Your favorite old-school/arcade-style shooters

You know, games where the objectives are to kill everything that moves (and has a weapon), blow shit up and sometimes rescue hostages or gather some items. Post your favorites here!

My favorites:

Agile Warrior F-111X (PS1)
Black Dawn (PS1)
Krazy Ivan (PS1)
Mass Destruction (PC)
Cannon Fodder (almost all versions, except for Codemasters' 2001 GBC version. Also, fuck you Codemasters for cancelling the PSP installment)
MERCS (both arcade and Genesis)
Thunder Zone/Desert Assault (arcade)
Metal Slug X and 3 (NeoGeo)
After Burner 2 (Genesis)
Loaded (PS1)

SideArms (also known as SideArms: Hyper Dyne) is :rock:AWESOME:rock: . I recently beat it (but used infinite continues because I suck) on my stand-up Dream Arcades machine. My entire body ached for the rest of the day and it was totally worth it. I could barely feel my hands after mashing the buttons so hard. I'd put this game over Thunder Force 3 any day.



Besides space shooters; Contra 1, Super C, Contra III, and Contra: Hard Corps are all great games. Gunstar Heroes and Metal Slug have not yet dragged me away from these games.

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Originally Posted by NavesRegge

SideArms (also known as SideArms: Hyper Dyne) is :rock:AWESOME:rock: . I recently beat it (but used infinite continues because I suck) on my stand-up Dream Arcades machine. My entire body ached for the rest of the day and it was totally worth it. I could barely feel my hands after mashing the buttons so hard. I'd put this game over Thunder Force 3 any day.

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It's very awesome as well for me. I could also beat the game, in Capcom Classics Volume 2... with the help of several continues :roll: Also, that sounded like an intense game you had there

Posted a list a while back in Jesse813's thread:

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Originally Posted by Christuserloeser

NES

• Crisis Force
• Gun-Nac
• RECCA - Summer Carnival '92

Master System:

• Aleste (aka Power Strike)
• Bomber Raid
• Power Strike II

Mega Drive:

• Aero Blasters aka Air Buster
• Crying aka Bio-Hazard Battle
• Darius II aka Sagaia
• Eliminate Down
• Gaiares
• Gleylancer
• Gynoug
• Koutetsu Teikoku aka Battle Wings aka Steel Empire
• Phelios
• Slap Fight MD
• Super Fantasy Zone
• Twinkle Tale
• Twin Hawk
• Verytex

Sega CD:

• Keio Flying Squadron
• Robo Aleste
• Silpheed

Sega Saturn:

• Blast Wind
• Bokan to Ippatsu
• Cotton Boomerang
• Darius Gaiden
• Hyper Duel
• Panzer Dragoon Zwei
• Parodius: Forever With Me
• Sengoku Blade
• Shienryu
• Soukyugurentai Otokuyo
• Thunder Force V

Dreamcast:

• Bangai-Oh
• Border Down
• Giga Wing 2
• Ikaruga
• Last Hope
• Mars Matrix
• Psyvariar 2
• REZ
• Trigger Heart Exelica
• Twinkle Star Sprites
• Under Defeat
• Zero Gunner 2

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Originally Posted by Christuserloeser

Posted a list a while back in Jesse813's thread:

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Originally Posted by Christuserloeser

NES

• RECCA - Summer Carnival '92

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Damn right. :rock:

And yes I just quite pyramided, shoot me, the situation called for it.

Gradius 3
Thunder Force IV
Einhander
Raiden 2

I really want to play Macross Scrambled Valkyrie. I saw it on eBay for $5 the other day. I'm going to regret not buying that.

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Originally Posted by zetastrike

Gradius 3
Thunder Force IV
Einhander
Raiden 2

I really want to play Macross Scrambled Valkyrie. I saw it on eBay for $5 the other day. I'm going to regret not buying that.

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BUY IT. PLAY IT. IT'S FUCKING AWESOME. Very good shmup for the SNES

Castle Shikigami 2 (PS2).

Terrible dialogue, great game.

http://hardcoregaming101.net/shikigami/shikigami.htm

(I can shill my own work :P )

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Originally Posted by cj iwakura

Castle Shikigami 2 (PS2).

Terrible dialogue, great game.

http://hardcoregaming101.net/shikigami/shikigami.htm

(I can shill my own work :P )

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I saw the horrendous voice acting on MarzGurl's video The Translation Terrors of Castle Shikigami. Seriously XS Games, you couldn't get more cheapo with the game now wouldn't ya?

By system...

NES- LifeForce, Zanac and Gun-Nac.
SNES- R-Type III: The Third Lightning, Space Mega Force and Phalanx
N64- Star Solider: Vanished Earth (not many choices here)
Master System- R-Type, Sagaia, Bomber Raid.
Genesis- Thunder Force IV, Steel Empire and M.U.S.H.A.
Sega CD- Lords of Thunder, Android Assault and Sol-Feace.
32X- Kolibri (again, not many choices)
Saturn- Battle Garegga, Hyper Duel and Soukyugurentai/Thunder Force V.
Dreamcast- Under Defeat, Border Down and Ikaruga.
PCE CD- Rayxanber III, Gate of Thunder and Super Darius.
PS1- G-Darius, R-Type Delta and Gradius Gaiden.
PS2- Gradius V, R-Type Final and Raiden III.

GB/GBC- Sagaia. R-Type DX and Gradius: Interstellar Assault.
GBA- Koutetsu Teikoku, Gradius Galaxies and Iridion II.

Sidearms is OK, I guess. The control is too twitchy and those snakes that chase you pretty much break the deal for me. Not to mention the unimaginative and repetitive bosses. The TurboGrafx-16 has a near-exact version of SideArms. The music sounds better, though (it sounds HORRIBLE in the arcade, all ear-grating and the such). There is also a CD version of the game available in Japan for the PC Engine. It has a Jesus mode where you play as Jesus (he's the guy in the suit, I guess).

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Originally Posted by Flygon

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Originally Posted by Christuserloeser

Posted a list a while back in Jesse813's thread:

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Originally Posted by Christuserloeser

NES

• RECCA - Summer Carnival '92

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Damn right. :rock:

And yes I just quite pyramided, shoot me, the situation called for it.

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Oh, that's no prob. If we pyramided more this world would be a better place.


But to update my previous list of my favorite shmups, here's a list of the best ones for MD/G - personally I prefer those over practically all shmups on other systems... I assume because they lack blast processing™

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Originally Posted by Christuserloeser

It would indeed be easier to list the bad games. Here are the good ones anyway:

Horizontal:

• Aero Blasters aka Air Buster
• Arrow Flash
• Battle Mania aka Trouble Shooter
• Battle Mania 2
• Crying aka Bio-Hazard Battle
• Darius II aka Sagaia
• Eliminate Down
• Forgotten Worlds
• Gaiares
• Gleylancer
• Gynoug
• Hellfire
• Insector X
• Koutetsu Teikoku aka Battle Wings aka Steel Empire
• Sol-Deace
• Super Fantasy Zone
• Thunder Force 3
• Thunder Force 4
• Whip Rush 2222 AD
• Wonder Boy 3: Monster Lair
• Zero Wing

Vertical:

• Dangerous Seed
• Elemental Master
• Fire Shark
• Granada
• Musha Aleste
• Phelios
• Raiden Trad
• Slap Fight MD
• Truxton
• Twinkle Tale
• Twin Cobra
• Twin Hawk
• Undead Line
• Vapor Trail
• Verytex

The best horizontal shmup on Mega Drive gotta be Thunder Force IV (aka Lightening Force in the US), but most of the others I listed are pretty much as good - especially Darius II, Gleylancer, Gynoug and of course Thunder Force 3.

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:ok:

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Originally Posted by sega fan

Fuck Yeah!

You sir, Win the internet.

I wrote about Krazy Ivan a few months ago. I loved it, even though it was a bad game when you viewed it with a critical eye.

http://www.gamespot.com/ps/action/kr...ews;continue;1

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You sir, win the internet as well for liking this fucking awesome game. If you like games like this, play Mass Destruction for PC, PS1 or Saturn. You won't regret it :ok:

http://www.sega-16.com/forum/picture...&pictureid=809

FUCK YEAH

I'm not too familiar with the genre, but I have played some, this is what I like.

Contra (NES + Arcade)
M.U.S.H.A. (Genesis)
Truxton (Genesis +TG-16)
Thunder Force IV (Genesis)
Contra: Hard Corps

Does Galaga count? If so, Galaga. (NES + Arcade)

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Originally Posted by TheRollingStoner

I'm not too familiar with the genre, but I have played some, this is what I like.

Contra (NES + Arcade)
M.U.S.H.A. (Genesis)
Truxton (Genesis +TG-16)
Thunder Force IV (Genesis)
Contra: Hard Corps

Does Galaga count? If so, Galaga. (NES + Arcade)

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It's old-school, it's arcade-style, it counts!