Western-developed shooters/shmups

[j_factor]

The genre is strongly associated with Japanese developers, but some Western ones have materialized here and there.

Here are the ones I know off the top of my head:

Katakis (1987 C64, 1988 Amiga) / Denaris (1989 C64/Amiga)
Menace (1988 Amiga/ST/C64)
Armalyte (1988 Amiga/C64)
Blood Money (1989 Amiga/ST/C64/DOS)
SWIV (1991 Amiga/ST/C64)
Agony (1992 Amiga)
Apidya (1992 Amiga)
Firepower 2000 / Super SWIV (1992 SNES) / Mega SWIV (1994 Mega Drive)
Raptor: Call of the Shadows (1994 DOS)
Kolibri (1995 32x)
DemonStar (1998 Windows)

What am I missing? This is mainly a list thread, but also a discussion. Do you think Western shmups (the few that did get made) were really worse than Japanese ones? Is there anything in particular, sylistically or otherwise, that makes Western shmups distinct? What factors made Western shmups less popular and less numerous?

[Kitsune Sniper]

European consoles are going to make up a large portion of this list.

[Leo_A]

My personal favorite, River Raid for the Atari 2600 by Activision, was American made. Was programmed by Carol Shaw.

There are hundreds of American programmed vertical and horizontal shooters, including scores of classics like Defender.

[A Black Falcon]

Yeah, there are hundreds and hundreds of Western-developed shmups, mostly on computers but also some on consoles as well. It'd be a long list. A console games only list would certainly be a lot shorter.

[NerdXCrewWill]

Of the Euroshooters, Apidya takes top crown. That game is mindblowingly good and has an amazing soundtrack (Chris Hulsbeck's best, if you ask me)!

[Kirbysuperstar]

Sigma Star Saga
Nanostray/2

[nebrazca78]

Hybris (Amiga)
Battle Squadron (Amiga, Genesis, Mega Drive)

.

[Gapporin]

Obligatory Tyrian 2000 reference.

[NeoZeedeater]

Do you think Western shmups (the few that did get made) were really worse than Japanese ones?

I prefer Japan for scrolling ones overall but not for single-screen. Omega Race on VIC-20 is probably still my favourite shooter.

Is there anything in particular, sylistically or otherwise, that makes Western shmups distinct?

Relating to my above example, most ones that use vector graphics are Western. And old European ones have a very distinct look, sound, and feel. Not only do Japanese ones look different but most of the time you can tell North American and European shooters apart from each other easily. Jeff Minter games are an exception. They might be European but they're usually trip-ified clones of early American arcade games.

[NayusDante]

There's a fun little DOS game called Overkill, it's like vertical Gradius.

[vincewy]

NGDEV

Last Hope 2006 (Dreamcast, Neo-Geo CD/MVS/AES)
Fast Striker 2010 (Dreamcast, Neo-Geo MVS)

http://www.ngdevteam.com/index.php?o...id=5&Itemid=29