MrWunderful's Shooter List By console

MrWunderful

  I have always been good at fast reaction style games, so I dont know why I never got really into these.  I started researching them and came across some EXCELLENT info on racketboy's site: Racketboy's SHMUPS 101 and that just made me salivate over this genre some more.



Fixed

Rail

Bullet Hell

Cute-em Ups

Vertical scrolling

Horizontal scrolling

Multi-directional



I have sorted recomended Games by system below.





NES :

Gradius

Gyruss

legendary wings

Life Force

Zanac

Gun Nac

Gunsmoke

final mission

guardian legend

dragon spirit

Stinger

Super Spy Hunter - Sunsoft, originally called Battle Formula in Japan, lots of fun, great music, cool design

Image Fight - Enjoyed this one a lot, affordable too

SCAT - Lots of fun, has co-op multiplayer, great design/music

King's Knight - Interesting blend of RPG-ish settings and shmup

Zombie Nation - Intense graphics/sound, bizarre but awesome gameplay!

Recca - Incredible limits-pushing shooter of epic proportions...highly recommended!

Sqoon - Love this game, lots of charm, great music, excellent gameplay!

Terra Cresta

Burai Fighter

1942

1943

Silk Worm

Abadox

Over Horizon

Xevious

Fantasy Zone

Section Z

Jackal

Spy Hunter

Captain Skyhawk

Twin Eagle



Famicom:

Gradius

Gradius II

Salamander

Parodius Da!

TwinBee

TwinBee 3: Poko Poko Dai Maou

Crisis Force

Senjou no Ookami

1942

1943: The Battle of Valhalla

Galaxian

Galaga

Xevious

Super Xevious: GAMP no Nazo

Sky Kid

Dragon Spirit: Aratanaru Densetsu

Choujikuu Yousai Macross

Star Force

Star Soldier

Hector '87

Shinjinrui: The New Type

Space Invaders

Sky Destroyer

Gyrodine

Chuka Taisen

Tetrastar: The Fighter

Insector X

Exed Exes

Uchuu Keibitai SDF

Air Fortress

Stargate

Millipede

Image Fight

Guardic Gaiden

Sqoon

Super Star Force: Jikuureki no Himitsu

Cosmic Epsilon

Great Tank

Guevara

Space Harrier

Fantasy Zone

Fantasy Zone 2: Opa-Opa no Namida

After Burner

Attack Animal Gakuen

Tiger-Heli

Formation Z

Exerion

Argus

Choplifter

Thexder

King's Knight

Cobra Command

Heavy Barrel

Magmax

Seicross

Terra Cresta

Kidou Senshi Z-Gundam: Hot Scramble

Gun*Nac

Max Warrior: Wakusei Kaigenrei

Geimos

Airwolf



Super Famicom:

Macross: Scrambled Valkyrie

Rendering Ranger R2

Parodius

Twinbee

Pop'n Twinbee

Cotton 100%

Spriggan Powered

Flying Hero

Gokujou Parodius

Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius

Area 88

Acrobat Mission

Sonic Wings



SNES:

UN squadron

Thunder Spirits

Darius Twin

Raiden Trad

Thunderforce III

Axelay

Aerofighters

Super Turrican

Super Turrican 2

Gradius III

Super Rtype

R-type III: The third Lightning

Super EDF



N64:

Star Soldier Vanishing Earth



GameCube:

Ikaruga



Sega Master System

Space Harrier

After Burner

Thunder Blade

Zaxxon 3-D

R-Type

Time Soldiers

Action Fighter

The Ninja

Choplifter

Astro Warrior





Genesis:

Lightning Force

M.U.S.H.A.

Fireshark

Truxton

Gaiares

Sagaia

Eliminate Down

Space Harrier II

Super Thunder Blade

After Burner II

Bio-Hazard Battle

Truxton

Thunderforce II

Thunderforce III

Thunderforce IV

Forgotten Worlds

Phelios

Burning Force

Whip Rush

Arrow Flash

Sol-Deace

Air Buster

Insector X

Elemental Master





32x:

Kolibri



Saturn:

Donpachi

Dodonpachi

Soukyugurentai (highly recommended!!!)

Parodius Series (sexy pardious being the best)

Strikers 1945 1 and 2

Salamander Deluxe (this is the series LifeForce on the NES is apart of)

Gunbird

Cotton 2

Cotton Boomerang

Gradius Deluxe

Shienryu

Thunder force series

Gekirindan

Darius Gaiden (also a US release)

Galactic Attack(US, layer section in japan)

In the Hunt (also a US release, amazing graphics! but does have some slowdown)

Layer Section/ Rayforce

Layer Section 2

Sonic Wings (the series aerofighters on the snes is a part of)

Radiant Silvergun

Batsugun

Battle Garegga

Soukyugurentai

Sengoku Blade

Game Tengoku

Kingdom Grand Prix

Hyper Duel

Image Fight X-Multiply

Bokan to Ippatsu! Doronbo Kanpekiban

Gun Frontier

Metal Black

Skull Fang

Fantasy Zone



Dreamcast:

Ikaruga



PS1:

Colony Wars

In the Hunt

Nuclear Strike

Ray Storm

Ray Crisis

Tempest X3

Einhander

Geki-oh Shooting King

Raiden Project

Shooter Space Shot

Sol Divide

Strikers 1945

Thunder Force V

Viewpoint

N20

Gradius Gaiden (on PSP too)

R-type

R-type delta

Thunderforce V Perfect System

Xevious 3D/G+

Omega Boost



PS1 (imports):

Gradius Gaiden

Gradius Deluxe Pack

Salamander Deluxe Pack Plus

Sexy Parodius

Gokujou Parodius Da! Deluxe Pack

Detana!! TwinBee Yahoo Deluxe Pack

Night Striker

The Space Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love.





PS2:

Gradius 3+4

Gradius 5

REZ

Silpheed

R-Type Final

Raiden 3

Einhander

Psyvariar

Homura

Mushihime-Sama



 Or Post about any other good games, on any other systems, and maybe we can discuss companies that release good/classic shooters (like Compile, or Cave)

System/Game	Type	Publisher
NES
1942
1943
Abadox
Burai Fighter
Captain Skyhawk
Dragon Spirit
Fantasy Zone
Final Mission
Gradius
Guardian Legend
Gun Nac
Gun Smoke
Gyruss
Image Fight
Jackal
Kings Knight
Legendary Wings
Life Force
Over Horizon
Recca
SCAT
Section Z
Silk Worm
Silver Surfer
Spy Hunter
Terra Cresta
Twin Eagle
Xevious
Zanac
Zombie Nation

Tanooki

Twinbee 2 is on the NES as Stinger and it's a solid game, and the original Twinbee got the 3D Classics treatment on the 3DS as a download too.

NESMASTER14

Nice! I've been on a real SHMUP kick as of lately too. Here's some titles not mentioned yet that I've played through/enjoyed:



NES :



Super Spy Hunter - Sunsoft, originally called Battle Formula in Japan, lots of fun, great music, cool design

Image Fight - Enjoyed this one a lot, affordable too

SCAT - Lots of fun, has co-op multiplayer, great design/music

King's Knight - Interesting blend of RPG-ish settings and shmup

Zombie Nation - Intense graphics/sound, bizarre but awesome gameplay!

Recca - Incredible limits-pushing shooter of epic proportions...highly recommended!

Sqoon - Love this game, lots of charm, great music, excellent gameplay!



Also there's a ton of Famicom exclusive stuff too like Parodius Da, Gradius 2, Twinbee, Chuuka Taisen, etc.

MrWunderful

Originally posted by: NESMASTER14



Nice! I've been on a real SHMUP kick as of lately too. Here's some titles not mentioned yet that I've played through/enjoyed:



NES :



Super Spy Hunter - Sunsoft, originally called Battle Formula in Japan, lots of fun, great music, cool design

Image Fight - Enjoyed this one a lot, affordable too

SCAT - Lots of fun, has co-op multiplayer, great design/music

King's Knight - Interesting blend of RPG-ish settings and shmup

Zombie Nation - Intense graphics/sound, bizarre but awesome gameplay!

Recca - Incredible limits-pushing shooter of epic proportions...highly recommended!

Sqoon - Love this game, lots of charm, great music, excellent gameplay!



Also there's a ton of Famicom exclusive stuff too like Parodius Da, Gradius 2, Twinbee, Chuuka Taisen, etc

Originally posted by: Tanooki



Twinbee 2 is on the NES as Stinger and it's a solid game, and the original Twinbee got the 3D Classics treatment on the 3DS as a download too.





Cool thanks for the info!  I added both of those to the first post.



Thanks nesmaster for the descriptions too.  Maybe we can get descriptions of the other ones up there if anyone has played them.

bennybtl

Under defeat HD for ps3 is a good one, also, star soldier for N64.

pegboy

Gradius ii, Over horizon and Crisis force for famicom. Macross scrambled valkyrie and rendering ranger r2 for super famicom.

Jon Solo

Terra Cresta for NES

XYZ

If you expand the list to include ps1 there's a lot on that system.



I believe retro game challenge for ds has 1 or more.



Also any arcade compilations would have some such as namco/midway/capcom/etc. often this is the only way to play some of the arcade titles on a console, especially Japan only stuff that they included.

mydogsrule

I've always enjoyed Burai Fighter for the Nes. If you have a Super Nintendo, Grafx, and or a Genesis you will definately be hooked playing some of their shooters. I'm a huge shooter fan. Basically the main games I play. I rarely beat any of them but I enjoy playing a lot.

empire

UN Squadron on the SNES. Good, cheap game.

Ikaruga for the Gamecube. Interesting one for sure, although runs for a bit more.

JordyRamone

Lightening Force (genesis) and Thunder Spirits (snes) are great games

ZombieGuyGeezus

There's a Raiden game for 360. I haven't played it but any Raiden game is going to be awesome.

bunnyboy

1942/1943 for NES! Pretty simple dodge and shoot.but lots of fun with the Advantage.

PowerPlayers

I've been a fan of the "Touhou" games long before they were popularized by 4chan. Been playing them for years!



They're part of the "Bullet Hell" sub-genre of SHMUPs.

WolfAlmighty

Silk Worm and Abadox are kind of fun too.

linkloz

There are actually plenty of affordable Saturn shooters. Don't focus as much on the pricey ones (hyper duel, steam hearts, battle garegga, radiant silvergun(meh, play it on xbla) and blast wind). Even then, most of these pricey games aren't much compared to games like hagane, aerofighters and little samson.



There are plenty of affordable ones on the saturn, and many are better than the $100+ games. They become even more affordable if you don't care about spine cards. If you're getting into shmups, i can't recommend the saturn enough. Before i got the saturn, i thought shmups were merely a neat thing to waste a few minutes on but hardly anything to care about. Now, i would rank them among my favourite genres.



Donpachi

Dodonpachi

Soukyugurentai (highly recommended!!!)

Parodius Series (sexy pardious being the best)

Strikers 1945 1 and 2

Salamander Deluxe (this is the series LifeForce on the NES is apart of)

Gunbird

Cotton 2 and Cotton Boomerang(i recommend boomerang more)

Gradius Deluxe

Shienryu

Thunder force series

Gekirindan

Darius Gaiden (also a US release)

Galactic Attack(US, layer section in japan)

In the Hunt (also a US release, amazing graphics! but does have some slowdown)

Layer Section 2

Sonic Wings (the series aerofighters on the snes is a part of)



a few of the capcom generations games have older shmups on them, like 1942. I think gunsmoke is on one too.



The best thing about the saturn, these games are generally arcade faithful. Unlike nes/snes versions. Mind you, there are also plenty on the PS1(and some of these are multiplat games too) and some were re-released on the PS2 or Xbox360. So maybe you could go that route.

MrWunderful

AWESOME posts by everyone. Thank you guys so much. I have "compiled" (see what I did there) all of these recommendations into the first post. I cannot wait until I get my hands on some.

MrWunderful

Originally posted by: linkloz



There are actually plenty of affordable Saturn shooters. Don't focus as much on the pricey ones (hyper duel, steam hearts, battle garegga, radiant silvergun(meh, play it on xbla) and blast wind). Even then, most of these pricey games aren't much compared to games like hagane, aerofighters and little samson.



There are plenty of affordable ones on the saturn, and many are better than the $100+ games. They become even more affordable if you don't care about spine cards. If you're getting into shmups, i can't recommend the saturn enough. Before i got the saturn, i thought shmups were merely a neat thing to waste a few minutes on but hardly anything to care about. Now, i would rank them among my favourite genres.



Donpachi

Dodonpachi

Soukyugurentai (highly recommended!!!)

Parodius Series (sexy pardious being the best)

Strikers 1945 1 and 2

Salamander Deluxe (this is the series LifeForce on the NES is apart of)

Gunbird

Cotton 2 and Cotton Boomerang(i recommend boomerang more)

Gradius Deluxe

Shienryu

Thunder force series

Gekirindan

Darius Gaiden (also a US release)

Galactic Attack(US, layer section in japan)

In the Hunt (also a US release, amazing graphics! but does have some slowdown)

Layer Section 2

Sonic Wings (the series aerofighters on the snes is a part of)



a few of the capcom generations games have older shmups on them, like 1942. I think gunsmoke is on one too.



The best thing about the saturn, these games are generally arcade faithful. Unlike nes/snes versions. Mind you, there are also plenty on the PS1(and some of these are multiplat games too) and some were re-released on the PS2 or Xbox360. So maybe you could go that route.

Can those Japanese games be played on a US Saturn?  I have never tried to play a Japanese game.  How easy is it if you don't speak Japanese?

linkloz

Unfortunately not without a little help.



There is a way to trick the system into running them, but i really don't recommend it as you always risk disc damage. You can have it modded, but an Action Replay Plus cart works awesomely. It plugs into the cart slot on the system and provides a few benefits.



1 - It acts as a memory card, providing alot of additional space. That way you can transfer data between the systems limited memory and the card. It also helps prevent data being lost if your saturns battery fails.

2 - Region frees your console! You can play non-us games on your satunr. This card will also work in a japanese console and allow you to play us games(this is how i go about it)

3 - It acts as the 1M/4M expansion cart. Sort of like the n64 expansion pack which some games use. This really benefits alot of fighting games, but there are others. It was more widely used then the 64's pack to my knowledge. It technically doesn't work as well as a real 1M or 4M cart, but its close.

4 - provides some cheat codes! yyaaaaay!



It isn't too pricey either. Play asia has some, racketboy did and may still. I'm sure there are a bunch on ebay too.'



Sorry; didn't answer your second question.  I don't speak or read any japanese and i do just fine.  They really like to mix alot of english in to their games.  There are some games that have (almost) full english menus.  Some have english voice (deep fear, a game not released in the US, has an english VA on the japanese release.  Btw, if you like resident evil check this one out).  The nice thing about shmups is that they aren't complicated or have much story.

Commander Santa

PS1:



- Colony Wars

- In the Hunt

- Nuclear Strike (eh, not a 'exactly' a shump - but I love it)

- Ray Storm

- Ray Crisis

- Tempest X3

XYZ

More PS1:



Einhander

Geki-oh Shooting King

Raiden Project

Shooter Space Shot

Sol Divide

Strikers 1945

Thunder Force V

Viewpoint

acromite53

Play M.U.S.H.A on genesis its so good! (And expensive). Also fireshark, Truxton, and Gaiares are fun on genesis. Kolibri is an interesting shooter on the 32x where you play as a hummingbird. You should check it out. There are alot of great shooters in the neogeo like the aero fighters series.

Thunderblaze16

Lightening Force IV alone is the reason I'll take the genesis any day.



It's just PERFECT.





EDIT: Actually it's Alien Solider, TFIV goes second.

Tanooki

My old post assumed we were just doing NES at the time.



Super Famicom your list is lacking all 3 versions of Parodius, Twinbee and Pop'n Twinbee, Cotton 100%, Spriggan Powered, and well at least you have Macross which is fantastic (speaking of which macross on famicom is cool too.)



The SNES in the US I don't see Darius Twin listed, Raiden Trad, Thunderforce III, Axelay or Aerofighters(Sonic Wings SFC dramatically cheaper price.) I also give a second to the nod on UN Squadron.



N64 also has one solid shooter, only one released in the US but it's fantastic -- Star Soldier Vanishing Earth.

MrWunderful

Great Input guys. Thank god my tax return was good this year! I am excited to try the FC games. I had never really given trying FC games a shot, because I assumed it would be too difficult seeing as how I don't speak Japanese. I suppose since there is not a whole lot of story in most Shmups, it probably won't really matter.

Yoveva

Over Horizon for the NES is wonderfull!

andrew244

Okay, after quite literally typing an essay in this stupid box on the bottom of the page, then hitting 'Top' by accident and loosing the past half an hour of typing, I'm just going to keep it short: just play Xevious.

Lente

I always really liked N20 for the PS1. The soundtrack integration is lazy, but I think it's a really fun tube shooter. Watch a youtube video, you'll know in 30 seconds if it is for you or not.

Photoc

Please add Nanostray 1 and 2 to the DS list and Nano Assault to 3DS.  Don't forget about Star Fox 3DS as well.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0007ULFFC/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2M60PMF8L9RQX&coliid=IW2102MUL28UD

http://www.amazon.com/Nanostray-2-Nintendo-DS/dp/B000Y3RF6K/ref=sr_1_2?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1395597641&sr=1-2&keywords=nanostray

http://www.amazon.com/Nano-Assault-Nintendo-3DS/dp/B0053B0DI0/ref=pd_bxgy_vg_img_y

Faltain1

Add Flying Hero to that Super Famicom list... it's a Cute-em-up that has a translation bouncing around.

Faltain1

Originally posted by: Tanooki



My old post assumed we were just doing NES at the time.



Super Famicom your list is lacking all 3 versions of Parodius, Twinbee and Pop'n Twinbee, Cotton 100%, Spriggan Powered, and well at least you have Macross which is fantastic (speaking of which macross on famicom is cool too.)



The SNES in the US I don't see Darius Twin listed, Raiden Trad, Thunderforce III, Axelay or Aerofighters(Sonic Wings SFC dramatically cheaper price.) I also give a second to the nod on UN Squadron.

Spriggan Powered and Cotton 100% for the SFC are both awesome and great suggestions!



After trying out both on an emulator awhile back I really enjoyed them and I, too, dislike shooters in general.