SNES Darius Twin and SNES shooters

[NESfiend 1,339]

Had never heard of it and picked up on a whim (great condition/Taito) at the local gameshop. Not deep into it, but it seems like a great shooter. Other SNES shooters I have are gradius 3, pocky and rocky, and UN squadron. All great games. Dont seem to hear much about SNES shooters in general, certainly not like I do NES shooters or SNES Rpgs. How are they generally regarded and am I missing out on a bunch of other great SNES shooters? If so, which ones?

Edited November 18, 2020 by NESfiend

[Gloves 10,352]

Space Megaforce.

[NESfiend 1,339]

32 minutes ago, Gloves said:

Space Megaforce.

I stand corrected. I have this game, but haven't given it any real time. I got it at a convention where I also got mega man x2 and that won the day on my play time. Need to revisit that one. Also realized I should have included super r-type and r-type 3. Havent given those enough of a fair shake either. Got 3 in the snes fantasy football league along with earthbound and it won the day for play time too. Maybe I just need to put more time into these, but Id still like to hear if there are any good ones I am missing and how they are regarded overall. 

Edited November 18, 2020 by NESfiend

[docile tapeworm 3,672]

un squad sets a pretty high bar imo as far as snes shooters go. 

i havent played darius but i like fish.

i like stg myself but ive heard other shooter fans say they dont care for it. 

 

[docile tapeworm 3,672]

47 minutes ago, Gloves said:

Space Megaforce.

 

18 minutes ago, NESfiend said:

I stand corrected. I have this game, but haven't given it any real time. I got it at a convention where I also got mega man x2 and that won the day on my play time. Need to revisit that one. Also realized I should have included super r-type and r-type 3. Havent given those enough of a fair shake either. Got 3 in the snes fantasy football league along with earthbound and it won the day for play time too. Maybe I just need to put more time into these, but Id still like to hear if there are any good ones I am missing and how they are regarded overall. 

i just figured space megaforce was a given.

the r-types are ports, like darius. 

raiden is on super nintendo also and its fine.

i was thinking of original super nintendo games.

firepower 2000 is like a verticle scrolling silk worm

Edited November 18, 2020 by docile tapeworm

[Webhead123 520]

There are a handful of good shooters on the SNES, for sure. I enjoy Axelay, Firepower 2000, Pocky & Rocky, Space Megaforce, Thunder Spirits and U.N. Squadron in particular.

I've played a little bit of Gradius 3 but the series on the whole is one I've never really been able to get into. The same goes for the R-Type games, although R-Type 3 is pretty fun in short bursts.

Darius Twin was actually one of the earliest rentals I ever did for the SNES. I found it average even then. Tried going back to it today and had about the same impression.

I also played a fair bit of Choplifter 3 and Phalanx and I recall thinking both were pretty good, although it's been many years since I last booted up either one.

[Californication 1,466]

All my fav. Snes shooters have been named except Super Nova which is the superior Darius game on the Snes. Although, if you include Pocky and Rocky, which is more of a run and gun imo, I would probably include True Lies.

There are a couple more if you add Super Famicom to the list. Macross Valkyrie Scrambled is top of the line, there are three Parodius games, that are decent 16-bit ports although with ports to the PS1/Saturn etc. there are other options. Rendering Ranger is interesting, but is kind of a pig with make up. 

Edited November 18, 2020 by Californication

[Renmauzo 993]

Axelay and Space Megaforce are my favorites on the SNES, but in addition to the other games mentioned in the thread, you could take a look at Imperium (reminds me of Aerofighters) and Earth Defense Force.

Californication's mentions for Macross Valkyrie (best 16 bit Nintendo shooter IMO) and Parodius on Super Famicom really need your attention if you aren't averse to checking out Super Famicom games. Spriggan Powered is great, as are Cotton 100% and Flying Hero. An interesting shooter is Dezaemon: this is a shooter, but with the interesting twist of having a full level editor built in so that you can build your own shooter!

[Andy_Bogomil 749]

Space Megaforce is my favourite shooter. I like the vertical shooters a lot better and that game is a good challenge with good weapons and guns. It's better than Aero Fighters imo. Even though I own a lot of the horizontal shooters I just don't really like them.. UN squadron included. 

[Tanooki 4,696]

13 hours ago, NESfiend said:

Dont seem to hear much about SNES shooters in general, certainly not like I do NES shooters or SNES Rpgs. How are they generally regarded and am I missing out on a bunch of other great SNES shooters? If so, which ones?

They're less discussed outside of Nintendo circles because basically of the classic console wars mixed with some tropes that hung on about the slow SNES CPU.  Earlier on sure, it was an issue, you've seen it in Gradius III. It got slow, you had some breaking up of large sprites flickering in part out (like the big plant boss.)  Later slowness was mostly to completely mitigated and the visual drop out stopped such as in games like Space Megaforce (super aleste), and they went even further with detail and excellence in output with the likes of Spriggan and Macross in Japan and Axelay all around.  Genesis people just ran to it and keep the myth since it has the faster CPU it is the better one for shooters, but ultimately, there is no clear winner.

[Webhead123 520]

3 hours ago, Andy_Bogomil said:

Space Megaforce is my favourite shooter. I like the vertical shooters a lot better and that game is a good challenge with good weapons and guns. It's better than Aero Fighters imo. Even though I own a lot of the horizontal shooters I just don't really like them.. UN squadron included. 

I remember the first time I saw game play for Space Megaforce and I thought to myself, "This looks like a knock-off of Blazing Lazers". Lo and behold, I discover they were both developed by Compile. From that moment on, I knew I needed to play it. Blazing Lazers was/is one of my favorite shmups and to get that experience on the SNES was an instant sell.

I, too, seem to prefer vertical shooters to horizontal. I don't really know why. Maybe it is just literally the up/down movement versus the left/right movement. I don't know.

[Reed Rothchild 7,953]

In my rankings so far I've covered - from worst to best:

• D-Force
• Raiden Trad
• Blazeon
• Imperium
• Super R-Type
• Strike Gunner

Which means I think every single other one is a top 200 game.

[Andy_Bogomil 749]

Super Smash TV is another one that I would call a shooter and is quite fun. I didn't really like it back in the day but when we played it for the SNES contest on NA I really enjoyed it. There is some decent strategy to it and I could see my skills improve throughout the contest which made me keep coming back for more. 

[Webhead123 520]

44 minutes ago, Andy_Bogomil said:

Super Smash TV is another one that I would call a shooter and is quite fun. I didn't really like it back in the day but when we played it for the SNES contest on NA I really enjoyed it. There is some decent strategy to it and I could see my skills improve throughout the contest which made me keep coming back for more. 

Yes, Smash TV on SNES is really fun! Playing during the contest motivated me to really try to beat it. I got so close but not quite. Definitely improved my appreciation for that game even more.

Speaking of which, when we gonna start that again? 

[docile tapeworm 3,672]

1 hour ago, Reed Rothchild said:

In my rankings so far I've covered - from worst to best:

• D-Force
• Raiden Trad
• Blazeon
• Imperium
• Super R-Type
• Strike Gunner

Which means I think every single other one is a top 200 game.

lookie th'r 'nth'r stg guy

[Reed Rothchild 7,953]

12 minutes ago, Webhead123 said:

Yes, Smash TV on SNES is really fun! Playing during the contest motivated me to really try to beat it. I got so close but not quite. Definitely improved my appreciation for that game even more.

Speaking of which, when we gonna start that again? 

Dunno.  Sounds like a @Jeevan problem.

[Jeevan 8,172]

1 minute ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Dunno.  Sounds like a @Jeevan problem.

[NESfiend 1,339]

4 hours ago, docile tapeworm said:

lookie th'r 'nth'r stg guy

Well it didnt make his top 200 snes games, so Im not sure hes a guy as well as you are. I plan to check it out on your call though. Your calling un squadron #1 overall made me want to go back to it and I have. It is an awesome game. And I suck. But Im going to put some time in...

@Webhead123, you mentioned you generally prefer vertical shooters to horizontal ones. Thinking about it I have a strong preference the other way, but dont have any idea why. Big exception would be recca. 

 

[Tanooki 4,696]

6 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

In my rankings so far I've covered - from worst to best:

• D-Force
• Raiden Trad
• Blazeon
• Imperium
• Super R-Type
• Strike Gunner

Which means I think every single other one is a top 200 game.

Hah call those turds out.  I don't blame you one bit, and so far I agree, what is left I can recall from memory is a definite step up.  Also saddens me that I used to have R-Type III, the one in the franchise I really did enjoy a lot from the 20th century, and now its price is crap and the GBA version is badly done and should be ignored.

I can only guess where you'll stuff things I'm thinking of at the moment.  Gradius, Space Megaforce, Axelay, Thunder Spirits, UN Squadron, Phalanx (got good gba port), technically I guess both of the Pocky & Rocky games too.

[Reed Rothchild 7,953]

20 minutes ago, NESfiend said:

Well it didnt make his top 200 snes games, so Im not sure hes a guy as well as you are. I plan to check it out on your call though. Your calling un squadron #1 overall made me want to go back to it and I have. It is an awesome game. And I suck. But Im going to put some time in...

@Webhead123, you mentioned you generally prefer vertical shooters to horizontal ones. Thinking about it I have a strong preference the other way, but dont have any idea why. Big exception would be recca. 

 

Well that one's at #210 so it was close 

[Tulpa 2,993]

Super Nova (Darius Force) is better than Darius Twin, but both are decent. They're not the best the Darius series has to offer, though.

 

[NESfiend 1,339]

9 minutes ago, Tulpa said:

Super Nova (Darius Force) is better than Darius Twin, but both are decent. They're not the best the Darius series has to offer, though.

 

@Californicationalso said super nova was the superiour darius game and Ive already started shopping around for it. Looks great. Lucky for this thread because I never would have known 'super nova' was a Darius game. Great branding. 

[docile tapeworm 3,672]

2 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Well that one's at #210 so it was close 

why no one care about stg?

[Reed Rothchild 7,953]

33 minutes ago, docile tapeworm said:

why no one care about stg?

210 out of 714 puts it in the.... 70th percentile of the library.  That's not too shabby.

[CasualCart 6,089]

Like @Tanooki mentioned, people don't give SNES shooters much credit because of the system's infamous slowdown, but if you've got terrible reflexes like me it's a blessing in disguise haha...

-CasualCart