Shmups Are The Best Genre You Don’t Play

There's a windows version of the Cho Ren Sha 68k (超連射68k) and it was updated a few days ago. The previous update was 8 years ago from what I can gather.
VG Estoterica made a video about it recently.



yosshin4004.github.io

超連射68k

yosshin4004.github.io

via gamespark
 

Compile Heart and M2 shoot 'em up titled Zaleste for PS/NS.

Zanac x Aleste collaboration.

https://www.gematsu.com/2025/01/compile-heart-and-m2-shoot-em-up-titled-zaleste

Compile-Heart-M2-Title_01-29-25-768x432.jpg
 
Couple of new switch shmups incoming

New cotton game using the reboot name again
www.gematsu.com

Cotton Reboot! High Tension! debut trailer, details, and screenshots

BEEP has released the first trailer, information, and screenshots for side-scrolling shoot ’em up and Cotton Reboot! sequel Cotton Reboot! High Tension!
www.gematsu.com www.gematsu.com

Also another shikhondo game too, I enjoyed the first one. Love youkai themed stuff. Weird that there's a Japanese switch physical this time as the first game only got an Asian physical release, in japan it was a digital only release.
www.gematsu.com

Shikhondo: Youkai Rampage coming to Switch on May 29

Publisher CFK and developer DeerFarm will release a Switch version of shoot ’em up game Shikhondo: Youkai Rampage on May 29, the companies announced.
www.gematsu.com www.gematsu.com
 
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IAmRei said:
bullet hell is part of it. there is shmups that focus on obstacle such as gradius and R-type. then faster bullet and encounter design such as Raiden 1 - 5 or Raystorm or 1999 strikers. annd then Bullet hell, which is explain themselves.
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What are "obstacle" shooters called? Environment shmups?
 
Anthony Soprano said:
What are the best multiplayer shmups for playing simultaneously?
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If you like bullet hell, pretty much all of the Cave shooters have 2P. I'm personally a huge fan of Espgaluda II.
 
Anthony Soprano said:
Can this be emulated?
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Yeah, there are a lot on 360, which you can emulate with Xenia. A few of them are also available on Steam.

Check out Espgaluda II, DoDonPachi Resurrection, DoDonPachi SaiDaiOuJou, and DeathSmiles. They all should be easy to emulate with Xenia, though I've never personally done it.
 
Looks like amazon jp already has preorder up for the new cotton and shikhondo

Cotton regular edition

Special edition box set

shikhondo regular edition

shikhondo Special edition box set
https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/%E9%A3%9F%E9%AD%82%E5%BE%92%EF%BD%9E%E7%99%BE%E8%8A%B1%E5%A6%96%E4%B9%B1%EF%BD%9E-%E5%88%9D%E5%9B%9E%E9%99%90%E5%AE%9A%E7%89%88-Switch-%E3%80%90%E7%89%B9%E5%85%B8%E3%80%91%E6%8F%8F%E3%81%8D%E4%B8%8B%E3%82%8D%E3%81%97%E7%89%B9%E8%A3%BDBOX%E3%80%81%E8%A8%AD%E5%AE%9A%E8%B3%87%E6%96%99%E9%9B%86%E3%80%81%E3%82%AA%E3%83%AA%E3%82%B8%E3%83%8A%E3%83%AB%E3%82%B5%E3%82%A6%E3%83%B3%E3%83%89%E3%83%88%E3%83%A9%E3%83%83%E3%82%AF%E3%80%81%E3%82%B8%E3%82%AA%E3%83%A9%E3%83%9E%E3%82%A2%E3%82%AF%E3%83%AA%E3%83%AB%E3%82%B9%E3%82%BF%E3%83%B3%E3%83%89%E5%90%8C%E6%A2%B1-%E3%80%90%E5%88%9D%E5%9B%9E%E7%89%B9%E5%85%B8%E3%80%91%E9%A3%9F%E9%AD%82%E5%BE%92%EF%BC%92%EF%BC%88%E4%BB%AE%EF%BC%89%E5%85%88%E8%A1%8C%E4%BD%93%E9%A8%93%E7%89%88CD-%E5%90%8C%E6%A2%B1/dp/B0DV5F2ZQS/ref=pd_sbs_d_sccl_1_1/357-1851945-2878826?pd_rd_w=FFczv&content-id=amzn1.sym.dcca1cb7-d8ee-4f71-9db0-310358fcccf4&pf_rd_p=dcca1cb7-d8ee-4f71-9db0-310358fcccf4&pf_rd_r=H8EQQC2HS4TVJNDAJTNM&pd_rd_wg=6qvYJ&pd_rd_r=f3d5770d-514a-4ab4-bd4b-47664d46f645&pd_rd_i=B0DV5F2ZQS&psc=1
 
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You'd think shmups would have a revival like fighting games.. Considering in the arcade times, those that played fighting games would play shmups as pallet cleansers. Btw, Ubusana has been in development for 10 years now. Japan's duke nukem
 
John Bilbo said:


Releasing in a couple of days.



Earthion released recently. I've played a bit of it. It is great. Highly recommended.

Great year for shmups!
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Even though I haven't played it, it is fair to say Earthion is one of the greatest shoot-em-ups to have released in the past 30 + years....and that's no mean feat....
 
Getting earthion on payday Thursday.

Bummed it's PC only but it is what it is.
 
nocsi said:
You'd think shmups would have a revival like fighting games.. Considering in the arcade times, those that played fighting games would play shmups as pallet cleansers. Btw, Ubusana has been in development for 10 years now. Japan's duke nukem
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Fighting games have always had the competitive factor going for them.

Shmups are among the most hardcore of gameassgame genres out there, at least speaking to the direction they evolved.
 
Tourist here with question...

I've played a few hours of cotton 2 and I love how it's got some of those mechanics with the physicality to them. Like manipulating the bubbles/captured enemies.

But here's my choice: I could continue to enjoy the game blind and discover what I can for myself, or I could exhume a faq from 97 or whatever and learn how to actually use the mechanics up front. One one hand, I've been having fun doing it myself, but on the other hand I could just be delaying some great feeling of actually knowing what I'm doing.

Seems like either is fun and I could look up the faq any time so it's not much of a question at all, but any thoughts?

Just realized I hadn't tried reading the manual lol.
 
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Crayon said:
Tourist here with question...

I've played a few hours of cotton 2 and I love how it's got some of those mechanics with the physicality to them. Like manipulating the bubbles/captured enemies.

But here my choice: I could continue to enjoy the game blind and discover what I can for myself, or I could exhume a faq from 97 or whatever and learnn ow to actually use the mechanics up front. One one hand, I've been having fun doing it myself, but on the other hand I could just be delaying some great feeling of actually knowing what I'm doing.

Seems like either is fun and I could look up the faq any time so it's not much of a question at all, but any thoughts?

Just realized I hadn't tried reading the manual lol.
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Maybe you could try searching for a 1cc highscore replay to see someone else play it in their own way. You could pick up some ideas as how to play the game but you still would have to learn how to implement those ideas yourself.
 
John Bilbo said:
Maybe you could try searching for a 1cc highscore replay to see someone else play it in their own way. You could pick up some ideas as how to play the game but you still would have to learn how to implement those ideas yourself.
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Oh I actually did do that but I didn't want to see a master playthrough. I watched some more normal people playing for the highest fidelity time travel simulation lol. That's something that would have been naturally available if I was playing it back then. When in this thread, I'm coming at things 80% retro fan and 20% schmup fan.

Anyway, I did pick up a few things. Maybe I should venture up to the more advanced player's videos.
 
A genre I really wanted to get into but could never hack it. In fact I think the only shooter I ever liked was Biohazard Battle on the Megadrive a hundred years ago. Loved the weird soundtrack in particular.



This was pretty cool too though I gave up on it for some reason...



Are there any decent modern horizontal or vertical shooters that aren't insanely difficult and crucially, NOT bullet hell?
 
MrJangles said:
A genre I really wanted to get into but could never hack it. In fact I think the only shooter I ever liked was Biohazard Battle on the Megadrive a hundred years ago. Loved the weird soundtrack in particular.



This was pretty cool too though I gave up on it for some reason...



Are there any decent modern horizontal or vertical shooters that aren't insanely difficult and crucially, NOT bullet hell?
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I'm the same way. Besides almost exclusively playing older ones, I never made the jump to bullet hell. I should try it but it doesn't look appealing.

So I know what you mean where I prefer the games with a more classic, sparsely covered playfield.

Here's one for you:


It's not twin-stick, btw. You change the angle with a release and hold of the fire button.
 
MrJangles said:
A genre I really wanted to get into but could never hack it. In fact I think the only shooter I ever liked was Biohazard Battle on the Megadrive a hundred years ago. Loved the weird soundtrack in particular.
-snip-
Are there any decent modern horizontal or vertical shooters that aren't insanely difficult and crucially, NOT bullet hell?
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Here's a few old school style non-bullet hell games. Will remind you more of classics like Raiden, R-Type & Gradius. They are not pushovers and still require some learning by dying. Angerforce is modeled after games like Aerofighters and Gunbird. If it had a more colorful art direction it would have been perfect.


If you want something more relaxed, often sold at deep discounts.

 
Holammer said:
Here's a few old school style non-bullet hell games. Will remind you more of classics like Raiden, R-Type & Gradius. They are not pushovers and still require some learning by dying. Angerforce is modeled after games like Aerofighters and Gunbird. If it had a more colorful art direction it would have been perfect.


If you want something more relaxed, often sold at deep discounts.

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I recommend Andro Dunos 2 as well.
 
Just replayed Blazing Star, peak SNK sidescrolling shmup goodness. R-type Leo is really good too. Wish i could play bullet hells but i just get lost in the sauce. Viewpoint is about as hard as i can handle and thats an isometric shooter like Zaxxon on crack.
 


For people wanting to try and get into the genre I recommend videos like this one from The Electric Underground. He has a way of explaining the basics of shmups clearly.
 
I want to spread a bit of love for In The Hunt and Assault Plus. 2 Shmups that I think are great and are severely overlooked, because everyone nowdays is jerking off to Danmaku bullshit.


 
Hudo said:
I want to spread a bit of love for In The Hunt and Assault Plus. 2 Shmups that I think are great and are severely overlooked, because everyone nowdays is jerking off to Danmaku bullshit.


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In the hunt looks like R-type & Metal Slug had a baby. No surprise as Akio worked on both.

Time Rift Arcade has a lovely restoration of Assault.

 
Hudo said:
I want to spread a bit of love for In The Hunt and Assault Plus. 2 Shmups that I think are great and are severely overlooked, because everyone nowdays is jerking off to Danmaku bullshit.


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In the Hunt kicked my ass so hard. I couldn't make it past the first boss!
 
I just want the Parodius Collection to come to modern platforms and a physical release of DoDonPachi SaiDaiOuJou.
 

Has anyone tried Lilac 0 yet? Seems to be ZeroRanger influenced but with it's own twist.

I'll definitely pick it up at some point.
 
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