Shmups on a budget

[martylarson]

I recently purchased Gradius III and Darius Twin for the SNES, and I have an itch to play more good/better shmups. I payed about $13 combined for both Gradius III and Darius Twin, so I'm looking for affordable games. I currently own an NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, N64, PS2, Gamecube, and a Wii. What other shumps can I play without spending tons of money?

[blurks]

Super R-Type is usually pretty cheap as it was an early SNES title produced in large quantities. I'm also under the impression that some releases of the Thunder Force series for Sega Genesis are very affordable.

[bikingjahuty]

One word, MAME


I have played most shooters I've always wanted to play, but did not have the money to purchase through MAME and with only a few exceptions, they play flawlessly.


Their are certain titles that do not run well in MAME, for example the Sega ST-V titles like Radiant Silvergun and Soukyugurentai, which is a real shame since both are among the best SHMUPs ever made.


Also, there are several highly desired shmups on Steam that you can typically buy for cheap as well.

[burningdoom]

This has a bunch of fantastic shoot-em ups. Well worth it's value if you're a fan of the genre.

[bikingjahuty]

This has a bunch of fantastic shoot-em ups. Well worth it's value if you're a fan of the genre.

This is an EXCELLENT compilation! Yes get this! it is like $20 and if you were to guy each of the individual SHMUPs on there they'd go for $800+ combined.

[scoobs22]

Gradius and Life Force on the NES are both must-haves, and I don't think they're all that pricey. SNES is kind of a terrible system for shooters. I think Earth Defense Force is still affordable, and while it's not in my top 5, I think the value is there.

[burningdoom]

SNES is kind of a terrible system for shooters.

I've never understood why this mentality seemed to prevail on the internet when the SNES actually has a fine library of shmups. Some fantastic ones off the top of my head:

-Aero Fighters
-Axelay
-Darius Twin
-Gradius III
-R-Type III: Third Lightning
-Raiden Trad
-STG: Strike Gunner
-Super R-Type
-Thunder Spirits
-U.N. Squadron

I feel it's just a victim of it's time. In comparison to it's contemporaries, the Sega Genesis, and ESPECIALLY the TurboGrafx-16, yeah, the list comes up a little short. But compared to most systems in general, that's a fine library of blowing things up. It's just that those other 2 systems just happened to really specialize in shmups.

[pzeke]

N64

Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth

PS2

Mobile Light Force 2
Silpheed: The Lost Planet
Capcom Classics Collection 1 and 2
SNK Arcade Classic Volume 1
Castle Shikigami 2
R-Type Final
Raiden III
Taito Legends 2 (seriously!)
Sega Classics Collection

Wii

Castle of Shikigami III
Ultimate Shooting Collection
Blast Works (Quirky, but relatively fun)
Ocean Commander (So-so)
Saint (Very meh...)
Gradius Rebirth (WiiWare)
Star Soldier R (WiiWare)

There's some really good shmups for the NDS, too; Nanostray 1 and 2, Bangai-O Spirits, and Big Bang Mini come to mind.

Most of these are affordable, although some have gone up in price slightly. Of the whole list, I'd recommend Mobile Light Force 2, Castle Shikigami 2, and Silpheed: The Lost Planet, as they are quite cheap. Heck, R-Type Final for $15 is still a deal.

-Aero Fighters
-Axelay
-Darius Twin
-Gradius III
-R-Type III: Third Lightning
-Raiden Trad
-STG: Strike Gunner
-Super R-Type
-Thunder Spirits
-U.N. Squadron

Those are definitely some great shmups. AXELAY is love - been meaning to add it to my collection, but never find it at a right price.

Another one is Aero Fighters; I wish I could own it, but that's seemingly impossible. I remember renting it a lot back when Blockbuster was a thing.

[ignition365]

If I'm not mistaken, Phalanx is a shmup too, right?

[ferraroso]

What other shumps can I play without spending tons of money?

Just how much you'd consider a ton of money? I could recommend you the Japanese versions of Phelios or Tatsujin (Truxton) for the Mega Drive, for example, but since both of them cost around US$30.00, I am not sure if they would qualify as "budget"...

[pzeke]

If I'm not mistaken, Phalanx is a shmup too, right?

That it is. Best cover of all time, too. Could go for about $15-20 on eBay. I've seem people pick it up for a far better price while thrifting.

Another quite affordable shmup for the SNES is D-Force. Not the best, but certainly not the worst.

I mentioned the NDS, but the Game Boy handhelds also have some nice shmups, the GBA for instance has a few gems; Gradius Galaxies and Iridion II come instantly to mind. There's Battle Unit Zeoth, StarHawk, and Solar Striker for the Game Boy, and R-Type DX, Project S-11, and Space Marauder for the Game Boy Color. All of these are relatively cheap.

[telly]

You should consider BioMetal on the SNES. It's not very good, but it least it has 2 Unlimited as the soundtrack, so that's something? 

[maximo310]

STG Primer 101

First of all, if you are comfortable with emulation, I'd recommend MAME, which supports a vast majority of 2d shmups and some 3d shmups released in arcades ( some notable exceptions being the ST-V which had an ungodly amount of input lag, and Naomi which requires another emulator named Demul and a beefy computer).

If you are looking for physical copies instead, then your best bet are checking out the Xbox 360 with Raiden IV, Raiden Fighters Aces, Deathsmiles, Mushihimesama Futari, Akai Katana,  and the PS2 w/ the two Taito Legends compilation, and Castle Shikigami 2, Gradius III/IV, Gradius V.  Steam has a lot of indie stuff nowadays as well.

 Most of the other console systems don't have too much of a robust library, has titles which are available in a better format, or are just simply too expensive.

I'd highly reccomend the emulation route if you are testing out shmups. It makes it easier to determine what kinds of stgs you want to own and are more interested in. In addition, you can always check out shows for more in-depth analysis of a game such as STGWeekly ( a weekly stg podcast thingy which I'm currently a part of!)

[scoobs22]

SNES is kind of a terrible system for shooters.

I've never understood why this mentality seemed to prevail on the internet when the SNES actually has a fine library of shmups. Some fantastic ones off the top of my head:

-Aero Fighters
-Axelay
-Darius Twin
-Gradius III
-R-Type III: Third Lightning
-Raiden Trad
-STG: Strike Gunner
-Super R-Type
-Thunder Spirits
-U.N. Squadron

I feel it's just a victim of it's time. In comparison to it's contemporaries, the Sega Genesis, and ESPECIALLY the TurboGrafx-16, yeah, the list comes up a little short. But compared to most systems in general, that's a fine library of blowing things up. It's just that those other 2 systems just happened to really specialize in shmups.

For me it's mainly a matter of how slow-paced the SNES shooters are. They're beautiful to look at, but on average they're just boring compared to what we got on the MD/Genesis and TG16/PCE.

[maximo310]

SNES is kind of a terrible system for shooters.

I've never understood why this mentality seemed to prevail on the internet when the SNES actually has a fine library of shmups. Some fantastic ones off the top of my head:

-Aero Fighters
-Axelay
-Darius Twin
-Gradius III
-R-Type III: Third Lightning
-Raiden Trad
-STG: Strike Gunner
-Super R-Type
-Thunder Spirits
-U.N. Squadron

I feel it's just a victim of it's time. In comparison to it's contemporaries, the Sega Genesis, and ESPECIALLY the TurboGrafx-16, yeah, the list comes up a little short. But compared to most systems in general, that's a fine library of blowing things up. It's just that those other 2 systems just happened to really specialize in shmups.

For me it's mainly a matter of how slow-paced the SNES shooters are. They're beautiful to look at, but on average they're just boring compared to what we got on the MD/Genesis and TG16/PCE.

Some of the best horis on the SNES never even made it to the states such as Parodius Da, Gokujou Parodius, Twinbee, Macross: Scrambled Valkyrie. There's also Space Megaforce, which is better crafted than several other compile titles like gunhed ( blazing lasers) or musha.
Some of these have different modes or loops that keep difficulty high at a decent pace; space megaforce particularly excels at this with relatively little slowdown.