Shmups! Options

[Fonzie]

For those who don't know what shmup is, its an acronym for shoot 'em up. It's the genre of video games where you control a vehicle or character and shoot at waves of enemies. Good examples are Space Invaders, Galaga, R-Type, and Gradius.

Anyone else into these types of games and also those manic shooters (i.e. the ones with a very very high bullet count)?

Shoot The Core has a good list of titles available for PC. Most of the download links take you to Japanese sites (which is to be expected) but google translator is usually enough to find the download button.

[Spidercarnage]

I am a big fan of Shoot them up games. Unfortunately it's quite a dead genre, some titles that come to mind:

Raiden I
Raiden II
Raiden DX
Raiden III
Raiden IV
GigaWing
GigaWin 2
Mars Matrix Hyper solid shooting
19XX
1944
1945
Contra
Contra II
Contra III

Just to name a few.

[Fonzie]

It started dying out when fighters came into the scene. Although it's still active in Japan. It looks like it might make a come back with Ikaruga being released on XBLA and Star Soldier R on WiiWare.

One of my old favourites is Hybris on the Amiga.

I also managed to get DoDonPachi and Raiden I & II working on my psp.

[Kaadu]

If you are looking for bullet hell type shooters, try the Touhou series!

Here are the main games to check out:
game number 7, Perfect Cherry Blossom
game number 8, Imperishable Night
game number 10, Mountain of Faith

However, being a one man project from japan, nearly all the Touhou characters are lolis .

[TheHeadSage]

So that's what Touhou is.

People keep mentioning it, but I keep forgetting to google it.

Might check it out.

One game I used to play constantly was Powermanga because it came with the Linux Distro I installed.

[Thunder Drum]

Though it was fun at the start, i found the touhou games became repedative very quickly. The most of the game was just shooting bosses which besides the bullet pattrens were almost exactly the same. The arcade bullet hell games of old would incoprerate different weapons as well as unique bosses making it more interesting to play.
I mainly stick to side scrollers, roleplay and puzzle games. they were much more entertaining just becasue it added another level to the game play.
I must say that the Contra series was one of the best Shumps produced. It incoperated both top down levels and side scrolling as well as a whole mess of guns.

Fonzie: does this mean you want another bout of WarTech?

[Fonzie]

I've tried out the demo versions of Perfect Cherry Blossom and Imperishable Night. The loli characters seem a bit strange for bullet hell but it's still fun. The intricate bullet patterns look interesting too.

Playing DoDonPachi on a small screen does not do it justice. However, it is worth playing it on the small psp screen when it can't be played on a big screen.

The shmups that I can think of don't have grinding the same way a few RPGs do. The good thing with shmups is that they can be quick to start up and get you straight into the action (but they can also be just as quick to end if you don't quite make it).

I would play another round of WarTech if it's played during the next console free play night, although I'm still a long ways off from mastering it.

It looks like XBLA has a few good shmup titles. The 360 might just be the current console for shmups.

[Lortarg]

Two of the better shmups that I have played on the PC are Raptor and Tyrian. If you can get a hold of Tyrian especially, check it out.
Another cool series, known for its huge fishlike bosses is Darius. G-Darius and Darius Gaiden we played a bit at deakin. Both are on PC and Playstation

The wii-ware shmups aren't looking that hot at the moment. Star Soldier R isn't bad, but its focused on beating scores not lots of levels and bosses.
Gyrostar is a cross between FZero and a shmup, but there aren't any bosses. Both got a 7/10 at wiiware-world, SSR because it has surprising depth and is actually fun. Gyrostar got so low because it is repetitive and doesn't have any bosses.
And the other one that is currently out, Prot?thea, got a 5/10. It was an average port of an average PC game. Hopefully we'll get something good on there soon, but for now it looks like it VC shmups or off to other consoles (or PC)

[Fonzie]

Tyrian and Raptor are one of the best ever made for the PC. Although I only got to play the demo versions of each.

You can download Tyrian and Tyrian2000 but I think a DOS-box is needed to run them. There is a homebrew version of Tyrian for the psp that I haven't gotten to work yet.

[Kaadu]

You can download Tyrian and Tyrian2000 but I think a DOS-box is needed to run them.

There is Open Tyrian a port of the original, which has releases for PC, Mac and quite a few consoles. Open Tyrian

[nikiwu]

I just downloaded Einhander for the PSX.. An interesting shootem up game that definately was made for the PSX.. A mixture of 2D and 3D elements in the gameplay.. I quite like it..

Here's some gameplay footage of a guy playing it..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Yn4semzHhc

[Lortarg]

Been playing a game called Ray Hound.
http://www18.big.or.jp/~hikoza/Prod/

Interesting take on the the shooting.
You have no gun. You use a gravity ability to sling the enemies bullets around your ship and back at the enemy.

Looks like it might be by the same group that did Warning Forever

[Fonzie]

Ray Hound is pretty damn fun. Interesting concept yet pretty quick to get the hang of.

[Lortarg]

Yeah, I keep coming back to it.
Can't get past level 15.

Found out if you move quick enough you get a blue glow and can ram the bullets back, which helps in some situations. But you have to do it correctly otherwise you get hit.

[Lortarg]

Well I managed to get up to level 19. Once.
Still can't get past 15.
If I had beat 19 I think I would have been able to start from 20 next time.

[Fonzie]

Did you know you can pick up the little turrets and use them as a shield? I think you need to be moving fast to get it to work.

I got up to level 16. I keep restarting level 10 because I know I won't get very far if it's not done perfectly.

[Lortarg]

I know you can move the turrets. Didn't know you could use it as a shield.
Once I got past level 15 I easily got to 19. But ran out of time.

[Fonzie]

Need more Danmaku shmups!

So far I've only got DoDonPachi and the demos of Perfect Cherry Blossom and Imperishable Night. I want to get Do-Don-Pachi Dai-Fukkatsu and Raiden IV. I am almost tempted to get an Xbox360...almost.

I see a few of the shmup sites rank Kamui, by Siter Skain, ranked as their personal favourite. I've played the demo and it is good. If only the demo wasn't too short.

Anyone else play shmups on any of the hand-held consoles?

Maybe I should run a small shmup competition sometime.

[Spidercarnage]

Raiden 3 was brilliant, i really want to play 4.

[Lortarg]

Just found out about this. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blast_Works
Its a remake of TUMIKI Fighters (by the guy that created rRootage, Gunroar, and Torus Trooper, which will also be on the disc) with extra stuff like 2-4 player cooperative mode, ship and level editors, and a "Hangar," which allows players (while inside) to purchase various ship upgrades.

TUMIKI Fighters and the other games mentioned are all free games available here