Shmups/STGs/Shoot 'em ups

Lol, isn’t this always the way? Kyukyoku Tiger-Heli is allegedly available in the North America eShops (I should note that it hasn’t dropped in the Canadian shop yet, but it’s always a little flaky there compared to the US one).

I don’t regret buying the import version of any of these, personally. I’m pretty sure I ended up getting it cheaper than the roughly $47 CAD it’s likely to cost in the Canadian shop, assuming it ever drops there.

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yeeeeep, been there with these niche eShop releases. That recently happened to me with the Telenet Shooting collection – had no idea if it was coming stateside, so I bit, and then it of course game stateside not too long after, so I’m over here with my (more expensive) Japanese menus. Ah well, at least we’re getting some sort of access to this stuff

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Part of why I picked it up was because I had heard (here, maybe? I don’t remember and I’m too lazy to search for it) that they were planning on doing a physical-only NA release. Personally I get ticked off by physical only games these days for reasons unrelated to this thread, so I spent an unreasonable amount buying enough JP eCard points to get basically every JP exclusive at the time, including this.

My guess is that as the Switch ages out, we’ll get more and more of these games that companies didn’t want to take a chance on a few years ago, but that now seem like an easy way to sell a few games.

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I had a biiig weekend for shootemup achievements. Beat my first Touhou game… then my second… and then my third, in a period of four days!

Touhou 6, 7 and 8 that is. All on normal, using continues and bombs and so on — but now I have a vague, “maybe try every game in this series in order?” type of side-quest to my life. Not sure I’ll convince any of my friends to get into Touhou 9 with me, but now I’m off to climb the Mountain of Faith. Another day I’ll circle back and go for some 1CCs or Hard mode clears.

Also, a couple weeks ago I got sucked into Void Stranger and ZeroRanger. Hard games to say whether you “beat” them or not, but I’m pretty satisfied with what I got done in ZR’s main mode, and the final thing I am tempted to do will take a bit more time to get to than what I’m willing to give at the moment. Maybe next month.

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There are fan-made ways to play online and I’d gladly do that with you!

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Wow thank you! I love the enthusiasm. I’m gearing up to move at the end of the month, and begin a new part-time job soon after, so we’ll wait and see how all that shakes out before I get anything going haha. But you might hear from me again after a while!

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As a huge fan of twinkle stars sprites I’ve always been curious about touhou 3 and 9 but i also haven’t been able to convince anyone to play it with me lol

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I got the ZeroRanger 1CC about a week ago and I got inspired by this post to try Touhou 7 and beat it today! Maybe ZR made me a super enlightened gamer but yeah, surprisingly easy for a normal clear! I really liked the enemy indicator and the barrier system.

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Devil Blade Reboot is out and it looks hot!

Edit: Can confirm it’s hot.

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We’re gonna try the shmup/RPG again, but this time Lena Raine is developing (and the way the bullet-hell battles are integrated into the game looks like it makes a lot of sense here)

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This is encouraging, but I remain extremely skeptical about this combo because I’m not sure it’s ever been successfully pulled off (R-Type Tactics doesn’t count). Not that I’m not interested to see them try!

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yeah, I’ve never come across a successful one either, but I’m also rooting for them – I like the approach of just retaining control of the same human character in both the shmup and RPG walking around parts of the game. Personally, this one looks like it’ll ride a lot on if the writing/tone hit rights for me, so long as the bullet hell parts are at least solid

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City Connection has a ton of shmups on sale on the Nintendo eShop for Switch:


Personally interested in a lot of those $3.99 shmups, haven’t played any of them! Any particular recommendations or stand outs people have?

I’ve got Batsugun Saturn Tribute Boosted on Steam and play on Steam Deck, but it’s pretty janky and input can be a bit weird… Might not have those issues on Switch? idk!

Very interested in Akai Katana Shin. I remember buying that on Xbox 360 before I even really understood what a Shmup was, but I sadly no longer have it.

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The entirety of the Psikyo shooters are extremely flawed, at least on Switch (and as of the last time I checked, I doubt they’ve been patched to improve them, but… maybe?). They’re all good games of course, with the very specific exception of Sengoku Cannon, which isn’t even worth playing to see how bad it is. But for $3.99 you probably won’t go wrong with any of the others.

As for the rest, Game Tengoku is fantastic and a little under appreciated, the Layer Section S-tribute is good but not great (and the RayStorm Collection exists), and the Cotton games are pretty fun, especially at a price like that. Akai Katana and Deathsmiles are definitely worth it, especially if you’re a poor sad weirdo like me who prefers hori STGs!

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The strikers and gunbird games are fun. Nothing pushing the envelope but solid shooters.

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I had a lot of fun with Dragon Blaze when I first got my switch. Never got good enough at it to notice any badness of the port. It’s got a sort of melee attack mechanic where the dragon your character is riding goes out in front of you and deals pretty strong damage.

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The psikyo ports are subpar in that they don’t have savestates or level selects or any training options, and those games desperately need them, but as far as the input lag goes those games have pretty bad input lag to begin with. Your best bet is playing them in mame with runahead or something to try to counteract that, but for casual playthroughs, it’s still Gunbird 2 for $4 on the go. You could easily find worse things to spend that money on.

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Worth noting that the Cotton 2, Cotton Boomarang, and Guardian Force ports are like virtually unplayable. They have about double the input lag of the Psikyo ports, which are already borderline.

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Had some time to myself so I had to. I learned three things playing it for the first time in many years:

  • Either my reflexes aren’t what they were or that game gets harder over time. I played it a lot on release and re-release and thought I remembered the patterns and bosses. I didn’t.

  • Even with the above problem it is infinitely betterwith an arcade stick, especially when it’s a click one. The precision over a d-pad is game changing.

  • That soundtrack still holds up. Hitoshi Sakimoto is one of my favourite composers and while having familiar themes to most of his scores, they seem to work either in Ivalice or space.

Worth a play if you never have. Worth a play if you have.

Now excuse me, but I’ve got blisters on my fingers!

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Gosh, I own so many of those City Connection games. Truly I am their biggest mark. Guess I’ll go ahead and grab Zero Gunner 2…

Aside from the super busted ones Tracy mentioned and Samurai Aces III (as Karasu called out; trust, it’s not even worth the curiosity), pretty much all of these are great STGs that are just fine for casual play on Switch. At that price all the other Psikyo ones are good to chill with if you’re just playing for fun. I have a soft spot for Dragon Blaze and Sol Divide if you like fantasy-themed shmups, but other faves among the $3.99 ones would be the Gunbirds, Gunbarich and Tengai. If you wanna spend more money, I’d hit that Batsugun as my first pick (5-6 frames of lag, I believe, which is fine for most; it gets hairy crossing that line), followed by Layer Section, Game Tengoku and the Deathsmiles pack

The other big caveat here is that if you can emulate any of these, you’re pretty much gonna get the same or better experience for zero dollars. But I totally get just wanting to have them on Switch for whatever reason. I’ve spent stupid money on stuff like this over the years when I’ve got the ROMs on like three devices, but do tend to play them more on a “real console” for whatever magic-thinking related reasons

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