I’ve come to love the genre these last years, what with AAA going more and more towards so many systems and subsystems and bloat. Shmups are simple to pick up, hard to master, fat-free, aka the best form of video game there is.
Ikaruga is the one I spent the most time on. I was obsessed with the game, for a while I was number one on the local official GameCube online ranking (but of course there were better players, it’s just they didn’t play on GC or didn’t bother to register their scores). The game is a masterpiece, every frame of it is carefully designed. The music, the bullets, every enemy wave is in synch to make up this perfect puzzle shooter. This is game design at its finest.
Mushihimesama is another masterpiece of a game. The very premise of a shooter set in the world of bugs is incredible, but the realization… wow. Everything in the game is insane - the sprites, the colors, the details, the setpieces.
Lords/Winds of Thunder is a criminally forgotten game. Very hard but not ludicrously so, very creative, absolutely relentless but always rewarding. The soundtrack is totally crazy, too.
Thunderforce is a great series altogether, but I have a soft spot for the first game. It’s available on the Switch and it’s fantastic. The best thing about it is probably that it’s perfectly balanced - I wish Konami could make their shooters like this. The absurd difficulty is why no Gradius game will make my list, even if they’re spectacular.
On the PC-Engine, Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire is another forgotten gem. The game does crazy things for the hardware it runs on, and it’s phenomenal.