Any SHMUP recommendations to play

[nexy]

Crimzon Clover
Dodonpachi Saidaioujou
Blue Revolver
Zero Ranger
Devil Blade Reboot

 

[bjork]

Undeadline for the mega drive

 

[Boog111]

You may want to try Gunbird 1 or 2.

 

[Merlin Yggdrasill]

Turned 40 on wednesday so time to deep dive into games i may have missed growing up.

Vertical shooters are my thing think aero fighters, capcoms 1940s shooters and super aleste.

I recommend these ones:

Cotton 2: Magical Night Dreams (Saturn Tribute or Saturn Emulator)
Crisis Force
Dragon Fighter
Dragon Spirit: The New Legend
Fantasy Zone II: The Tears of Opa-Opa
Galaxy Policewoman Legend Sapphire (TG-CD)
GG Aleste
Gradius II: Goefer’s Ambition
It's Parodius! From Myth to Laughter (TG-16)
Kolibri
Lords of Thunder (TG-CD)
Märchen Adventure Cotton 100%
Panorama Cotton
Panzer Dragoon II Zwei
R-Type Delta
Space Harrier
Star Fox 64
Star Parodier (TG-CD)
Tatsujin (TG-16)
Yoshi's Safari

All absolutely fantastic games, mix of rail, vertical, horizontal, and bullet hell.

My favorite shooters of all time are Parodius on Turbo 16 and Lords of Thunder. Turbo 16 and Turbo CD were an absolute hub for shooters.

 

[bemily]

Salamander aka Life Force. Also, if you wanna stay vertical you could look at Zeta Wing 1 & 2.

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

Turned 40 on wednesday so time to deep dive into games i may have missed growing up.

Vertical shooters are my thing think aero fighters, capcoms 1940s shooters and super aleste.

You MUST play Dodonpachi
Play any and all Dodonpachi
Play Ketsui too
And Battle Garegga

 

[Scotty]

I recommend Trouble Shooter (or Battle Mania as it's more common referred to as). It's a criminally underrated shooter with an interesting partner mechanic and a phenomenal soundtrack.

 

[ZombieFish]

So, I’m gonna be the old-head and Suggest River Raid 1 & 2 on the 2600, just cause it’s cool to experience the origin of a genre, and they’re some of the very few 2600 games that hold up whatsoever. Throw Xevious in there too.

 

[Zerohour2k12]

has anyone who recommends einhander actually finished a run on it? i remember getting like halfway through thinking "damn i was probably near the final boss" and no i actually had like 20 minutes left to finish it. thats when i gave up. im not learning a full hour of patterns i dont have the mind for it. a practice mode would've been nice.

My shmup skills are like my fighting game skills, enthusiastic but ultimately not very good. Lmao

Same here. I remember it being real though but doable. The other reason why it stood out to me was, the one I had as a kid was a 2 in 1 disc with Submarine Commander lol. Not sure if it was bootleg or not.

 

[stealthRUSH stealthRUSH]

Plenty of solid titles already mentioned above. Taking in consideration you missed out playing this genre growing up I'll suggest games that are well-rounded (not manic shooters, super difficult) for beginners.

Since you prefer Vertical shooters I'll suggest

Soldier Blade
Gunhed / Blazing Lazers
Super Star Soldier
Override
Seirei Senshi Spriggan
Final Soldier
Phelios
Game Tengoku
Detana!! TwinBee
Blast Wind

and then Horizontal shooters I'll suggest

Gate of Thunder
Magical Chase
Gley Lancer
Thunder Force III, V, II, (IV is more challenging), AC/Spirits, VI
Forgotten Worlds
Down Load, 2
Gynoug / Wings of Wor
Arrow Flash
Fantasy Zone
Coryoon

 

[Max]

Night Raid on PS1

 

[DjQuick2008]

Mazinger Z
Zero Gunner 1 and 2

Played both of these today

Post automatically merged: Jun 5, 2025

You MUST play Dodonpachi
Play any and all Dodonpachi
Play Ketsui too
And Battle Garegga
View attachment 77283

some solid games there

 

[Graves Ruinwalker]

The Strikers-series is awesome .
Played with a friend back then non-stop Strikers 1945 ll and still to this day a blast .
Till you hit the normal difficulty and the game kicks your ass without any mercy . But still awesome .

 

[Varyag]

holy shit how did I miss this thread! I was summoned!

Turned 40 on wednesday so time to deep dive into games i may have missed growing up.

Vertical shooters are my thing think aero fighters, capcoms 1940s shooters and super aleste.

Since this genre is so big, and you do know a little bit, I'm not gonna throw the whole kitchen sink at you, the rest of the thread already did this for me lol. Between what you just mentioned and what I've been playing lately, I'm gonna recomment the rest of the Aero Fighters games, the Strikers 1945 series (and most stuff by Psikyo even if they're pretty hard) and Raiden Fighters games. I think they're all pretty good and somewhat similar to each other. Maybe some Toaplan games too, I have to mention Batsugun since it's even on my avatar.

Plenty of solid titles already mentioned above. Taking in consideration you missed out playing this genre growing up I'll suggest games that are well-rounded (not manic shooters, super difficult) for beginners.

Since you prefer Vertical shooters I'll suggest

Soldier Blade
Gunhed / Blazing Lazers
Super Star Soldier
Override
Seirei Senshi Spriggan
Final Soldier
Phelios
Game Tengoku
Detana!! TwinBee
Blast Wind

and then Horizontal shooters I'll suggest

Gate of Thunder
Magical Chase
Gley Lancer
Thunder Force III, V, II, (IV is more challenging), AC/Spirits, VI
Forgotten Worlds
Down Load, 2
Gynoug / Wings of Wor
Arrow Flash
Fantasy Zone
Coryoon

This list right here? absolute primo choices. Follow these recommendations, these games here are all very good. Almost all of these have home ports on the PC Engine, which is very easy to emulate.

 

[supershredder]

My favorites are anything Darius related (make sure to use the triple monitor resolution like the arcade, but play it on your biggest tv in the house), Deathsmiles, Air Zonk, Ikaruga, and Zanac x Zanac.

 

[DjQuick2008]

Hammering this you get it on PS Plus Premium

Post automatically merged: Jun 7, 2025

My favorites are anything Darius related (make sure to use the triple monitor resolution like the arcade, but play it on your biggest tv in the house), Deathsmiles, Air Zonk, Ikaruga, and Zanac x Zanac.

dariusburst on the PSP is extremely enjoyable.

Post automatically merged: Jun 7, 2025

 

[Michael Frank]

Zeroranger
Progear
Aero Fighters

 

[DjQuick2008]

Zeroranger
Progear
Aero Fighters

never heard of zero ranger other 2 are solid. what platform can i find zero ranger looks good.

Post automatically merged: Jun 7, 2025

holy shit how did I miss this thread! I was summoned!


Since this genre is so big, and you do know a little bit, I'm not gonna throw the whole kitchen sink at you, the rest of the thread already did this for me lol. Between what you just mentioned and what I've been playing lately, I'm gonna recomment the rest of the Aero Fighters games, the Strikers 1945 series (and most stuff by Psikyo even if they're pretty hard) and Raiden Fighters games. I think they're all pretty good and somewhat similar to each other. Maybe some Toaplan games too, I have to mention Batsugun since it's even on my avatar.


This list right here? absolute primo choices. Follow these recommendations, these games here are all very good. Almost all of these have home ports on the PC Engine, which is very easy to emulate.

Psiyko games are wonderful

Post automatically merged: Jun 7, 2025

Post automatically merged: Jun 7, 2025

Only discovered this 2 days ago plan to buy it on PS store.

Post automatically merged: Jun 7, 2025

Currently playing through Angel at Dusk PC and Sonic Wings PS1. I'd recommend
Drainus
Gigawing
Sine Mora
Ikaruga
Radiant Silvergun
Deathsmiles
Mushihimesama
Shikondo
The Raiden Series
Raystorm and RayCrisis
Einhander.

Hooked on raiden at the moment. Raiden V is on offer on PS Store for under £10 will get it tonight.

 

[Giggling Tilly]

PCs are rarely considered a SHMUP platform, but don't you even dare to forget about Tyrian! It's a criminally underrated gem.

 

[DjQuick2008]

Been on this tonight looks fantastic.

Post automatically merged: Jun 7, 2025

Mazinger Z

Post automatically merged: Jun 7, 2025

Playing this one right now.

Post automatically merged: Jun 7, 2025

First time playing this is lit.

 

[Sonic Boomer]

Psyvariar 2, in fact I finally got around to reviewing the game on my channel
Psyvariar 2 is a masterpiece, but it is so unknown outside of shmup communities it's insane, it had no reviews on youtube until I made this one, plenty of gameplay, sure but no reviews.

That and Psyvariar Delta on Switch too, tho that does have youtube reviws it's not as unknown.
Psyvariar Delta is a compilation of several variants of the first Psyvariar game.

The reason I love both these games so much is because of their unique, beautiful atmosphere and music, gameplay is also very addictive but what's real fun about them is you can either play them as regular shmups OR if the proper way of playing them clicks with you, you can do that and you will find both Psyvariar and Psyvariar 2 super addictive once you understand how to properly play them.

 

[DjQuick2008]

Need to play this

Post automatically merged: Jun 10, 2025

Psyvariar 2, in fact I finally got around to reviewing the game on my channel
Psyvariar 2 is a masterpiece, but it is so unknown outside of shmup communities it's insane, it had no reviews on youtube until I made this one, plenty of gameplay, sure but no reviews.

That and Psyvariar Delta on Switch too, tho that does have youtube reviws it's not as unknown.
Psyvariar Delta is a compilation of several variants of the first Psyvariar game.

The reason I love both these games so much is because of their unique, beautiful atmosphere and music, gameplay is also very addictive but what's real fun about them is you can either play them as regular shmups OR if the proper way of playing them clicks with you, you can do that and you will find both Psyvariar and Psyvariar 2 super addictive once you understand how to properly play them.

Great discovery im on this. Thank you

Post automatically merged: Jun 10, 2025

Psyvariar 2, in fact I finally got around to reviewing the game on my channel
Psyvariar 2 is a masterpiece, but it is so unknown outside of shmup communities it's insane, it had no reviews on youtube until I made this one, plenty of gameplay, sure but no reviews.

That and Psyvariar Delta on Switch too, tho that does have youtube reviws it's not as unknown.
Psyvariar Delta is a compilation of several variants of the first Psyvariar game.

The reason I love both these games so much is because of their unique, beautiful atmosphere and music, gameplay is also very addictive but what's real fun about them is you can either play them as regular shmups OR if the proper way of playing them clicks with you, you can do that and you will find both Psyvariar and Psyvariar 2 super addictive once you understand how to properly play them.

Psyvariar for the PS2 is lit enjoying it.

Post automatically merged: Jun 10, 2025

 

[DanCalibur]

I'm playing Gradius 1 on the PC Engine for the last two months and I won't give up until I see the end. It's quite addictive once you get the hang of it, and it was also first released for the arcades in 1985 so Happy 40th Anniversary

 

[Segadude113]

Burning Force by Namco for Sega Genesis, Space Marauder by Taxan for Game Boy Color, Thunder Force AC and Lightening Force from the Thunder Force Gold 2 collection on Sega Saturn (or play the SEGA AGES versions on Switch)

 

[DjQuick2008]

Post automatically merged: Jun 10, 2025

Post automatically merged: Jun 10, 2025

Psyvariar 2, in fact I finally got around to reviewing the game on my channel
Psyvariar 2 is a masterpiece, but it is so unknown outside of shmup communities it's insane, it had no reviews on youtube until I made this one, plenty of gameplay, sure but no reviews.

That and Psyvariar Delta on Switch too, tho that does have youtube reviws it's not as unknown.
Psyvariar Delta is a compilation of several variants of the first Psyvariar game.

The reason I love both these games so much is because of their unique, beautiful atmosphere and music, gameplay is also very addictive but what's real fun about them is you can either play them as regular shmups OR if the proper way of playing them clicks with you, you can do that and you will find both Psyvariar and Psyvariar 2 super addictive once you understand how to properly play them.

it should have been big ive noticed theres barely any youtube comments. insaneeee.