Browsing all 68 articles in Shooters.
Presented by BulletMagnet Note from racketboy: Taking the next step from his comprehensive Shmups 101: A Beginner’s Guide to 2D Shooters, the expert shmup writing of BulletMagnet (see his guides to shmups for the Playstation, Saturn, and PS2 and the Games That Defined the Shmup Genre) this guide is one of most epic posts ever. I hope you enjoy the detail and loving care that went into this piece! The scrolling shoot-em-up (or “shmup”) is a hardy, tough-skinned branch of video gamedom dating back to the [...]
Presented by Jex the Gamer Note from Racketboy: I’m pleased to introduce a new contributor to the Racketboy family in Jax the Gamer! He starts us off with a a great genre guide to an old-school console that doesn’t get enough attention around these parts. Magnavox’s Odyssey 2 is not a well-known console system (see our guide to the Odyssey 2 console) and neither is its library of games. That doesn’t mean it’s not worth playing, though; especially if [...]
presented by Brickiemart, Adam Sarson, BulletMagnet, and Racketboy Be sure to check out similar guides in our Genre Guide Collection Even though I have been a Sega Genesis fan from the beginning, I didn’t quite realize how many Shooters the console had in its library until I saw this guide taking shape. I always looked at systems like the Saturn, Playstation, TG16, and the Dreamcast as being the primary resources for the genre. While that may be true, the [...]
Presented by BulletMagnet See our other great Shmup Guides & the rest of our Hidden Gems Series Not that most of you really need to hear me say this, but the classic scrolling shoot-em-up (or “shmup”) has become something of a rarity in and of itself these days. With so few commercial releases on the horizon, the tiniest crumbs of emerging information are immediately seized upon by the most devoted remaining fans and obsessively documented; after all, nobody knows when, [...]
Presented by BulletMagnet See more of our Shmups Guides (including our Beginner’s Guide to Shmups) and other entries in our Defining Games Series Even in an era dominated by high-end 3-D graphics, sprawling environments, and hundred-hour quests, if you mention the phrase “video game” to a person one of the first images likely to enter his or her head is that of a tiny spaceship sprite blasting away two-dimensional aliens; such is the enduringly appealing nature of the classic shoot-em-up, or [...]
Presented by BulletMagnet Note from racketboy: Combining to popularity of our Genre 101 series (see Survival Horror 101, Beatem-ups 101, Platformers 101, and Fighters 101) and the expert shmup writing of BulletMagnet (see his guides to shmups for the Playstation, Saturn, and PS2 and the Games That Defined the Shmup Genre) this guide is one of most epic posts ever. I hope you enjoy the detail and loving care that went into this piece! About the Shmup Genre If you utter the word “shooter” in this day and age [...]
Presented by Noiseredux (with Brickiemart and Racketboy) Although the Game Boy Advance is not generally remembered for its library of shooters, it was the first portable gaming system powerful enough to recreate the classing shoot-em-ups of the 16-bit era. As such it saw ports and variations of many of the 16-bit staples: Gradius, Darius, R-Type — they’re all represented to some degree. And ports of 8-bit shmups are in even greater abundance, especially once you delve into the import scene. However [...]
Presented by Marurun Note from racketboy: we don’t publish reviews too often here anymore (or should we?), but when asked for a recommendation for our soon-to-be-published Retro Gaming Gift Guide, he sent me this full-length review. How nice of him! Anyway, hope you find it useful 🙂 The most recent console generation has been a boon for retro-gamers. Between the Super Nintendo rehashes on the Gameboy Advance and Nintendo DS and the Xbox Live Arcade and Wii Virtual Console gamers [...]
Presented by BulletMagnet Note from racketboy: Once again, it’s a pleasure to have BulletMagnet back to guide us through another blockbuster shmup library. His guides to the Sega Saturn and Playstation Shmup Libraries are required reading for those looking to explore the genre. This time he looks at some more modern, but equally thrilling shooters on the Playstation 2. Hello again everyone – before we begin, please note the newly-added designations in parentheses which are found below each game’s title. [...]
Presented by Racketboy & Ack To complement the comprehensive guides to the impressive Sega Saturn and Playstation Shmups libraries, we’ve updated and expanded this Dreamcast 2D Shooter guide. We now have more of the newer post-mortum shooters included and hopefully made it a bit more informative. If you have anything to add, just let us know in the comments! While it only started out with a few shooters from Psikyo and Capcom (most of which looked like nice 2D [...]
Note from racketboy: Following up on his epic Saturn Shmups Guide, BulletMagnet, walks us through the original Playstation’s well-rounded shooter lineup. It’s difficulty to declare a solid winner in the 32-bit 2D shooter wars, but the PS1 puts up an awesome fight against the Saturn. This guide will take us on a journey through the Playstation’s best down to the quirky andmediocre. A couple of notes to keep in mind… First, while I obviously tried my best to include every [...]
Note from racketboy: As a suplement to the already monumental Playstation Shmups Guide, BulletMagnet, thought it would be interesting to take a look at some shooter-stlyle minigames that are included in other PS1 games. Aside from the huge amount of stand-alone shooter releases, a handful of non-shmup Playstation games included “mini-shmups” hidden in distant corners for players to encounter. Here are a few of the most notable ones – “Tiny Phalanx” (Zero Divide) Somewhere within the coded confines of this [...]
Two-dimensional shooters are some of the most intense old-school games out there due to the precision, reflexes, and memorization needed to survive these adrenaline rushes. For fans of the shmup genre, the Sega Saturn is a must-own console due to its excellent exclusives, a healthy dose of high-quality cross-platform ports, and plenty of 2D processing power. Racketboy’s newest contributor, BulletMagnet, walks us through the Saturn’s impressive shooter lineup from the excellent all the way to the mediocre. Radiant Silvergun One of [...]
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 into the league of the modern arcade shooters on XBLA and PSN like Geometry Wars and Everyday Shooter. Much like Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s masterpiece, Space Invaders [...]
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 team at HUCAST.net. Racketboy.com regular, HeavyMetalMe took some time to discuss this upcoming release with René Hellwig of HUCAST.net and was able to share some details about [...]
