Best 2D Side-Scrolling Shoot'em Up (SHMUP)?

[Dimitri]

Granada. Easily my favorite shmup on any system. Though I've also got a soft spot for Star Soldier (NES) and, if it counts, Jim Power for the SNES. Platformer, top-down, and shmup levels all set to an awesome soundtrack.

[Muscelli]

toughue, either metal slug or border down (even though its 3d)

[SuperNES]

so games like defender?

DC: giga wing(i love giga wing)

there is a fan-created PC game called halo: blood covenant that is pretty good. it needs work tho, the controls and game overall are really slow and they got the guns all messed up(they included guns that arent even from halo)
and all the Metal slug games!!!!

[suznjak]

axelay
einhander
r-type final and delta
gradius 5
lighting force
blazing star
pulstar
ikaruga
gaiares
prehistoric Isle 2
gates and lords of thunder
thunder force 5
darius gaiden
nope still dont think radiant silvergun is that great.good but not great.

[jslithy]

Soukyugurentai
Battle Garegga
Zanac
Thunder Force III
Radient Silvergun
Gate of Thunder
DoDonPachi

If I had to pick just one...Soukyugurentai.

[ghostangelofcky]

r-type or life force get my vote

[Tron 2.0]

I notice ppl have mention MetalSlug,Contra,GunStar Heros i see those more as Run'n Gun type of games.
Hey what ever float your boat guys.

Here's my list.

Last Resort
Darius Gaiden
Coryoon pick this pce shooter a while back it's cute but fun.
Pulstar
Thunder Force 5
Gardius II Gofer it's when the serise started to heat up
Salamander/Life Force
Cotton Boomerrang
R-type
Sexy Parodius

[StealthLurker]

I love all shmups, horizontal & vertical, but one of my all time favorites just happens to be a sidescroller for the Genesis. Good luck on your quest for it!

Fire Mustang (Taito)

Japanese import only. Probably insanely expensive by now, if you can find it. You are an American P-51 Mustang pilot during WWII. The levels alternate between fighting the Germans and fighting the Japanese. The music is one of the best soundtracks that you'll ever hear on the Genesis. Totally manic, especially during all the boss fights. I still haven't beaten it yet, because you only get three continues and I've never found any codes for it. Very highly recommended. It's a total tragedy that it was never released in the states. But then the Japanese know how much we Americans would love to gloat over our victory again in a game like this. I'm sure that's why they kept it from us. Their grudge is so totally obvious. It kicks butt and takes names! Tons of parralax, just the right amount of powerups, and a real challenge. I think it's one of the greatest 16bit shmups ever made. A definite classic!

http://www.genesiscollective.com/Sho...p?GameLink=826

I am so glad that I got this game when I did. I bought it about 10 years ago brand new for only $50. I got the very last copy they had. Totally worth it!

Try YJ, $20 bucks they pop up fairly freq. After middle man and shipping around $40 USD.

If you want to talk about great shooters, need to mention more JPN Saturn shooters, JPN Dreamcast, even *gasp* JPN PS2 (although quite a few are just ports/sequels from sega saturn/psx versions), etc.

Yes Contra is a timeless classic but Metal Slug series is superior imho.

[FurinkanianFrood]

I doesn't seem like this thread will return back to it's original premise of 2d side scrolling shmups, but I think I will list some of my favorites within that specific realm, though I think I will ignore the forced vs. non-forced distinction.

Defender (when accurately representing the arcade version)
Super Fantasy Zone
Thunder Force series
Rayxanber 2+3 (never played 1)
Rtype 1+3
Salamander 1+2
Most of the Parodius games
Area 88
Winds of Thunder
Gate of Thunder
Hellfire (MD/Genny version)
Cotton Boomerang
Magical Chase
Sengoku Blade
Bio-hazard Battle

to name a few.... I'm quite bad at narrowing down favorites

BTW, EDF is an inferior game, sorry. I'm not sure why it's even being mentioned in this post.

Personally I don't much care for RSilvergun or Ikaruga, but I'm not about to say those don't belong, it's all a matter of taste. People can spend hours playing Divine Sealing or what have you for all I care. I learned to be respectful of opinions on message boards the hard way, believe me, it's not worth starting a war over....

Just ruins threads. Notice how noone is ranting endlessly about people talking about RunNGuns in this thread.

People put down Hellfire a lot, but frankly my dear, I don't give a damn.

And so concludes my rant against ranting. Cheers!

[Balusilustalu]

Armalyte (C64) Probably my all time fave across all platforms.
Axelay (SNES) Especially the gorgeous level 2!
ThunderForce IV (MD)

I would add Final Soldier for the PC-Engine but that's a vertical scroller...

[cyberfluxor]

Most Taito & Capcom shooters. My absolute favorite thus far is Darius Gaiden (Saturn). I got the game a few months ago and just loved it to death. It replaced Aero Fighters (SNES) which in turn took over 1942 (NES). I'm not a hardcore scroller gamer, as into played everyone out there, but I do enjoy quite a few titles.

[segagamer]

Thunder Force series is my favorite. Also, I don't like to use the word "shump" but prefer "horizontal shooter" instead. I guess I'm old school.

[Abman]

My favorite would have to be Contra. My friend says Gunstar Heroes is awesome but I never had a chance to play it I really want to get around to it.

[Fighter17]

I love all shmups, horizontal & vertical, but one of my all time favorites just happens to be a sidescroller for the Genesis. Good luck on your quest for it!

Fire Mustang (Taito)

Japanese import only. Probably insanely expensive by now, if you can find it. You are an American P-51 Mustang pilot during WWII. The levels alternate between fighting the Germans and fighting the Japanese. The music is one of the best soundtracks that you'll ever hear on the Genesis. Totally manic, especially during all the boss fights. I still haven't beaten it yet, because you only get three continues and I've never found any codes for it. Very highly recommended. It's a total tragedy that it was never released in the states. But then the Japanese know how much we Americans would love to gloat over our victory again in a game like this. I'm sure that's why they kept it from us. Their grudge is so totally obvious. It kicks butt and takes names! Tons of parralax, just the right amount of powerups, and a real challenge. I think it's one of the greatest 16bit shmups ever made. A definite classic!

http://www.genesiscollective.com/Sho...p?GameLink=826

I am so glad that I got this game when I did. I bought it about 10 years ago brand new for only $50. I got the very last copy they had. Totally worth it!

I got this with Fire Shark (both Japanese copies and complete) for $50 with shipping from the UK. The game is good, but I found it to be too easy (it wasn't long when I 1CC it). Rare, well I don't think so.

My two favorite shoot 'em ups are:

Hozi: Lords of Thunder (TurboDuo version because the Sega CD version sucks).
Vertical: Battle Garegga (to me this game is just damn perfect).

Soukyugurentai and DoDonPachi are great as well.

I always found Radiant Silvergun to be the most overrated shooter ever!

The one game I really don't want to play is Last Resort because it's just a f***ing R-Type clone!

[drewbrim]

I'll be the third or fourth person to mention Lords of Thunder and the first to bring up Aero Blasters, love that game. And what is all this talk about Ikaruga and RSG? I thought this was limited to side scrollers?

[Jasoco]

I'll be the third or fourth person to mention Lords of Thunder and the first to bring up Aero Blasters, love that game. And what is all this talk about Ikaruga and RSG? I thought this was limited to side scrollers?

They count. The "Side scrolling" refers to the view of the ship. Since they're shooters where you look down upon them or at the side, they're still Side-scrollers. If they were first person or even third person view, I'd say no.

[drewbrim]

I'll be the third or fourth person to mention Lords of Thunder and the first to bring up Aero Blasters, love that game. And what is all this talk about Ikaruga and RSG? I thought this was limited to side scrollers?

They count. The "Side scrolling" refers to the view of the ship. Since they're shooters where you look down upon them or at the side, they're still Side-scrollers. If they were first person or even third person view, I'd say no.

Oh, I always thought "side scrolling" was equal to horizontal. When describing shooters that is, cause the screen scrolls to the side as opposed to overhead or top/down. Thanks for the insight.

[Jasoco]

Hmm.. Well.. let's ask Mediamachine what he means. He didn't really set down any defining ground rules.

Media, what constitutes "Side scrolling"? Ikaruga is too good to not count. I mean it is a SHMUP. But side-scrolling? Hmmm..

[Kid Ice]

Oh, I always thought "side scrolling" was equal to horizontal. When describing shooters that is, cause the screen scrolls to the side as opposed to overhead or top/down.

Me too. I thought games like Raiden and RSG were called vertical shooters since they are not the same as side scrollers.

BTW isn't there a side-scrolling stage in Ikaruga? Not that I would consider that game a side-scroller, just thought I saw that in a demo.

[Jasoco]

Ikaruga can be rotated to be side-scrolling for the people who want to utilize their entire TV instead of losing a lot on the sides. (To make up for not being able to rotate their TV on its side.) In other words, technically, on a regularly standing TV, Ikaruga IS a side-scroller.