Shumps for the busy/grown gamer?

[ReaXan]

I was wondering people's opinions of Shumps?

As a guy who grew up on the Nintendo I really never liked them until the Dreamcast/PS2 era brought in alot of solid titles.

I would love to sit down and play an RPG, but lets face it, if your busy in life it doesnt make sense to play them unless you have some major downtime or are sick. Its a huge time investment you could afford more during childhood.

I like Shumps because they present a solid challenge but are easy to get the mechanics going.

Opinions?

[AB Positive]

I'm the same way - lately shootemups have been a better gaming setup as I can play for 20 min. then drop it and still feel like I got somewhere. Or, in the case of Ikaruga, hit 'continue' about 5 bajillion times on level three in 20 min. :P

[98PaceCar]

This is the exact reason I imported a JPN 360. I rarely have the chance to do much more than a half hour of gaming at one time, so between shmups and Guitar Hero, I'm pretty well covered.

I have been looking to expand my collection of shmups into the Genesis and SNES worlds. Any suggestions? I think the only ones I have are Zero Wing for the Genny and R-Type for the SNES. What should I be looking out for?

[fahlim003]

I'm the opposite, although I haven't changed so much. Back in the NES days I did like shooters but I just didn't get my hands on any of them and being a gamer who didn't have much preference pardon fun games I never really pursued them either. However, whenever I saw an arcade cabinet with a shooter or learned a friend of mine had a shooter for console I'd be there.

It wasn't until PS2 era I actually back into them, after joining shmups.com and from then on I've been regularly running and obtaining new shooters. They're good as it generally can take not too long to sit down for a couple runs but in many cases a lot of practice is required to do well, meaning tonnes of replay value down the road.

It's good to have an open mind for shooters, especially getting into the genre at this time, since the developers around now are much fewer and putting more titles so diversity isn't as great. My suggestion is to try a bit of everything and really see what you enjoy, and not much tailoring your preference to heavy influence and general popularity. You need not an NTSC-J 360 or a Sega Saturn to enjoy shooters, just MAME.

It took me at least 4 years of constant play and dozens of shooters to get to where I am now, at a point where I have a very good idea of the shooters I enjoy and 'why'. The why generally relates to the game-play which, mechanics aside, is quite a varied landscape for shooting games, especially over the last 10 years. I could suggest some titles but again, it depends on what you're looking for and what type of shooters you already enjoy.


I have been looking to expand my collection of shmups into the Genesis and SNES worlds. Any suggestions? I think the only ones I have are Zero Wing for the Genny and R-Type for the SNES. What should I be looking out for?

SNES/SFC is pretty limited after R-Type 3, Gradius 3, Axelay, Super Aleste(Space MegaForce), and the Darius games. In fact, the library is mainly horizontals, which isn't a bad thing, but a bit unbalanced perhaps. Import wise, if you haven't already considered/tried, I'll name drop Bio-Metal. A really solid and interesting shooter that doesn't get much press. It was released domestically but with some pretty awful music. Not my type of music anyway, the SFC version has more traditional music and as such I don't feel it takes away from the game. If you don't mind the music found in SNES Bio-Metal then it's sure to be a blast.

Genesis/MegaDrive is stacked with shooters. Toaplan games (Zero Wing, Fire Shark, Truxton, etc..) run amok and there's almost no single game you couldn't get from their early catalogue on the Genny. Most which aren't even import only. Then there's the Turrican games which also appear on SNES (same for the highly expensive Rendering Ranger, which is fun) to carry over for run&guns. Again it's up to what you like, which I don't know since you haven't made it clear.

[animesuperj]

HyperZone for SNES is also really good. It was one of the first games I had for the system, and still love playing it. It's not really a traditional shump like R-type or Gradius. It's set as a third person view behind your ship as your flying forward. Think F-Zero, but your flying above the track and can move up/down as well as left/right. It has the same out-of-bounds type area as f-zero as well. Another plus is it's only an R1, and should be fairly easy and cheap to find.

[Deadman]

I have been looking to expand my collection of shmups into the Genesis and SNES worlds. Any suggestions? I think the only ones I have are Zero Wing for the Genny and R-Type for the SNES. What should I be looking out for?

I must be an old ADD guy or something because RPG's have always been a gaming turn-off to me. Why do I want to talk to that guy over there when I would rather shoot him in the head! Ever since I first played Space Invaders, Galaxian, Gorf, Phoenix in the classic arcades I've loved shmups. Lately, I've grown addicted to Task Force Harrier for the Genesis. If you can find it you should grab it. It's challenging and fun.

[pato]

Totally agree with you on the matter. I too don't have the time to be fully engaged in a lot other style of games. I like the pick up and play nature of Shumps. Like was mentioned already, you can play for 20 minutes and put the arcade stick down (come on, that is the only way to play a Shump!) and get on with the rest of your life. Then again, that is perhaps the appeal of many "old school" genres. I love games by SNK for example. Many of their games are deeper then they appear. However, they can be picked up and played in quick bursts.

It's too bad that many of these style of games are on import only for the Dreamcast and PS2. The PS2, in Japan, has a plethora of retro compilation packs that have tons of shumps on then. Not to mention other arcade style genres that are easy to pick up and play. I have a Japanese PS2 and all my games are exactly that. No other style of games that require tons of hours to get into.

[98PaceCar]

I'll play pretty much anything I can get my hands on, so I'll start with the suggestions so far and go from there. I just like having new stuff to play!


I must be an old ADD guy or something because RPG's have always been a gaming turn-off to me. Why do I want to talk to that guy over there when I would rather shoot him in the head! Ever since I first played Space Invaders, Galaxian, Gorf, Phoenix in the classic arcades I've loved shmups. Lately, I've grown addicted to Task Force Harrier for the Genesis. If you can find it you should grab it. It's challenging and fun.

I used to play RPGs, way back on the C64 when it was still current. But I think I have a grand total of an hour invested in Fallout 3 and even less in all of my other RPG purchases lately. Don't know why I keep buying them, but oh well. I'll have to track down a copy of that one. Any relation to Space Harrier?

[Pantechnicon]

I have been looking to expand my collection of shmups into the Genesis and SNES worlds. Any suggestions? I think the only ones I have are Zero Wing for the Genny and R-Type for the SNES. What should I be looking out for?

Steel Empire for the Genesis is worth owning. It's got a nice steampunk feel to it if you like that sort of thing. Gameplay is somewhat similar to Zero Wing except there are also ground targets.

[98PaceCar]

Steel Empire for the Genesis is worth owning. It's got a nice steampunk feel to it if you like that sort of thing. Gameplay is somewhat similar to Zero Wing except there are also ground targets.

If it's poorly translated I'm in!!

[XYXZYZ]

Watch this video and see if it doesn't change your life.

Sega Saturn Shooter Special (http://www.segagagadomain.com/retro_core__info-sss.htm)

[ottojello]

I like the cutemups just as much as the shmups!

[Arkhan]

Gunbird 2 for dreamcast is fun
Silpheed for PS2

hmmm

Galactic Attack for saturn!

[bones11]

Watch this video and see if it doesn't change your life.

Sega Saturn Shooter Special (http://www.segagagadomain.com/retro_core__info-sss.htm)

Holy cow that's a lot of shooters for the Saturn! Had no clue...will have to keep an eye out for some of those imports, thanks for the link!

[Jisho23]

Yeah, I love the saturn almost entirely for its shooter library.

I empathize with people who cannot find time to sit down and play a full 10+ hour game. That's why I really love PSN and Xbox arcade; games are cheap and you can get just as much enjoyment out of the game by playing for an hour or 15 minutes.

[Sosage]

I dunno...shmups take up about as much of my time as everything else. :P It's always, "shit, I was hit...restart the game" X 100. Part of the fun of shmups, for me, is raising the bar and trying to 1 credit a stage or the entire game...then 1 life it. ;)

btw...just picked up Raiden Fighters Aces. I highly recommend checking it out. It's a lot of game for a cheap price.

...and of course, I always recommend Mars Matrix (Dreamcast or CPS2...they really need to XBLA this game).

[delafro]

Ironically, to get really good at some shooters, you'd probably have to play it as much as an RPG... got to get that practice in if you want to master the game, right? That said, I understand what you mean about time constraints. Sometimes 15 minutes is all that you've got.

[Ed Oscuro]

You can play any shooter as much or as little as you like. Just don't expect to put in world-beating highscores without practice unless you have a lot of luck and talent (or TEH CHETZ).

My shooter recommendations are the same as always...you can just play the best ones in as great depth as you like. Battle Garegga, for instance, can be played the "right way" (pick up all the bomb pieces, learn where hidden bonuses are, crash your planes a lot to reduce difficulty), or normally, or you can avoid all bomb pieces and sail through it.

Taito games are always fun to look at and maybe play but they often are not be very well balanced. Gun & Frontier has a pretty loltastic score exploit, for instance.

Of course, the Toaplan shooters are almost always easy to get into and you can play them correctly without much trouble. They're also great fun. I also recommend the Nichibutsu titles, and from there on it's a grab bag of what's fun.

Some to look into:

Toaplan:
Twin Cobra
Truxton 1 / 2 (don't pick up all the speedups or else you'll have trouble maneuvering, same as Gradius)
Hellfire

Nichibutsu:
Ninja Emaki bends the genre, it usually plays like a more intelligent Commando.
Terra Cresta is one of the greatest achievements of shmup development.

Seibu Kaihatsu:
The Raiden games are an outgrowth of Toaplan's early shooters, but very good.
The Raiden Fighters games are always fun. Jet is amazing, even if you don't play it for sheer points (looking for all the hidden bonuses)

Capcom:
Area 88
19XX - The War Against Destiny (has some mechanics related to the shooting that I loathe, but overall a good game)

Psikyo:
Strikers 1945 series, Dragon Blaze, Gun...whatever, oh, Gunbird I guess, if that's your thing. I do not like collecting coins / gold bars on the flash though.

PC-Engine / Turbo Grafx 16:
Home of the "caravan" shooter, where you can try over and over again within a set limit to get a higher score. Too many to list, all decently fun.

Give all the Taito games a look (I'm only putting first-party games here, not just ones published by them - note that many games that say "Taito" are actually developed by somebody else; many of the Toaplan titles are listed that way):
Gun & Frontier
Metal Black
Darius games

Irem put out lots of good stuff, and even their cheesy / badly reviewed shooters I tend to like.
R-Type I, II maybe, III
X-Multiply (Hey good lookin')
Image Fight
Cosmic Cop (racing shooter)

Other stuff:
Sorcer Striker / Mahou Daisakusen


SNES/SFC is pretty limited after R-Type 3, Gradius 3, Axelay, Super Aleste(Space MegaForce), and the Darius games. In fact, the library is mainly horizontals, which isn't a bad thing, but a bit unbalanced perhaps. Import wise, if you haven't already considered/tried, I'll name drop Bio-Metal. A really solid and interesting shooter that doesn't get much press.
You rule. Sosage as well. Good picks all around.

[Agressivadue]

Shmups good.

I've been playing the ones on Taito Legends 2 lately.

[Az]

I have been looking to expand my collection of shmups into the Genesis and SNES worlds. Any suggestions?

Personal favorites on the Sega side; Wings of Wor & Lightening Force (Thunder Force IV). Robo Aleste & Silpheed are two of my favorites also, if you own a CD add-on.

@ ReaXan; I feel shooters that allow an initial stage or route select have a bit more flexability for those of us without much free time. I'm drawing a blank for examples (TF:IV..and umm...) but I'm sure you know what I mean.

[fahlim003]

You can play any shooter as much or as little as you like. Just don't expect to put in world-beating highscores without practice unless you have a lot of luck and talent (or TEH CHETZ).

My shooter recommendations are the same as always...you can just play the best ones in as great depth as you like. Battle Garegga, for instance, can be played the "right way" (pick up all the bomb pieces, learn where hidden bonuses are, crash your planes a lot to reduce difficulty), or normally, or you can avoid all bomb pieces and sail through it.

Taito games are always fun to look at and maybe play but they often are not be very well balanced. Gun & Frontier has a pretty loltastic score exploit, for instance.

Of course, the Toaplan shooters are almost always easy to get into and you can play them correctly without much trouble. They're also great fun. I also recommend the Nichibutsu titles, and from there on it's a grab bag of what's fun.

All bases covered and I agree for the most part. Just a couple point on the actual suggestions....


Some to look into:
Truxton 1 / 2 (don't pick up all the speedups or else you'll have trouble maneuvering, same

ERRRRRRRRRPP! Truxton is ok but Truxton 2... well it's o...k... If it wasn't for the damned length it would be a top choice but as such it's not a good introductory title. Perhaps replace this with... Batsugun?


Seibu Kaihatsu:
Always a good choice. So long as it's not Wiz, although even that might be worth a look (ehhhh). My addition here would be Viper Phase 1. The sensible man's 19XX. Stage 4 99% aside, it's a fine game and one Moss/Gulti/The Space Pope needs to absolve with a Phase 2 sometime in the near future.


Capcom:
Area 88
19XX - The War Against Destiny (has some mechanics related to the shooting that I loathe, but overall a good game)

Area 88 has bitchin music but some people might be turned off by the shop mechanic. I know I was. The 194X series is always good but recently I've learned to have issue with 19XX. This is not a introductory shooter by any means, scoring wise anyway. The requirements for maxing a score are numerous:
-no bomb
-no death
-max #of medals
-fastest destruction of bosses
-max #of enemies destroyed(or all enemies per stage destroyed=100% enemy destruction rate)
Once I came to grips with all these aspects I no longer liked the game as I had before. It's quality to be sure, great music and visuals, but it's not for the weak of mind. VP1, the St4 99% gaffe I feel is the more flexible game and offers a better assortment of challenge in a way only Seibu can deliver.


Psikyo:
Strikers 1945 series, Dragon Blaze, Gun...whatever, oh, Gunbird I guess, if that's your thing. I do not like collecting coins / gold bars on the flash though.

etc..

I agree with everything else. Dragon Blaze is a bonafide kick in the ass you'll keep coming back to.
Gun Frontier is good for a laugh alright: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEdy3gHChgM (ah what a wuss, he closed his account, which is a shame since this video is gold (or shit))
Metal Black is also a good one.


You rule. Sosage as well. Good picks all around.

Hey man Rob is the man, for without him there would be no Bio-Metal.

[fahlim003]

Personal favorites on the Sega side; Wings of Wor & Lightening Force (Thunder Force IV). Robo Aleste & Silpheed are two of my favorites also, if you own a CD add-on.

@ ReaXan; I feel shooters that allow an initial stage or route select have a bit more flexability for those of us without much free time. I'm drawing a blank for examples (TF:IV..and umm...) but I'm sure you know what I mean.

Weight-loss go! Seriously, TF4/LF:TQFD is outstanding and the other TechnoSoft offerings on the Genesis can be just as enjoyable. TF4 is what many consider to be the pinnacle TF entry and why shouldn't it be with excellent 2D graphics and scrolling, a phenomenal sountrack, and a game long enough to satisfy anyone. Good thinking Az.

[BydoEmpire]

I kind of feel the same way, and I've been enjoying some of the TG-16 shooters on the Wii's virtual console. Actually, that "lack of time to commit a game" has had me playing a lot more classic-style games lately. Anyways, back to shmups...

One thing, though, I really don't like the bullet swarm shooters. I like to be able to memorize patterns and kind of learn as I go. I'm too old and slow to follow a billion things on screen at once. One exception: Mars Matrix on the Dreamcast. The money system was just brilliant - every game gives you money you can use to buy extra continues, more ships per game, walkthroughs of levels, etc. It had me playing a LOT more than I probably would have (for example, "only 200,000 more credits to unlock 5 lives per games").

I also like cool art direction - R-Type being the king for me.

[Ed Oscuro]

Area 88 has bitchin music but some people might be turned off by the shop mechanic. I know I was. The 194X series is always good but recently I've learned to have issue with 19XX. This is not a introductory shooter by any means, scoring wise anyway. The requirements for maxing a score are numerous:
-no bomb
-no death
-max #of medals
-fastest destruction of bosses
-max #of enemies destroyed(or all enemies per stage destroyed=100% enemy destruction rate)
Once I came to grips with all these aspects I no longer liked the game as I had before. It's quality to be sure, great music and visuals, but it's not for the weak of mind. VP1, the St4 99% gaffe I feel is the more flexible game and offers a better assortment of challenge in a way only Seibu can deliver.
All agreed upon with the onerous 19XX scoring system (and don't forget the shot powerup garbage). I forgot about Area 88's shop system; I never like those. In fact Capcom shooters often are full with questionable mechanics - 1942 / 1943's rotating shot system is another I don't care for. I wasn't thinking in terms of maxing the score. As best I can tell, I think the OP is asking what shmups he can play casually.

[ReaXan]

This thread made me think about getting a PS2 and pick up some shooters and metal slug games.

The problem is that I am not paying $99 new for a PS2. I will pay 79.00 for a Brand New PS2 slimeline like Target had like a year ago. I cant find a deal like that anywhere. Hell Walmart had PS2's for like $129 for the longest time until recently.

[Agressivadue]

This thread made me think about getting a PS2 and pick up some shooters and metal slug games.

The problem is that I am not paying $99 new for a PS2. I will pay 79.00 for a Brand New PS2 slimeline like Target had like a year ago. I cant find a deal like that anywhere. Hell Walmart had PS2's for like $129 for the longest time until recently.

So don't buy a new one.

[Wraith Storm]

I have been looking to expand my collection of shmups into the Genesis and SNES worlds. Any suggestions? I think the only ones I have are Zero Wing for the Genny and R-Type for the SNES. What should I be looking out for?

While we were chatting at OVGE didn't someone trade you a copy of Android Assult for the Sega CD? I'm curious as to what you thought of the game. It's easily one of my favorite "Traditional" shooters of the era. It's one of those game that the more you play it the more you appreciate its subtle details.

As for the Genny I would certainly recommend Wings of Wor and Steel Empire. Both are very good unique shooters. They have great graphics, great music and fairly unique worlds that help them stand apart from the crowd.

[RPG_Fanatic]

The Genesis had a lot of shumps but the best two are MUSHA and Thunder Force III.

[98PaceCar]

While we were chatting at OVGE didn't someone trade you a copy of Android Assult for the Sega CD? I'm curious as to what you thought of the game. It's easily one of my favorite "Traditional" shooters of the era. It's one of those game that the more you play it the more you appreciate its subtle details.

As for the Genny I would certainly recommend Wings of Wor and Steel Empire. Both are very good unique shooters. They have great graphics, great music and fairly unique worlds that help them stand apart from the crowd.

Yes, the guy from Game Exchange did. Unfortuantely, I haven't had a chance to try it out yet. I'm using my console space for some temporary storage and can't get to any of my systems. Hoping to be back in shape this weekend, so I'll post up my impressions. From the bit I've read, it looks really good though!

[fahlim003]

I will pay 79.00 for a Brand New PS2 slimeline like Target had like a year ago. I cant find a deal like that anywhere. Hell Walmart had PS2's for like $129 for the longest time until recently.

Awesome. Where can I buy one of these Slimelines too!

In all honesty, the PS2 is a good choice although I don't understand why you'd think to cheap out on the system itself. I don't know what plans you have (swap trick, slide card, modchip, hdloader, etc..) but the majority of good PS2 shooters are in NTSC-J region. Most if not all of these to buy, aren't too cheap. Not far removed from the cost of a new or more likely used PS2 'slimline' (PSTwo).

[Deadman]

Seems like lots of shmup-talk lately, on these forums and others. After tiring of getting my butt whipped in Task Force Harrier, I plugged Silpheed into my Sega CD and am having fun re-discovering it. Probably been 10+ years since I played, and I don't remember it being so "Zaxxon" like in some of the levels. Shooting enemies while avoiding ground object, asteroids and the like is more fun now than it was back then!!

[Ruudos]

Not really my kind of games but my favorites are:

Burai Fighter (NES) although also in my top list most frustrating games
Section Z (NES)
U.N. Squadron (SNES) love the music

[2DStar]

I was wondering people's opinions of Shumps?

As a guy who grew up on the Nintendo I really never liked them until the Dreamcast/PS2 era brought in alot of solid titles.

I would love to sit down and play an RPG, but lets face it, if your busy in life it doesnt make sense to play them unless you have some major downtime or are sick. Its a huge time investment you could afford more during childhood.

I like Shumps because they present a solid challenge but are easy to get the mechanics going.

Opinions?


Please check this game out.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/alien-crusher/id511385630?ls=1&mt=8

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/531335_418389528213004_170120673_n.jpg
--------------------------------

http://a5.mzstatic.com/us/r1000/117/Purple/v4/b1/2a/84/b12a84e4-d153-8221-fdef-f72d4ee3762c/mza_6784043365976142371.320x480-75.jpg
http://a2.mzstatic.com/us/r1000/083/Purple/v4/72/e4/b4/72e4b44f-1513-f11a-49f6-946cb996afe1/mza_2878083584282786147.320x480-75.jpg
http://a4.mzstatic.com/us/r1000/061/Purple/v4/b1/6f/6c/b16f6c86-fbec-b77b-9f17-39115e94387e/mza_902195372667206143.320x480-75.jpg
http://a2.mzstatic.com/us/r1000/070/Purple/v4/9a/d0/c1/9ad0c183-d96c-4f74-b3f3-c1eb083e0495/mza_6853513865566178013.320x480-75.jpg
http://a1.mzstatic.com/us/r1000/108/Purple/v4/7f/0b/40/7f0b40d1-a8ad-c73e-fbda-314703f09dfa/mza_4450451405963020747.320x480-75.jpg
http://a5.mzstatic.com/us/r1000/064/Purple/v4/7a/28/59/7a2859dd-1719-313e-264a-b78fa0e9c8d9/mza_454006804242064792.480x480-75.jpg
http://a2.mzstatic.com/us/r1000/066/Purple/v4/98/15/98/98159834-b9b8-de19-397e-a95b07328f52/mza_9083085172049590517.480x480-75.jpg
http://a1.mzstatic.com/us/r1000/111/Purple/v4/94/e3/26/94e32691-58ca-ce4f-919b-6c982807f3f7/mza_3979780276307856296.480x480-75.jpg
http://a2.mzstatic.com/us/r1000/105/Purple/v4/9b/10/0f/9b100f2b-6eea-1c3a-a4ac-80c54a1e2cdf/mza_6795791290747492425.480x480-75.jpg
http://a5.mzstatic.com/us/r1000/089/Purple/v4/1b/8a/8b/1b8a8bc2-a2cf-082f-7705-11b964b70508/mza_1084496522478070857.480x480-75.jpg

[Hawksmoor]

I wholeheartedly suggest you check out Shogun: Rise of the Renegade for iOS or Android. It's an awesome shooter.

http://youtu.be/O4LzFRYe-1c

[BydoEmpire]

Even though I don't normally like "Bullet Hell" shmumps, I do like Mars Matrix on the Dreamcast because of the coin system, which lets you unlock stuff like perfect runs through each level, and more lives to start. I always feel like I'm pretty close to unlocking something new with just a few more games, and getting a little bit further... And it's a fun game to boot.

[Schiggidyd]

I have a lot of love for shmups on Genesis specifically..

MUSHA (Overrated and expensive, but still awesome)
Wings of Wor
Gaiares (Has a cool weapon-stealing system by firing a capsule at enemies)
Steel Empire
Thunder Force III
Lightening Force
Sol-Deace (has a tilt system for your turrets depending on which way you move, great for aiming where you want)
Vapor Trail (2 player!)
Herzog Zwei
Hellfire (Not a huge fan, in my opinion the ship is too big, but lots of people like it)
Air Buster

Hope I helped!

[Space-Ace-13]

I love schmups!! For the SNES I would pick up Gradius III, R-Type III, Super R-Type, Space Megaforce, Firepower 2000 (not typical as you're a tank, but very fun and challenging!), U.N. Squadron, Axelay, Darius Twin. All great games... most of them not too expensive

[BricatSegaFan]

Imho I think you should really check out LORDS OF THUNDER. Best shmup with the best soundtrack ever.

[samspade]

Get a Japanese Saturn or a US Saturn with an Action Replay cart. In my opinion, some of the very best shmups are available for that console. Alot of them are hefty price tags but many of the great ones are more affordable. I highly recommend Soukyugrentai, Batsugun, Shienryu, and Dodonpachi just to name a small few. Also, there's a great port of Aero Fighters from the snes called Sonic Wings Special.

If you get a PS2 going, pick up Mobile Light Force. It has a moronic Charlie's Angels cover to it but it's actually a cut up version of Gun Bird that's very enjoyable and cheap as fuck. Also on the PS1, Einhinder is excellent. As someone mentioned before, Steel Empire is a solid shmup on the cheap and well worth checking out.

[samspade]

I have a lot of love for shmups on Genesis specifically..

MUSHA (Overrated and expensive, but still awesome)
Wings of Wor
Gaiares (Has a cool weapon-stealing system by firing a capsule at enemies)
Steel Empire
Thunder Force III
Lightening Force
Sol-Deace (has a tilt system for your turrets depending on which way you move, great for aiming where you want)
Vapor Trail (2 player!)
Herzog Zwei
Hellfire (Not a huge fan, in my opinion the ship is too big, but lots of people like it)
Air Buster

Hope I helped!

Hellfire S on the PCE is much better than the genesis one. Lightening Force is a fantastic game and inexpensive to boot. Wings of Wor is an amazing and sadly overlooked game indeed, one of my personal favorites on the console.

I agree MUSHA is overrated, for one, it's very short. Still a good game but I actually prefer Robo Aleste on the sega cd. It's basically a sequel and has cd quality music, some nice cutscenes, and it gets overshadowed since it's well, on the sega cd to be blunt.

[Lady Jaye]

Among horizontal shmups, I'm really partial to the Parodius series, especially Parodius Da! and Gokujō Parodius!/Fantastic Journey. You'll need to go the importation or emulation route for this series though. If you don't mind playing on-the-go, I recommend the Parodius Portable anthology on PSP, which includes all five shmups in the series. The only one not really playable is the very first one, which comes off being really stiff and not nearly as silly; it's much closer to the original Gradius game.

[Space-Ace-13]

Please check this game out.

I just downloaded it, pretty cool... and free! Is this your game?

[123►Genei-Jin]

I love SHMUPS, check out the Troubleshooter/Battlemania series on the Genesis/Megadrive.

Also check this gamesack episode they just did about Genesis SHMUPS:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34FOH1ZdGZI

[Space-Ace-13]

This thread inspired me to start collecting more shmups for my systems and recently I've been working on the snes. Recently picked up:

Biometal - Really hard, kinda hard to differentiate your ship from the background. The soundtrack is jock jams (which is amazing) good game though
Blazeon - Amazing! Enough said
Imperium - Great game! good graphics, limited slow down, challenging, very cool
Super Nova - First time I've played the Darius series, its tough! Good game though, very cool!
U.N. Squadron - In the mail... I'm excited

Anybody have some suggestions for good and/or obscure shmups on the NES or SNES??

[Tron 2.0]

This thread inspired me to start collecting more shmups for my systems and recently.
Anybody have some suggestions for good and/or obscure shmups on the NES or SNES??

I can recommend some for the nes/famicom.

Crisis Force
Recaa Summer Carnival 92
Legendary Wings
Life Force/Get the japanese version since it supports different endings
Gradius II
Zanac
Guardian Legend/while it's part arpg it's also part shump.

[ice1605]

Recca Summer Carnival '92


Recca is a fun shooter, and it can really show what the Famicom is capable of, however, it is a very expensive game. Be prepared to pay a lot for it.

[Tron 2.0]

Recca is a fun shooter, and it can really show what the Famicom is capable of, however, it is a very expensive game. Be prepared to pay a lot for it.
Import yes i should have mention that there are reproductions of recaa which are fairly cheap.

[ButtonMasher123]

This thread inspired me to start collecting more shmups for my systems and recently I've been working on the snes. Recently picked up:

Biometal - Really hard, kinda hard to differentiate your ship from the background. The soundtrack is jock jams (which is amazing) good game though
Blazeon - Amazing! Enough said
Imperium - Great game! good graphics, limited slow down, challenging, very cool
Super Nova - First time I've played the Darius series, its tough! Good game though, very cool!
U.N. Squadron - In the mail... I'm excited

Anybody have some suggestions for good and/or obscure shmups on the NES or SNES??

A real good one that never gets mentioned is Super Spy Hunter. You gotta love a car shmup.

[Space-Ace-13]

I can recommend some for the nes/famicom.

Crisis Force
Recaa Summer Carnival 92
Legendary Wings
Life Force/Get the japanese version since it supports different endings
Gradius II
Zanac
Guardian Legend/while it's part arpg it's also part shump.

Thanks for the recommendations! For my NES I have:

1943
Abadox
Dragon Spirit
Galaga
Gradius
Guardian Legend
Gun Nac
Gunsmoke
Kings Knight
Legendary Wings
Life Force
Section Z
Silver Surfer
Star Force
Stinger
Talespin

Are Crisis Force and Gradius II only Famicom?

[NayusDante]

Gradius Galaxies rarely left my GBA. As you play through the game, you unlock checkpoints in the system save. You can play for five minutes, shut it off, and start up near where you stopped next time you play. It's literally the ONLY shmup I can think of that actually respects your time and lets you play through at your own pace. If you really like a particular section, you can start there.

The GBA actually has a few good shmups. Iridion II was pretty good.

There's a DOS shmup called Overkill, which could be described as a vertical Gradius. It's kind of short, though.


Playing any game through in one sitting is a lot to ask, but it's par for most shmups. I'd be more into them if it weren't for that issue. I simply can't push myself to get into Ikaruga, R-Type, and the rest because I don't want to keep starting over all the time.

[starsoldier1]

I recommend shooter like:
Air Zonk
Blazing Lazers
Magical Chase
Ordyne
Solar Striker
Star Soldier Vanishing Earth

[Tron 2.0]

Thanks for the recommendations! For my NES I have:

1943
Abadox
Dragon Spirit
Galaga
Gradius
Guardian Legend
Gun Nac
Gunsmoke
Kings Knight
Legendary Wings
Life Force
Section Z
Silver Surfer
Star Force
Stinger
Talespin

Are Crisis Force and Gradius II only Famicom?
Yes,Crisis Force and Gradius II are famicom only.