SNESdrunk wrote:A lot of great info in this thread
I'm wondering if someone could help confirm if this is a complete list of SNES/SFC scrolling shooters? Excluding rail shooters and run and gun stuff, as well as games that only have one or two shmup styled levels like Cybernator. Anyway, is this list missing anything?
To my knowledge of the NTSC-U side, yes, with a couple of caveats.
Jim Power: The Lost Dimension in 3-D, Sparkster, and Rex Ronan: Experimental Surgeon are not true shmups and only have a few levels designed that way, like Cybernator.
Ok, I just looked into the imports on that list, SNESdrunk. Here's what I found.
Not shmups:
The Great Battle series - each of the games in this series is a different genre, but I don't think any of them are actually shmups. IV is similar to Cybernator. V is similar to Wild Guns. Jim Power: The Lost Dimension in 3-D - contains various styles, including a few shmup levels, but not just shmup levels. Rendering Ranger R2 - also contains various styles, but not just shmup levels. Sparkster - This is a platformer. Super Air Diver 2 - This is a flight simulator. It's a sequel to Super Air Diver, which was called Lock On in the US.
Weird shmups:
Choplifter III - Reminds me a lot of Defender. Dezaemon - This is basically the Mario Paint of shmups. You can edit your game however you like and then play it. The Hunt for Red October - It's kind of like a hori underwater. SD Kidou Senshi Gundam 2 - It combines elements of run and guns with shmups. Super Dropzone - Also reminds me a lot of Defender.
Acrobat Mission Aero Fighters Axelay Biometal Blazeon D-Force Darius Twin Dezaemon Firepower 2000 Flying Hero: Bugyuru no Daibouken Gradius III Imperium Macross Scrambled Valkyrie Marchen Adventure Cotton 100% Parodius series (3 games) Phalanx Pop'n TwinBee R-Type III Raiden Trad Space Megaforce Spriggan Powered Strike Gunner S.T.G. Super Earth Defense Force Super Nova Super R-Type Thunder Spirits UN Squadron
I haven't played these games all the way through (I'm not that insane) so I'm not sure if these are pure scrolling shooters all the way through. Are there any that I'm missing?
i can't add anything to that wikipedia list, but i would like to recommend a game:
cosmo gang - the video: it's basically a cute galaga clone with power ups and bonus levels reminiscent of the cosmo gang arcade games (usually a ticket-winning machine). as galaga is probably my #3 favorite game of all time, i love this game and will get stuck playing for an hour or time from time to time. the fact that you can continue from the same world (not stage) is also a huge plus.
but i do agree that the genesis is better for shmups than the snes. looking forward to getting a pc engine one day too
A few observations on some SNES shmups (mostly via emulator):
- Tried out Space Megaforce yesterday. Pretty fun. No wait, make that a good lot of fun. I imagine this is what a sequel to Gun Nac may have been. It is kinda expensive among SNES shmups, but it's probably worth it. Also kinda surprised that it's only 8 megabits in size, considering all the crap going on in the game. Speaking of expensive...
- Why the hell is R-Type III so expensive now? I remember seeing it on Amazon a couple of years ago for like 30 bucks and back then I was like "eehhhhhhhh, a little much, I'll wait til it goes down in price a little, then I'll bite". Two years later and the cheapest copy on there is over $100 dollars. Guess the only thing that got bitten was my ass with the price shock. It's not much better on Ebay either. I found one copy yesterday that was $89 dollars, but that was the only one I found for under triple digits. Jeez. Guess I'm gonna have to get an import copy to quench my R-Type thirst....
- The Parodius games are.......uh.......bonkers. Yeah, they are. I knew they were bonkers when I tried out the 2nd game (Gokujou) and during the 1st level, they played a 16 bit version of "In The Mood" by Glenn Miller. I did a double take and wondered how that happened. One of the absolute strangest things I've ever heard in a video game. Oh and it's followed by a Tetris song while you fight a giant panda in a tutu with a wooden duck head on top of the panda, or something like that. Mind you I'm only playing this via emulator so I'm not playing through the whole thing, so I do wonder how much more I'll react when I start buying and playing the games on my actual system....
Anyone trying to buy US Snes games now have lost their mind. I dumped all of mine last year and went full on JP. Except for Super Mario RPG Anyhow, Gradius III is super rad especially on arcade difficulty. The line on the last screen makes me laugh everytime I see it
MyNameIsVince wrote:- Tried out Space Megaforce yesterday. Pretty fun. No wait, make that a good lot of fun. I imagine this is what a sequel to Gun Nac may have been. It is kinda expensive among SNES shmups, but it's probably worth it. Also kinda surprised that it's only 8 megabits in size, considering all the crap going on in the game.
Compile were real maestros at throwing a bunch of crap on the screen without it taking up much memory or hindering performance. Nothing else on the SNES comes close to feeling like it in my opinion.
You're on the right track with the Gun Nac comparison. It's almost more like a sequel to Blazing Lazers/GunHed than Aleste.