Racketboy

If you’re ever wondered what Rez would be like in 2D, Space Invaders Extreme is one of the closest examples you will find.   That’s right, this is not another one of those vanilla Space Invaders remakes.  The masterminds at Taito and Square/Enix have put a fresh spin on the pioneering game to bring it more […]

The Sega Dreamcast has one of the most loyal followings of hardcore gamers and more than seven years after Sega announced the end of its hardware run, the Dreamcast is still slowly being supported by a handful of devoted developers. The latest game be announced is DUX, a new 2D shooter from the […]

Presented by: Fastbilly1, Marurun, & Racketboy
New To Together Retro? Check out the introduction to the club
We have a special treat for you this opening week. We’re going to be looking at the arcade classic Defender and the home port for the Atari 2600. Read on to find out more about Defender and what our […]

There has been speculation and rumors about these two titles for quite a while, both Ikaruga and Rez have been officially announced for XBox Live Arcade. That’s right, Microsoft has already shown off screens of the two games at their presentation at the Tokyo Game Show Pre-Show.
(see my previous XBLA rumor coverage: Rez / […]

Platform: PC
Genre: 2D Shooter
Summary: Geometry Wars clones are all the rage right now as the trippy shooter calls back to simpler shooting days while bringing modern eye-candy. Echoes from Binary Zoo Studio takes a very similar approach with its glowing vector graphics, but has more of an Asteroids gameplay mechanic as opposed to Geometry Wars’ […]

Racketboy Reaction
The Dreamcast game library is filled with tons of 2D shooters, but if you enjoy blowing stuff up, but would like a bit of variety from the standard vertical or horizontal scrolling shmup, with a bit of Street Fighter (and other Capcom) fan-service thrown in, you definately need to look into Cannon Spike.
The […]

As a victim of Acclaim’s financial problems, The Red Star was delayed many times and been cancelled at least once. However, XS Games took over the project as it’s publisher and released this shmups/beatemup hybrid game as a budget title for the PS2.
Ever since I first laid eyes on The Red Star back when […]

I like like shooting games. I love fighting games. And I adore hybrid games.
I’m thinking I will enjoy Senko no Ronde.
Senko no Ronde is a hybrid 2D shmup fighting game from G.Rev (of Border Down and Under Defeat fame) that originated on the NAOMI arcade hardware, but for some incredibly strange […]

Note from racketboy: Ivo is back again with a remarkable review of an interesting Freeware PC shooter by the name of Warning Forever. I hope you find it enjoyable!
There are a number of excellent freeware games available for the PC, and Warning Forever is certainly one of those. You can download it from […]

I have been a huge fan of the indie masterpiece, Alien Hominid, for quite some time, so I’ve glad to see the attention the game is receiving for its appearance on the XBox Live Arcade. The enhanced version seems to fit in on the XBLA and the critics are eating it up…

“Commercial-grade digital distribution […]

With so many unique and interesting games from the past out there, I obviously don’t have time to review them all myself. This time around we have racketboy.com contributer, Mega-Dan reviewing one of his favorite under-appreciated gems, Forgotten Worlds for the Sega Genesis/MegaDrive.
Introduction
Forgotten Worlds is similar to a horizontal scrolling shootem’up style (shmup) space game, […]

One of the most interesting things about the Sega Dreamcast is that commercial games are still slowly being released in Japan more than 5 years after it was taken off the retail scene in the US. As one of the three (so far) 2D shooters to be released in 2007, Trigger Heart Exelica is […]

There was a lot of shmup action being shown off at Japan’s AOU 2007 (Japanese Amusement Machines Operators Union)…
Otomedius
One of the biggest stories of the show is Konami’s apparent successor to the Parodius franchise. it has the same quirky and sexy feel, but also will include networking and touchscreen capabilities (supposedly for locking […]

This is basically a rumor, but there is some solid evidence that one of the games from my XBox Live Wishlist might become a reality.
According to Eurogamer, Ikaruga, the cult classic 2D shooter from Treasure apparently has shown up on the XBox 360’s top-secret (only for developers and journalists) area, Partnernet.
Eurogamer stated,
“There are two downloads […]

Released Today:
R-Type III - 2D Shooter - Super Nintendo
| Wikipedia Entry | Review | Screenshots |
Xevious - 2D Shooter - NES
| Wikipedia Entry| Review | Screenshots |
Moto Roader - Racing - TG16
| Review | Screenshots |

Newly Announced Future Releases…

Metroid - NES

Super Mario World - SNES

Kirby’s Adventure - NES

Punch-Out - NES

Kid Icarus - NES

Duck […]

Just an FYI, from now on, I’m planning on just giving stripped down information about Virtual Console downloads and provide some helpful links to give your a feel for the games.
Released:
Gradius - 2D Shooter - NES
| Wikipedia Entry | Review | Screenshots | Video |
Soldier Blade - 2D Shooter - TG16
| Review | Screenshots |
Dungeon […]

This past September we got word that Treasure was developing a sequel to its famed shooters, Radiant Silvergun and Ikaruga. At that point, the rumor was simply riding on a reputable writer from PLAY magazine.
The rumor is alive again thanks to one of my favorite gaming sites, insertcredit, who spotted an XBox 360 Radiant […]

Happy 2007 Everyone!
I want to thank you all for another great year at racketboy.com, whether it be forum members and their great conversations, customers at the stores, or those subscribing to the RSS feed or reading the site every day. You have all made this place successful and made the classic gaming community so […]

Even though it has very long way before it matches the massive shooter libraries of the Sega Dreamcast and Saturn, the Nintendo Gamecube is slowly building a modest library of shmups that is uncharacteristic of a more modern console. There is only one real exclusive in the bunch, but it had some of the better […]

Let’s face it. The Dreamcast will not die. Sega’s little white box just refuses to give up the fight.
Japanese publisher Milestone is bringing yet another interesting 2D shooter to the Dreamcast in the form of Karous (official site) and will have a release date of March 8th, 2007.

Karous looks like it is similar […]

Even though VG Cats would have you believe otherwise, the Nintendo Gamecube is not yet dead. The Gamecube seems to be taking a page from the Dreamcast’s book of survival by bring 2D shooters in at the last moment to satisfy hardcore gamers.
In fact, as reported a while back, the Dreamcast shmup, Radirgy (which […]

While this isn’t anything earth-shattering, I found this way too amusing to pass up sharing. One of the biggest newspapers in the US, the San Francisco Chronicle ran a story recently that suggests that Christmas shoppers give retro game consoles as Christmas presents as an alternative to the pricey new-gen consoles. Number one […]

Two-dimensional space shooters were just starting to mature in the 8-bit era and Zanac on the NES is one of the best examples of more complex shooting gameplay in the dawn of console gaming.
Zanac eschews the usual wave-after-wave of enemy patterns. Instead, Zanac has an artificial intelligence that throws different kinds of enemies at you, […]

Ok — every time we think we have seen the last of the commercial Dreamcast shooter releases, another one gets announced (not that I’m complaining).
The newest entry in the Dreamcast shmup library comes from Warashi, which shooter fans may know from the Saturn shooting game Shienryu.

The Dreamcast port of the fairly recent Naomi arcade game, […]

You may remember that not too long ago I mentioned a sweet new initiative to create Sega Saturn game inserts for slimline DVD cases. Well, Mookyjooky, the project’s fearless leader has stepped it up a notch to give the project a boost.
Every week Mookyjooky and Saurian Overlord will pick the best of show in […]

Most Sega Genesis fans remember Gunstar Heroes as the premier run-and-gun shooter from Treasure. Inside the US, this is definately the case, but our friends in Europe and Japan were priveldged to experience a challenging and impressive game by the name of Alien Soldier.
The cartridge is very difficult to find in either region […]

The Dreamcast had a long string of 2D shooters that continued long after the console left the retail scence in most countries.
Trizeal was developed by Triangle Service, a small Japanese developer, and was ported to the Dreamcast in 2005 from the NAOMI arcade platform, making it one of the officially licensed games to be released […]

We already knew that the Metal Slug Anthology was going to be the hottest Wii release for retro gamers, but up until now, we weren’t really sure how the compilation for SNK would make use of the Wii’s unique motion-sensing controller.
Of course, you can use your Gamecube controllers on the Wii or the “Retro” Wii […]

Konami’s underground success of their Gradius Collection on the PSP has convinced them to bring three more of their popular shmup franchises to the PSP as well.

Salamander, TwinBee and Parodius will all be given a similar compilation treatment and will most likely retails for for 4179 yen (around $35) and will be released in Japan […]

It’s pretty easy to find a list of “The Top 10 Dreamcast Games” or some similar ranking, but most of them were written back when the console was still on the retail scene and almost all of them only compare the games against other Dreamcast games.
This is all fine if the Dreamcast is the only […]

Cybernator (aka Assault Suits Valken in Japan) game is an intense side-scrolling, mech shooter that takes you through a steep difficulty curve. In this shmup, your ‘Assault Suit’ can jump, thrust, dash, punch and use various weapons to do your damage. Control is great (but different) with a real ‘chunky robot’ feel. Cybernator boasts many […]

Castle of Shikigami 2 (also known as Shikigami No Shiro II) naturally originated in the arcades and was later ported to the Sega Dreamcast (in the series of late shmups that kept the DC import scene alive), Playstation 2, Nintendo GameCube, and Xbox. The game was released in Japan for each of those mediums and […]

| Introduction | Part 1 | Part 2 | Digg It! |
10.) Metal Slug (Neo Geo; NTSC-U)
Estimated Price: $1000 (Complete)
Known universally for its hand drawn, over-the-top comic carnage, the original Metal Slug is an amazingly difficult find on the Neo Geo AES.
The US Neo Geo is home to many overpriced rarities, with most of […]

The original Nanostray was one of the first decent 3rd party Nintendo DS games that wasn’t a port of an N64 game. It also happened to be an old-school shmup.
From the initial details that have been leaked about the game, Nanostray 2 is will supposedly introduce many new features and improvements in addition to […]

We knew a while back that famed developer, Treasure (of Gunstar Heroes, Sin and Punishment, and Guardian Heroes fame — plus many others), committed to developing the 2D games that us hardcore gamers have grown to love, but more details are starting to flesh out.
As previously suspected, it is looking like Treasure is developing a […]

You will find that I bring up the development house known as Treasure quite often — and for good reason. They are behind many of the best cult-classic games of all time and know how to feed the cravings of hardcore gamers — sometime before the audience even knows what it is that they […]

The Sega Genesis was a killer console in its day and even though the Genesis add-ons got a bad reputation, the Sega CD actually had a number of worthwhile games to amuse those who invested in one (the 32X wasn’t as bad as you might think either).
Looking back over the Sega CD game library, one […]

While SNK may have finally fininshed supporting the Neo-Geo, there are still independant developers that have worked on Last Hope, an ambititous new 2D shooter that has the Neo-Geo community quite interested.
So far, the game has only been released as a very limited edition and expensive Neo-Geo cartridge (a Neo-Geo CD and Dreamcast version will […]

The Sega Dreamcast is quite possibly one of the most versatile console of all time. They also happen to be quite affordable and plentiful. If you don’t already have one, you need to pick one (or two) up. If you already have one, take a look at some hardware and software that […]

Over the last decade or two, we have seen a wide variety of gaming hardware — each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Personally, I would love to be able to play with just about every unique piece of hardware at least once. However, some of the most interesting gaming machines are both difficult to […]