Pulstar on Neo Geo is an even bigger R-Type clone, it even has similar weapons and enemies like R-Type.
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Shmup recommendations
- Thread starter Steezy
- Start date
Last Resort is one of my top 3 shmups along with Einhander and R-Type Delta.
Don't know what you mean by "most of the major consoles" but Panzer Dragoon remake just released on Switch, so there's that.
Also, you may or may not consider Panzer Dragoon as a shmup.
Also, you may or may not consider Panzer Dragoon as a shmup.
Well, Shmups are an enormous genre. There are primarily 3 major types of shmups: Vertical scrolling shmups, like Galaxian, Horizontal scrolling Shmups, like defender, and rail shmups, like Star Fox.
But even within these major types, there are sub-genres. The best known would be bullet hells, which have sort of become the dominant SHMUP style over the last couple of decades. I'll run through some major categories of game and give my recommendations:
FREE ROAMING HORIZONTAL SHMUP
THis is probably my favorite type of SHMUP, personally. They are usually horizontal shmups, but can be vertical from time to time. These games normally scroll infinitely in a direction, the levels will wrap. This means there is usually a goal to beating the level. I used Defender as an example of a horizontal shmup earlier:
The goal of defender is to kill all the abducting aliens on screen as indicated by a map on top before they abduct the people. It's one of my favorite SHMUPS.
Sega sort of cloned this style and created my favorite SHMUP series of all time in FANTASY ZONE, which has excellent music and visuals. FANTASY ZONE started a type of hyper colorful artstyle that is typically known as CUTEMUP:
The goal of fantasy zone is to destroy a few enemy generating bases in every level, when all are destroyed, you move onto a boss. Enemies in the game drop gold when killed, which can be picked up and spent in shops to upgrade stats of your ship, like weapons and speed upgrades. There is an invisible timer in every stage, so the faster you kill enemies, the more money each gold coin they drop is worth.
Fantasy Zone recently got an EXCELLENT sequel on the 3DS and Switch:
But even within these major types, there are sub-genres. The best known would be bullet hells, which have sort of become the dominant SHMUP style over the last couple of decades. I'll run through some major categories of game and give my recommendations:
FREE ROAMING HORIZONTAL SHMUP
THis is probably my favorite type of SHMUP, personally. They are usually horizontal shmups, but can be vertical from time to time. These games normally scroll infinitely in a direction, the levels will wrap. This means there is usually a goal to beating the level. I used Defender as an example of a horizontal shmup earlier:
The goal of defender is to kill all the abducting aliens on screen as indicated by a map on top before they abduct the people. It's one of my favorite SHMUPS.
Sega sort of cloned this style and created my favorite SHMUP series of all time in FANTASY ZONE, which has excellent music and visuals. FANTASY ZONE started a type of hyper colorful artstyle that is typically known as CUTEMUP:
The goal of fantasy zone is to destroy a few enemy generating bases in every level, when all are destroyed, you move onto a boss. Enemies in the game drop gold when killed, which can be picked up and spent in shops to upgrade stats of your ship, like weapons and speed upgrades. There is an invisible timer in every stage, so the faster you kill enemies, the more money each gold coin they drop is worth.
Fantasy Zone recently got an EXCELLENT sequel on the 3DS and Switch:
THUNDER-STYLE SHMUP
Another type of horizontal shmup is sometimes known as a "Thunder" shmup because they follow a formula set by the game Thunder Force II. Thunder force is a horizontal shmup where the goal is to get from one end of the level to the next, which usually places high emphasis on collectable power ups, and level design. The big games of this style would be:
Thunder Force III
Thunder Force IV:
Lords of Thunder:
Gates of Thunder:
Another type of horizontal shmup is sometimes known as a "Thunder" shmup because they follow a formula set by the game Thunder Force II. Thunder force is a horizontal shmup where the goal is to get from one end of the level to the next, which usually places high emphasis on collectable power ups, and level design. The big games of this style would be:
Thunder Force III
Thunder Force IV:
Lords of Thunder:
Gates of Thunder:
SOLDIER-STYLE SHMUPS
Just like Thunder Force inspired lots of Horizontal imitators during it's run, so did the Star Soldier series for Vertical Shmups. These appeared on dozens of consoles through-out the years, but the best are on the PC Engine. Stand outs:
Soldier Blade:
Star Parodier (simultaneously a CUTEMUP)
Final Soldier:
Blazing Lazers:
Just like Thunder Force inspired lots of Horizontal imitators during it's run, so did the Star Soldier series for Vertical Shmups. These appeared on dozens of consoles through-out the years, but the best are on the PC Engine. Stand outs:
Soldier Blade:
Star Parodier (simultaneously a CUTEMUP)
Final Soldier:
Blazing Lazers:
TREASURE SHMUPS
I like to mention these specifically because I am such a huge fan of both of these games. They flirt a line between classic horizontal shmups and bullet hells. Bullet hells are just like what their name implies, they are games that cover the entire screen with bullets, usually in crazy geometric patters. Bullet hells are actually much easier to play than they appear at first, because you usually have a much tinier hitbox than visually is indicated, so collision detection is on your side. The way you are intended to play bullet hell shmups is to get into "the zone" where you kind of stop paying attention and just... like, jedi your way through. It's hard to explain but it eventually clicks and you find yourself doing seemingly impossible stuff. Cave games later leaned on this heavily, but the Treasure shmups were lighter on the bullets and thus a bit easier to get into. They are:
Radiant Silvergun:
And Ikaruga, which has a mechanic where there are two different colors of bullets, and depending on your ship mode, you are invulnerable to one but vulnerable to the other:
I like to mention these specifically because I am such a huge fan of both of these games. They flirt a line between classic horizontal shmups and bullet hells. Bullet hells are just like what their name implies, they are games that cover the entire screen with bullets, usually in crazy geometric patters. Bullet hells are actually much easier to play than they appear at first, because you usually have a much tinier hitbox than visually is indicated, so collision detection is on your side. The way you are intended to play bullet hell shmups is to get into "the zone" where you kind of stop paying attention and just... like, jedi your way through. It's hard to explain but it eventually clicks and you find yourself doing seemingly impossible stuff. Cave games later leaned on this heavily, but the Treasure shmups were lighter on the bullets and thus a bit easier to get into. They are:
Radiant Silvergun:
And Ikaruga, which has a mechanic where there are two different colors of bullets, and depending on your ship mode, you are invulnerable to one but vulnerable to the other:
I remember it being a killer game as well but I always found the art and soundtrack outstanding. I remember thinking the little guys falling out of the shot-down planes (whatever they are) was so damn cool.
RAIL SHMUPS
These are probably my very close second favorite type of Shmups. These are also called "3D Shmups." Instead of flying vertically or horizontally, you fly into the screen, with a behind the back perspective. There are SOOOOOO many good 3D shmups over the years. Key features of the 3D SHMUP is the ability to "lock on" to a target, which will let your shot home in on an enemy, a tradition that goes all the way back to Space Harrier:
These kind of Super Scalar games lead to some really incredible uses of Sega hardware, like Galaxy Force II:
Sometimes, in arcades, these games would basically be entire rides. An incredible example of this that, sadly, can't be purchased anymore, is After Burner Climax which came to the PS3 and Xbox 360:
These are probably my very close second favorite type of Shmups. These are also called "3D Shmups." Instead of flying vertically or horizontally, you fly into the screen, with a behind the back perspective. There are SOOOOOO many good 3D shmups over the years. Key features of the 3D SHMUP is the ability to "lock on" to a target, which will let your shot home in on an enemy, a tradition that goes all the way back to Space Harrier:
These kind of Super Scalar games lead to some really incredible uses of Sega hardware, like Galaxy Force II:
Sometimes, in arcades, these games would basically be entire rides. An incredible example of this that, sadly, can't be purchased anymore, is After Burner Climax which came to the PS3 and Xbox 360:
As others have mentioned, Thunder Force IV/Lightening Force, which is currently available on Switch for $8. It's a tour-de-force of fast gameplay, amazing parallax scrolling pixel art, and some of the most metal tunes of the generation. Folks like to cite the Gate/Lords of Thunder titles for prime examples of hard-hitting shoot-'em-up music, and while they are excellent, my heart belongs to what Techno Soft was able to conjure up on the Genesis. Pretty phenomenal game.
R-Type III: The Third Lightning on SNES is similarly impressive from a technical point of view. Really impressive rotation/scaling effects. Irem was in top form with this one. It kicked my ass though, as most R-Type games do. I've always found the Techno Soft shooters to strike just the right balance, even though they do still require some really good reaction time.
R-Type III: The Third Lightning on SNES is similarly impressive from a technical point of view. Really impressive rotation/scaling effects. Irem was in top form with this one. It kicked my ass though, as most R-Type games do. I've always found the Techno Soft shooters to strike just the right balance, even though they do still require some really good reaction time.
The very best RAIL SHMUPS, however, are more recent. Star Fox 64 is one of my all-time favorite games, due to the incredible music, endlessly quotable dialog, great stage design, and awesome story:
Sin & Punishment is an incredible shmup. It's made by Treasure It got a really good sequel on the Wii:
My all-time favorite 3D Shmup are the Panzer Dragoon games, however. The most recent remake is pretty disappointing, and it's of the most basic game in the series, but Panzer Dragoon Orta and Zwei are incredible. These games feature Outrun-style branching paths, incredible enemy patterns, and loads of unlockables to make them very replayable.
Panzer Dragoon Orta got a widely lauded emulation port specifically for the Xbox One. It's one of the few Xbox games that can be emulated on the Xbox One and will play in 4K on an Xbox One X:
Panzer Dragoon Zwei is, thus far, still limited to the Sega Saturn, having never received a port, but it's an all time classic and by far my favorite non-RPG in the series:
Sin & Punishment is an incredible shmup. It's made by Treasure It got a really good sequel on the Wii:
My all-time favorite 3D Shmup are the Panzer Dragoon games, however. The most recent remake is pretty disappointing, and it's of the most basic game in the series, but Panzer Dragoon Orta and Zwei are incredible. These games feature Outrun-style branching paths, incredible enemy patterns, and loads of unlockables to make them very replayable.
Panzer Dragoon Orta got a widely lauded emulation port specifically for the Xbox One. It's one of the few Xbox games that can be emulated on the Xbox One and will play in 4K on an Xbox One X:
Panzer Dragoon Zwei is, thus far, still limited to the Sega Saturn, having never received a port, but it's an all time classic and by far my favorite non-RPG in the series:
GRADIUS
This is an amazing series, and there are so many entries I could point to but I'd like to point to the rarely-talked about MSX entries in the series as they are entirely unique to that system. This is a great series of videos on the subject:
This is an amazing series, and there are so many entries I could point to but I'd like to point to the rarely-talked about MSX entries in the series as they are entirely unique to that system. This is a great series of videos on the subject:
Obviously the arcade experience can't be replicated, but the game can be emulated at home... both the PS3 version and even the arcade version (legality issues aside, and it's not 100%).
I played through the 360 one recently when I last had that console setup, and it still looks amazing to this day. Can't believe they got it looking that good so long ago.
I have a Sega Lindbergh, the actual arcade version:
I also have the ST-V version of Radiant Silvergun and Cotton 2.
Like people said on the first page, you need to try ZeroRanger if you haven't yet. One of the best STGs of recent times and I can't really go any further without it being spoilery.
The graphics were sublime, but I seem to remember that the game had some slow down issues.
It was a long time ago!
It totally did. You wanna something goofy? When I was a kid I used to think slowdown was an effect, like slow-motion in movies. I used to play Doom on Playstation 1 and when the framerate tanked I thought it was "cinematic".
The lack of mentions for the extremely good and not too hard Gley Lancer is scandalous. Mega Drive stays the home console king of shmup, hands down. Give Musha Aleste: Full Metal Fighter Ellinor. a try too. They both contain quality anime girl action story too - I don't know what else someone would need.
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Kaneko made some crazy good vertical arcade shmups too - CYVERN: The Dragon Weapons is a criminally underrated masterpiece.
Kaneko made some crazy good vertical arcade shmups too - CYVERN: The Dragon Weapons is a criminally underrated masterpiece.
Many A Man Enquires. Don't think it's available anywhere legal.
On the other hand the Star Soldier pc engine games are easy to find.
If you have a PS3, grab Gradius V. It's often on sale on PSN and still looks (and plays) great today!
www.youtube.com
Gradius V - P.1 - [PS3]
Gradius V - P.1 (Arcade Mode)Stage 1Stage 2Stage 3~ Part 2 ~https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wpT3C7Tagc~ Part 3 ~https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxl7KzFCdes
www.youtube.com
Depends on what you like:
Bullet Hell? DoDonPachi.
Pattern/Gimmick Based Bullet Hell? Touhou 8: Imperishable Night.
Fast, Deadly, Bullets? Raiden DX.
Mixture of Fast, Deadly Bullets and Bullet Hell? Mushihime Sama
Slow Paced Shmup, A.K.A. the equivalent of Castlevania NES for the Shmup genre? Darius or R-Type games.
Two Player battle shmup, akin to Puyo-Puyo, but as a Shmup? Twinkle Star Sprites.
Puzzle/obstacle based Shmup? IKARUGA
Qusi-Shmup/Twinstick shooter? Blue Revolver.
High Quality Indie game with a bit of everything in it? Jamestown.
High Quality Indie game that's a greatest hits collection of Bullet Hells? Crimzon Clover: World Ignition.
My thoughts: If don't know what you want, go for Touhou 8: Imperishable Night, and get a V-Sync patch for it. It's an extremely beginner friendly Shmup that's more about avoiding patterns and gimmicks than raw bullet dodging. It has fun mechanics and well implemented difficulty levels, the latter of which is rare in most shmups. Getting the True Ending in that game is great practice for other shmups, and will give you an idea of what you like. If you like the bullet hell aspects, try Crimzon Clover next. Else, if you like the puzzle like aspects, go for Jamestown or IKARUGA next. If you like pretty little anime girls, go for Twinkle Star Sprites. (And visit a priest).
Things I would not start with: Ikaruga. It's great, but tough as nails and idiosyncratic. It's not representative of the genre.
DoDonpachi Resurrection. On steam and is good, yes, but has issues. There are better games.
Deathsmiles: Don't be a pervert.
Twinkle Star Sprites: It's more like Puyo-Puyo tetris than an actual shmup.
Blue Revolver: It's s Twin Stick Consoleshmup. (I think....) It's fun, but designwise it's 50% geometry wars, and 50% traditional shmup.
Bullet Hell? DoDonPachi.
Pattern/Gimmick Based Bullet Hell? Touhou 8: Imperishable Night.
Fast, Deadly, Bullets? Raiden DX.
Mixture of Fast, Deadly Bullets and Bullet Hell? Mushihime Sama
Slow Paced Shmup, A.K.A. the equivalent of Castlevania NES for the Shmup genre? Darius or R-Type games.
Two Player battle shmup, akin to Puyo-Puyo, but as a Shmup? Twinkle Star Sprites.
Puzzle/obstacle based Shmup? IKARUGA
Qusi-Shmup/Twinstick shooter? Blue Revolver.
High Quality Indie game with a bit of everything in it? Jamestown.
High Quality Indie game that's a greatest hits collection of Bullet Hells? Crimzon Clover: World Ignition.
My thoughts: If don't know what you want, go for Touhou 8: Imperishable Night, and get a V-Sync patch for it. It's an extremely beginner friendly Shmup that's more about avoiding patterns and gimmicks than raw bullet dodging. It has fun mechanics and well implemented difficulty levels, the latter of which is rare in most shmups. Getting the True Ending in that game is great practice for other shmups, and will give you an idea of what you like. If you like the bullet hell aspects, try Crimzon Clover next. Else, if you like the puzzle like aspects, go for Jamestown or IKARUGA next. If you like pretty little anime girls, go for Twinkle Star Sprites. (And visit a priest).
Things I would not start with: Ikaruga. It's great, but tough as nails and idiosyncratic. It's not representative of the genre.
DoDonpachi Resurrection. On steam and is good, yes, but has issues. There are better games.
Deathsmiles: Don't be a pervert.
Twinkle Star Sprites: It's more like Puyo-Puyo tetris than an actual shmup.
Blue Revolver: It's s Twin Stick Consoleshmup. (I think....) It's fun, but designwise it's 50% geometry wars, and 50% traditional shmup.
I'd like to add the excellent (and PC-only) Alltynex Trilogy to these recommendations:
Along with the modern facelift of Megadrive classic Steel Empire: (which is better played on 3DS for the crispness of the stereoscopic effect on 2D visuals alone, but the PC version is alright too)
Along with the modern facelift of Megadrive classic Steel Empire: (which is better played on 3DS for the crispness of the stereoscopic effect on 2D visuals alone, but the PC version is alright too)
OTOH it's full of references and parodies of other shmups, something you'll miss if you aren't familiar with those.
It's available on the Switch as an Arcade Archives release. Same goes for Pulstar which is even more R-Typeish and Blazing Star which seems related but goes for a different style (e.g. instant respawn).
The game goes way beyond just having references. Like I said, going into detail would spoil it. You don't have to get the references to enjoy the direction the game takes once you get past the 1st loop and most of the second.
Well, people have mentioned basically every good shmup I know of.
The only ones I think I haven't seen, are Einhander on PS1, and Over Horizon on the NES.
The only ones I think I haven't seen, are Einhander on PS1, and Over Horizon on the NES.
Wait, the System 16 version is on Switch? I only know of the awesome 3DS version.
I just checked the Switch store and I'm not seeing it.
I would love Einhander on Steam/Switch or any modern console.
I have a small love for Shmups that surges randomly at times. I feel like Einhander, Ikaruga and R-Type Final are to blame.
