Lttp: Shmups

S

scitek

Member
So I was reading GAF and saw some people raving about Lords of Thunder and I decided to give it a try. Well, I just beat the game, and holy shit, it was awesome. I've always seen these games, most memorably our local movie theater had one of the Raiden games for years before removing it, and I've always had a casual liking of them, but now I'm seeing how unappreciated the entire genre is. There's just something about these games. They're simple to grasp, yet complex, and difficult to master, and when you do master them, you feel a real sense of accomplishment.

So GAF, enlighten me further. These are the games I've recently picked up and am in the process of learning to play, but I can only really take one at a time, and a couple are just ungodly hard for me at this stage.

Lords of Thunder <3

Gradius III, IV, and V

Ikaruga


And I saw one at a local Gamestop for $5 called Xyanide for the Xbox, was that one any good?

What other games should I give a try? Currently, I'm trying to make it through Gradius V, but it gets hard on the 4th level. I can make it to the boss of the second level without dying, though. :P
 
The most important question is what systems do you have access to? Obviously the PS2/Wii/Gamecube, but can you play imports? What about any older systems like the Dreamcast or Saturn?
 
XBLA
Ikaruga and Omega Five ^_^

They also have Gradius Collection for the PSP, haven't given it a try though yet
 
I have a PS2, Wii/GCN, Xbox, PS3, Saturn, Genesis, and can get a Dreamcast for $40 from a local shop, which might be a worthy investment.

My Xbox is hacked and can play emus, but I prefer owning the original games and systems they were originally made for. (I even saw the SegaCD port of Lords of Thunder, and it looked and sounded less than stellar.)
 
Wii has some good stuff available.

Castle of Shikigami 3 - bullet hell with silly anime characters and nonsense dialogue.

Blast Works - essentially a remake of Tumiki fights, endlessly customizable with user created DLC, also contains the original Tumiki Fighters, rRootage, Torus Trooper and Gunroar.

Star Soldier R - WiiWare title, only two levels, focused on high-score, much fun for the OCD crowd.

Plus tons of VC stuff of varying quality.
 
R-type 1, or 3 (haven't played much of 2). They are both on VC and are INCREDIBLE. The depth you have isn't quite realized until a bit later in the game. They have this buddy/shield mechanic that is ridiculous. You can have him just out there shooting things, or you can call him in and attach to the front of your ship for an unlimited shield, or on the back (for the same purpose) and you can also shoot him out. Combine that with a charge shot and it's euphoric.

The pacing is also incredible. It's a bit slower than your average shooter, but that allows for such technical playing it almost feels like a strategy game at times. When you first start the speed power up almost feels too fast, but once you get good enough it's a must grab.

I'm not the best shooter player, but R-type as blown every other shooter I've played out of the water. Here's some videos.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=XW9yToxzzKQ
http://youtube.com/watch?v=j2m_3izyYoA
http://youtube.com/watch?v=X8I6KfwNvFA

it's kind of hard to find videos where people don't rape the game.
 
Gaiares is one I've always had fun with. The Guardian Legend is part shmup. part Zelda-ish adventure game, and all awesome. Blazing Lazers is another one I've always liked. Einhander is kickass if you can find a copy.
 
Xexyz is half shmup, half platformer - alternating back and forth.

Xyanide is more a rail shooter in the vein of the free roaming stuff they did in some of the star fox games. I've played the demo and it's good (and I'll be getting it), but it's not a shmup.

Dodonpachi is pretty awesome:
dodonpwnage.gif


p.s.: gradius V lovin' in the house:

gradius5_pwnedatar.gif


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uUzWsfRrzc (Boss Parade 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR2ZFLJhcsQ (Boss Parade 2)
 
How the fuck do you shoot a blast like that in Gradius V?


I'd recommend R-Type Delta on Ps1. If you can find one that is...
 
I don't think anyone has mentioned the Thunder Force series yet. II-IV are great with IV being exceptional. They are availible for the Genesis and the Saturn. The fourth game was released under the name Lightning Force for the Genesis I think. They were also collected and released as the Thunder Force Gold Packs for the Sega Saturn. These are supposed to be the best ports as they eliminate the slowdown that was present in the Genesis versions.

You mentioned you could get a Dreamcast fairly easily. There are plenty of shooters for both the Dreamcast and the Saturn. They are mainly imports though, and many are quite expensive. A lot of the games people are mentioning in this thread would fall into this category. The dreamcast has a list of very impressive and fun shooters but since you're just getting into the genre you might want to stay away from that sort of investment until later.

Here are some from the last/current generation that are fairly easy to track down and won't bore a hole in your wallet.

R-Type Final - PS2 - It's a horizontal shooter like Gradius.
Raiden III - PS2 - Vertical Shooter
Ikaruga - XBLA - One of the best shooters from a studio called Treasure. They were responsible for Gradius V. You mentioned you already had this, but it's worth repeating for other people who are reading this thread. It's only $10 on Live Arcade and is a great shooter, but some people say it's a little too complex for beginers.
 
I would think Cave shmups and other bullet hell games are probably a little heavy for the OP at this early stage in his shmup career.

I'd recommend Gradius and R-Type in the horizontal genre; Gradius 1 may be the best introduction, but Gradius V (PS2) and Gaiden (PS1) are the best in the series.

Vertical shmups, I would recommend Raiden games, particularly, and Ikaruga.
 
KENTA CHO.

Freeware PC shmup genius. Know him and love him, for he is the king of that scene.
 
I love the original R-Type. The arcade is the best and there's a near-perfect port for PS1 in R-Types (R-Type , R-Type II). The PC-Engine / TurboGrafx-16 is an exellent port even though its not arcade perfect. Hudson added an exclusive boss to stage 7 which is not in the arcade/MAME or PS1 versions, but of course you can experience this version on Wii VC.


Thunder Force III is my all-time favorite shmup, it's the king! Perfect in every way. It was so good, it was ported from home to arcade (now how often does THAT happen?). although the arcade version, Thunder Force AC, was somewhat different, they took out several levels and added several new ones plus one level from TFII.

I also love R-Type 4 on the NEO-GEO ....ahem, excuse me, I mean Pulstar.
 
I strongly recommend you check out Compile shooters, as they were pretty much in a class of their own as far as I'm concerned. Zanac, Guardian Legend, Gun Nac on the NES, Power Strike 1 and 2 for the Master System, Blazing Lazers on TurboGrafx, M.U.S.H.A on the Genesis, Robo Alesete on the Sega CD, and (my personal favorite) Space Megaforce on the SNES are all top-shelf shooters and represent the very best of what the genre has to offer.

http://hg101.classicgaming.gamespy.com/aleste/compile.htm
 
Any Twinbee games are awesome, but definitely try Pop'n Twinbee for SNES. It's my fave shmup ever. Usually pretty cheap on ebay, too.
 
There are some good recommendations in this thread but I'll add a few more you'll probably enjoy :D

For Wii (VC):
-Axelay (Snes)
-Gate of Thunder (TG16)

PS2 (and1):
-Einhander (ps1)
-Gaiaseed (import ps1 + expensive)
-Harmful Park (import ps1 + expensive)
-Psikyo collections (import ps2)
-Raiden III (ps2)

Dreamcast:
-Mars Matrix
-Gigawing 1 & 2
 
I think it counts as a shooter, but whatever... Bangai-O on the Dreamcast is fucking wonderful. One of my favourite games of all time. There's a DS version coming out shortly that isn't the same, but has similar mechanics... having not played it I can't really comment, having played the DC version to death I can say that you don't really need any games other than this.
 
http://www.shmups.com

The best console shmups site on the net I know of.

Wii Virtual Console has a lot of shmups now, that's definitely the first place to look. It has some of the greats. NES, SNES, Genesis, Turbografx, Turbo-CD...

The Gamecube just has Ikaruga and Chaos Field unless you can play imports, in which case there's also Radirgy (Radio Allergy, Rajiruji, whatever). Ikaruga is one of the best shmups ever, though, so it's an absolute must-own, either on Dreamcast (Japanese import), Gamecube, or Xbox 360 Live Arcade.

Genesis: Lots of great shmups! Some of the best are imports (the best of which are VERY expensive), but the US had some good ones. Thunder Force II, Thunder Force III, and Lightening Force should be at the top of the list, but don't ignore other titles like Bio-Hazard Battle, Trouble Shooters, MUSHA, Gaiares, Phelios, etc. The top import titles are Gleylancer, Eliminate Down ($$$$$! And rare, too.), and Twinkle Tale (technically not a shmup because it's not autoscrolling, but close enough).

Sub-Terrania isn't quite a shmup, but it is fantastic, and is probably the best Solar Jetman-style game ever.

If you've also got a Sega CD, get Robo Aleste, Silpheed, and Keio Flying Squadron. All three are great, perhaps fantastic. The 32X has Zaxxon's Motherbase 2000 and Kolibri, which are both okay and worth getting for 32X owners, given how few games the system has. 3d shooting games like Space Harrier and Shadow Squadron are the 32X's best, though.

PS2: It has a few released in the US... aside from stuff in the Midway, Namco, Tecmo, etc. collections, there's Gradius V, Gradius III & IV, Silpheed: The Lost Planet, Mobile Light Force 2 (Castle Shikigami 1), Castle of Shikigami 2, Raiden III, and a few more. Heavenly Guardian is shmupish too.

PS1 has some great ones here, too... R-Type Delta, Strikers 1945, Starfighter Sanvein, Mobile Light Force (Gunbird is still good, even this messed up), PhiloSoma (those longboxes are cool... :)), In the Hunt, Einhander, Space Shot (super low budget game complete with subtitled Japanese voice acted CG cutscenes between levels... short and average, but entertaining), etc... some good stuff there, even without imports.

You mentioned you could get a Dreamcast fairly easily. There are plenty of shooters for both the Dreamcast and the Saturn. They are mainly imports though, and many are quite expensive. A lot of the games people are mentioning in this thread would fall into this category. The dreamcast has a list of very impressive and fun shooters but since you're just getting into the genre you might want to stay away from that sort of investment until later.
Click to expand...

Dreamcast is great, but yeah, there were only four US-released shmups on it -- Mars Matrix, Gunbird 2, Giga Wing, and Giga Wing 2. All four are good, though, and Bangai-oh! is also of course fantastic. There are a lot more great ones among the imports... it's worth getting.

As for Saturn, it has only like three US-released shmups. In the Hunt, Layer Section, Darius Gaiden (fixed)... that's it. All of the system's other like sixty shmups are imports, and the better ones get expensive.

Oh, and Xexyz (along with other NES shmups like Gradius, Life Force, The Guardian Legend, Zanac, Gun Nac, Image Fight, etc) are great, but aside from the ones on VC, the OP said he doesn't have a NES. NES Gradius should be a must-buy on the VC though, along with Gradius III for SNES, Zanac, Axelay, all three R-Type games (particularly the first and third), at least one of the two Turbografx Star Soldier games, Gate of Thunder, etc.

flintstryker said:
and try overkill i fucking loved that game back in the days though i never got very far.
Click to expand...

Great game! The shareware is like one level, but it's very hard to finish... awesome though. My favorite DOS shmup is Raptor, but Tyrian, Overkill, Major Stryker, Highway Hunter, Stargunner, and others are great games.
 
A Black Falcon said:
As for Saturn, it has ... G-Darius
Click to expand...
You mean Darius Gaiden.

Speaking of G-Darius; it's a really good shooter but the PS1 version is fundamentally worthless with the amount of slowdown it has compared to the arcade version. Fortunately the PS2 Taito collections have both of these Darius games. They're worth getting.
Stike said:
Super Stardust HD.

Cant believe anybody mentioned it yet.
Click to expand...
It's technically not a shooter among the genre that's otherwise being discussed. Good game, but it's really not a "shooter" for as much the same reason Robotron or Asteroids isn't, in this case.
 
Just got lucky today picking up a dreamcast at a thrift store for 10 dollars wondering if it works or not since it didn't come with cables.:lol Though if it does luckily, I'll finally get to try Mars Matrix. I'm a shmups freak now so Gradius Collection is my current favorite with G-darius, Ikaruga, and Shikigami 2 also up there. Plus uh, those awesome Treasure games are they worth buying import ps2 for?
 
I'm sort of late to the party too. Castle of Shikigami III is SWEET! Also enjoying Gradius III and Ikaruga, but I like Castle of Shikigami the best of those. It's the only "bullet hell" i've played though, so maybe that's why.
 
HAL_Laboratory said:
You mean a side-scrolling shooter? What the fuck is "shmup"?
Click to expand...
The word that now has to be used when discussing a horizontal/vertical arcade shooter since the word "shooter" has been usurped by the FPS genre.
 
There is an avalanche of high quality PC shmups still being released in Japan. They were listed from A-Z on a website but I forgot the URL.
 
dog$ said:
The word that now has to be used when discussing a horizontal/vertical arcade shooter since the word "shooter" has been usurped by the FPS genre.
Click to expand...

grrrrrr, They'll always be "shooters" to me.

Anyway, I personally learned all my shooter skills from Zanac, and I always suggest it first. It's reaction based as opposed to memorization (like R-type or Gradius)
 
dog$ said:
You mean Darius Gaiden.

]Speaking of G-Darius; it's a really good shooter but the PS1 version is fundamentally worthless with the amount of slowdown it has compared to the arcade version. Fortunately the PS2 Taito collections have both of these Darius games. They're worth getting.It's technically not a shooter among the genre that's otherwise being discussed. Good game, but it's really not a "shooter" for as much the same reason Robotron or Asteroids isn't, in this case.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I forgot which is which. G-Darius is on PSX, Darius Gaiden on Saturn and PC. PSX also, but only in Japan... but I remember seeing the PC version, being mostly a PC gamer at the time.

There's also Darius games on SNES (Darius Twin and Super Nova (Darius Force), both US-released), Genesis (Sagaia (Darius II), US released), Turbografx (two games, Japan only), Turbo CD (two games, again Japan only), PS2 (in collection), etc... long series.

SapientWolf said:
There is an avalanche of high quality PC shmups still being released in Japan. They were listed from A-Z on a website but I forgot the URL.
Click to expand...

http://shootthecore.moonpod.com/ ?
 
There are TONS of awesome shooters that hit the PC-Engine/CD-ROM.


Many will crush a newb, but Lords of Thunder isn't particularly difficult (at least compared to its prequel).













BTW - thread = bookmarked!
 
dog$ said:
The word that now has to be used when discussing a horizontal/vertical arcade shooter since the word "shooter" has been usurped by the FPS genre.
Click to expand...

And it's something I'll never get over either.

Stop saying "shmups" please. I'd like to reclaim the word "shooter" in my lifetime.
 
A Black Falcon said:
As for Saturn, it has only like three US-released shmups. In the Hunt, Layer Section, G-Darius... that's it. All of the system's other like sixty shmups are imports, and the better ones get expensive.
Click to expand...
How could I have forgotten this awesome shooter. BTW, I'd recommend the PS port. I remember reading that the Saturn version was inferior / had issues.
 
_dementia said:
It is, no?
Click to expand...
On the Japanese PSN store... perhaps? Or did I miss the announcement where they are actually putting a PS1 game on the US store besides Crash Bandicoot, Cool Boarders and SotN?
 
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