Great Arcade Shoot 'em Ups

[Giskard]

I was wondering what people's favourite arcade shoot 'em up games were.

There have been some fantastic games in the past. (And it now seems to be a somewhat dead genre I think).

My old arcade favourites are:

SLAP FIGHT: A vertically scrolling shooter with a novel 'wing' weapon selection system. Very clear enemies and bullets (something I really like) and quite tricky in later stages.

R-TYPE: One of the all-time greats! Horizontal scroller with beautifully drawn backdrops and creative enemies. Also sported a brilliant 'pod' system that could connect to your ship and be positioned at the front or back.

THUNDERCROSS: Horizontal scroller where you could attach up to four pods alongside your ship. These pods fired the same as your main weapon (the best of which was the 'boomerang' type weapon. Lots of shuriken like stars that bounced around the screen. This game could also be played two-player co-op.

U.N SQUADRON: An amazing horizontal scroller by Capcom. Excellent fun playing two-player. Superb weapons and beautifully animated.

 

[DigitalDuck]

R-TYPE: One of the all-time greats! Horizontal scroller with beautifully drawn backdrops and creative enemies. Also sported a brilliant 'pod' system that could connect to your ship and be positioned at the front or back.

My favourite in the series is R-Type Leo. Dropped some of the unfairness in the difficulty, let you shoot backwards by choice, has some of the best boss design I've ever seen (well, mostly), and let you experience all that with a friend.

I also like Arrow Flash. A bit easy, but a fun stroll nevertheless.

If we're allowing more modern shmups, then I've somewhat fallen in love with the simplicity of Score Rush. Other games throw complex mechanics or scoring systems at you, this one just throws bullets. And you can play it without any memorisation whatsoever (unlike most other games like this), so it's a real test of skill.

 

[Geraldine]

I liked Oblivion (a Defender clone but a good one) and Deluxe Galaga on the Miggy, great little shoot em ups!

 

[Sir.Tj]

Ohh now there's a question.

R-Type
Defender
Xevious
Zaxxon

I will be adding to this list

 

[Geraldine]

Would anyone like to pay this guy a visit?

 

[Caiman Pirate]

I was wondering what people's favourite arcade shoot 'em up games were.

There have been some fantastic games in the past. (And it now seems to be a somewhat dead genre I think).

My old arcade favourites are:

SLAP FIGHT: A vertically scrolling shooter with a novel 'wing' weapon selection system. Very clear enemies and bullets (something I really like) and quite tricky in later stages.

R-TYPE: One of the all-time greats! Horizontal scroller with beautifully drawn backdrops and creative enemies. Also sported a brilliant 'pod' system that could connect to your ship and be positioned at the front or back.

THUNDERCROSS: Horizontal scroller where you could attach up to four pods alongside your ship. These pods fired the same as your main weapon (the best of which was the 'boomerang' type weapon. Lots of shuriken like stars that bounced around the screen. This game could also be played two-player co-op.

U.N SQUADRON: An amazing horizontal scroller by Capcom. Excellent fun playing two-player. Superb weapons and beautifully animated.

shoot em up is my favourite genre. I've played them every day the last 25 years... I love bullet hell type games, but I still play the old classics too.

Those are very nice games indeed! R-TYPE is also one of my favourites, it was also the first shoot em up game for me. I still have the original R-TYPE floppy disk and box for AMSTRAD CPD.

STG weekly did a livestream of U.N SQUADRON 2 days ago. It was uploaded to youtube too if you want to watch it. here is the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZSvixZryJshttp://

superplay with a commentary.

what else...

salamander, x-multiply, crimzon clover, stellavanity, touhou series, hellsinker,∀kashicverse and of course most CAVE STGs

this is also worth of watching:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tz_fViahnAhttp://

games was released in 2006, but the world first Ultra Mode Reco Normal　clear happened just few days ago. Pretty amazing, I've never seen anything like this before. He made it look so easy. True Last Boss fight starts at 30:00. Larsa is the hardest video game boss ever!


oh and here is my main youtube channel www.youtube.com/user/BlueGraphics

nearly all my videos are about shoot em up games

 

[Giskard]

Ohh now there's a question.

R-Type
Defender
Xevious
Zaxxon

I will be adding to this list

Defender...amazing game. Although one I never really played in the arcades. I'm not sure if this was because I was a tad too young, or the game was too hard. (Probably a combination of the two).

The thing that stands out for me about Defender is the SOUND. It's absolutely amazing (and iconic!)

 

[Giskard]

Would anyone like to pay this guy a visit?

Amazing! I would love to have a place like that (I'm sure lots of us would). Just need lots of money and lots of space and lots of time!

I used to work in an arcade for a time. In my humble opinion, one of the best in the country, here in sunny Poole.

So many memories....
(Playing arcade games, never on fruit machines!)

 

[Magma]

Blazing Star.

Fantastic (for '98) rendered graphics, upbeat J-Pop music, insanely designed bosses, hilariously bad English, who could ask for more?

 

[szyzyg]

Jamestown is by far my favourite recent Bullet Hell Shmup

It's set on 17th century Mars and and casts you against the massed forces of the Spanish Armada and their martian allies.

Here's a video of the game:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq4DPRORugA

 

[Sir.Tj]

Defender...amazing game. Although one I never really played in the arcades. I'm not sure if this was because I was a tad too young, or the game was too hard. (Probably a combination of the two).

The thing that stands out for me about Defender is the SOUND. It's absolutely amazing (and iconic!)

The sound was amazing on Defender there's probably a few out there in the wild sitting in a corner somewhere.

The amount of money I must have put into that coin slot

The funny thing is, if a UK TV program has a scene set in an arcade you will quite often hear Defender inthe background, they are obviously using a stock sound effect :F

 

[Giskard]

Dare I say it, maybe you're a tad older than me!

I really hope 'Elite Dangerous' has amazing sound. They have a chance to create something brilliant and I'm hoping the sound is just as good as rest of the game.