SHMUPs!

[miyabi95_]

Sorry for starting so many threads - last one for now, I promise ;v;.

Anyway, I like flying around and shooting bright shiny things at other things that fly around and shoot bright shiny things in odd patterns that are usually near-impossible to avoid. I definitely get more enjoyment from the graphics - but there are a few gameplay elements that I'm picky about (powerups, health/lives, special abilities, etc)

You may or may not already know that I prefer shooters that involve human pilots (playing as a person who can fly rather than a machine/aircraft). Espgaluda is my favorite vertical, and Deathsmiles and Cotton 2 are at a tie for my favorite horizontal.

Classics like Galaga and Gradius implement impressive game design technique, but they don't really fit my casual-gaming taste. In other words, I prefer a shooter that isn't too difficult so that I can immerse myself without concentrating too hard on finishing the game. Basically, modern shooters are calm and peaceful Disney rides while classics are extreme rollercoasters.

I would be up to playing a few Touhou games, but my machine is not powerful enough to run them efficiently. And I'm done with using virtual machines (for reasons besides making games in Clickteam Fusion).

[Gors]

Gradius rules

Alds horizontal shmups add to level designs vertical shmups cannot. Shmups are probably my fave genre of videogames

[puggsoy]

I play a couple of SHMUPs. Jamestown is a great one, it only has 5 levels (not including bonus levels) but the various difficulties, ships, Gauntlet mode, and the option of local co-op still give it a good amount of replayability. The aesthetics and design are also really sweet.
I've played a little bit of Perfect Cherry Blossom, which is pretty fun although I don't think I've gotten past the second level.
I really like Beat Hazard, if that counts. It's not really rhythm based, but it is still influenced a lot by the music you choose (both visually and gameplay-wise) which I find really neat.

Of course these are all top-down bullet-hell shooters. As Gors said side-scrolling SHMUPs are better suited for level design and although I can't think of any that I've played recently, I do own Enemy Mind which looks quite interesting.

[Benny The Miraj]

You may or may not already know that I prefer shooters that involve human pilots

Personally, I generally prefer everything else, to be honest. I never understood the whole "Playing as a human is more fun because you can relate to them more" concept. I actually prefer playing as other things because they're LESS like me. ...But I guess that's just separate opinions there.

Like with most genres, my favorite SHUMPs have HUGE bosses, generally more organic looking ones as opposed to robotic ones. ...I'm not a huge expert of SHUMPS though. I do recall playing Parodius a lot. It's a spoof of the Gradius series that has a LOT of playable characters. I've played the first three games, but I've yet to play Sexy Parodius yet. There might be more, but I only remember the original, the two SNES games and Sexy Parodius. I thought the fact that the SNES ones had so many characters to choose from, each with their own powers, was kind of cool. I especially liked playing as Ran the cat (I think that was his name) in the second one for the SNES.

[Kriven]

I don't know if it really has to be "Playing as People", but "Playing with Characters" is definitely better than playing as random-generic-space-ship. I generally don't get into too many SHMUPS for that reason, and because the gameplay is fairly similar between them all, distinct gimmicks not withstanding. So to make a SHMUP special... usually it needs a special kind of aesthetic or unique world for me to get into.

Star Fox being more-or-less an advancement of the genre works for me primarily because of the com-displays and the frequent bouts of banter between characters. It makes the world a whole lot more relatable and entertaining as a whole.

[TomGuycott]

Ships are definitely fine for me in a shmup, but good ship design is imperative.

Unique characters are usually more of a draw, though. For example, I always liked Abadox a lot out of the NES shooters because you are a little space man rather than a ship.

[miyabi95_]

You may or may not already know that I prefer shooters that involve human pilots

Personally, I generally prefer everything else, to be honest. I never understood the whole "Playing as a human is more fun because you can relate to them more" concept. I actually prefer playing as other things because they're LESS like me. ...But I guess that's just separate opinions there.

Like with most genres, my favorite SHUMPs have HUGE bosses, generally more organic looking ones as opposed to robotic ones. ...I'm not a huge expert of SHUMPS though. I do recall playing Parodius a lot. It's a spoof of the Gradius series that has a LOT of playable characters. I've played the first three games, but I've yet to play Sexy Parodius yet. There might be more, but I only remember the original, the two SNES games and Sexy Parodius. I thought the fact that the SNES ones had so many characters to choose from, each with their own powers, was kind of cool. I especially liked playing as Ran the cat (I think that was his name) in the second one for the SNES.

Well I will say that I have that preference purely for the aesthetic, lol. Though I don't mind if they're riding on something, a la Mushihimesama or Cotton.
On a side note, if Konami got back to SHMUPS, I think they would be better off rather than if they continue hiding from their problems. However, I would prefer that they create new properties rather than go back to old ones like Gradius and Parodius, which are pretty stale IMO.

Ships are definitely fine for me in a shmup, but good ship design is imperative.

Unique characters are usually more of a draw, though. For example, I always liked Abadox a lot out of the NES shooters because you are a little space man rather than a ship.

Abadox sounds like fun. I'll have to give it a try. If you're looking for something that's unique, I recommend Psychic World for the MSX/MSX2/SMS/SGG. It's moreso a fusion of Metroid/Megaman/SHMUP styles but has that lingering pressure of keeping the screen moving and proceeding through the level at a constant pace.

[miyabi95_]

I did a complete playthrough of Guwange, one of CAVE's earlier titles. Pretty much your typical CAVE shooter with rendered graphics and an odd mixture of hiphop and Japanese folk music as the soundtrack...There's one thing that I have to point out though...


...Ever played Pocky & Rocky? Take the whimsical, cute and silly-looking characters from Pocky & Rocky...And turn the nightmare-fuel factor all the way up...You get Guwange. These enemies and bosses are freaky. Complete with creepy sound-effects. It's insane. I've never played a game with graphics this strange - not that I was super surprised, because this game has a story involving feudal Japan, which you assume involves folklore of some sort. But still...I wasn't expecting this. Sure, Deathsmiles has plenty of monsters, but their monsters aren't revolting-looking - they're just a little scary. Guwange is gross and weird - don't take that the wrong way though. It's not a bad game.

Some of these shots have very...unique visuals...So I'll keep them hidden just in case. Feel free to take a look...Unless you don't wanna sleep for a few days - it's up to you.

Spoiler

   

[Dolphman]

That giant baby is the stuff of nightmares. And I suppose it's main attack is similar to how the Suriname Toad raises it's tadpoles.

[DarkGrievous7145]

I've played a few of these.

First one that I recall is Fatcat, by Nitrome.
I have played several others since then, most of which I have forgotten.
A few years ago, I discovered Viewpoint while browsing the sprites here, and decided to try playing it. Well, I suck at playing it...XD

I also have played 'recently':
Bullet Heaven (I've not yet mastered)
Bullet Heaven 2 (I probably will not EVER master it)
Shameless Clone 2 (In one gaming session, I beat the entire game)
Shameless Clone (I found this one tedious and boring, I RQ pretty early)

My preferences tend to be a balance of all the gameplay and art elements. Story I don't personally care about either way, but it's a nice bonus when implemented correctly. It's also cool to see games that add new gameplay elements,or use the uncommon ones, sometimes even if these fail horribly.

Viewpoint takes things to a whole new level just because of the isometric perspective, which really screws with the ability of the player to track the bullets.

Fatcat has two player-controlled characters, the cat and the owl, and you need both to beat any level. Each one can only do certain things, making this a really interesting game to play. It also makes it fairly challenging, however. I have yet to beat a Nitrome game, anyways, but this was my first one, and I've since learned to accept the fact Nitrome specializes in challenge/difficulty, and not just the art style or innovative gameplay concepts.

Shameless Clone 2 implemented the upgrades system fairly well. Even after you reach an upgrade level that renders your character OP, there comes a point that the sheer amount of enemies, or their stats, renders it practically useless without at least, some skills.

Shameless Clone was ok, but it had some annoying little features that just aren't my cup of tea. If you like having the screen flipped upside-down because of some pickup, give it a try! I'm sure it had other interesting stuff, but I just couldn't honestly enjoy it, so I quit.

Bullet Heaven can get frustrating in some places, but the upgrades can really help. Art style is cute, and overall, this isn't bad for Matt Roszak's first attempt at a bullet hell shmup! However, it's sequel far surpasses it in just about every way.

Bullet Heaven 2 doesn't have permanent upgrades, and furthermore, it penalizes you for using any upgrades. On the opposite end of the spectrum, it gives you higher score for using handicaps and/or a tougher difficulty. The artwork has significantly improved, and just about everything is animated in some way. The soundtrack I'm iffy about, I suppose it fits a shmup, but given that BH is a spin-off to the Epic Battle Fantasy series, it feels detached from the overall theme of everything. Bullet heaven 2 also uses Starling and DragonBones for sprites, which means that a pretty decent GPU is required to play the game at full speed. Also, since instead of using vectors, all the graphics are rasterized in-memory, it can be notice-able when something is re-scaled. I also reported during the beta testing stage of the game some z-sorting issues, IDK if these have been addressed. Despite any of these problems, however, I can safely recommend this game for anyone who wishes to play it. I've been planning on writing a review for quite some time, but it's on my to-do list, so it'll happen someday.

Now, I've probably forgotten to list one or two other games here, so I'll update the post if any come to mind

[Kriven]

This game used to drive me nuts as a kid. I still can't navigate the water areas very well because the jumping mechanic is just so weird x.x;