The BEST "Shoot 'em ups" of ALL Time

[Reed Rothchild | 9,533]

I've been actively working on a list of my top 200 favorite games overall, and looking at every shmup that's a candidate for that list is ending up something like this:

• Ikaruga - this is the game I've spent the most time with, bar none.  It's also the game I've put the most attention towards for 1CCs, no-death runs, high scores, etc.
• Jamestown+ - My boys have 30+ hours of co-op play with me in this thing,and it still hasn't grown old.  It may not follow any purity template, but it doesn't matter when it's this fun and replayable.
• UN Squadron - I named this the greatest SNES (US) shooter in my rankings once upon a time.  Slowdown and console port compromises aside, it's still the most fun you can have on the system imo.
• R-Type III - the 2nd best shmup on the system, and the best R-Type in history.  Checkpoints are huge.
• Einhander - Secretly the best Square game on the PS1?  Probably not if I sit and truly think about it, but the fact it's in the conversation says spades.
• G-Darius - mega laser tug-a-war with gigantic crawfish.
• Gradius V - Treasure handles a Gradius game.
• Thunder Force IV - the best installment in this series, and the top Genesis shooter for me, but I haven't played Truxton yet (to the best of my memory).
• Akai Katana - this is a recent potential addition.  Call it me being guilt-tripped into trying to get a Cave shooter on the list.  I don't know if the purists think of this as one of their better titles, but I know it's one that I personally have a lot of fun with.
• Gun Nac - the best Compile game, and best 8-bit shooter?  Very possibly.  I haven't played Recca yet.

[avatar! | 1,811]

6 hours ago, G-type said:

Sine Mora
Beamrider
Strikeforce
Recca summer carnival
Turmoil
Lifeforce

Color me surprised, but somehow I figured a member with the screen name of "G-type" who has an image of R-type as their picture would list R-type as a favorite 

[G-type | 2,482]

1 hour ago, avatar! said:

Color me surprised, but somehow I figured a member with the screen name of "G-type" who has an image of R-type as their picture would list R-type as a favorite 

I guess you didn't read my interview with Reed. I explained the origin of the name: I just wanted to modify a game name with my initials and this was the first one that popped into my head. I have barely played the actual game.

Edited March 27 by G-type

[Californication | 1,477]

@Reed, Jamestown + is a lot of fun, but my small gripe is that the last difficulty setting feels awkward when playing one player. Having to travel back and forth across the screen because of the aspect ratio feels much different than in Legendary.