fave megadrive shmup?

[owari_da]

It's such shame that Gokujō Parodius was't released on MegaDrive, especially counting in amount of arcade games released on MegaDrive, SNES definitely can't keep up with game in late stages, and OST would'be even jucier on YM2612.

 

[Deleted member 2175]

Definitely like Ex-Ranza/Ranger X, Thunder Force IV and Eliminate Down as others have mentioned.

Android Assault: The Revenge of Bari Arm, also known as Bari Arm is a Mega CD game that people may be interested in.

 

[Scott]

Everyone has mentioned some great ones, I always liked Phelios and Twin Cobra too.

 

[RageBurner]

Full disclaimer: I'm bad, bad, bad at shmups, but Thunder Force 4 would have to be it. It's such a tour de force for the machine that it is impossible to ignore.

 

[Ikagura]

Full disclaimer: I'm bad, bad, bad at shmups, but Thunder Force 4 would have to be it. It's such a tour de force for the machine that it is impossible to ignore.

The fully metal ost is also quite great despite the detractors of the hardware.

I think IV and V are the best of the franchise (III/AC is fine but not that great and II had those top down levels which are boring to me).

 

[Leon]

The fully metal ost is also quite great despite the detractors of the hardware.

I think IV and V are the best of the franchise (III/AC is fine but not that great and II had those top down levels which are boring to me).

When it comes to music, it's not that the genesis couldn't do good music, it's that alot of devs phoned it in, here's a example from a contra-like that proves my point:

I could probably also post some columns music too but yeah.

As for thunder force, i personally am quite fond of VI as well, but it's definitely much easier than the earlier games.

 

[RageBurner]

When it comes to music, it's not that the genesis couldn't do good music, it's that alot of devs phoned it in

This. A lot of developers didn't take the time to compose music or write good sound samples/voices properly for the hardware (Capcom's sound driver sucked - try patching in any of the driver rewrite patches and tell me how it sounds).

All this is somewhat of an oddity since the Mega Drive used largely off the shelf hardware people should be more familiar with than the SNES's custom sound chip, for example.

 

[Leon]

This. A lot of developers didn't take the time to compose music or write good sound samples/voices properly for the hardware (Capcom's sound driver sucked - try patching in any of the driver rewrite patches and tell me how it sounds).

All this is somewhat of an oddity since the Mega Drive used largely off the shelf hardware people should be more familiar with than the SNES's custom sound chip, for example.

It's exactly because it used off the shelf hardware, using unique hardware requires developers to actually have to put the work in to make it work, this is why gaming as a whole has taken a nosedive in quality and performance these last few years, everything uses off the shelf parts for everything.

 

[RageBurner]

It's exactly because it used off the shelf hardware, using unique hardware requires developers to actually have to put the work in to make it work, this is why gaming as a whole has taken a nosedive in quality and performance these last few years, everything uses off the shelf parts for everything.

Huh... good point, my thinking was all wrong. And here I thought the cake was true.

 

[Ikagura]

I see a lot of Guts here.

Jokes aside it's also the fault of how many western devs messed up by using GEMS instead of a proper sound table which gave games a bad reputation of that twangy Yamaha sound instead of proper musics.

Whereas the SNES, being sample based, was more versatile and could do orchestral and more genres more gracefully to the point it's hard to have ear bleedy musics whereas when a Genesis ost is messed up it's ear grating.

I'm glad that the shmup genre is often seen to have a top tier ost and I cannot salute the composers enough.

Not a shmup per se but this level is one and I loved the ost

 

[Leon]

I see a lot of Guts here.

Jokes aside it's also the fault of how many western devs messed up by using GEMS instead of a proper sound table which gave games a bad reputation of that twangy Yamaha sound instead of proper musics.

Whereas the SNES, being sample based, was more versatile and could do orchestral and more genres more gracefully to the point it's hard to have ear bleedy musics whereas when a Genesis ost is messed up it's ear grating.

I'm glad that the shmup genre is often seen to have a top tier ost and I cannot salute the composers enough.

Not a shmup per se but this level is one and I loved the ost

Ah that stage, probably the best stage in the game if i'm being honest, also the only stage where you get to fight green in a normal fight.

 

[Ikagura]

Ah that stage, probably the best stage in the game if i'm being honest, also the only stage where you get to fight green in a normal fight.

Personally I like the City level where you basically destroy them all.

Run 'n Guns is a "cousin genre" to shmups for me.

This level was already the ground of Radiant Silvergun (and later Ikaruga).

 

[RageBurner]

We are all very gutsy, yup!
Ah, Gunstar Heroes... how on Earth that didn't have a massive Saturn sequel is beyond me (Guardian Heroes is cool and all, but I'd still like to have seen a more fully realized Gunstar.

 

[Ikagura]

We are all very gutsy, yup!
Ah, Gunstar Heroes... how on Earth that didn't have a massive Saturn sequel is beyond me (Guardian Heroes is cool and all, but I'd still like to have seen a more fully realized Gunstar.

As I understood: Treasure's motto was "never make sequels" because they were former Konami staff who got bored of having to make sequels with little to no creativity.

This is also why the only actual sequels only started with the post-2000 era when they got monetary issues with games like Ikaruga (aka Project RS-2), Gunstar Super/Future Heroes on the GBA, Guardian Heroes Legend on the GBA, Bangai-O Spirit on the DS, Sin & Punishment Star Successor on the Wii and others.

I'm less fan of their more modern games while the 32-bits era is perhaps their best as they had better technologies to make even more impressive games but they're also sadly the less accessible as they never got proper re-releases for most (except Radiant Silvergun recently among some XBLA games).

 

[RageBurner]

Hmm... well considering the sequels from them we did get on the 32-bit era, they were onto something, I suppose. I personally don't consider Super Heroes a sequel at all; it's more of a loose remake that is very bad by most metrics.

 

[Ikagura]

Hmm... well considering the sequels from them we did get on the 32-bit era, they were onto something, I suppose. I personally don't consider Super Heroes a sequel at all; it's more of a loose remake that is very bad by most metrics.

I wish I could talk more about Treasure but I need to push myself to play more games before my passing (if not almost every).

I got Light Crusader and that McDonald's game to do (I had troubles with the Yu Yu Hakucho one despite how impressive it is for the MD) as well as Silhouette Mirage and Mischief Makers.

Bless emulation for that.

 

[STARS_Nightmare]

Thunder Force IV and Ranger X, both are great

Actually, Megadrive has some of the best shoot em ups of that period imo.

 

[Moreno909]

not seeing a lot of love for sega in this thread, so lets talk games!

what is everyones fave shmup on megadrive?

mine is probs panorama cotton :3

Alternate fan cover for Panorama Cotton

Post automatically merged: Dec 8, 2024

My favourites are Gleylancer, MUSHA Aleste, Panorama Cotton and Elemental Master

 

[Deleted member 86408]

Thunder Force IV and Ranger X, both are great

Actually, Megadrive has some of the best shoot em ups of that period imo.

Thunder Force IV - killer graphics and sound and SEGA MegaDrive/Genesis hardware squeezed to the max.

Ex-Ranza/Ranger-X - up to 128 colors simultaneously on screen (the classic palette was 64 colors on screen).

This was possible thanks to a special technique that blended the on-screen pixels together, in fact, managing to generate the various transparencies (pseudo-transparencies) as well.

At the time, my jaw dropped to the floor.

 

[TragicHero]

The Genesis/Mega Drive had some of the best SHMUPS. I'm having a hard time choosing, which is my favorite!

 

[rosco46]

Another vote for Gynoug here.

 

[zonque]

Thunder Force IV definitely. Still haven't cleared it but its one of the best games ever made imo.

 

[Jaramus]

M.U.S.H.A. Aleste
Sol-Deace
Gaiares
Whip Rush
Thunder Force Series

 

[newageretrohippie]

not seeing a lot of love for sega in this thread, so lets talk games!

what is everyones fave shmup on megadrive?

mine is probs panorama cotton :3

i like this game a lot, but i am really bad at it

Post automatically merged: Jan 24, 2025

This. A lot of developers didn't take the time to compose music or write good sound samples/voices properly for the hardware (Capcom's sound driver sucked - try patching in any of the driver rewrite patches and tell me how it sounds).

All this is somewhat of an oddity since the Mega Drive used largely off the shelf hardware people should be more familiar with than the SNES's custom sound chip, for example.

it is actually a LOT harder to create a patch for a yamaha FM synth than it is for a sampler (which is basically what the SNES uses). If you can record a good sample, you are 90 percent of the way there.

With FM, it is very nonlinear, and you cant necessarily just copy an FM patch directly from a different FM synth and expect it to work the same (but people prolly tried... not to mention, there were SEVERAL revisions to the genesis audio hardware, and every one of them has a slightly different sound to it.