Shoot-Em Ups

[burningdoom]

One of my favorite genres! Are you a fan? What got you into them? What are some of your favorites in the genre?

When I originally got my NES as a wee lad Star Soldier was amongst the games I got with it. Played the hell out out of the game. Loved it. Still own it to this day. Ever since then I've loved a good shoot-em up game. (Though I can't say I'm a big fan of the bullet hell stuff that came out years later.)

Some of my favorites:

-Darius Series
-Dragon Spirit
-Gradius Series
-Legendary Wings
-Lords of Thunder
-Raiden Series
-Sky Force Series
-Star Soldier Series
-Strikers: 1945
-Thunder Force Series
-Tyrian 2000

[nicolauscamp]

I would suggest ANYTHING made by Cave. They are the masters of bullet hell shmups and they are so much fun to play!
Deathsmiles in particular would get my highest recommendation, and also LiveWire have released three of their games on the Switch as well... DoDonPachi Resurrection, Espgaluda II and Mushihimesama. All come highly recommended!

[bikingjahuty]

I LOVE shmups!


This is probably a bit overkill, but here are some of the best that I'd recommend playing:


[44] Radiant Silvergun (Saturn)
[44] Battle Garegga (PS4)
[43] Layer Section (Saturn)
[42] Dodonpachi (Saturn)
[42] Mushihimesama Futari (360)
[41] Soukyugurentai (Saturn)
[40] Armed Police Batrider (Arcade)
[39] Hyper Duel (Arcade)
[38] Dodonpachi Dai Ou Jou (Arcade)
[37] Raiden Fighters (360)
[37] Akai Katana (360)
[37] Ikaruga (Gamecube)
[37] Border Down (Dreamcast)
[37] Sorcerer Striker (Arcade)
[37] Thunder Force IV (Saturn)
[36] Sturmwind (Dreamcast)
[36] ESP Ra. De. (Arcade)
[36] Ghost Blade HD (PS4)
[36] Deathsmiles (360)
[36] Viper Phase 1 (Arcade)
[36] Keio Flying Squadron (Sega CD)
[36] Border Down (Dreamcast)
[36] Ketsui (PS3)
[35] Mars Matrix (Dreamcast)
[35] Under Defeat (PS3)
[35] RayStorm (PS2)
[35] Raiden Fighters 2 (360)
[35] Mushihimesama (PS2)
[35] Harmful Park (PS1)
[35] Trizeal (Dreamcast)

[Warmsignal]

I'm only into them casually. Gradius III SNES was among the first games I ever played, so I have a lot of nostalgia for that one. I like the Darius games, Phalanx, Silpheed, the Thunder Force games, Life Force etc. Even Silver Surfer, I kinda like as a janky one.

I'm not a big enough fan to go digging deep into game libraries to find them, and these days a lot of prices I couldn't justify buying them either.

[bizzgeburt]

Another Shoot'Em Up game I really enjoyed playing was "Truxton" for SEGA Genesis/Megadrive ... I highly recommend it!

[koemo1]

I love Raiden V, Dariusburst Chronicle Saviour and Battle Garegga on the PS4

[burningdoom]

Another Shoot'Em Up game I really enjoyed playing was "Truxton" for SEGA Genesis/Megadrive ... I highly recommend it!

Mark from Classic Game Room's favorite.

[undertakerprime]

2 years ago, I would have given a different answer.
I was never big into shmups. For years, my favorite ones were Axelay on SNES and Gradius Interstellar Assault on GB. I played Twin Cobra and Life Force on NES and they were alright. Had a hard time getting into Stinger. Gradius 3 was OK, R-Type was too damn hard. Never really played many other shmups; didn’t have any for Genesis and didn’t own a TG-16.

Then last Christmas I got a Coregrafx Mini….and my eyes were opened WIDE.
Huge multi-form bosses, badass screen-filling weapons…WOW.
Lords of Thunder almost immediately became my favorite shmup ever. Blazing Lazers, Soldier Blade and Seirei Senshi Spriggan were great. Star Parodier and Super Star Soldier, not quite as good but still fun. R-Type….too hard to be fun for me, but whatever. Still working on some of the others. These games made me wish I owned a TG16 back in high school.

Now, not every shmup appeals to me; I don’t like bullet-hell games and some shmups just don’t click, but at almost 50 years old, my interest in the genre has been rejuvenated, and it’s really exciting. I asked for a Genesis Mini 2 for this Christmas almost specifically BECAUSE of the shmups, like Truxton and Thunder Force IV. I’m open to any suggestions of games like the ones I said I liked here

[sworddude]

Another Shoot'Em Up game I really enjoyed playing was "Truxton" for SEGA Genesis/Megadrive ... I highly recommend it!

Mark from Classic Game Room's favorite.

it's sad that his channel is something totally different now.

was one of the better channels out there.

[bigbossman]

Some of my favorite Shoot'em ups are:

Arcade:
Raiden
Raiden II
Life Force / Salamander (The voices in this game are cool. "An intruder has penetrated our forcefield.")
Tiger Heli
Slap Fight
Time Pilot
1942

NES:
Sky Shark

Sega Master System:
Astro Warrior

Sega Genesis / Mega Drive:
Dangerous Seed (the music in this game is awesome)
Grind Stormer

SNES:
S.T.G. Strike Gunner (I love the amount of special weapons)
Gradius III
Super R-Type

[burningdoom]

Another Shoot'Em Up game I really enjoyed playing was "Truxton" for SEGA Genesis/Megadrive ... I highly recommend it!

Mark from Classic Game Room's favorite.

it's sad that his channel is something totally different now.

was one of the better channels out there.

Yep. Was the original YouTube game review show (at least the first consistent and successful one).

[Warmsignal]

I always appreciated how CGR was a more positive oriented review channel, finding the fun in games that were often written off or otherwise used as fodder for "angry game reviewers" who just shit on anything lesser known as a gimmick. You can find plenty of glowingly positive reviews for games which weren't expensive, or hard to find. These days, a lot of the games I've been picking up are ones that were featured on CGR.

It's so hard to find channels where people aren't just complaining endlessly about everything that's wrong with random games. Many believe that a game review channel needs to be a prolonged critique of bullets points, outlining 28 things that could have been done differently to make a game perfect. That's not a review in my estimation, that's just what I'd call annoying and tedious. Mark was always straight to the point; this is fun because it does what it's supposed to do. Good stuff.

[wartoy]

My favorites are

1943 nes
Gradius nes
Gradius snes
Un Squadron snes
Darius Twin snes
Space Megaforce snes
Steel Empire genesis
In the Hunt saturn
Death Smiles xbox360
Shine Mora EX  xbox/ps4

And many more two many to list.

[stealthrush]

STGs also one of my favorite genres! YES  . Good question, growing up as a kid-teenager I was into colorful 2D platform, fighting, and beat'em up games the most, traditional shoot'em ups fell by the wayside of my interests. In my head as a kid I thought they were straightforward, not innovative, or too difficult.

Things changed when I grew up..

Fast forward the last two decades I enjoy the genre quite a bit buying Castle Shikigami 2 for PS2 at launch for example. More recently decided to complete (NOT 1CC) my favorite games of the series- without any cheats, or excessive save feature, the old-school way. I keep track on my thread over at Howlongtobeat.

Hard to decide what my favorite sub-genre is I really enjoy traditional vertical, then horizontal style. Toaplan, Cave bullet hell that has more of a puzzle feel to them as well which are fun occasionally. Rail shooters, and Fixed shooters are not too shabby either. 

Love the original gameplay from Treasure developer especially on Radiant Silvergun, Ikaruga, and Bangai-O! The CLASSICS: Graidus, Parodius, Darius, R-Type all fantastic. Although MY favorite would have to be:

- ESP Ra.De.
- Image Fight, Image Fight II
- Star Solider series
- Down Load, Down Load II
- Thunder Force series
- Blazing Lazers /GUNHED
- TwinBee series
- Advanced Busterhawk Gleylancer / Gleylancer
- AIR ZONK /PC Denjin
- Gate of Thunder, Lords of Thunder
- DonPachi series
- Mushihimesama series
- COTTON series
- Elemental Master
- Ray series /Layer Section series
- Twinkle Star Sprites, La Petite Princesse
- SUPER AIR ZONK /CD Denjin
- Espgaluda series
- Terra Driver /Soukyugurentai, Oubushutsugeki
- Mr. Heli