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March 28, 2024, 10:36:37 PM

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Let's talk about Shoot 'em ups...what's the best Shmup ever?

Started by captaincockring, August 23, 2016, 01:11:02 AM

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EFB

Hellfire on the megadrive was very good. Great soundtrack too.

Bhazor

Gradius V is precison tooled shoot em up perfection. Albeit with the bizzare choice of using unskippable cutscenes.

That said I think Pocky&Rocky 2 holds a special place in my heart that will never be displaced.

Quote from: EFB on August 23, 2016, 04:34:00 PM
Hellfire on the megadrive was very good. Great soundtrack too.

A rare example of the console music being better than the arcade version...that's a Toaplan classic too, my favourites.

Quote from: Bhazor on August 23, 2016, 04:50:54 PM
Gradius V is precison tooled shoot em up perfection. Albeit with the bizzare choice of using unskippable cutscenes.

That said I think Pocky&Rocky 2 holds a special place in my heart.

I don't know I usually despise cut scenes, but the ones in Gradius V are very atmospheric...I got quite good at that game once...never 1cc'd it though.


Van Dammage

#34
The Dreamcast had some amazing ones. I've lost count of how many hours I've clocked playing Zero Gunner 2.

Quote from: Van Dammage on August 23, 2016, 05:27:33 PM
The Dreamcast had some amazing ones. I've lost count of how many hours I'v clocked playing Zero Gunner 2.

I like that loads...I forget about Psikyo, it's got really nice gameplay as you swing your chopper round.

thraxx

I stopped playing these at the arse end of the Amiga days, when Champ Man came and lay waste to everything else in my life.  So then:

Xenon 2 is hard to beat in terms of music, graphics or gameplay. Better than R Type, i think.

Mentions to:  forgotten worlds, swiv and turrican, if that counts.

madhair60

Quote from: captaincockring on August 23, 2016, 06:08:09 PM
it's got really nice gameplay as you swing your chopper round.

Way-hey! (Sorry)

Now I'm home I've booted up MAME so I can post a few of my faves:

Armed Police Batrider
Blaster (a more obscure Williams game - not strictly a shmup, but looks like all videogames should look)
Boogie Wings/The Great Ragtime Show (I might be conflating two seperate games here)
Cottom Boomerang
Darius Gaiden
Oh, and G-Darius!
Deathsmiles (probably my favourite Cave game, due to my preference for horizontal shmups in general)
ESP Ra.De.
Espgaluda for that matter.
Fantasy Zone and the System 16 version of Fantasy Zone 2, and Super Fantasy Zone

List tbc, maybe


Morrison Lard

Quote from: thraxx on August 23, 2016, 06:42:10 PM
Xenon 2 is hard to beat in terms of music, graphics or gameplay.
Fo shizzle. Fucking superb.

As is Matt Lucas' favourite 1942.

Mango Chimes

Quote from: hewantstolurkatad on August 23, 2016, 03:47:24 AMSo able to give me any elaboration on my radiant silvergun experience? Did shmups just become extremely niche after that generation?

A big part of it being legendary (I've never played it) is that it was incredibly difficult to get hold of.  Not sure if it was ever released over here on the Saturn, and thereafter the Saturn was basically impossible to emulate forever due to its super weird architecture (apparently).

Quote from: madhair60 on August 23, 2016, 09:04:53 PM

Blaster (a more obscure Williams game - not strictly a shmup, but looks like all videogames should look)


I've always thought that too about the look of videogames.

Nice list...top tip if you haven't play Dogyuun, it's seriously good...oh and Batsugun.

It's got a really good soundtrack.

Boogie Wings and that other game are the same game.


Mango Chimes

Quote from: captaincockring on August 23, 2016, 01:17:24 PMYes that's the major problem with it, well identified...you can pull of feats of speed that simply shouldn't be possible...a bit cheaty imo.

Massively disagree on this. I never liked those sort of shoot-em-ups until I played Espgaluda II, and it's just the perfect control mechanism for them.  Not so much the speed thing as being able to delicately weave through gaps.  Going back to juddering joystick taps after that level of control feels retrograde.

Cave being unable to make money of it's magnificent iOS ports is evidence of a massive problem with the App Store. They tried straight-up paid, they tried with IAPs...  Last year, they snuck one out completely unregionalised with advertising and an unusually unobjectionable grinding mechanic.  Which was great until they broke it with an update which implemented banner ads which interrupted the game, and they haven't updated it again.

I'm not saying they didn't feel good to play, far from it...they feel too good.

There's hardly any tactile feedback at all though, the act of shooting fast is for me one of the main things to enjoy.

Having it all done for you feels like cheating...just waving your hand across a screen most of the time totally obscuring the game...

Mango Chimes

Quote from: captaincockring on August 23, 2016, 10:16:02 PMjust waving your hand across a screen most of the time totally obscuring the game...

Ah, no: play it bordered, your thumb/finger controlling it from the bottom of the screen, the playing area unobscured. Deathsmiles is the only one you can't play like that (and as such, the one I didn't bother with.)

Eight Taiwanese Teenagers

Zynaps on the Spectrum 128

The ZX Spectrum version of Zynaps was reviewed in the August 1987 issue of Your Sinclair, receiving 9/10 and being described as "smooth and slick". CRASH magazine awarded it a CRASH Smash in issue 42.

Black Ship

I had Nemesis on the Game Boy when I was younger. Can't remember too much but it did have surprisingly funky music.

Quote from: Black Ship on August 24, 2016, 12:28:27 AM
I had Nemesis on the Game Boy when I was younger. Can't remember too much but it did have surprisingly funky music.

Nemesis is what Gradius was called over here...and I had the gameboy version too, in fact I've still got it.

Quote from: thraxx on August 23, 2016, 06:42:10 PM
I stopped playing these at the arse end of the Amiga days, when Champ Man came and lay waste to everything else in my life.  So then:

Xenon 2 is hard to beat in terms of music, graphics or gameplay. Better than R Type, i think.

Mentions to:  forgotten worlds, swiv and turrican, if that counts.

Going to have to disagree with you about that, unless of course you mean the Amiga version of R-Type.

Xenon 2 is just another western shooter to me...where your ship is too big and the bullets are too fast, they all have an essential jerkiness to them...at least to me they do.

I do love Turrican 1 + 2 though...I had the original c64 version first and they were they final nail in the c64vsSpectrumvsAmstrad coffin...no way the others were matching the c64 version.

Has anyone here tried Super Turrican on the NES?

Quote from: Van Dammage on August 23, 2016, 05:27:33 PM
The Dreamcast had some amazing ones. I've lost count of how many hours I've clocked playing Zero Gunner 2.

The one game I'm going to miss on my Dreamcast now it's died forever is Gigawing 2...I love that game, thats by another splinter off Toaplan.

Sivead

Juno First arcade is simple but addictive, like a Galaga you can scroll up and down and looks a lot like Radar Scope.  I love Blaster and I.Robot too. The Taito Type X has some fun cool looking ones , that Trouble Witches AC is a nutty looking break from the space themes.

Quote from: Sivead on August 24, 2016, 01:01:06 AM
Juno First arcade is simple but addictive, like a Galaga you can scroll up and down and looks a lot like Radar Scope.  I love Blaster and I.Robot too. The Taito Type X has some fun cool looking ones , that Trouble Witches AC is a nutty looking break from the space themes.

I Robot is a fascinating game, so many groundbreaking firsts...but it gets credit for so few of them.

Yep I like all them good taste.

Been having fun with Nuclear Throne the past few months. Frustrating at times but largely fun.

Quote from: clingfilm portent on August 24, 2016, 02:42:48 PM
Been having fun with Nuclear Throne the past few months. Frustrating at times but largely fun.

What's that on?

lazarou


Quote from: lazarou on August 24, 2016, 03:19:23 PM
It's out for basically every modern system I think.

Oh it's a roguelike...I get annoyed with them...they demand too much play.

Ambient Sheep

#55
No surprise that most of my favourites have already been taken, but I have two more that haven't.

But yes, I came to this thread to say Defender, no surprise really that it was the first reply. :-)

Robotron 2084 is a worthy runner-up, and only a fag-paper between them, but for me Defender will always be the most iconic.  Stargate (a.k.a. Defender II) has some nice ideas, but somehow just doesn't "work".  It tries too hard, and has baffling decisions like changing the ship explosion from one of the most beautiful things in all of video gaming to something that looks like a big zit being squeezed from above and below in zero gravity.

If you read about the history of Defender, you learn that many of the best bits of the game weren't designed by Eugene Jarvis at all... but by another guy who got bought onto the project later on: Sam Dicker, who was responsible for the sound effects and the distinctive particle explosions; 'nuff said.  Maybe that's why Stargate sucked so much, because as far as I know he wasn't part of that team...

I did love Xenon 2 Megablast on the PC, but have found it rather lacklustre on other platforms.

Two other fantastic shoot-'em-ups for me were Tempest and Gorf, although I'm prepared to concede that the latter might be more due to personal memories than absolute quality.  Heaps of fun though, which after all is what counts. :-)

[EDIT: I suppose some of Jeff Minter's creations should get a mention in this post too, come to think of it.]

But yes, my one desert island shoot-'em-up has to be Defender...


lazarou

Talking about old classics, I love the sheer speed and oppressiveness of Sinistar, but sadly I'm absolute gash at it.

Quote from: lazarou on August 24, 2016, 04:37:13 PM
Talking about old classics, I love the sheer speed and oppressiveness of Sinistar, but sadly I'm absolute gash at it.

Love that game...love it...I'm shit at it too, I think it's just really hard.

Do you like Time Pilot?

Ambient Sheep

Quote from: lazarou on August 24, 2016, 04:37:13 PM
Talking about old classics, I love the sheer speed and oppressiveness of Sinistar, but sadly I'm absolute gash at it.

Can't stand the vague wobbly movement-control on it, although maybe that's just 'cos I'm shit at it too!

Quote from: Ambient Sheep on August 24, 2016, 04:45:20 PM
Can't stand the vague wobbly movement-control on it, although maybe that's just 'cos I'm shit at it too!

The arcade original had a spinner joystick...not easy to emulate at all.