Where are my Arcade shmup fans at?

[snes9x]

I myself have been playing Star Parodier and I'm trying to get into Cotton 2 but it feels like my thumb's gonna fall off without auto-fire

 

[fake-chan]

We already have a thread for this:

Where are my Arcade shmup fans at?

Where's the love for one of the most classic genres of arcade gaming? The venerable "little ship games" the shoot 'em ups, the bullet hells! From the early days of Toaplan games and Raiden, to Taito, Konami, Capcom and the legendary CAVE! And many more. What are your favorite oldschool shmup...

retrogametalk.com

EDIT* - Merged by Kamako. :]

 

[snes9x]

Any recommendations for beginners? I've tried to get into a few but nothing has clicked so far. The one I've enjoyed the most is Harmful Park (it's a ps1 game, but still a shmup).

I played Zanac Neo (PS1) a few weeks back and it's a pretty painless 1cc, plus you can save your progress in between stages. I love the weapon system but the game doesn't have a strong identity in the audiovisual department other than a few decent tunes. Still worth checking out. I was halfway hoping it would suck so I could say something like "Zanac? More like Xanax - this shit puts me to sleep!"

 

[Dyne]

I love arcade shooters!
It feels like a largely neglected genre these days, so I was glad to see so many shmup ports go to the Switch. I'm pretty mid skill-wise and I rarely can finish a game without unlimited tries, but its such a fun time.
When you get in the zone and it all just flows... its like the purest form of gaming.

 

[Deleted member 257420]

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

Brainfart moment
Just got a new revelation that EVAC is literally just CAVE backwards

 

[NotGodlike]

Brainfart moment
Just got a new revelation that EVAC is literally just CAVE backwards

So we're literally invading Ikeda's HQ? (if you think about it deep enough)

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

One word: Dreamcast.

The greatest of all Shmup consoles.

Interesting way to spell PC Engine.

 

[snes9x]

Yeah shmups are to the PC Engine as JRPG's are to the PS1, or shovelware to the Wii. Ironically the successor PC-FX only has a single shooter in its library.

 

[Zerohour2k12]

One that stood out to me recently was Sine Mora. Who know a shmup could have such a packed story. it was fun too! Also played most of the Raiden Games.

And Drainus from Team Ladybug was quite good too!

 

[JusticeAvenger]

I've started playing shmups between Fatal Fury sessions on my handheld. So far I really like Judgement Silversword. Looking for more addictive stuff

 

[RanmyakuIchi's icon RanmyakuIchi RanmyakuIchi]

I'm really fond of classic arcade Shmups like Dodonpachi, Raiden Fighters, Gunbird, Strikers, Gradius series and so on. I mess around with Touhou sometimes too.

View attachment 61036

I never know if you're serious or doing a bit Anti, but Deathsmiles is legit great.

 

[Leon]

Yeah shmups are to the PC Engine as JRPG's are to the PS1, or shovelware to the Wii. Ironically the successor PC-FX only has a single shooter in its library.

NEC messed up in general with the PC-FX, expensive as hell for the time for what it offered (around 400$ at launch, in 1995) and it was inferior to the playstation which was going to launch a few months later, nec brought it's fall on itself.
Also i'd argue saturn is still better than dreamcast for shooters, but nothing beats pc engine/ pc engine cd.

 

[NotGodlike]

Also i'd argue saturn is still better than dreamcast for shooters

Impossible to argue, Saturn has far richer arcade and shmup library

 

[Viviana Santos]

Einhänder is very cool, I love its soundtrack

Post automatically merged: Apr 23, 2025

Harmful Park is great and very underrated.

 

[Action_Hank]

Does Sigma Star Saga count? I've loved that game since I stole it from Sam Goody.

 

[snes9x]

 

[Viviana Santos]

Harmful Park is great and very underrated.

 

[snes9x]

Absolutely. One of my three 1cc's and the most fun by far. A top 10 PS1 game for sure.

 

[Stare best girl]

these days I was playing often shmups in Saturn

 

[AntonioDP]

Hi there guys. I've been playing shmups for a while, yeah. They're new to me really, since I've been always a fighting games guy, but I guess I got tired of ragequits, constant updates changing everything and so on... So I just love playing (retro) shmups everyday!

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

I guess it’s a weird take, but it’s down to what I love in shmups. I don’t care for horizontal shooters, prefer bullet hells most of the time, and will praise Ikaruga and games that play like it to high heaven. For my personal tastes regarding the genre, the Dreamcast was a total monster, and I’m including homebrew software heavily in that evaluation, as I’ve always seen homebrew stuff on the same level as indie games for modern platforms: smaller scale games that are still just as legitimate as any piece of software made for the unit.

I admit though: I need to try more horizontal shooters. I need to just buckle down and… uh… “obtain” roms for these games, because the tax of owning them is too darn high for the act of just getting my feet wet with these titles.

 

[DanCalibur]

I haven't played any shmup since I was a kid, but this week I got into Gradius (PCE) and I'm having a blast. The difficulty feels just right and I can see myself getting better and better at it. Still can't go beyond stage 6 but I'm confident I can beat it with some more practice

 

[Leon]

I haven't played any shmup since I was a kid, but this week I got into Gradius (PCE) and I'm having a blast. The difficulty feels just right and I can see myself getting better and better at it. Still can't go beyond stage 6 but I'm confident I can beat it with some more practice

You might want to try thunder force IV on the sega genesis, it's generally considered one of the best shooters of the era.
Another series you might want to try is the parodius games, which are essentially gradius games just made crazy (you fight stuff like cabaret dancers and bunnygirls) and yes i mean they are gradius games, made by the same team.

 

[Theriise]

I fell into this rabbit hole when I fell in love with the Shmup on Retro Game challenge ds that was a parody of star force which led me into researching star force and watching Arino of Game Centre CX explain about how there is a manga about the guy that can shoot fast enough to get past a memorable challenge.
Currently I've started a shmup on the switch, Yurukill. It's also a detective game!
Also the voice clips from Sinistar live rent free in my head.