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Best SHMUPs (any platform)

shihonage

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Bubbles In Memoria
River Raid for ATARI 800XL was awesome.
 

Wizfall

Cipher
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816
Play old school dude, play Xenon 2 Megablast by the Bitmap Brother !
Maybe not the best out there but one you will never forget because it's simply the most original and classy of them all !
And that killer music....Bomb The Bass !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0JwQv0eVDA
 

Gragt

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Serpent in the Staglands Divinity: Original Sin
I'm not too fond of the genre but I enjoy Jamestown a lot. Also I got a soft spot for Parodius.



Edit: seriously, what the fuck?
 

circ

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These were great too




every gunsmoke machine I ran across had the difficulty always set to max. It swallowed coins.

EDIT: oh oh. This was a really interesting take on the genre.

 

gromit

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Ikaruga - Dreamcast (you can play with an emulator). Another japanese title. This one is a bit weird. It has an iteresting mechanic centered around switching the colour of your ship between black and white. You absorb bullets that are of the same colour as your ship, while the opposite colour kills you.
You forgot the final twist: you do double-damage against opposite-colored ships, so there's the reward to go with your risk. The time saved, given how elaborate, hypnotic, and deceptive the fly-in and fly-by patterns can get, also plays into the focal-point of scoring: a "chain" system where you get an exponential multiplier increase for killing enemies "in threes" (B-B-B, W-W-W, etc.)

It's slow and "easy" on easy, faster on hard, and on medium throws in the twist of opposite-colored enemies exploding into opposite-colored shrapnel that opposite-colored fucks you up. Really thoughtful game, the opportunity for fantastic teamwork in co-op (planning color / side switches, playing "you cover I'll fire" etc.) Bullet-hell purists just fuckin' hate it because it wants to be played and enjoyed in a different way, by more people. Don't listen to them: it's like a really dedicated Battletoads fan bad-mouthing SMW.

It's also by Treasure. You should play all of their shooters. Including Bangaioh, which mixes directional shooting, gravity, and just a little bit of platforming.

But my second favorite for NAOMI / Dreamcast is definitely Zero Gunner 2, which uses its pivoting mechanic in a great way, where you can either unravel the puzzle of the "optimal flythrough," desperately react in the nick of time, or screw yourself over a thousand times by flying backwards into a laser beam.

(start at 4:20 for some great examples... why no "t=4m20s" with the WYSIWYG embedder?)


Everybody needs to be occasionally reminded of the Kenta Cho experiments (check the Windows section for stuff that even comes close to bordering on tradition.) My favorites of his are:

rRootage (an infinite boss rush with many "familiar" game modes to choose from)
GunRoar (a boat-based shooter -- pretty clearly meant to be played with one stick for steering, one for shooting)
Tumiki Fighters (pick apart enemy craft piece by piece, catch the pieces before they fall and they stick to you = variable firepower and a few layers of potential shielding; both very procedural and well-collisioned)
Noiz2sa (just good, tight, clear, and simple shooter dedicated to pattern traversal -- holding a button down gives finer control)

They're not without their flaws, but they're really, really good. That said, I obviously have a soft spot for different and/or mechanically interesting shooters.

 
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necroing this because Akai Katana (Cave's latest shmup that was ported to the XBOX 360) got recently cracked and is running natively on PCs now. Unfortunately I get a lot of input lag with it for some reason, not sure if it's due to the launcher that I'm using or something else.

Anyone else playing it?
 

Rostere

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PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 RPG Wokedex Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
necroing this because Akai Katana (Cave's latest shmup that was ported to the XBOX 360) got recently cracked and is running natively on PCs now. Unfortunately I get a lot of input lag with it for some reason, not sure if it's due to the launcher that I'm using or something else.

Anyone else playing it?

Assuming it's a good SHMUP, it would be unplayable with input lag.
 
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Yes I realize that, that's why I asked if anyone was playing it so we could compare experiences. I'm not sure if the latency is introduced by the loader or what.
 
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I've rediscovered a game I used to like a lot 20 years ago - Gradius Gaiden. In my opinion, it's the best Gradius ever. Looks amazing, the soundtrack is great, it's pretty hard - and the stages are varied. Getting back into the hang of things, I only managed to reach Stage 5 today (it's biomechanic/Salamander themed). Gonna try for the 1CC.
gradiusgaidenjv1.1slpazrr8.jpg
 

bussinrounds

Augur
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Jun 9, 2011
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473
Gaiden is def the shit. I like how they let you set up the stages for your power ups how you want.

5 seems pretty good too from what I've played of it so far.
 
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I love 5, I think it's the second best Gradius ever. It's too bad I can't play it because I don't have a PS2 anymore (I actually own the original game), and PCSX2 has hideous input lag that makes playing shmups with it impossible.
 

Jacob

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Grab the Codex by the pussy
Gradius Gaiden OST is awesome


I used to hang out with nerds older (about 5+ years) than I am, they got me into shmup and showed me this game though I never really get good at it. I got into uni, I rarely see them again after that.
 
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You posted a song from the Darius Gaiden OST, not Gradius. That's not a problem though, because Zuntata is also awesome!

In other news, I've been playing a lot of Raiden DX. Raiden is such a kickass fucking series - no bullshit, just pure shmup fun. It's tough as balls but doesn't resort to filling the screen with slow ass bullets - bullets are lightning fast and aimed at you. The music is great. Played a lot of Raiden 1/2 during the early PSX days (I remember there was a port called Raiden Project or some shit), but the loading was pretty bad.

Raiden Fighters is also a kickass series. Even the more recent games by MOSS are pretty good, Raiden IV especially.

 
Last edited:
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Right now I'd have to say my favourite shmup that got recently released for the PC is Crimzon Clover: World Ignition. I've had it for like 3 years but I had never given it proper attention in the past for one reason or another.

It's like a turbocharged version of DoDonpachi but with less autistic scoring. Graphics are great, soundtrack is kickass, it's got a bunch of modes, runs on a toaster and it's $10 on Steam. What more could you ask for?


:love:
 

Jacob

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Grab the Codex by the pussy
I know you're talking about Gradius, it's just Darius Gaiden just happened to came into my mind at the time.

Crimzon Clover is great, but soundtrack wise I've always preferred DoDonpachi's
 

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