Posted by bedroomcoder on Jul 25, 2010 13:42 (41 days ago)
10 - Fantasy Zone
Sega's classic SHMUP may not be to everyone's taste - after all, many people play SHMUPs to see thousands of enemies blasted and torn apart as they hammer the Megacrash button. This does happen in Fantasy Zone, but it's all... cuter. It's still bloody hard, has great bosses and there is a requirement for tactical nous not present in every shooter.
9 - Gradius Gaiden
You can't leave the Gradius games out of a top 10 feature on SHMUPs, and this one is certainly the pinnacle of the series. Featuring loads of clever twists in the levels (that I won't mention to avoid spoiling it for anyone who hasn't played yet, but some are jaw-dropping), and a refinement of what was a great series anyway.
8 - Lightning Force (Thunder Force 4)
You can pick your stage to tackle in this Megadrive/Genesis game, which is a nice touch. The fact that you can bring weapons to other levels adds a layer of depth not often seen in the twitchy, fast-fingered world of SHMUPs.
7 - R-type 3: The Third Lightning
You really can't leave the R-Type series out of a list of scrolling SHMUPs. The iconic power-up systme is in place, and there are some gorgeous but very hard levels and some memorable boss fights. Please, for the love of god stay away from the GBA version though. We bought this back in 2006 and couldn't believe how badly butchered the game was (apparently the developers of the port weren't allowed access to any of the original code or artwork and so had to do everything by guesswork and imitation).
6 - Battle Garegga
A bit of an odd one this. It's a beautiful, tough and totally uncompromising shooter, and it's tons of fun to play. But the bullets in this game are TINY. You'd best have a magnifying glass close to hand or some really good eyes or you're going to have a hell of a time surviving.
Nice list mate! Can't say I agree or disagree with it really since I haven't played half of them, mainly because it would cost a fortune to do so! Most of my shmup gaming was restricted to earlier consoles than this anyway, but I'd certainly like to play the oft-mentioned classics like Silvergun, DoDonPachi, et al. I think you overrated Musha a bit but I always like to see a good list!
Jul 28, 2010 14:45:47 (
38 days ago
)
