Is there such thing as a bad shmup?

[Sotenga]

Quick reminder: Shmup = Gradius, R-Type, Thunderforce, and the like. ;)

Anyway, I'm not sure if I ever played a shmup that I didn't like... wait, there was one that I wasn't particularly fond of. It was released by Taito, a helicopter-based shooter known as Gyrodine. The graphics were mundane, there wasn't any music, and the overall design and gameplay was just ass. The bullets actually moved as your helicopter did, so as you're trying to evade shots, you can't always count on your own bullets to hit. There also weren't any bosses to my knowledge.

Are there any shmups that you were seriously let down by?

[ManekiNeko]

Sure, there's been plenty of those. A lot of the early NES shooters were duds... luckily, many of them were confined to Japan so very few of us ever saw them when the system was still actively supported.

I was pretty disappointed with Zarlor Mercenary for the Lynx, and Battle Squadron for the Genesis. I was expecting a lot more from these games, especially Battle Squadron which looked great in screenshots but turned out to be just a cheesy port of a hastily made computer game. Raiden Densetsu for the Super NES was a letdown, too... in fact, most of those early Raiden translations just weren't impressive at all.

Nichibutsu's shooters were largely hit and miss. For every classic they released (for instance, the fantastic Terra Cresta), they offered up a poorly designed, monotonous clunker like Mag Max. I've heard that even Terra Cresta 3D for the Saturn was pretty bad, which really hurts because I loved that series from the moment I played the first game (or the second game, if you consider Moon Cresta the first).

JR

[ubersaurus]

My friend has a rom of some arcade shooter from japan, where you essentially start with the best weapon, a HUGE laser beam. Needless to say, we beat the game, first try, one credit.

Raiden Trad on the SNES was pretty craptacular, and there were a number of uninspired shmups on the 2600. It's a genre thats hard to mess up in, but it has happened.

[Dire 51]

Toilet Kids (PC Engine) and Divine Sealing (Mega Drive) usually come up when discussing bad shmups.

[Sotenga]

Toilet Kida... ugh. Forgot all about that one. For those who, for whatever reason, want to more know about this dubious shooter...

http://www.classicgaming.com/shmups/reviews/toilet_kids/toilet.htm

:hmm:

[Dire 51]

Here's a Divine Sealing link for you too:

http://www.geocities.com/opcfg3/dsreview.html

[Gamereviewgod]

http://www.digitpress.com/reviews/deepblue.htm

One of my most hated games of all time....

Also, can't forget Earth Defense on the Genesis. Ugh.

[Atari7800]

Oh YES there is such a thing as a bad shump!

PLANET JOKER for the Saturn is just horrible... 2-D gameplay with dreadful 3-D visuals and some of the worst design i've ever experienced in a shooter. As far as I can tell, you can upgrade your weapon ONCE... and it's like any other shooter's standard, I-just-got-killed basic weapon. No firepower whatsoever.

Someone mentioned TERRA CRESTA 3-D... another Saturn stinker (seems fitting that the system with some of the best shooters would also have a couple of the worst.

ZAXXON'S MOTHERBASE on the 32x is another dreadful game, though a few people claim to like it. Someone said it was like a bad, bad Viewpoint clone with the "Zaxxon" game stuck on it to give it a pedigree.

[bargora]

Twin Eagle for the NES is a bad shmup. Especially if you've played the arcade version.

HERESY WARNING: I don't like River Raid, either. :O

[Sotenga]

HERESY WARNING: I don't like River Raid, either. :O

How do you plead? LOL

Well, it was a classic for its time, but there are just too many shmups now that can surpass it...

Anyway, compared to the other games in the series, Thunderforce II kinda bit... we didn't need the uni-directional shooting scenes, in my opinion. I can't call it the worst game in the series, seeing as how I never played the original Thunderforce yet!

... wait a minute. IS there even a Thunderforce I? Does anyone know of its existence? If so, what has it been released for?

[maxlords]

Yeah, there's a Thunderforce 1, and it was for an old Japanese PC only. I have a ROM of it but I've never gotten it to work.

As for bad shmups......TONS :D Way more than you'd think. You should play Hawk F-123 for PC Engine, or Legion for PCE, or or or or or.... :) Check out: http://www.classicgaming.com/shmups/archive/xenofiles.htm

Some of the reviews and comments are about bad shmups :) Don't trust em all though, they review some of the not so bad ones as bad too!

[Lady Jaye]

Well, if you want a bad port of a good shmup, how about the NES version of 1942? Its music is horrible (although the original arcade version's music was nothing to write home about) and, mostly, there's the framerate problem. Apparently, that was Capcom's first release for the NES, and it shows.

[Dire 51]

Lady Jaye, you aren't kidding. The NES version of 1942 just plain sucks compared to the arcade version. Given a choice, however, I'd rather play 1941, 1943, 19XX or any of the Strikers 1945 games than the arcade 1942.

[Ruudos]

I think Alpha Mission for NES is really bad.

[DDCecil]

How about Rock On for the PC Engine? Ewww!

The only good point of the game is its story, which IMO, should have gotten more publicity than Zero Wing's...

[geelw]

3 more for the pile:

TRL- the rail loaders- ps one import. someone made a kiddie shooter with sloooooooooooooooow moving ugly trains on tracks, really bad visuals ans musicn that will make you toss a noose over your curtain rod. i'm selling mine (mint/complete- played once) if anyone's interested...

two-ten-kaku (ditto). weird, weird early ps shooter that looks like it was programmed over a weekend by about 600 people all throwing in ideas. 3 different ships means 3 different sets of cinemas you'll sit through, if you're crazy enough to try to play this all the way through. so bad, i'm keeping it (it's at least more playable than trl, lol)...

stahlfeder (ditto). i actually am looking for this one! i got to see it in action at an import shop a while back (they were demoing it as a new title), and my jaw dropped because it looked SO bad with the 2D/3D combo visuals chunking all over. everyone i know that's actually played it hates it, so i need to get my hands on it so i can see for myself (i'm a masochist, i guess)... LOL

[Raccoon Lad]

Dino Riki and Galactic Protector both suck.

[Jorpho]

I tried the PC version of Darius Gaiden once, and didn't like it very much. It seems awfully garish. Perhaps I just need to give it more time?