2d Scrolling Shooters

[messiah]

best shooter overall : Radiant SilverGun (SAT) and Ikaruga (DC)

for gp2x i think one of the best and most hardcore you can run is "Recca - Summer Carnival '92" for NES. I recommend to become familiar with this game - It is unbelievable fast and wicked and - you won't believe that it runs on NES. Awesome.

"Naxatsoft's Recca was the second game released on NES for the Summer Carnival anual shooting competion.. and what an awesome game it was for its time (1992). Lightning fast, massive firepower, scores of aliens and bullets and some huge screen-filling bosses.. all on an 8-bit NES!"

 

[paxl13]

No One mentioned the Holy grail of the Neo Geo !

Blazing star and/or Pulsar and or P1942

these Three are soo much cool !

paxl13

 

[saehn]

Check these out: http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~cs8k-cyu/

For Windows, Linux, etc. They're from the makers of Noiz2sa. Japanese company, great stuff.

 

[Cloudskipa]

Check out some Raizing shooters, Battle Garegga, Batrider and my personal favourite Dimahoo.

Just superb games, incredible gameplay. B)

 

[krosfyah]

PC Engine was the king of shmups back in the day. Gunhed is still one of my favourites. I also love Hellfire on the Megadrive.

Honourable mention: Xenon 2 (Amiga or ST)

 

[virusx]

Don't forget about Battle Squadron...

+1 for this one, I just spent so many hours on this one. 2 players mode was awsome (with two mice; dropping mega bombs by doing some rapid circles)

Don't forget Xenon 2! this game was really nice and the music was great !

 

[art1080]

for dreamcast Border Down (2003) is amazing, very unique level hopping and incredible 3D side scrolling graphics. If you like Ikaruga you'll dig the hell out of it. Also it has 'remixes' .. so if you get bored of the standard levels (because you can't get pass the 2nd stage) you can change everything up, including the music

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_Down

Good sites for all your shooter reference needs:

http://www.classicgaming.com/Shmups/xenocidefiles.html

http://www.shmups.com

 

[Skies]

Here is my fave shooter. It's a side scrolling flash game.

http://www.unoriginal.co.uk/alphaforce.html

or

http://www.unoriginal.co.uk/games12/alphaforce.swf

for the direct file link.

The thing I love about this game is each time you collect a weapon power up it increases it's power which then changes how the weapon is fired. Number of missiles, direction of multi-way guns etc.

Games like this are reason enough the gp2x needs a really good flash player.

As for top down shooters, my fave was always river raid on the atari. I would reccomend going for a side scrolling shooter though.

 

[ninja_sauce]

I always loved flying shark (arcade) for some reason and also the raiden series. Battle Squadron too, though Xenon 2 seemed a little too style over substance for me.

R-type was definatly one of the coolest, though Dragon Breed, also by irem tends to get over looked...just as cool, you are a little fella flying about on a metallic chinese dragon. you can hop on and off and that, too, shoot things and stuff.

nice.

 

[kevcal]

Loads of great games listed...
Will try out some I haven't heard of before I think.

What about Salamander on Mame? (and Stargate if that's allowed).

 

[art1080]

Is the Raiden series arcade running on any emulator?

 

[spoyser]

Thunder Cross Japanese version in which the options can be moved up and down vertically.

Playable on PC MAME.

Our local pub had it when were at uni, I'll never forget when we finally got to the end of game boss and worked out where to hit it to cause damage, cos the very next day the pub got rid of it. Never did finish it, GUTTED

 

[gaterooze]

Is the Raiden series arcade running on any emulator?

PC Engine and Genesis, at least.

 

[Goemon4]

Powermanga

I love this game, but the difficulty between levels and bosses is too dramatic. You're cruising along, powering up, maybe even upgrading the whole ship, then you run into the first boss, and it's a sea of bullets. Little hope to avoid. Dead once = game over.

The only time I ever got past the first boss was when I lucked into a purple powerup (kills everything on screen) and he appeared right as I got it.

So the lesson is. . .
Don't the make the bosses ridiculously difficult compared to the game itself. This is a mistake made time and again in shooters. The first boss should be only slightly tricky, subsequent bosses progressively harder, but never outrageous until the end. I always felt Zelda Ocarina really had a perfect boss monster curve which was its greatest strength.

you need to know how to fight them, i got up to the 28th level and only started having troubles at the 25th, you need to have the homing rockets really strong, hold fire and let them blast at the boss, they require no aiming at all so it leaves you able to spend time to dodge the bosses attacks while landing alot of attacks at him (btw if you havent caught the drift, powermanga is one of my favorite shumps of all time and probably the most played game on my 2x!)


BTW- http://wikimup.com/index.php?title=Main_Page
http://www.shmups.com/
http://www.classicgaming.com/shmups/xenocidefiles.html more console specific lists
those links should help you find some good shumps

 

[sensible GP32]

am i the only one who loves areowings here

 

[TelcoLou]

am i the only one who loves areowings here

Nope! Robo-Keaton, m'self!

 

[slaanesh]

There's so many!

Some of these may have been already mentioned.

I've split it into Arcade and PC Engine.



[Arcade]
R-Type (series I, II)
- Early scroller, very impressive. Huge ships. Great playability. Love the power ups.

Scramble
Gradius (series I, II, III, IV)
- Classic power up. Scramble was the fore-runner to Gradius. I love all the Gradius, I and II and probably my favourites.

Parodius
- Parody version of Gradius. Also a 'sexy' version with really pretty cartoon graphics.

Twin Cobra
Raiden (series I, II, DX, Fighters)
- Probably my all time favourite vertical shooters. Twin Cobra and Raiden are just the right balance of shooting, dodging, difficulty and power-ups! And such a shame when you die and you see all your power-ups disappear! Though you could catch some of them floating around in front of you. The PC (not "PC Engine") version of Raiden II is awesome!

Choplifter
- Based on the classic computer version, this is the definitive version for me. Great color graphics. Perhaps not a pure shooter but I always love playing in. The Sega Master System version is highly recommended.

1941
1942
1943
- Classics. My favourite is 1943, fantastic frenetic shooting, with extraordinary pretty graphics for the time. I loved the parallax effect and particularly loved experimenting with the weapons.
Most people probably know 1942 (chronologically the first produced) and possibly dismiss 1941. There's also 194x and some other later variants but I don't really rate those.

Dragon Spirit
Dragon Saber
- Nice vertical shooters with power ups.

Dragonbreed
- Another great shooter, a bit slow but the dragon power ups were novel.

[PC Engine]
Gunhed
Super Star Solder
Final Soldier
Soldier Blade
- Awesome games. The PC Engine was a sprite monster and these games proved it. They are a nice combo of power ups and just plain fun shooting. Perhaps a bit easy, especially when you are fully powered up.
Soldier Blade has awesome graphics. Final Soldier allows you to choose weapons before starting.

Sylphia
Spriggan
- Pretty graphics and not a bad shooter

R-Type
- Deserves a mention on the PC Engine for being an example of an excellent conversion.

Galaga 88
- Sort of scrolling. Classic Galaga with extras. Everything you want for a sequel.

Atomic Robokid
- A bit easy but big impressive visuals and nice gameplay.

Mr Heli
- Cartoony and fun but quite a good shooter, where you collect coins to buy new weapons of your choice.

[EDIT]

Star Parodia
- Cartoony parody of Super Star Soldiers using your choice of bomberman, pc-engine or <some other> character. It's really nicely presented with lush graphics.

Ai Cho Aniki
Cho Aniki
- I'll get totally bagged for adding these in, but they are good shooters in their own right even if their subject/content is questionable.

Steam Hearts
- It's okay, possibly a bit hyped and definitely overpriced for what it is. Has some nice cut scenes though, but then that's not what a 2D shooter is all about, right?

Gradius II
- Like R-type, special mention for Gradius II on the PC Engine. Amazingly good considering the PC Engine specs.

Gate of Thunder
Lord of Thunder
- Some people rave about these ones but i'm not convinced. Something lacking to make them truely excellent in my opinion but still worth of mention.

Macross 2036
- Excellent, especially if you are a fan of Macross(J)/Robotech(US). Side note: I have both Macross and Robotech DVDs; do yourself a favour and get the Japanese version!

 

[gaterooze]

Slaanesh, have you tried Star Parodia on PC Engine CD?

 

[slaanesh]

Slaanesh, have you tried Star Parodia on PC Engine CD?

I have what I consider to be ALL the good PC Engine games (on HuCard and CD)

Except for Sapphire.

Yes Star Parodia is good too. There's others i've missed, I'll have to look through my colleciton (and probably end up playing them as I go).

[EDIT]

I've updated my list above.

There's also more Arcade shooters, I'm sure. Dodondapachi, Gunbird, etc.

 

[Amon_Re]

Am i the only one that likes Gyruss?