Shoot 'em up games

[ZapX]

So I've been really into shooting games (I mean shooter shooters, not that Halo/Call of Duty business) lately. I'm mostly into the bullet hell variety like the Touhou series and Ikaruga. Also been playing some classics like Darius and Xevious and one called Kobo that's different from scrolling shooters. Anyway this thread is for shooting game recommendations, reviews, discussion, etc. Let's talk about STGs.

[The Eva Monkey]

Since I got my Dreamcast, I've been playing a bit of Gradius and Super Contra via NesterDC. Man those games are tough.

I've always been a fan of the original Contra, as well as Lifeforce, which is a sort of spin-off of Gradius. I've also got Ikaruga. It's alright, but I hardly ever play it.

My girlfriend badly wants a copy of Radiant Silvergun for Sega Saturn. That game is expensive to come by on eBay.

[Sailor Star Dust]

Touhou is awesome though I'm still a newfag at it.

[NemZ]

I've been known to dabble in the shooters from time to time, though it isn't my favorite genre. Personal favorites include:

R-Type Final
Einhander
RayCrisis
G-Darius
UN Squadron
Axelay
Super C
Silpheed

[DIDDY]

Last shooter I played was Super Dimension Fortress Macross​ on the NES.

NOT WORTH YOUR TIME.

[Iron Rooster]

Silver Surfer NES - Got pretty close to beating it a couple of times. It isn't THAT hard.

[The Eva Monkey]

R-Type Final

Aw shit, I totally forgot about R-Type. I love R-Type. I've got R-Type Delta, and R-Type Final. I want to pick up the rest of the entries in the series, despite having never beaten either of them. Maybe I should do that first...

It's a little bit different than your typical spaceship shooter, but does anyone remember Sub-Terrania? It was a pretty tough game on Genesis. While difficult, it was more of a learning curve difficulty, rather than a memorization/white knuckle/luck difficulty like in games like R-Type, Gradius, or Ikaruga.

[ZapX]

Yeah, I played Sub-Terrania on SEGA Channel back in the day but I don't remember it well. I should play that again sometime. I should probably pop Super R-Type in my SNES someday soon too.

[BrikHaus]

Nothing tops Ikaruga. Best shooter ever.

[NemZ]

Yeah, I played Sub-Terrania on SEGA Channel back in the day but I don't remember it well. I should play that again sometime. I should probably pop Super R-Type in my SNES someday soon too.

Ahh... good ol' level 4.

[ZapX]

There are some new Japanese doujin bullet hell shooters on PSN. I'm playing one calle Hitogata Happa that's pretty fun. It feels more like an arcade shmup. It has some quirks, like you lose a life when you bomb and you have to wait for the kamikaze bomb to charge. Also, you switch characters throughout the levels and you have to die in order to switch but you get used to it fast. It's on PC and PSN so check it out if you're into bullet hell.

[BobBQ]

Back when I still had enough gigabytes to keep Linux installed just for the hell of it, I sank more than a few hours into a fiendishly hard game called Xsoldier.

There was also Xpilot, but I'm not sure that meets the OP criteria.

[Vegeta 20XX]

Gigawing, if only for the ludicrous scores. 1943 is one of my favorite classics, and if I ever get the chance, I'll try Radiant Silvergun on my computer via emulator.

[manny_kaltz]

Does the Metal Slug Series count as a shmup?
'RAWKET LAUNCHER!', anyone?

[Eva 02]

Sunset Riders for SNES. Hard, still haven't beat the rose fella.

Nothin beats a good game of call of duty tho, my attention span is longer for fps.

[Bomby von Bombsville]

I remember liking a scrolling shooter called Stinger for NES that my neighbor had. I haven't played it in forever, but it was a pretty fun game to me back then.

[BiQ]

Well, this is a thread I just have to pop in. I'm a Cave fanatic these days... owning Espgaluda, Dodonpachi Daioujou and Mushihime-sama for PS2, Ketsui and Espgaluda 2 for xbox360, playing rest of them on mame quite lot. (Ketsui also on mame since the support materialized and I don't own the console itself yet...)

And yet, I pretty much suck at Cave's shmups, honestly I'm not sure if I'll ever clear any of them. Still I always come back to them to get my ass handed to me. Such is the way of Cave fanatic.

Some achievements, or how much I suck at them:
Dodonpachi: 1-6, score around 22M
Dodonpachi Daioujou, 1-4, score around 45M (different run though, ending after 1-3 midboss)
Ketsui: 1-2 boss, score around 7M ...but I haven't played this much yet.
Espgaluda: lvl. 4, don't remember score, not much
...and so on.

Ikaruga is quite fine too. Own that one for Gamecube, got as far as 3rd level boss.

I've always liked Gradius games better than R-type games for some reason. Maybe because I was exposed to Gradius first...? Only R-type I honestly like is Leo, which is the "oddball" R-type.

I used to play JRPGs, but then got tired and don't really have time to invest to them anymore. STGs are fun in the way you can pop it in and enjoy 10-30 minutes adrenaline rush and then go on other business.

[Ili3kca3k]

I've hardly played any I blame my lack of an older console. Been meaning to buy Rez for sometime if that counts.

[ZapX]

There are plenty of them on PC. The Touhou series is a good place to start. They're great games, just have some weirdos in the fandom.

[Clover]

There are plenty of them on PC. The Touhou series is a good place to start. They're great games, just have some weirdos in the fandom.

Ever read Yukkuri doujins?
Anyway, Galaga is my favorite shooting game of all time. I've never had enough money to beat it, though.