"Don't let enemies escape" shmups

[SPM]

Games like Halley's Comet or SOS focus on dealing with every enemy trying not to let any of them leave the screen. Any other games exploring that concept? (especially for survival play! Games like Eschatos do it but just for scoring). Thanks!

[BulletMagnet]

Zanac x Zanac's scoring system involves not letting any enemies get by you if memory serves; I also seem to recall one of the more recent Milestone releases being based around the concept, as well as indie title Who's That Flying. I know I've played more than that, though my memory fails me on the rest...

[copy-paster]

"Don't let the enemies escape" isn't this present in like every shmup? If you want specific conditions like "kill these quickly before they leave for get more enemy waves and score" then yeah caravan based ones are pretty much this.

Also 1500 posts count WOOOO

[SPM]

^ Not as the main focus for survival. In most shmups you can let some zakos leave the screen and time out large enemies/bosses without any penalty aside from scoring (and having a crowded screen for a while).

Those 2 games however have a counter. If it reaches 100 the run ends. SOS lets you reduce this number whereas Halley's Comet doesn't, but both games will end once the counter reaches 100 (or you lose all your lives).

I think it adds something interesting to the gameplay (not that I'd want every shmup to have that feature though!! XD)

Here's to the next 1500!

[Jeneki]

Space Invaders straight-up kills you if an enemy reaches the bottom.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Halley's Comet is a fantastic game. Too many enemies leave the playing field? Boom, the planet you're defending eventually gets nuked when damage hits 100%. Instant game over no matter how far you're in the game. Generally speaking even if you're playing basically perfectly, you can expect about 5% to 10% damage to a level because there's some waves where an enemy can sneak off near instantly, and the 1UP bonus you get for clearing a level with 0% damage requires a ton of luck to see.

Because the damage to the planets can't be healed, even when you loop the game, the game's basically going to end eventually (but you'll counterstop at the end of loop 2, so anything past that's for fun). Dying at any point in a level will cause damage to rack up tremendously fast because your shot power starts out very thin. Even with all the lives you can build up, a game over due to destruction is always a very real threat!

You can also die if the comet itself reaches the planet you're defending. This happens if you dawdle a LOT milking points when you either reach the comet entrance where you have to shoot the turrets to open it, or the boss within the comet. You can milk random enemies there for extra points, but get too greedy about it and you could cause a gameover due to the comet itself hitting the planet. Generally it's not a threat though, you have a TON of time to spare, you'd have to milk for like 2-3 minutes to be in danger.

Space Invaders straight-up kills you if an enemy reaches the bottom.

Good point! Space Invaders is arguably the earliest example of this sort of thing. I can't think of too many other games where "don't let enemies escape" is a central mechanic. Eschatos and one of the levels in Cardinal Sins features it for scoring, and there's also Viper Phase 1 where getting 100% shoot down bonuses is key for scoring, but it's rarely implemented for survival.

Missile Command and Nite Raid perhaps count? But those are more about the enemy attacking you directly, and if they get past your defenses they'll kill you, rather than you trying to stop them from attacking a different target...

[John4300]

DariusBurst Chronicle Saviours has some defender missions where you have a "Health bar" that gets damaged if enemies get past you, but it is more of an extra mission style rather than the whole game.

[jehu]

RayCrisis has the 'encroachment' system.

Might be able to interpret it as a kind of Taito throwback to Halley's Comet.

[Jeneki]

Missile Command and Nite Raid perhaps count? But those are more about the enemy attacking you directly, and if they get past your defenses they'll kill you, rather than you trying to stop them from attacking a different target...

I remember playing the Sabotage and Paratrooper version of Night Raid (there's probably even more variants). Thought it was hilarious how dudes who reach the ground would make a human pyramid to reach you, and of course shooting the parachute off one dude so it crushes another already on the ground .

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I just thought of another couple examples:

• Astrosmash for the Intellivision has spinning enemies that will kill you if they hit the ground. When one drops, it becomes your immediate priority to stop it from hitting the planet. However, you also lose score when asteroids hit the round, so this "don't let the enemies get past you!" mechanic applies both to survival, and to scoring.

Shout-out to an MS-DOS remake of Astrosmash called Smashteroid that adds a traditional shmup mode called Deluxe you can play for the 1CC that includes bosses, really highly recommend it as a port/remake of Astrosmash. It was a freeware game, I'm sure it's still on various MS-DOS software sites. I've got a full playthrough/1cc run of it here (hopefully it'll get a few people interested in playing it ): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pi_9hCkW8-4 Note that this mode is more survival oriented rather than score (it's the only one of the three modes that doesn't cause score to drop if you miss the asteroids, Classic and Survival both do though iirc.)

• Minor example but some of the Sonic Wings/Aero Fighters games have bad endings that trigger if you let a boss escape due to time out.

shooting the parachute

I remember playing it as a kid and thinking how absolutely brutal and visceral that mechanic was. And also finding it hilarious that the guys below don't move to the side or something.

[DMC]

Not exactly what you're looking for but Williams' Sinistar (1983) has a pretty innovative feature where you and enemies hunt for the the same asteriods (planetoids) to extract crystals. You gather the crystals for a bomb, while they use the crystals to build the boss, Sinistar. So if you let the enemies gather the crystals before you, he will come alive.
https://youtu.be/b0Nn0jiHpR8?t=525

[davyK]

Solar Storm on the 2600 penalises you for letting enemies past. Let too many pass you and it's game over.

Planet Smashers on 7800 is similar. There is actually a good game there trying to get out. If it was remade with proper enemy patterns and a half decent power up system with autofire (and not to mention a proper set of sound effects) it has enough ideas to make it stand out.

[SavagePencil]

Sega’s SDI/Global Defense follow this pattern.

Not sure if it counts as a shmup but the light gun Missile Defense 3-D does the same.

[it290]

Tempest?

[DMC]

Maybe it's a given, but Defender fits very well too.
Enemy space ships are picking up human astronauts, dragging them to the top of the screen. If you let those enemies get away (that is, reach the top of the screen) they will turn the humans into fast-moving mutants that attack you.

[Leander]

Freedom Finger fits the description

[pieslice]

This is the premise of Cloudphobia. You are protecting your mothership and if an enemy escapes from view it reduces the motherships's hp. When hp hits 0 it's Game Over.

[Mortificator]

Image Fight gives you a percentage grade based on your destruction rate, and getting high enough marks in the first five stages is necessary to move on to the real fight

[BrianC]

Image Fight gives you a percentage grade based on your destruction rate, and getting high enough marks in the first five stages is necessary to move on to the real fight

This reminds me of 1943 where you have to redo part of a stage if you don't shoot down enough enemies.

[Jeneki]

I suppose Image Fight sending you to the penalty stage is the same thing as a Game Over, at least for most of us mortals.