Anecdotally, my performance at shmups* became a lot better when I learned two simple ideas: watch my ship and the bullet patterns so I can dodge between them, a

Anecdotally, my performance at shmups* became a lot better when I learned two simple ideas: watch my ship and the bullet patterns so I can dodge between them, and don't worry about precision firing. My original instinct had me looking pretty much everywhere BUT my ship and the bullets approaching it. Or more succinctly: be where the bullets are not. Get that down and the rest is just finesse. Ultimately I layered more complicated information acquisition strategies on top of this; my eyes constantly jump around the screen, to get a quick check on where enemies and power ups are, upcoming terrain, etc, but I still spend a lot of time watching a small zone around my ship. Modern "bulletstorm" shmups also involve a lot of me chunking stuff together: big enemies will often spit out huge arcs of bullets, that initially cluster together as a big arc of death, but slowly spread out into something you can pass through. Similarly, small enemies may come in groups, which I sometimes think of as single entities. * a contraction of "shoot 'em up"; 2d games where you control a small, fragile spaceship. Scramble, R-Type, and Ikaruga are all good examples.