What makes a great SHMUP?

[Nirvana]

Right when I clicked on this thread, I immediately thought of Gradius III. The problem with that game is it's damn slow down. It's got way too much of it when you start getting maximum power ups, and you're facing the bubbles. Also, a good SHMUP needs great music, like Gradius III does. And nothing too complicated for powerups.

[djbeatmongrel]

what makes a great shmup? when simply playing it to beat it isnt enough, when you start playing it for the sake of mastery.

[FurinkanianFrood]

It's the zone thing, which has to come from intense shooting, dodging, or both.

Personally, I think Treasure is a great developer of shooter platfomers/platfomers, but RS and Ikaruga are pretty damn weak shmups IMO.

The puzzle element basically destroys the whole zone thing for me, and graphics don't save a slow, contrived shmup like RS.

The only successful merging of puzzle and shmup IMO is Twinkle Star Sprites, but that one is more puzzle than shmup.

It is however one of the best puzzle games ever IMO, up there with Magical Drop 3 and the better iterations of Puyo Puyo and Panel de pon.

I actually have no problem with slow horizontal shooters if they require intense dodging and don't try to overcomplicate things though. R-Type and Salamander are really good slow shmups.

Cave, Raizing, Toaplan and Taito (though after the first Layer Section that series became complete garbage) all made some truly great shmups IMO.

I would say the pinnacle of zone shmups for me is Battle Garegga.

Gradius III

It wasn't exactly great before the slowdown though..... I'd much rather play Salamander or Gradius 2 personally, both are much better, as are most of the Parodius games for that matter.

[TurboGenesis]

I don't know what makes them great but I just like them. They are great for a quick fix of gaming or when you want to take time to master the game. Plus many shooters can be mastered by beating it, playing to maximize score, or going for the 1cc.

Shooters are my favorite genere. I don't know but I really havent played a bad shooter. I like them all I don't discriminate. Yeah some better than others but all good to me.

[bargora]

Right when I clicked on this thread, I immediately thought of Gradius III. The problem with that game is it's damn slow down. It's got way too much of it when you start getting maximum power ups, and you're facing the bubbles. Also, a good SHMUP needs great music, like Gradius III does. And nothing too complicated for powerups.

Try Gradius III on the Gradius III and IV disc for PS2. You can actually set the amount of slowdown you want, since the PS2 is capable of running the game faster than it ran on the original arcade board.

Anyway, all that slowdown on the NES version? Gone. (Or at least, the vast majority is.)