of an issue).
The rank in this is also pretty insane, it gets unmanageably high over time and drops like a brick when you die. You basically need to suicide once in 1-7 to keep the game possible. Boss health scales a lot with rank, so the 2nd loop bosses to have like twice as much health if you no-miss to that point.
Having to suicide in a game that only gives you 2 lives...

I've also made a video of how to deal with the 2nd loop in a more survival focused way:    • Pilot Kids - 2nd Loop Survival Focused  

00:00 - Intro
00:48 - Stage 1-1 - Dad's Room
02:15 - Stage 1-2 - Emma's Room
03:44 - Stage 1-3 - Jef's Room
05:33 - Stage 1-4 - Bathroom
07:19 - Stage 1-5 - Garden
08:59 - Stage 1-6 - Upper Floor
10:30 - Stage 1-7 - A loft...
13:43 - Stage 2-1 - Dad's Room
14:28 - Stage 2-2 - Emma's Room
14:59 - Stage 2-3 - Jef's Room
15:59 - Stage 2-4 - Bathroom
16:55 - Stage 2-5 - Garden
17:52 - Stage 2-6 - Upper Floor
18:24 - Stage 2-7 - A loft...

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