• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Shmups Are The Best Genre You Don’t Play

zenspider

Member
Absolutely do not be afraid to pick up any game from M2 that is CAVE developed.

They added super easy modes where a lot of the bullets are gone, and you’ll get essentially infinite continues. From there it has challenge modes if you wanted to keep getting better.

Either way the modes have ranked leaderboards too so you can just focus on fun and not worry you’re missing out somehow.

On PSN you could scoop up Ketsui Deathiny to give it a whirl. You can do Battle Garrega as well but that’s a Raizing game— less neon bullets and more actual bullets/bombs. Lots of ships and a stellar soundtrack.

Also games like Ikaruga are much harder IMO to overcome, unless you put it on their easy mode as well for lots of continues.
this. I’m a noob, but save the JP language barrier (Google Lens ftw) the M2 ports all have a mode where they literally walk you through the game step-by-step and let you figure out each section for survival, scoring, bees (in DDP DOJ).

I wouldn’t have recommended to a new player until I tried it myself. And yeah — thinking you need super-human reflexes to play shmups is a misunderstanding of how they play. It’s like driving a car. You’re really only relying your reflexes in emergencies. I think fighting games are way more reliant on reflexes in that regard.
 

Codiox

Member
It’s an old favorite genre of mine. No bullet hell shmups which play like you’re moving in a maze, I like the old school ones where you need to react fast on enemy bullets, and I need to use a joystick.
Built an arcade cabinet for Retropie years ago with a focus on shmups.
nItyN3j.jpeg
really nice, i love the font for the buttons!

i built one myself. its inspired by the sega astro city

IMG_20231230_144617.jpg

the buttons light up depends on the in game usage.
 
Last edited:

SCB3

Member
It always surprised me that there isn't currently a new R-Type or Ikaruga in active development, those were always my favorite
 

Ibara

Member
Just gunna be straight up and say if you enjoy the genre and start taking it semi seriously that’s when it starts to really open up.
Buy a stick, pick a game and get the 1CC. After that if you care about it, learn to score.
Shmups have a steep learning curve and if you just bounce around and try different ones you’ll never get anywhere. Credit feeding feels empty because it is empty.
 

Arsic

Member
Any modern games on ps5 that can be recommended?
Modern or you mean good ports?

Most of the best ones are stuck on Japanese PSN to download.

On western releases we got battle Garrega and Ketsui Deathiny.

You may like something Sina More EX… but it isn’t on the polish gameplay wise as the other two.
 

Fredrik

Member
really nice, i love the font for the buttons!

i built one myself. its inspired by the sega astro city

IMG_20231230_144617.jpg

the buttons light up depends on the in game usage.
Woah that’s next level 👏 Mine definitely don’t have that nice final touch.

vsjce1H.jpeg

LTrI7Ud.jpeg

a2FYZSQ.jpeg

yhg3w07.jpeg

MMsVSSb.jpeg

Lgiyz3V.jpeg

fAbWgKp.jpeg

I had plans to build an arcade joystick with a Raspberry Pi inside as well, using a tree knot bowl (vril) as the casing, with only power and HDMI port coming out, but never got to it.

For shmups there is only joystick controls for me, I suck using analog sticks and D-pad just feels like a bad iteration of the joystick for me.
 

Neff

Member
Play the older games, before the bullet hell took over the genre.

Bullet hell can fuck the fuck off.

R-Type is where it's at.

I always saw bullet hells as their own sub-genre, since they rely on pure dexterity and improvisation, and offer a larger relative playing area due to the hitbox of your sprite typically being absolutely tiny. Classic shmups rely more on stage memorisation, pattern learning, and feel way more claustrophobic due to your hit box being bigger, not to mention that geographic obstacles can kill you as well as bullets.

I like both but I'd agree that old shmups are the best- particularly Gradius II, R-Type, X-Multiply and Thunder Cross. Konami and Irem had the genre stitched up, basically.
 

gunstarhero

Member
This may sound weird, but that looks horrid to me, well maybe horrid is an exaggeration, but it seems to have lost something, maybe it's the aesthetic, too neon.
I thought the same thing, but it’s legit once you play it. It has a lot of questionable design and UX decisions surrounding the main game like its unlock system and customization options, but if you just focus on the 2 main games packed into Evolved, it’s a great addition to Rtype.
 

midnightAI

Member
I thought the same thing, but it’s legit once you play it. It has a lot of questionable design and UX decisions surrounding the main game like its unlock system and customization options, but if you just focus on the 2 main games packed into Evolved, it’s a great addition to Rtype.
I think it's partly just my aversion to 3d shoot em ups (even if played on a 2d plane) for example I vastly prefer the original 3 screen Darius to Darius Burst.
 

elbourreau

Member
Alright, just subscribed to this thread.

We are developing a VR game right now but shmups is one of my favorite genre and I was kinda obliged to make spmething shmupy during our free time.

I'll have a few things to show and a few thing to make you play in 2024. ;) (just early early demo, not in full production right now...)

JYZ5h3W.png

vassLoA.png
MZQkxAf.png
 

gunstarhero

Member
Little PSA on Shinorubi: PS5 version is currently bugged and doesn't allow the use of PS4 arcade sticks. The included PS4 version of the game works just fine, but then you lose out on the 120hz and higher resolution (which IS a big deal imo).

I hit up the dev and they responded very quickly - hopefully a patch is on the way.
 
Top Bottom