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Thread: Shumps for the busy/grown gamer?

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    Cherry (Level 1) ReaXan's Avatar
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    Default Shumps for the busy/grown gamer?

    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?
    Last edited by ReaXan; 11-03-2009 at 08:32 AM.

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    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
    -AB+

    Holy crap. It's been a while.

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    Bell (Level 8) 98PaceCar's Avatar
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    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?
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    Banana (Level 7) fahlim003's Avatar
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    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.

    Quote Originally Posted by 98PaceCar
    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.
    Last edited by fahlim003; 11-03-2009 at 09:46 AM.

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    Insert Coin (Level 0) animesuperj's Avatar
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    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.
    Last edited by animesuperj; 11-03-2009 at 09:51 AM.

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    Apple (Level 5) Deadman's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by 98PaceCar View Post
    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.
    ______________________________________


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    Insert Coin (Level 0) pato's Avatar
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    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.

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    Bell (Level 8) 98PaceCar's Avatar
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    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!

    Quote Originally Posted by Deadman View Post
    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?
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    Crono (Level 14) Pantechnicon's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by 98PaceCar View Post
    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.

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    Bell (Level 8) 98PaceCar's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pantechnicon View Post
    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!!
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    Watch this video and see if it doesn't change your life.

    Sega Saturn Shooter Special

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    I like the cutemups just as much as the shmups!

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    Gunbird 2 for dreamcast is fun
    Silpheed for PS2

    hmmm

    Galactic Attack for saturn!

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    Quote Originally Posted by XYXZYZ View Post
    Watch this video and see if it doesn't change your life.

    Sega Saturn Shooter Special
    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!

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    Cherry (Level 1) Jisho23's Avatar
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    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.

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    Strawberry (Level 2) Sosage's Avatar
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    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).
    -Sosage


    WTF is a Dim-Mac?!?!?

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    Strawberry (Level 2) delafro's Avatar
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    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.

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    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

    Quote Originally Posted by fahlim003 View Post
    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.

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    Insert Coin (Level 0) Agressivadue's Avatar
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    Shmups good.

    I've been playing the ones on Taito Legends 2 lately.
    Last edited by Agressivadue; 11-05-2009 at 02:16 AM.
    Life is great; Without it, you'd be dead.

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    Quote Originally Posted by 98PaceCar View Post
    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.

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