SHMUPS from the 2000s

[DoomAlpaca]

What are your favorite SHMUPS from the 2000s?

We are a small stundent team, working for our last workshop course at university. We have decided to create our own shmup, and are looking for references specifics to the 2000s to 2010s era.
We would be thankful if you guys could describe your memories from these games and what made them great.

Mine for example was Ikaruga, the mechanic of switchting between black and white made for so many fun dynamics and tense moments in the game. I specially was very frustrated but invested on the split-second choices you have to make in the game.

[XoPachi]

Ketsui and Gradius V. Free.

But I also got heavy into Blue Wish Resurrection. I love that game's music.

[sunnshiner]

Under Defeat. It still looks amazing now.

Ikaruga's a puzzle game.

[hamfighterx]

For the '00s, it's pretty much take your pick from the bulk of Cave's output: Dodonpachi Daioujou (and Daifukkatsu), Ketsui, Mushihimesama (and Futari), Deathsmiles, Espgaluda (1 and 2), Ibara, Progear. If I had to pick my top 2, it would be Mushihimesama and DDP DOJ, both of which are top 10 all time games to me.

Cave dominated the decade, IMO, with the common theme of the games featuring finely honed mechanics, the usual (and very satisfying) Cave system of a rapid shot and a stronger focused/laser attack that slows your ship down, an unmistakable 2D art style, and uniformly excellent music. You know a company did a good job when they became so ubiquitous during an era that people on these forums would regularly (and still sometimes do) get frustrated and break out the "THERE ARE OTHER STGS BESIDES CAVE, PEOPLE!" complaints XD. Cave of the '00s basically became the "bullet hell" template for a lot of people, and this was really THE decade of bullet hell/danmaku games after the subgenre came to prominence in the '90s.

For non-Cave stuff, I would offer the following as some of my favorites of the decade:
- Under Defeat - Just a level design masterpiece, cool visuals, and the tilting helicopter aim mechanic works very well.
- Raiden III - Bombastic and high energy, nice hard sci-fi look, just a solid vertical shooter.
- Mars Matrix - The barrier/absorb mechanic is so good.
- Shikigami no Shiro 2 - I have a soft spot for this one, I like the character art, the mechanic of controlling your "option"-like Shikigami works well, one of the better implementations of a "buzz" system to power up your attacks when you're in close proximity to enemy bullets.

Although I am not a huge Touhou fan, it's undeniable that a lot of people are (and Touhou was the entry point to the genre for a lot of people), and this was the decade that Touhou really came into its own with the most popular games in the series like Perfect Cherry Blossom and Imperishable Night. Would be remiss not to call attention to these games if you're focusing on the decade of the '00s. Touhou is also notable for really drawing attention to the indie/doujin scene and self-published games by small teams, which has obviously continued to thrive since picking up considerable steam in the 2000s.

And while it wasn't released until 2011, Eschatos feels of that era to me and I think it's an all-time great. Blazing fast immediacy and fast levels, superb soundtrack, simple mechanics allow anyone to get right into the action.

[To Far Away Times]

^^^ well said.

CAVE is to shmups what Nintendo is to platformers. While they're far from the only company that can make high quality games, they really are the standard bearer for their genre.

And I would definitely agree with Mushi and DOJ being Top 10 all time. And Eschatos (a non CAVE game) is a must play.

If you are looking at games like Ikaruga with novel mechanics:

Gigawing lets you reflect bullets back at the enemies.

R-Type has the force pod that can block bullets, X-Multiply has tentacle arms you can control. Xexex has both of those things.

G Darius lets you capture enemies and use their shot types. You call also fire off a giant Dragon Ball Z style lazer blast.

R-Type Leo has a sweet quick recharge homing attack.

Games like Elemental Master and Guwange have you running on the ground, which introduces terrain hazards.

[davyK]

Futari for me.

Majestic game. There's loads of great 00's shmups but for me nothing comes close.

[Augemitbutter]

Border Down is another sweet game. Big fan.

[XoPachi]

And while it wasn't released until 2011, Eschatos feels of that era to me and I think it's an all-time great. Blazing fast immediacy and fast levels, superb soundtrack, simple mechanics allow anyone to get right into the action.

I find Strania to be in a similar boat in terms of vibe that was also released the same year.
Weird scoring aside, I really liked it. That game had unbelievably fantastic music and a somewhat clumsy but fun weapon system that really took advantage of it's tight level design. It's also a rarity in that it's a 16:9 vert STG and made great use of the screen space imo.

But seriously, that game's music goes stupid. I don't know why STG's always have the best VGM.

[To Far Away Times]

^^^

A recurring theme in many G. Rev games.

Border Down's got a great soundtrack as well.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Futari for me.

Majestic game. There's loads of great 00's shmups but for me nothing comes close.

Futari and Giga Wing for me too. The music in Giga Wing in most stages is meh, but the gameplay is top-notch stuff.

[XoPachi]

Futari was my first Cave STG I owned I think.
All that glorious goddamn slowdown. Love that damn game.

[To Far Away Times]

Mushi Futari is special. There are many great shmups, but there is only one Futari.

Everything about that game is peak.

Futari is a game about indulgence. The most powerful shot type in a shmup ever? Sure, Why not. Constant screen filing score gems you can vacuum up? Yes. Make it sound like a slot machine jackpot going off at all times? Perfect. Ridiculous slow down and bullet cancels? Oh yeah. Destruction and carnage everywhere. Fuck it, now we're adding dinosaurs. That game is a constant dopamine drip to the lizard part of our brains.

[nZero]

Psyvariar 2, Espgaluda, Muchi Muchi Pork, Raiden IV, and Triggerheart Exelica were my top 5 of the decade. TH08 Imperishable Night, Ketsui, Deathsmiles, Under Defeat, Radirgy, Ikaruga, Giga Wing 2, and Raiden III all get honorable mention as well. Seconding Strania and Eschatos being near the top of the chart if they were only released slightly earlier.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

The Taito G-Net arcade motherboard powered the G-Card version of Psyvariar Medium Unit which was released back in March of 2000 for the Japanese game centers (and the G-Card of Psyvariar Revision was released to game centers with online ranking feature through a special website back in September of 2000 through December of 2000) -- the awesome arcade bgm tunes were done by Tetsuro Sato and other music artists.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[XoPachi]

I love Radirgy something fierce.
It's peak 00's aesthetic for me next to Air Gear and Sonic Riders. It's not even the gameplay, it's just it's entire presentation for me. It's incredibly nostalgic. I can't really explain it well.

[hamfighterx]

Futari for me.

Majestic game. There's loads of great 00's shmups but for me nothing comes close.

Futari and Giga Wing for me too. The music in Giga Wing in most stages is meh, but the gameplay is top-notch stuff.

To be a little pedantic, Giga Wing released in February, 1999. But yeah, I also associate it more with the 2000s. Agreed that it's a great game though even if I didn't list it because I named Mars Matrix instead (my favorite of Takumi's games, though Giga Wing 1 would be my second).

[Stevens]

G.Rev owns.

[OmegaFlareX]

Ikaruga's ok, but I like Radiant Silvergun a lot better.

CAVE owns the naughties. It's really no contest. Mushi and its sequel are the pinnacle of this era.

Border Down and Under Defeat are great games from G.Rev. Gradius V is Treasure's swan song.

The NA release of Giga Wing on Dreamcast came mid-00, so I'm counting it. Awesome game, one that got me hooked on shmups to begin with.

[XoPachi]

I know it's gimped because it's WiiWare, but I developed a soft spot for Star Soldier R recently. I love that game's sound and music. It's only a 2 stager caravan unfortunately with nothing further. I'm not super knowledgeable about the history of caravan STG's so that's probably respectfully in line with a certain group of games from that era though. But it's addicting and really surprising how much you can squeeze out of those 2 levels. I put about 16 hours on a 5 minute game a few months ago. It's a nice little burst of fun with some well designed visuals. You know how people say they see Tetris blocks after a long session? I was hearing that little bonus chime in my sleep. I need that as a text tone.

Mushi and its sequel are the pinnacle of this era.

Odd way to spell "Ketsui". You trying to start trouble?

[Sumez]

Ibara

[BareKnuckleRoo]

To be a little pedantic, Giga Wing released in February, 1999.

Oops. I didn't realize it had snuck in before 2000 rolled around.

[DMC]

2000 and 2001 were strong years.
Zero Gunner 2 is one of those games where the controls themselves are so fun to play around with that you barely need any stage design. Doing quick 180 degree turns, rotating your aim and sweep the enemies, extending it to change the angle, etc, is so satisfying.
Dimahoo - beefed up old school shooting and dodging. Fast enemy bullets and sniper attacks. A more lenient color system than Ikaruga. Great inspiration if you're going for a similar dual color system. Nice way of combining two weapons (trigger items with charge attack, then sweep the floor withthe main shot while the charge meter is active).
Brave Blade - underrated medal juggling, melee attack/shooting, game. After you get used to the blocky graphics, the fanciful medieval setting will start to look quite appealing and the lowkey ambient Namiki OST grows on you. Transformations between ship mode and character mode were nicely done. The invincibility mode combined which breaks the protective guard was a nice change-up from the usual smart bomb system. Great risk-reward balance.
Mars Matrix, Ikaruga also amazing ofc.

Espgaluda's mechanic in which you switch between standard and kakusei mode was also extremely well done. It seems a lot of games implemeneted such dual switch systems around this time (Ikaruga, Dimahoo, Brave Blade, Espgaluda).

The CAVE usual suspects, DDP DOJ, Ketsui, Futari. Pink Sweets' milking of enemy bullets fire rate is quite amazing as well.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Judgement Silversword's worth a mention, it was made in 2001, and it's really really good. Being able to play it on the Eschatos xb360 port was such a treat.

I had it in my head that ChoRenSha 68k was from the 2000s but apparently it's 1995 which is mindblowing. It's such a strong game that doesn't feel like it's aged at all.

[XoPachi]

My God, that is some video game music.

https://youtu.be/Pd0KZLOklS0

[Star Lurker]

Judgement Silversword's worth a mention, it was made in 2001, and it's really really good. Being able to play it on the Eschatos xb360 port was such a treat.

I had it in my head that ChoRenSha 68k was from the 2000s but apparently it's 1995 which is mindblowing. It's such a strong game that doesn't feel like it's aged at all.

Cho Ren Sha is a weird one. First version was released in 1995, final X68K version in 1997, and the Windows port allegedly came out in 2001 per Wikipedia. Most sites list 1995 as Cho Ren Sha 68K's release date, even though most of these same sites would say Minecraft's release date was 2011 (when it exited Beta) and not 2009, when it was first released.

[Amber318]

I used to love Star Monkey by Small Rockets back in the days. Despite being pretty short (three levels only), the game had juicy gameplay, pretty flexible customisation system, and the main menu theme was giga-epic. Aside from that, Solaris 104 was a solid one too.

https://youtu.be/4Yb2gowEV5U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVAtXqESDcs