I think Soukyugurentai Otokuyo is eternally my fave shooter. Generally I have a soft-spot for a melancholic atmosphere in this genre, and otherwise the presentation is lovely: bold typography, great music, and interesting lock-on mechanism the makes you move round the screen a bit more that other shooters I think.
There's a Swtich game called _Missile Dancer_ (ミサイルダンサー) with a similar lock-on I've been meaning to grab too.
You should rename this thread ‘Shooting Game is Somethng so Great’
Cave games are great.
Cave doesn't really exist anymore, even though they still do on paper.
The shooter folk left the company back in 2013, and Cave has only made random mobile games since then.
Seems like some of the key Cave staffers haven't been credited on anything since that happened.
I don't see anything for Ikeda or Yagawa, and Junya Inoue seems to have gone back to working on manga.
@Geoff Seems like some of the key Cave staffers haven’t been credited on anything since that happened.
I don’t see anything for Ikeda or Yagawa, and Junya Inoue seems to have gone back to working on manga.
Inoue left Cave in the early '00s, back when Cave was still very active in arcades, and continued to work on things as a freelancer, with the Deathsmiles series being perhaps the biggest projects he ever did. He worked with M2 on the ra.de reissue, even.
Ikeda and Yagawa are still there, as are a ton of lesser-known but considerably talented people who contributed to their arcade output. They're pretty much all working on Gothic wa Mahou Otome, their inexplicably successful mobile gacha STG.
The "mass exodus" from Cave was greatly overstated—they did lose several people when they withdrew from arcade/consumer dev but most of those people were relative newcomers and definitely not people I'd consider essential to the makeup of Cave. Some of those people have since made their own indie STG, with the most notable ones being Aka to Blue and Rolling Gunner.
Cave as a company is doing a little too well—they were basically bought out by an idol agency, they have ex-Capcom guy Yoshiki Okamoto on the board (more as investor bait than anything else, AFAIK), etc. They got a little buzz in the last week or two when analysis were mapping the downturn in JP game studio stocks due to COVID and how Cave of all companies was surging due to some idol-related youtube nonsense.
No mention of Radiant Silvergun yet? A bit of a shocker…
I'm someone who legit thinks it's one of the best shmups ever. I purchased it when it first came out at a local import shop back in the day and eventually had to sell my precious copy when I was particularly hard up for cash. Before doing so, I recorded myself playing the game via a VCR... I really need to dig that tape up.
Also, I can't believe the XBLA version hasn't been re-released yet, on Steam. What the hell? Do I have to get a Xbone to play it? I also have a 360, but given how it has OutRun Arcade and After Burner Climax, I try not to turn it on as much as possible....
BTW, I just realized that a slightly higher quality of that French shmup doc is on YouTube, though the subtitles are now in the Garfield font (kinda funny) and is also at the top + super big, thus covering a lot of people's faces (kinda annoying).
@Blrb I love Psikyo, but the Switch ports are a bit meh. They seem to be mostly ports of earlier console releases, with Gunbird 1 in particular having some strange differences with the arcade versions. The lag is also ~ 7 frames or so, which is noticeable even with my terrible reflexes. I tend to get at least one level further per credit on MAME.
That being said, I still play them all the time, because the Switch is so convenient and the games are so good.
@fortninety Speaking for myself, while I love RS, it‘s a case of it coming up so much in shooter discussions that a lot of other great games fall by the wayside. I love it though, and I spent a bunch of money I shouldn’t have to buy a copy (after seeing it for sale back in the Saturn era at a Babbage's– I passed on buying it, went home, felt terrible about it and went back the next day, only to find it had been sold D: ).
I also find it weird that it hasn't been reissued other than on the X360. You'd think it would be a shoo-in on the Switch!
Speaking of reissues, and of 'whatever happened to', what's the deal with Treasure these days? Other than the somewhat recent rereleases of Ikaruga, they've been pretty silent!
I‘ve never played Radiant Silvergun, it’s a hole in my shooter knowledge. But I‘m not positive I’d actually enjoy it. I bought Ikaruga at launch on the GameCube and enjoyed it, but it's really really tough.
Radiant Silvergun requires less math than Ikaruga to enjoy, so it might work out a bit better for you!
alright, I guess I should put in my next recommendation installment.
Now I'll go with horizontally-scrolling shooters for Saturn (ignoring whether it was originally an arcade game, by this point most of them are).
Metal Black - has one of the coolest “in-engine” intro->gameplay sequences I've seen:
Hyper Duel - it's pricey, but very fun - it's short, your "ship" turns into a mech whenever you like, and the "original" vs "arcade" modes are so different they might as well be total remixes, which means it's actually worth playing through multiple times.
Thunder Force V - well, it has the song Legendary Wings in it, which is enough reason to play the game, but also it showcases that old style of 3D where they'd make impossibly skinny structures attached to bulky engines and bodies and stuff, which rules. This version is also best to play because some stage detail is missing from the PS version
Darius Gaiden - quite a saturn graphical showcase. even if it was originally in arcades, it feels like it was made for the saturn. Proper transparency, huge scaling sprites, faked perspective, it's all here! And that music, too!
I'll be back in a while with another specific group of games :3
While I have never been the type to get particularly good at any one STG, I absolutely love the genre even though I haven‘t played it seriously in some time. I did make it a point to buy M2 STG ESP Ra.De. on Switch, it’s one of my top ranked games. I also kept all of the ones in my library. I appreciate Metal Black on multiple levels, and Crimzon Clover I liked to gift out to friends when it went for cheap.
I am a MASSIVE Mars Matrix fan. Takumi took Giga Wing's base gameplay design, made very slight tweaks, and created something with so much more depth. I should elaborate, but I am pecking this post out on the phone while cooking.
Bonus, it turns 20 this month. So at least give it a try for its Birthday! :)
Mars Matrix is one of the best shooting games of all time I'd say. I wish I god darned owned it but it costs a million dollars now.
@exodus Nice! I got super lucky when my girlfriend, now wife, picked up the CPS2 board for me 15 or so years ago. Did I propose to her because of that? Well … look. There‘s love, and then there’s something deeper when someone hunts for a CPS2 board of Mars Matrix for you.
But yeah, Mars Matrix is one of those games that just shouldn't be gate kept by being rare or expensive. I wish someone would convince Capcom/Takumi to do a digital release. :(
I wish more companies wanted to do collections - a Capcom Shooting Collection would be awesome. Could sneak Mars Matrix in there!! another thing to do if I become a millionaire.
I think this is one of the best reviewers of STGs of all time and I still go back to these when I need a laugh:
I've played a lot of shooters in my time and really got into them in the mid to late 2000's. I remember playing rRootage on my PC for hours a night and getting really excited when they made a port to the GP2X. I mostly got into the Cave games and imported both a Japanese PS2 and X360 to get the most shooting action. Recently, I've been trying to 1cc Mushihimesama Arrange Mode on the PS2, I've been so close! A little oddity I would recommend is BulletGBA or Vulkanon, both are indie games made for the GBA. I picked up a flash card and a gameboy micro so I could play them the best way possible. They are wildly impressive for the GBA. The cool thing is the developer has posted earlier builds for each of the games and these actually play a bit differently from each other.
I just recently started playing Battle Garegga Rev.2016. The premium mode is perfect for a somewhat casual STG player such as myself. Enough tweaks to keep the game challenging while still being manageable. There are moments in each stage where the music builds up and power-ups and bonuses come raining down on the ship. I love it. Looking to pick up a few more of the M2 Shot Triggers releases.
@tomjonjon The Aleste Collection, Dangon Feveron, ESP Ra.De. ones are excellent. Haven‘t played the Mahou Daisakusen one, but that game is a blast and I can’t imagine it not being up to M2's standards
I‘ve been playing Ginga Force for Xbox 360 lately. It’s the sequel to Eschatos, which is one of my favorites although it does change up a few things. Instead of being one continuous game, you get booted back to the main menu after each stage. At first it seemed like an extremely difficult game but then I realized that when you collect 1ups, you get to keep those extra lives for your next try, so you CAN power through the game if you stick with it, even if your skills aren‘t so hot. I’m playing on easy because I‘m not really all that great at these games, even though it’s one of my favorite genres!
