Shumps aka Shoot 'em Ups

CCCP^

Everybody who has been playing games long enough probably started playing either fighting games or shoot'em ups in the arcades, and if you were lucky, on a home console. Seems a little strange then that this genre is now a relic of what once was. I like most of the games I play nowadays to be instantly playable (just action), and I keep coming back again and again to the shoot 'em up.

There's still a few recent ones going around - Ikaruga, R-Type Final, the Red Star, Gradius V and some homebrew shoot'em ups on the DC. Anyone played any other recent ones?

What were the best shoot'em ups ever? I'll start by saying the 1945 series of games was pretty good and X2 looked great and was very difficult.

humanji

I'll second 1945 and the R-Types. I lost a lot of money in those machines. There's loads more I could add, but I honestly don't remember the names of most of them. I really miss arcades, now that I think of it. There's still loads of them about, but they're just not the same. *sigh*

Retr0gamer

I think everybody knows I love this genre. I have to say it's very lamentable that it's slowly dying with only a few niche companies keeping the scene going and the odd obscure release from japan. This genre was the FPS of it's day and was used to demonstrate the abilities of each machine. Nowadays people will dismiss them for the stupidest of reason without even having played them. They look old or 2D, which is a silly a reason as any and games like Ikaruga and Gradius V look far from old and boast some of the best graphics of their respective consoles. Recently tried to recommend Gradius V and it was dismissed for looking repetitive and samey which couldn't be further from the truth.

One sub genre of shmups I can't really stand are the bullet hell shooters. These games are just way too tough and no fun at all unless you are a shmup god. Dodonpachi and Mars Matrix are the only bullet hell shmups I enjoy because they are manageable and fair.

At least we still have companies like G.Rev and Treasure still pumping shmups out.

There really haven't been many decent shmups released since the Dreamcast died. The last truly great game was Gradius V, quite possibly the finest shmup ever crafted and as quite possibly the best PS2 game. R-type Final was completel scutter to be perfectly honest, boring level design and game ruining slowdown. Very disappointing considering Irem and R-types pedigree.

The dreamcast had a load of great shmups as well. Under Defeat is very simple but excellent and looks gorgeous (best explosions in a videogame ever!). Really liked Under Defeat as well. Of course then there's Ikaruga, really very original and probably the best designed shooter since R-type.

I have myself a Seag Saturn which is Mecca for Shmup fans. The best one is of course the legendary Radiant Silvergun, an absolute master piece of a game. Other games are worthy or as much praise such as, Soukyugurentai, Layer Section, Hyperduel, all the Parodius games, well I'll stop there could go on forever

The PS1 didn't have as many but it made up for the fact with quality. Einhander is superb and funnily enough comes from Squaresoft. R-type Delta is equally as brilliant as is G-Darius which has quite possibly the most epic boss fights of any game.

Some of my older favourites are:

R-tpye (arcade)
Gradius 2 (arcade)
Salamander (arcade)
Axelay (SNES)
Super Aleste (SNES)
Thundeforce 3 and 4 (Megadrive)
Musha Aleste (megadrive)
19XX (arcade)

To list a few.

Any fans should get on to playasia and preorder themselves a copy of Thunderforce VI for the PS2 which is out in October.

CCCP^

I've never heard of bullet hell before but i have played games that were impossible. Darius Twin on the Super Nintendo was one.

I have or had at one point Darius Twin, Super R-Type, R-Type Final, Slipheed, Gunbird 1 & 2, Hellfire, X2 and Mobile Light Force. The latter I just managed to find. Mobile Light Force IS Gunbird 1 with a Charlie's Angel cover, what the feck?

X2 is possibly the best I've played so far. I think you (Retrogamer) would like it considering there's no slowdown, no bullet hell. The graphics were sharp excellent colour (32,000!) and as every shump must the soundtrack is quite catchy.

After that I'd recommend Giga Wing but it did get crazy sometimes.

Retr0gamer

Darius Twin wouldn't be considered a bullet hell shmup. It would just be classified as ****.

Bullet Hell games are the games that throw a wall of pink bullets at you that you have to navigate through. At their best like with Dodonpachi they are really adrenaline pumping and make you seem better than you really are. At their worst you get crazy stuff like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nscP9QpXoFM

johnny_ultimate

^^^ video above is just...wow...

CCCP^

X2 Gameplay:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VN3IczD1NY

And a cool site all about shump's amongst other things. It's old, but then so are the games - http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~bevhome/damhome.htm

Retr0gamer

Ah! Project X2, was never a big fan off it, thought it was a bit too unfair at times and level design was a bit boring. There's far better on the Playstation. Give me Einhander, G-Darius or R-type Delta any day.

As for websites the best is by far shmups MK2 here:

http://www.shmups.com/

Hasn't been updated in a while but there's reviews of practically every shoot'em up ever in the xenocide files and the forums are very active.

Has anyone got a copy of The Reap on the PC? Had a demo of it ages ago and loved it but can't find it anywhere. It's on underdogs but their servers are really slow. It's giving me a download ETA of almost 3 days

Sarky

I have great memories of swearing in frustration at Project X (I think X2 was a follow-on from this, although I may be wrong) and Banshee (a gorgeous 1945-homage with aliens) on the Amiga. Plenty of others too. Stardust and Super Stardust were fantastic shooters. And I used to spend ridiculous amounts of time on various shareware versions of Galaga...

K.O.Kiki

Go here for high-scores and discussion.
Go here for general stuff.

Also check out InsertCredit, as there's usually some informative stuff there.

Lastly, ActionButton.net - some shmup love in here, too.

CCCP^

I picked up Capcom Classics Collection today, it has 1942, '43 and '43 kai, Forgotten Worlds, Mercs amongst others. I was looking online today and saw that there's a Taito collection which has G Darius also! Nyom!

Retr0gamer

Those Taito Legends collections are amazing and well worth picking up. Taito Legends 2 is the one you are after and by far the best although it doesn't have the legendary bubble bobble and Rainbow Islands. The price alone is worth it for G-Darius which is an amazing shoot'em up. The boss battles really are something else. Check out the Queen Fossil boss fight here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SppRkS_8skg

That Zuntata soundtrack is nothing short of awesome.
Definitely get Taito Legends 2 there's a rake of absolute classics on there including Darius Gaiden, Elevator Action Returns, Metal Black, Layer Section and Raystorm (Pity you have to choose layer section or G-Darius and Raystorm with the PS2 and Xbox versions since all 3 games are pretty much essential).

CCCP^

Wait, so G Darius is only on the Xbox version? I really want to play it but if it's Xbox only I'll pass, I don't have the room to have every console set up to be played straight away or the inclination for time and effort of pulling stuff out.

I remeber having a demo of G Darius on the PS1 which was savage, maybe I'll hunt it down.

Retr0gamer

Nope G-Darius is on the PS2 compilation as well as Raystorm. I think the reason being that those games were on Taito hardware that was based on the PS1. the only exclusive on the xbox is layersection/rayforce which is emulated perfectly on mame so your best to get the PS2 version.