Shmups

OK, I haven't been around here much lately because I've rediscovered my love for shooter v**** games. It started with a pre-gaming conversation with Frank Branham and the erstwhile and elusive Billy Motion where we wound up rapping about old school 2D shooters like Raiden, Darius, R-Type, Gaiares, etc. So I dug around a little, fired up MAME, and now I'm eyeball deep in a billion bullets.

Good god, are any of you guys into this stuff? If you're not, and you like action games, then you're missing out. All those old Cave games are _amazing_...GUWANGE,
ESP RA.DE, DODONPACHI, PROGEAR...some of this shit is so freakin' hard (ahem, MARS MATRIX) I can't believe it. But that's one of the things that makes these games so cool- you're looking at a screen literally filled with bullets and somehow you manage to scrape by and survive. There's so much tension, and it's all skill when you pull it off.

I've gotten a few of the VC ones too...I adore LORDS OF THUNDER, especially with that faux-Dio soundtrack wailing away. And GUNSTAR HEROES even has a little board game element.

Any that I might be missing?

Not a MAME game, but if you can pick up an Amiga emulator my favourite old-school shooting game has to be Xenon 2: Megablast.

Hey! Thanks to you posting this thread I've just discovered there's an updated freeware PC version available! Check this out ...

www.bitmap-brothers.co.uk/features/xenon2000/index.htm

Lacks the brilliant soundtrack of the original, but boy am I going to be downloading that the minute I get home!

What's MAME?

I like these kinds of games, but prefer the bottom/top scrolling over the left/right scrolling ones. Both styles are fun though.

MAME is your new best friend. It's an arcade emulator. Basically any arcade game you've ever played you can play in Windows. I think it's mamedev.net?

Downloading Xenon now...

I've just found these interesting indie Japanese shooters...top down...check out this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go-0dm14Hsw

Shooters! Brings back memories.



Xevious
Gradius
MagMax
Lifeforce
Gradius III
R-Type
Giga Wing (HARD AS SHIT)
Earth Defense Force
1942 series
Lords of Thunder
Sol Feace
Afterburner
Space Harrier
Section Z
Raiden
Silpheed


That doesn't even get into the "run n' gun" shooters...

Gunstar Heroes
Commando
Mercs
Smash TV
Total Carnage
Heavy Barrel

and the best of ALL time...


Ikari Warriors

Tyrian was the side-scrolling shooter I played most recently (several months ago). Great fun.

See, you guys are talking about all these old ones...those are awesome, no doubt...but this new stuff...I'm fairly sure the meaning of life can be divined from these bullet patterns-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nscP9QpXoFM&feature=related

GIGA WING "hard as shit"? Ha ha!

IKARI WARRIORS rocked...I even liked that stupid sequel with all the alien crap. "C'mon, let's fight!" Those need to hit virtual console...

GUNSTAR HEROES is probably the best of run n' gun...although the entire METAL SLUG canon can't be ignored...

Hrm? Giga Wing IS hard as shit. The Dreamcast version even allowed infinite continues and it took probably a billion just to make it through the entire game. There are times when the board is nothing but bullets.

I keep meaning to hunt down an emulated Radiant Silvergun, I think that's on one of the virtual consoles for consoles. I've always heard great stuff about that game.

But I haven't followed shooters in quite awhile, so my list is mostly old stuff. I agree there's probably some great stuff out there now but none of it's high profile, so I've missed out on most of it.

Many a quarter got sucked up by 1942 and Xevious. Although my favorite was Star Wars.

I'll have to try GIGAWING again...I had it on (ahem) CDR for Dreamcast...didn't play it that much, but I don't remember it being as manic as some of these new ones.

I can't get RADIANT SILVERGUN to run in emulation. It's supposedly the GREATEST EVAR, and it does look pretty great.

Michael Barnes wrote:

I'll have to try GIGAWING again...I had it on (ahem) CDR for Dreamcast...didn't play it that much, but I don't remember it being as manic as some of these new ones.

I can't get RADIANT SILVERGUN to run in emulation. It's supposedly the GREATEST EVAR, and it does look pretty great.

Wha...? Burned Dreamcast games?!? I'm CALLIN' THA COPS!



...I'll have to hide my stash first, of course.

Been thinking about this.

My favourite shmups in the arcade were Gryzor (known as Contra in the US, I believe) and Nemesis. Well worth checking out if you don't know them.

If we're on a MAME trip it's also worth taking a look at Wonder Boy in Monster Land (nearest thing ever to an RPG in a coin-op) and Splatterhouse which is probably the sickest, most disturbing thing ever to grace an arcade machine.

What did you think of Xenon? It's better with the music ...

XENON looks pretty good...good graphics, good music...it's just really, really slow! It's very old fashioned...full-sprite hitbox, shield meter...not bad at all, but after playing PERFECT CHERRY BLOSSOM ( http://www.doujinstyle.com/touhou/perfectcherryblossom.php ) it's like flying through molasses.

CONTRA is a masterpiece...I've probably beaten that more than other game, and at the arcade no less. SUPER CONTRA was even better.

I thought about getting SPLATTERHOUSE on VC...I had it on TurboGrafx (yes, I was one of fifteen people who had one and yes, I owned CHINA WARRIOR).

Thunderforce III for Genesis was a fave. I have the levels permanently etched into my brain, so every few years I'll play the game and beat it without any trouble. Another favorite was Alpha Mission 2 for Neo Geo...I think the graphics and scaling effects blew me away at the time, but I'm sure they seem dated now.

The only relatively recent shooter I've played is R-Type Final, which is visually amazing but didn't hold my interest.

For a Contra type of game, Alien Hominid is a very fun cartoonish romp. It was originally a Newgrounds flash game that grew really popular, and eventually it became a fully-developed console game. Highlights include biting the heads off of soldiers, picking them up and throwing them at other enemies, and beaming them up in a UFO then dropping them into a woodchipper.

See my profile for the awesome joystick I use for MAME games.