I have yet to play Cambria Sword, which is really cool but also very very long. But I have played the other Vagues Games (a one person team) shmup: Jishou no Chihei Mendako (The Flying Pancake Octopus in Blackhole) and it’s a really interesting spin on Space Invaders. You can only move left and right and you can either move or shoot, but not both. Vagues Games gets a lot out of that limited set and the atmosphere… damn, you really have to play to understand how good the atmosphere of this game is.
Another special favorite of mine is EXTRAPOWER: Star Resistance, game two of the EXTRAPOWER trilogy. All of them made in RPG Maker, each one in a different genre. EXTRAPOWER is this bombastic anything goes superhero universe that the author Needle Sandman has created as setting for his games. First one (EXTRAPOWER:Attack of Darkforce) is a tactics rpg, the third one (EXTRAPOWER: The Giant Fist) is a Rolling Thunder kind of action platformer with the best title in videogame history.
Star Resistance is a lateral shmup that doesn’t have a very elaborate score system but what it lacks in score mechanics it compensates by cool level setpieces, tons of playable characters (each one having its own unique mechanics) secrets and a lot of charm.
The whole EXTRAPOWER trilogy is free and really worth a look, though it may be a pain to run on your machine. I have to use Locale Emulator for it.
Having a lot of fun with Natsuki Chronicles. Feels like an Eschatos with less distractions. And I'm loving those bullet trajectories. Such an obvious in retrospect idea that I hope catches on.
@TracyDMcGrath I‘m really trying to get into it but I’ve always had difficulty with horizontal shooters, especially the hit box. I‘m going to stick with it though because I love the feel of Qute games. Rising Star Games is really doing amazing work in bringing over Ginga Force and Natsuki Chronicles with the amount of translation that was needed. I’d love to see Eschatos and JS/CS on the PS4/PS5 but I think with Degica holding the rights, it probably won’t happen.
@antillese Einhander has been on the list before but Parodius Da and UN Squadron have only ever been honorable mentions. I feel like Parodius Da and Detana!! TwinBee should definitely be on there but the forum loves Cave so much that even Konami has to fight for scraps.
@TracyDMcGrath Yeah, I can second that about toxic folks on that forum! I‘ve had some not great experiences in the past there! I bet you can guess how folks reacted to me expressing very mild boredom with Cave’s stuff at different points. I agree that this year’s list is pretty good in general, but yeah… Armed Police Batrider needs to be higher!
Oh, and incidentally, in case someone’s missed it-- speaking of Cave stuff, Capcom has inexplicably released Progear as part of its Capcom Arcade Stadium compilation for Switch! I’m not really sure how it’s never managed to have an accessible home release until now, but… yeah!
I remember back in the day randomly downloading MAME roms, and stumbling upon Guwange by Cave. Loved the different take on a shooter with your character grounded and having a spirit attached by some umbilical cord of sorts. And then it was released on Xbox Live Arcade for the 360. Hoping it gets a new life on the Switch or somethin.
@TracyDMcGrath Yep, it‘s one of the very few Cave games that were made backwards-compatible—MS prioritises games based on being available digitally and being available worldwide, ideally under one publisher, and the dozen or so other STG they put out don’t meet both criteria, unfortunately.
The X360 version contains the original game, a rare arrange and a new X360 arrange with twin-stick controls.
This thread has been awesome to dig through. I was never really into shooters for a long time and then sometime last year something clicked and now I like them. Been trying to find ones that really butter my bread y'know. So far I think my favorite is Thunder Force V.
I just got myself a PC Engine and with it R-Type. I've always liked R-Type just for the Geiger-esque design but couldn't get past the first level for the longest time so with my PCE I've been on a mission to beat it. One thing that's really cool... I've always hated the idea of a "turbo button" cause I always felt like it was cheating but having one built into the original PCE pad made me really curious. It changes the way you play R-Type _so freakin much._ Flipping that switch and toggling between rapid fire and charge fire makes me feel like I'm actually flipping switches in a pilot's cockpit and the different types of fire come in handy in different areas. It's so cool!!
I also don't think anyone mentioned Defender yet. Maybe it doesnt really count? It's super old school and has a different style of play but I love it so much. The arcade controls look and feel like a ships dashboard and there's a super steep learning curve, which I really like in a game.
@milo I love Defender. Eugene Jarvis and Larry DeMar made great games whatever genre they are. I feel like every single one of them spawned a sub genre. There’s some great Defender-likes on the Switch like Blackbird and Fantasy Zone.
@Southeastpaw OH MAN I watched the bangai-o spirits review by this dude a few years back and as a non-native English speaker I was like omg what is happening. I also laughed my ass off.
For quite a while I have been looking for The Shooter I Wanna Get Really Good At.
I wanted it to be dodonpachi but I got no means to play it other than the ps1 port which is apparently faster than the original which sucks I mean does anyone really need this game to be even harder
So I think I might go with Crimson Clover, which recently got a nice switch port. The problem is..... I need glasses! I can't see well among all those bullets god darn it. It is incredibly hard on beginner difficulty! I dunno if I can make it.
Other than that my fave shooters that I've beaten so far were musha (I love those fm speed metal guitars so much) and radiant silvergun
I'm not sure if leveling up through playthroughs is good design but it hooked me. Scoring system is kinda weird as well but you know what, I actually CRIED when finishing radiant silvergun. Music and animation were beautiful and I dunno I got kinda emotive even tho I wasn't really understanding what was going on lmao
In the vein of very old school (pre-OSX) Mac shooters, I have very fond memories of Solarian 2, a game that isn’t exactly groundbreaking (as a Space Invaders/Galaxian/Gorf clone). I vividly recall the sound effects in particular!
