What is your favourite Shoot'em-Up ? (all platforms)
 

Please post here what is your (all time) favourite Shoot'em-Up.

- Try to explain why it is your favourite one.
- Screenshots will be appreciate.
- All hardware platforms are available (Amiga / Arcade / Snes / Genesis / Pc Engine ...)

Axelay - 1992 - konami - snes
 

Okay I'm starting.

I have played at many many many Shoot'em-Up in my gamer's life...
Some of them become real legends (R-Type), some of them where exceptionnal (Raiden 2), some of them where the real fun (Parodius)... but after all those many years of playing, my all time favourite one is always the same: AXELAY (1992 - konami - snes)

This shoot is simply the best of the best in my mind
- Incredible graphics (pseudo 3D top scroller & classic 2D design)
- Incredible SoundTrack (I really insist on this point, this game have one of the best soundtrack of all the shoot history, 99% the music are marvelous (especially level 5), for me, this soundtrack is as good as Turrican 2...)
- Excellent gameplay
- Looooooong huge level
- Famous boss
- Great weapons
- Not too easy, not too hard, just perfect.

If you have never played to this game, you should really try it.
I'm sure you can't be disapointed. (at least if you love Shoot'em-Up)

Usefull link:
Emulator: Mirror1
Axelay: Mirror 1 Mirror 2

I have no idea if this is my favourite (I keep thinking something on the C64 is, but I can't remember), but I must say that it's highly ranked

The game is SWIV on the Amiga.

Graphics : Crappy. It's got nice looking sprites, but where's all the colour! It's all brown. (30%)

Sound : Worse than the graphics :p . There's no sound in this game apart from bullets firing and explosions. Any decent shoot em up has cool music blasting away (10%....SHEESH)

Playability : ah. Here's the redeeming factor of the game. This game totally owns in the playability department. Every time I feel like a shoot em up, this is the game I turn to. It's always fun (85%)

Lastability : Well, I haven't finished it yet, so it must last long (80%)

Overall : A fantastic fun game. Pity about the graphics and sound (93%)

Thunderforce 3 - Sega Genesis/Megadrive. Also known as Thunder Spirits (SNES) and Thunderforce AC (arcade).

Fantastic sound fx, music, gfx combined with solid gameplay. Played it over & over & over again, which I can't say about any other shooter, except maybe Turrican 2. The difficulty ramped up pretty well, never *impossible*, plus the ability to switch weapons and ship speed provided a degree of tactical depth to the game.

A distant second place goes to Lords of Thunder on the Turbografx 16/SuperCDRom2. Incredible boss battles, incredible music, and graphics that even the SuperNES has seldom exceeded. (A version for the SegaCD/MegaCD was released which is almost as good, but the music seems to have really been 'cut down' from the Turbo version). The big problem though, is that even though you have the choice of 4 weapon systems, only one of them (Earth Armor) really packs the punch that you need to defeat the bosses.

I hate these polls.. why?

I JUST CAN'T PICK ONLY ONE!

I have my faves, meticulously classified by type and platform, so picking one up among all it's very unfair!

I will pick up a classic über alles:

R-Type - various platforms.

http://www.classicgaming.com/shmups/...level1boss.gif http://www.classicgaming.com/shmups/...level3boss.gif

http://www.classicgaming.com/shmups/...ype/rtype4.gif http://www.classicgaming.com/shmups/...ype/rtype6.gif


2D side scrolling shmup supremo. Along with Gradius, the 'inventors' of the sidescroling shmup.

Graphics are good, they fit the mood. The mechanical design in them is pretty well done (check out the mothership in level 3), the backgrounds are well ambiented and the music rocks (though my favourite music is in the C64 version, Chris Hülsbeck took the original tunes and pimped them up absolutely well, in a way that makes the game more frantic)

SFX are run-of-the-mill, no big deal.

But it all comes down to gameplay. This is a game you need to MASTER, and it takes a lot of time. Evil as no other, the level of frustration at times makes you want more and MORE, pumping more adrenaline to your veins. The true masochist's delight. Eventually you pass that tricky spot, and then you'll find another one, and so on until you MASTER it. The design of this game has yet to be matched nowadays.

Ok, I dont know what else to say about this jewel. They don't make'em like this anymore! Though Konami's new Gradius Generations for the GBA is shaping up to be GREAT (though the Gradius series are not my fave, I preffer the Salamander spinoff, it's not so powerup-dependent)

You all might want to check out teh spotlight on shmups we did on Classicgaming.com, one of the few articles were about Shmups top 10. Check it out clicking here!

Disclaimer: I keep the right to change my fave game every second :) As I said, I just cant nail it down to one. Doing that top ten was hard!

Am I supposed to choose ONLY ONE?
That's hard to do.....

I say my prefer shmup ever, one that when I played it for the 1st time, I said "THAT'S THE GAME" , I still play it today, after 12 years of the release, and I still have the same amount of fun as I had when I 1st played:

Aleste 2

That's an MSX2 game, I don't know, maybe I have a special "love' for that game, as I just love my MSX, but there's no other shmup I played for so long as this one. I have already finished it a zillion of times. The music is great, the graphics are fantastic (for a MSX2), the game pushes the MSX to its limits all the time, and the gameplay is just perfect. You your main weapon that can be powered up by getting the "P"s that appear, and also a secondary weapon, that can be choosen from 8 different option. The secondary weapon can be powered up to 5 times, by getting the same weapon again.

I just can't keep talking about it without getting excited and the words stop coming. Just get an MSX emulator and the game, and try it!

I have just played Aleste 2 for 10 min, just to get a few screenshots... I got shots only from the stages 1 & 2 (there are 8 stages) , and now I feel a little stupid, as I don't know how to post more than 1 pic ...

you can read a good review of both Alestes in www.shmups.com
and can get the game and an emulator to play it in www.msxgamesbox.com

Now can I choose only one game? I want to add that Soldier Blade, for PC-Engine is also fantastic, a game that for me, gets very close to Aleste 2.

Proof Of Destruction
 

My favourite Shmup? Proof Of Destruction (POD) of course on C64! This neat 'Minter-esque' shoot'em up was originally written in 1986 by Shaun Southern (Magnetic Fields) on the C64 for Mastertronic.
POD is extremely simple to get into but impossible to finish. The action takes place on a static screen where you control a little pod on a raster. From all sides of the screen little ships and creatures crawl and shoot to you. The aim is to survive an attack wave until time runs out. The game features some whirring background colours which add to the hypnotic atmosphere.

I know Shaun Southern has written an Amiga update of POD for CU Amiga in 1992 but this copy is difficult to find.

http://www.c64games.de/covers/p/pod.jpg
http://www.c64games.de/images/p/pod_2.gif

Difficult to find? I beg to differ. I have that very disk, but due to the lack of a machine which I've deemed worthy enough to ADF it, I can't do it :(

Although. I think it was in Lotus 3 where Pod is a secret mini game

Hidden for nine years
 

I've just checked one of the several cheat sites and it says that EVERY Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge features a hidden game. POD can be found indeed by typing in "CU AMIGA" as your name in the selection screen of Lotus III.

This means that my copy of Lotus III features one of the most addictive Shmups ever and I was never ever aware of it in the past 9 years! Aaargh!
* knocks head to wall *

Argh! MUST... PLAY.. HIDDEN.. POD!!!

Anyway, Aleste 2 for the MSX and Soldier Blade for the PCE are two of the greatest shmups ever made.

I told you guys I just can't pick one :)

Ok, my favourite shmup on all systems is

KATAKIS on the C64

It really is my all time favourite, although it may not be the best shmup I have ever played, because I have played a real lot of shmups on C64 and Amiga. I thnik I have at least playtested once at least 90% of all Amiga shmups, and I have finished quite a lot - some being very good ones, like Apidya, Silkworm, Menace, Starrush, Wings of Death,....
But Katakis ( C64 ) surely was the one I was most hooked to.
In fact I was quite disappointed when I saw R-Type some time later. Katakis is similar to R-Type, but much faster, plays better, and also has 12 levels instead of only 8, each featuring a nice endboss :)

It surely was one of the best games of it's time ( 1988 ) overall.
And it was made by 'Turrican-Master' of C64 games programming Manfred Trenz :)

ps: Katakis on the Amiga was by far not that good as the C64 version. It only had 6 levels instead of 12, was much harder and grafical inferior.
But nevertheless, I finished it, too, although it must have been one of the hardest Amigagames I ever played thru !

It's an arcade game
Vulcan Venture from Konami
Konami made many different versions of this one. It's actually a clone of Gradius but that's the one I like the most. When I first played it I was sucked in by the original atmosphere that had been created in the game. It was the first time I encountered the option to use multiple weapons in a space shooter. It also featured digitized sound effects and fantastic enemies like lions made up of lava jumping around to blow your ship.

I'm never good at shoot'em ups and don't like the genre that much but that's one of the few I like.

Vulcan Venture is also known as Gradius 2: Gofer.

So it ain't a clone :) It's my favourite Gradius game after Gradius Gaiden.

my favorite shoot'eem-up's are the r-type series 'cause they're simple, good, make lots of fun and maybe 'cause r-type was the first SEU i've played

I have to agree. The R-Types simply rule- especially R-Type 2 on Amiga and Super R-Type on Snes.

I do remember another favourite, though- it was a vertical scroller called SIDEWINDER on Amiga- colourful graphics and plenty of excitement!!!

Unfortunately, Sidewinder 2 was absolute bollocks.

That is such a tough call to make.

I love so many shmups.

I am going really retro for this one, but I think my favourite shmup of all time has to be Galaga on the arcade.

http://roms2.mame.dk/png/galaga.png

This game just has perfectly balanced gameplay. Might be too repetitive for some but I just love it. Although tomorrow I will probably change my mind and say Robotron or R-Type!:)

My favorite shoot 'em up of all time and although it goes against the grain with the rest of you, is Xenon 2 for our trusty old Amiga, shooters aren't really my cup of tea, but I make an exception for Xenon 2, I think it's great:)

It has everything, great music, great SFX and good GFX, nothing can touch it IMO. It's the only shooter I have in my collection of ADF's apart from Xenon 1 that is;)

All, except gameplay? :)

I never liked Xenon 2 that much (But maybe that's because when I got my Miggy, I was coming from a Shoot'em up heaven machine (the MSX) )

I think the 8 bits versions of Xenon 1 are rather better

anyway, each different person likes different games

Iancharge, Do you know Battle Squadron for Amiga? I think you should take a look at it (Even if shmups aren't your cup of tea), I bet you will like it...

definitely LAST RESORT, System : NeoGeo !!!

Why ?? Cause it roxxxxxxxx ;)