The BEST "Shoot 'em ups" of ALL Time

[avatar! | 1,811]

Gradius III was my favorite back in the day! But, I was also a big fan of R-type. Wow, those games were also super hard! My favorite of the more recent games is Ikaruga. I will say, I am FAR from "good" at these games. I enjoy them, but I'm not someone that can make it to the end of a bullet hell unless I seriously tone down the challenge or cheat

I know some folks on here are experts, so I wanted people's opinion! What are your favorite games in the genre, and on what systems? Also, any truly great compilations that are worth tracking down?

I will say, as a fan of the Everade, I have to give kudos to Irem Arcade 1 which includes the original arcade version of R-type. I know R-type was ported to numerous consoles, but as far as I know the Evercade is the only official arcade release which is cool -- EDIT: I think R-Type Dimensions EX also includes the original arcades which can be played in both updated or retro graphics -- can someone confirm this? Now I also know that Irem is releasing a 5-disc Collection and so far of the three announced game lists NONE of them include R-type, yeah seems strange to me. 

https://www.strictlylimitedgames.com/collections/irem-collection-vol-1/products/irem-collection-vol-1-5-bundle-playstation-5

That, and why exactly do we only get only three games per PS5 disc -- yeah, to maximize profitability, I get it. Still kinda sucks. But anyway, talk games to me...

Edit: Also, if anyone can help me figure out what games are included in the gazzilion and 1 Darius Collections that have been released, that would be great! SLG has released I have no idea how many compilations, and they never seem to include an actual list of the games...

 

Edited March 25 by avatar!

[RH | 4,903]

Coming up with a top 5 would be tough, but #1 is always an easy pick in my book!

Edited March 25 by RH

[DefaultGen | 5,405]

My favorites that I've played the most: Ikaruga, Radiant Silvergun, Espgaluda, Donpachi, Touhou 8: Imperishable Night.

My favorite era though is the mid 90s era like Batsugun, RayForce, or Battle Garegga, right before bullet patterns were designed solely by flashy math PhDs.

[PII | 1,886]

Dino Riki

Back To The Future

Isolated Warrior

Silver Surfer

Zaxxon's Motherbase 2000

Dreadnaught Factor (whoops, that's six....)

 

I have so many shooters on my "to play list"; classics, oddballs and otherwise that I haven't gotten to yet.  Just the ones on Genesis will take me ages to get through...

[CT | 91]

Blazing Lazers for me

[Rhuno | 107]

It's not a genre that I'm super into, but two favorites are Truxton on Genesis and Giga Wing on the Dreamcast.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,532]

Ikaruga is my favorite by a longshot

But kudos to Jamestown+ for secretly being one of the best couch co-op games with kids.

[Gloves | 11,779]

1 hour ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Ikaruga is my favorite by a longshot

But kudos to Jamestown+ for secretly being one of the best couch co-op games with kids.

Conquistadoooooooor! Conquistadoooooooooor! Conquista-doooooooo-ooooooooooooooor!

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,074]

Based on system:

Atari 2600: Galaxian

NES: Over Horizon (Honorable mention: Gradius 2: Gofer's Ambition)

PC Engine: Image Fight (Honorable mention: R-Type)

SNES: Axelay

Mega Drive/Genesis: Thunder Force IV (Honorable mention: M.U.S.H.A.)

Overall Top 5:

1. Image Fight
2. Thunder Force IV
3. Over Horizon
4. M.U.S.H.A.
5. Axelay

That being said, I haven't played that many games in the genre and I kinda suck at it, too. But as long as the game is fun and the challenge reasonable, I still perseverse and try to beat it. I also haven't played many of the classics, yet. Unfortunately, these games tend to be very expensive, so I can not reasonably collect them and have to rely on other methods of playing them. Luckily, there are many re-releases on many of the now expensive classics, so that I will eventually get to them.

[Brickman | 3,986]

Tough question. Ikaruga is obviously one of the greats imo.

I love bullet hells so enjoy games like Mushihimesama, Deathsmiles, dodonpachi, espgaluda etc. But I also enjoy the old school shmups like gradius, r type and salamander.

My preferred system would be to have the arcade boards and an arcade but I don’t have the room so whichever system is most accurate is the next best thing.

[docile tapeworm | 4,198]

Rtype, radiant silver gun and ikaruga fanboys aren’t even shooter fans they are puzzlers

 

let’s lay down some fire and drop bombs baby!!!! Fuck all that slow moving strategy shit.

[final fight cd | 186]

13 hours ago, DefaultGen said:

My favorites that I've played the most: Ikaruga, Radiant Silvergun, Espgaluda, Donpachi, Touhou 8: Imperishable Night.

I’ve heard that ikarugs takes like a lifetime to master and radiant silver gun is no slouch either.

Out of curiosity, did you take the time to master and beat these?

[GPX | 1,369]

Einhander is my personal fave. It has great replay value with trialing different weapon combos, and finding all its secrets and bonus features.

Radiant Silvergun and Ikaruga are both excellent arcade quality shooters. Parodius is a hidden gem. R-Type and Raiden were earlier arcade classics that I loved.

[DefaultGen | 5,405]

2 hours ago, final fight cd said:

I’ve heard that ikarugs takes like a lifetime to master and radiant silver gun is no slouch either.

Out of curiosity, did you take the time to master and beat these?

I'm definitely not a master at any shooter because I don't play for score. Ikaruga especially I think people like because of how straightforward it is. The polar bullet curtains and enemies appearing in obvious groups of 3 for chains usually make it clear where the best, or at least a good, place to be on the screen at any given time is. The chain system is really forgiving too, since there's no timeout if you miss an enemy.

Part of what drew me to Ikaruga at the time (besides how generally popular it was on Gamecube) was how approachable it was compared to some Cave shooters of the era where I looked at gameplay and my immediate reaction was "This is impossible, how can a human play this?". I distinctly remember thinking F-Zero GX was harder than Ikaruga. At least Ikargua lets you make small mistakes

[The Count | 527]

Giga Wing 2 but I also enjoy Truxton and Galactic Attack.

[final fight cd | 186]

52 minutes ago, DefaultGen said:

I'm definitely not a master at any shooter because I don't play for score. Ikaruga especially I think people like because of how straightforward it is. The polar bullet curtains and enemies appearing in obvious groups of 3 for chains usually make it clear where the best, or at least a good, place to be on the screen at any given time is. The chain system is really forgiving too, since there's no timeout if you miss an enemy.

Part of what drew me to Ikaruga at the time (besides how generally popular it was on Gamecube) was how approachable it was compared to some Cave shooters of the era where I looked at gameplay and my immediate reaction was "This is impossible, how can a human play this?". I distinctly remember thinking F-Zero GX was harder than Ikaruga. At least Ikargua lets you make small mistakes

I have not played either because both games intimidate me.  But it sounds like beating them isn’t a thang? Just maxing the score is where shit gets real?

[DefaultGen | 5,405]

10 minutes ago, final fight cd said:

I have not played either because both games intimidate me.  But it sounds like beating them isn’t a thang? Just maxing the score is where shit gets real?

I mean any shooter is hard (except Arrow Flash) and I'm only familiar with so many of them. Ikaruga has a straightforwardness that makes it unintimidating to me personally. Lots of enemies are just slow dumb chain fodder and the polarity system means memorizing when to switch more than navigating pixel perfect bullet curtains routes. RSG is hard. You have a lot more attack options, you need to score with them to level them up, and it's a long ass game.

Just try them out. They're both pretty unique so I think you'd know if you think they're worth investing time into. @docile tapeworm knows right away that they suck!

[docile tapeworm | 4,198]

@DefaultGen shit now I have to revisit ikaruga 

[G-type | 2,482]

Sine Mora
Beamrider
Strikeforce
Recca summer carnival
Turmoil
Lifeforce

[T-Pac | 7,548]

Shoot-em-ups are my favorite type of game, and this list is subject to change since I've still got so many on my backlog - but this is my current personal ranking. (Definitely not the "best" shoot-em-ups by popular consensus - just my own preferences...)

My Favorite Traditional Shoot-Em-Ups:
1 ) Abadox [NES]
2 ) R-Type [GB]
3 ) R-Type II [GB]
4 ) Image Fight [NES]
5) Astro Warrior [SMS]
6 ) Super R-Type [SNES]
7 ) Star Parodier [PCE-CD]
8 ) Blazing Lazers [TG-16]
9 ) Curse [MD]
10 ) Burai Fighter [NES]

My Favorite Roaming Shoot-Em-Up:
Bosconian [PnP / Arcade]

My Favorite Lane Shoot-Em-Up:
Turmoil [2600]

My Favorite Fixed Shoot-Em-Up:
Phoenix [2600]

My Favorite Hybrid Shoot-Em-Up:
Robocco Wars [FC]

[T-Pac]

[T-Pac | 7,548]

On 3/26/2024 at 3:44 AM, Gaia Gensouki said:

Based on system:

Atari 2600: Galaxian

NES: Over Horizon (Honorable mention: Gradius 2: Gofer's Ambition)

PC Engine: Image Fight (Honorable mention: R-Type)

SNES: Axelay

Mega Drive/Genesis: Thunder Force IV (Honorable mention: M.U.S.H.A.)

Overall Top 5:

1. Image Fight
2. Thunder Force IV
3. Over Horizon
4. M.U.S.H.A.
5. Axelay

This is such a solid list, dude.

I'm pretty sure I bought Over Horizon on your recommendation a couple of years ago, and I had a great time with it. And I just finished a playthrough of Gradius II and loved it even more.

Axelay was my biggest surprise this year as far as games I didn't expect to love so much.

Musha Aleste is hovering near the top of my "to-play" list for Mega Drive shooters. I'm hoping it holds up to the hype (which seems likely, based on the short time I spent play-testing my copy).

I absolutely love Image Fight on the NES, but I've never tried the PCE version. (And I obviously love R-Type on the TG-16).

[T-Pac]

[Gloves | 11,779]

1 hour ago, G-type said:

Sine Mora

Not a lot of people with that on their list of best shmups lol. What makes you like it so much? I like it a lot, not sure if it sits among the best for me though.

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,074]

50 minutes ago, T-Pac said:

This is such a solid list, dude.

I'm pretty sure I bought Over Horizon on your recommendation a couple of years ago, and I had a great time with it. And I just finished a playthrough of Gradius II and loved it even more.

Thanks. And I'm glad, that you ended up liking Over Horizon. I prefer it slightly over Gradius II, because OH is quite a bit easier than Gradius II and is therefore more comfy for me to replay, which I like. Not every game has to be a nail-bitingly tense experience. Otherwise I might have also mentioned Undead Line for the Mega Drive as an honorable mention, but due to the high difficulty I have a love-hate-relationship with that game. Also, Slap Fight MD is a lot of fun as well. It's a competent port of a typical Toaplan shooter, but with extra bells and whistles.

1 hour ago, T-Pac said:

Musha Aleste is hovering near the top of my "to-play" list for Mega Drive shooters. I'm hoping it holds up to the hype (which seems likely, based on the short time I spent play-testing my copy).

I wish you a lot of fun with that one. With hyped-up games like that it's always a bit problematic though, if they can actually live up to the hype.

1 hour ago, T-Pac said:

I absolutely love Image Fight on the NES, but I've never tried the PCE version. (And I obviously love R-Type on the TG-16).

Glad ot hear that and it seems to rank quite highly in your list as well. The PCE version is just a highly beefed up version that plays a lot quicker and smoother. There's also a Japan-exclusive sequel, that's pretty good, too. (I bought both games for the Virtual Console on the Wii U, back when that was a thing.)

[guitarzombie | 924]

Well my favorite is Zombie Nation :).  I like a good shooter but not one that you have to dedicate your life to because i'm more of a casual.  So anything with a fair challenge that requires a couple of sessions I think is pretty good for me.  I really like Gun Nac.  I also liked Recca but only with codes.  I always took that game for a more seasons shooter player.

[G-type | 2,482]

2 hours ago, Gloves said:

Not a lot of people with that on their list of best shmups lol. What makes you like it so much? I like it a lot, not sure if it sits among the best for me though.

First off, it looks really beautiful. The boss fights are all really impressive and epic and I wanted to include a bullet-hell on my list and that's the one I've played the most.