I’m a big fan of Darius Gaiden and G-Darius, Gradius III (but really all of these two series), Air Buster/Aero Blasters, and even Metal Black (although the music is the real draw for me, and the aesthetic-- the game is just okay) as far as hori STGs go, and while I like a bunch of vertical STGs, the ones I really like are Shippuu Mahou Daisakusen, Rayforce, Spriggan, and of course Armed Police Batrider.
Yeah, I thought it was a really well done tutorial too!
Ah nice! G-Darius is on my radar cuz it looks superkool and seems to have some really nice mechanics!
I feel very thankful for threads like this. As I am very intrigued by what shootemups ppl play and why from a design perspective. The genres “compact” gameplay and hearing the reasons ppl enjoy them usually makes me mega inspired both creatively and eager to try the titles haha. I’m glad u shared the titles you like Karasu! 
I will have to make this game in the future lol, seems like a neat idea! 
There’s something about removing all twitch movement and then solely relying on calculated movement. Then it really is your fault with no excuses when you mess up. Kind of like the Into the Breach of STGs. You can see all the information clearly beforehand so if you make a mistake it is very much your own.
I see what you mean, but I suspect it ends up changing the STG formula to something that isn’t fundamentally the same thing anymore— so you see extremely large slow bullet patterns in a lot of of bullet hells games but you still have twitchy movement. I get the idea though, as a person who has less love for those kinds of games for that exact reason. I just think we probably haven’t gotten that because the twitchiness is the draw for most folks.
I’ve never played either of them but the R-Type Tactics games might explore this somewhat?
The twitchiness is what appeals to a lot of people, but in the (few relatively) STGs I’ve played I really enjoy the “OH CRAP” moments when a ridiculous assault of bullets comes at you and you find the smallest gaps to dip through. Basically I want a whole game of the slowdown moments. I think framing them as bullets is not really the game I’m thinking of though. It’s more like a maze game where the maze is also moving. Maybe that’s not an STG
No, I can see it, and I’d be into it too!
I’ve been thinking about this some more, and I think the Shikigami no Shiro/Castle Shikigami series might be the closest to what you’re talking about while still being an STG. And part of why the bullets are slow here is because a major scoring mechanic involves grazing the bullets, which is more practical to pull off if they’re slower. But it’s a game I can really remember having to be very deliberate with to squeeze your tiny hitbox through the smallest of gaps. I’m not sure if this comes close enough to what you’re talking about but it’s at least moving in that direction! Here’s what I’m talking about:
Maybe the introduction of a Bullet Time mode that you have a meter for would get close to the STG version of this. Of course you grow the meter by grazing like in Shikigami no Shiro here. I’ll have to give this one a closer look. I think I’ve got it ready to go on PS2
World of Longplays is such a great resource.
The Espgaluda series does this in a really satisfying way
How did I not hear that a new Sonic Wings game is about to be announced? This is the kind of event that if I was able to be in Tokyo right now, I would 100% go to. I’m also such a sucker that I would even buy a compilation of the older games despite owning them all on several platforms already.
You had me at “era of bones.”
I was thinking of picking up Angel at Dusk since I really like the art direction, but I’m curious about the difficulty level. Is it overwhelming for a relative beginner?
@TracyDMcGrath has vouched for it (and the quality of the tutorial), and the demo is extremely good, so I can comfortably recommend it! I found it to be challenging but fair (the demo, at least, since I haven’t gotten the full game just yet).
I think we had already seen this reported, but the rerelease of Under Defeat on modern consoles has a date (Dec 5):
…BUT! We’re also getting both a rerelease of Karous AND it’s getting sequel? I’m not a fan in the slightest but it’s still good to have STGs be plentiful.
I like it. From what I recall the default mode is fairly lenient with its difficulty and the game has a really good tutorial. I was slightly put off by the harder version of the game, which I think is referred to as “the real game”. I may be entirely wrong on that but I remember the hard mode being painfully difficult and somewhat disheartening to play.
That said, aside from that particular mode the game is really good and visually gorgeous.
SONIC WINGS REUNION!
Coming in 2025 to consoles, PC, and arcades!
(I may have teared up just a little watching the announcement just now)
D-D-D-DOUBLE POST!
I think somebody has already mentioned that somehow M2 is making a sequel to the extremely pretty Taito superscaler-esque Night Striker? The original announcement didn’t have any images, but a few have gotten posted, and… dang, this is going to look incredible.
This looks rad as hell! Happy to see more of their releases make it to PC too.
whoooooaaaa, I love scaler games and Night Striker is a real good one of those. can’t wait for M2 to put more pixels on that thing
I have been on a slow quest to play every main Touhou game, at least the main ones. Have played 6-10 and recently went back for 1 and 2. What I want to highlight is actually the side game 9.5 - Shoot The Bullet.
It’s separated in about 100 short “fights”. Instead of shooting bullets, you survive until you charge your camera and can take a photo of the boss. Do this 3-7 times to win. If you fail, instantly restart. Basically a SuperMeatBoy-ified shmup! Also reminds me of Disc Room.
It’s so good!
Nuances like moving slower to charge faster and taking photos of just bullets to delete them offer surprising depth. There is no difficulty selection so instead it gets really hard after some point, simulating the stage 4 spike. I had to tap out after spending hours on each level but I still had a lot of fun.
I love the development story too. ZUN was trying to take representative screenshots of each spell card and found it fun. The beauty of a good bullet pattern always captivated me, and it is indeed satisfying taking a great shot.
9.5 is definitely a sleeper hit. I usually find the spinoffs not nearly as enjoyable as the mainline series but these “freeze bullet” games are super fascinating. There’s a direct follow-up with 12.5 and a softer follow-up with 12.8 as well, so look forward to those. I love STG that prioritize other methods of engaging with enemies/bullet patterns beyond simply shooting back (I’ll refrain from making this about Kiki Kaikai…). There’s so much creativity to explore with alternative mechanics like this. Pure STG is obviously lovely but it’s so exciting to take away something so fundamental to the experience and finding so much depth in trying to replace it with something entirely different
