Let's talk about shoot-em-ups.

No, not the movie. No, not FPSs. I'm talking about stuff like Gradius, Ikaruga, and Raiden.

Addendum: NO TOUHOU DISCUSSION. Touhou has its own thread.

edited 8th Oct '09 3:04:46 PM by TsundeRay

Want to play R Type Delta and Final.

Also want to get into Fraxy.

I tried to play R-Type Delta at Fanime last week, but their copy was a backup, and the PS2s they had no likey backups. :(

Currently listening to the Thunder Force VI soundtrack. The game itself is kinda crappy, but holy shit, if the soundtrack was a human being (female or male), I would hit it until I passed out from exhaustion.

edited 31st May '09 4:26:46 PM by TsundeRay

I love Parodius.

Well, granted, part of the appeal is the sheer (and often surrealistic) silliness.

Try Bullet Hell games. Touhou is good for an introduction before you tackle stuff like Mushihime-sama

edited 31st May '09 11:53:13 PM by Recon5

Haven't really played any since Tyrian.

I heard Touhou was pretty hard.

I beat PR3 legitimately. That has to count for something.

Believe me, Cave makes stuff much harder than Touhou and many companies make even harder stuff than that. Arcade afficiandos consider Touhou to be a relative lightweight. Those things aren't called 'quarter munchers' for nothing, you know...

Shoot'em ups are my favorite genre of videogame. Some of my favorite games are:

• Dangun Feveron/Fever S.O.S
• Alpha Mission 2/ASO II Last Guardian
• Gunbird
• Gradius III (Well, only the snes version, the arcade one is quite frankly unplayable)
• Last Resort
• R-Type II
• R-Type Leo
• Thunder Force III
• Pulstar
• Twinkle Star Sprites

... and way too many others to mention.

Gradius, R-type, Blazing Lazers, Twinbee, Fantasy Zone, and MUSHA are my favorites, and are all available on the Wii's Vitual Console.

Recon 5: Since much of my enjoyment comes from actively dodging stuff, rather than practicing and memorizing where and how to sit and nudge my hitbox, I really don't think I'll enjoy bullet hell games.

You know what would be cool? A schmup that tailors the challenge automatically in the same way that Left 4 Dead does.

Would amuse me far more than Bullet Hell.

I'm a big fan of Ikaruga, and I would play Touhou if there was any legitimate way to get one of the games.

God, Ikaruga's hard.

Sure, rote memorization, but still.

I can't even get past the second level's boss, to be honest.

Charlatan: what does l4d do?

@GMH: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_4_Dead#AI_and_the_Director

I wanna snap up Raiden Fighters Aces, but:

• It's on the 360, home of the worst first-party D-pad ever conceived. The only way I can escape it is to somehow hunt down a Fight Pad, or burn $100 or so on a good arcade stick.
• I'd probably have to turn my TV 90 degrees for optimal gameplay. An upright TV works just fine for, say, Gunbird 2, but Psyvariar 2 is piss poor on an upright. So I'm skeptical about using this setup for Raiden Fighters, though I'll probably be alright due to the RF series' low resolution.
• I'm not sure if it's still in stock at GameCrazy. I have $22 store credit lying around from trading in Brawl.

edited 2nd Jun '09 2:45:04 AM by TsundeRay

You know what would be cool? A schmup that tailors the challenge automatically in the same way that Left 4 Dead does.

Well, a lot of arcade shmups have a "rank" system that makes the game harder if you play well. Battle Garegga is infamous for how stupidly complex the rank is.

edited 2nd Jun '09 4:02:55 AM by Someguy

Oooh, Galaga is probably my favorite schmup ever. Such fond memories.

I loved how you could grab assloads of attached ships in Galaga 3 for More Dakka.

Let us not forget Warning Forever and Battleships Forever.

I'm jealous of the people with PS Ps. They got R Type Tactics.

Ooh, I played R-Type III when I was little.

Kicked my ass. I think I gave up at around the beginning of stage two.

Does Star Fox count as a schmup? One of my favorite games ever, or at least the first two.

EDIT: OH DURRRRR, I'm talking about schmups with auto-adjusting difficulty and I forgot about Warning Forever. I'm dumb!

edited 6th Jun '09 7:15:22 PM by Charlatan

Apparently Rez counts as a shoot-'em-up.

This seems iffy to me. Who agrees/disagrees?

It's an extremely trippy, arthouse, psychadelic headscrew schmup, but I call it a schmup.

Am I the only person who calls them space shooters, with subgroups vertical, horizontal, and 3D rail?

And then you have shoot-em-ups which is what I call the bunch of games where, say, you have some western setting and you're a sheriff with a gun with lots of bullets and outlaws are popping up behind features on a static screen and you have to shoot them. I have no idea what the real name of that genre is.