What is your favorite shmup music?

[bitkid]

Not strictly a shmup but the Outzone Stage 1 music is bitchin'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBR1mLvHpkQ

[Deca]

Glad you enjoyed my picks Blackbird, made me feel good reading that

I might be in the minority but I can't stand that Degeneracy remix for the Saturn. It sounds too happy and phony, it lost all the grit and jazz influence from the original.

I have to disagree here, I don't think the remix sounds happy at all really. I find both the original and the remix to sound very sad in tone, I actually find the entire soundtrack to have a particularly nostalgic feeling to it. I'm not sure how you can say it lost the jazz influence as the remix prominently features all parts of the original with a horn taking over the lead and expanding on the melody in places (the solo section around 1:00 gives me goosebumps nearly every time I hear it.)

I will give you that the overall tone and vibe is different, and can certainly understand people not liking it compared to the original. When listening to the arrange soundtrack I try not to compare the songs to the originals too much, I more view it as just being a second soundtrack. I have to say that it changes the feel of the game in a big way switching between the original and arrange soundtracks, and I love Garegga both ways.

[Sumez]

Have you heard the Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth/64 soundtrack yet? It's got some surprisingly good parts to it. I wonder how the gameplay is, seeing how it's the -only- shooting game I can think of on the N64 aside from the obvious Starfox 64.

If you count in Starfox 64, I'd say Sin and Punishment deserves to be considered a part of that crowd as well. God damn awesome game.

[Deca]

Have you heard the Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth/64 soundtrack yet? It's got some surprisingly good parts to it. I wonder how the gameplay is, seeing how it's the -only- shooting game I can think of on the N64 aside from the obvious Starfox 64.

If you count in Starfox 64, I'd say Sin and Punishment deserves to be considered a part of that crowd as well. God damn awesome game.

And since you just said "Shooting Game" and not "Scrolling Shooter" you probably shouldn't omit Bangai-O. There was also that Knife Edge game I never played.

[louisg]

All my favorite Japanese soundtracks have pretty much been covered.. so..

.. let's Amigafy this thread!
Battle Squdron:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRfCWIK-nzM
Hybris:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKKNBjFz9XE

And don't forget the Atari ST!
Lethal Xcess:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4D-IIZ4i4A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWAoWDyI8fI

EDIT:
Oh, and GBA:
Iridion 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffOBzaTgn8M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXoZx4i7iSI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DFTvhkdlyE

[Evilmaxwar]

Have you heard the Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth/64 soundtrack yet? It's got some surprisingly good parts to it. I wonder how the gameplay is, seeing how it's the -only- shooting game I can think of on the N64 aside from the obvious Starfox 64.

Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth - Invasion

Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth - Caravan Mode 2 Minutes

Ive been briefly looking into that game in the past but did not pursue. Game does not look bad, tunes are pretty cool also but it does not appeal to me in the visceral way the pce titles do. You can get the cartridge for about 10$ on ebay, maybe ill get it someday to breath new life in my otherwise never used N64. You certainly cannot go wrong for 10 $$!!

Not strictly a shmup but the Outzone Stage 1 music is bitchin'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBR1mLvHpkQ

Now thats one ass kicking tune!! And well it may not be strictly a shmup but its close enough and anyway i think we can allow some slack in the definition of a shmup for the sake of good music
Which brings me to these two titles , A "Shmup' with a Tank , and a "Shmup" with a guy running !

-Granada on the Genesis : One of my favorite game on the console kickass sound track:
intro
Level 1
Boss

-Guerrilla war on the Nes . Beside having an overall great soundtrack this game has the only instance i know of a BLAST BEAT in a Nes tune. Yes a blastbeat in a Nes tunes !!
Check out level 4 around 0:23 seconds, See ?

.. let's Amigafy this thread!

Ahh the Amiga, mother of all loading time. Iguess thats why they had such catchy load screen tunes. I actually like the one in project X quite a bit :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcNtRUmo15M

[koleslaw54]

I totally agree with the Thunder Force recommendations!

I've had my composer listening to some of that and to some old SNES chip tunes for Aero Fighters http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXhW_A9KlFM

[drauch]

I loves me some of the tunes from Sylphia. No one gives a rat ass about that game so I have no samples.

[Blackbird]

Anyone heard the DDP DOJ Arranged Soundtrack? Some solid gold in here. The original DOJ soundtrack had some unusually calm moments in it (for a bullet hell shooter), and the arranged version exaggerates this element further. Some tracks are positively chilled out.

DOJ - Stage 2/Colorful Rainbow (Arrange)

DOJ - Stage 3/Strange Dance (Arrange)

[Deca]

Anyone heard the DDP DOJ Arranged Soundtrack? Some solid gold in here. The original DOJ soundtrack had some unusually calm moments in it (for a bullet hell shooter), and the arranged version exaggerates this element further. Some tracks are positively chilled out.

DOJ - Stage 2/Colorful Rainbow (Arrange)

DOJ - Stage 3/Strange Dance (Arrange)

Colorful Rainbow arrange was going to go on my lit but i ran out of time to add songs typing it up :p

[Evilmaxwar]

Anyone heard the DDP DOJ Arranged Soundtrack? Some solid gold in here. The original DOJ soundtrack had some unusually calm moments in it (for a bullet hell shooter), and the arranged version exaggerates this element further. Some tracks are positively chilled out.

DOJ - Stage 2/Colorful Rainbow (Arrange)

DOJ - Stage 3/Strange Dance (Arrange)

That is very sweet man, will need to play this. I need to start playing all these awesome Cave shmups anyway. All i played till now is the First Dodonpachi. Im just starting on Futari 1.5 now.

[Blackbird]

I haven't played any of them =P! I'm saving up for other purchases, so the only shmups I've played recently are Raiden Trad SNES and Super Star Soldier on Wii. I know most of these games only from music and videos on the internet.

I hope to change that soon, though.

[missjumjum]

I love ..the music off Pink Sweets from Stage one
it rocks every play .

Espgaluda is great too ...the boss music is amazing .

[mesh control]

Espgaluda is great too ...the boss music is amazing .

I never thought I'd hear anyone say that.

[Evilmaxwar]

I just checked some Ibara Arcade Video. Damn game and soundtrack kick ass. That was back in the days Cave music was more hard rock. Sigh ... yet another game i will eventually "need" to play.

[missjumjum]

Espgaluda is great too ...the boss music is amazing .

I never thought I'd hear anyone say that.

Heee.Heee

[lilmanjs]

both Psyvariar games have great music. Under Defeat is one of my favs as well as Border Down.
As for Cave games I think their best music was in Ketsui and DDP DOJ. I'm really a fan of the music in Hotdog Storm and I wonder why nobody has mentioned that.
Hotdog Storm: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H_mVM1X1tU

[ZacharyB]

DoDonPachi Dai Fukkatsu Black Label:
Sally

I think one of the Truxton tunes was also called Sally. Is it a remix? I can't remember the original tune.

[Evilmaxwar]

I'm really a fan of the music in Hotdog Storm and I wonder why nobody has mentioned that.
Hotdog Storm: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H_mVM1X1tU

Wow i did not know this one, its very excellent. I have a sweet spot for those 16 bits chip tunes. This one is favorited. Thanks !

[RNGmaster]

Hellsinker Stage 4, Shrine of Farewell, Stage 6 BOSS
Psyvariar 2 Weakboson
Crimzon Clover - Maelstrom, Gorgoneion, Dark Clouds, Heaven's Gate
Ketsui Stage 1 and 5
ESPGaluda Stage 1
SHOW TIME
All of the Ketsupachi OST

[shadowbringer]

- Varth's Bloody Hawk boss bgm
- Raiden Fighters 2's 3rd stage bgm (with the third stage itself as a bonus )
- Dogyuun's stages 2/7 and 5/10
- Dangun Feveron's stage 5
- Mahou Daisakusen's stage 1
- Dimahoo's Infernon boss bgm
- Armed Police Batrider's Missile Fever and Purple Twilight bgms (good to listen to when playing on arcade cabs, or at least that one cab was louder when playing this game :p)
- Aero Star's stages 6 and 7
- Crimzon Clover's 3rd boss, 4th stage and boss, 5th stage's first and second halves (just as a sidenote, I like how the beginning of stage 5's bgm look like the Game Over bgm :p)
- Lotus Land Story's stages 5, 6 (especially stage 6), and both Yuuka fights
- Mystic Square's extra stage bgm and boss bgm
- Kioh Gyoku's themes for Vivit and Muse
- Great Fairy Wars' stage 2

finally, I should play Diadra Empty and Banshiryuu (liked Muse's theme on it), and there's two danmakufu scripts which I like nowadays, and also have music I like: Phantasm Romance, and Phantasmagoria Trues (both seem to be from the same author, Len, and the latter seems to be an improvement/remake of the former.. in b4 complaints of "too much bullet cancelling" :p)

[Tyjet]

Nothing beats the relaxing 90's sound of:
blazing star http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R21TlIX-ETw
viewpoint http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeLi1lcB ... re=related

[Despatche]

DoDonPachi Dai Fukkatsu Black Label:
Sally

I think one of the Truxton tunes was also called Sally. Is it a remix? I can't remember the original tune.

Sally in DFKBL is the select theme, Sally in Tatsujin is a stage theme; they're unrelated from what I can tell.

[dpful]

Forgive me I haunt read the whole thread-- but Darius gaiden has some super hot tunes.

[esreveR]

I'm not sure if anyone else has noticed this, but Zero Gunner 2's Aerial Capital Mid-Boss theme is really, really fitting for the segment it appears in. The Orbital Elevator theme is pretty good too, though it's difficult to hear it long enough to loop (The former also suffers from this if you're playing correctly).

Night Striker is an obvious example of an awesome shmup (well kind of) soundtrack. So many of the songs are just amazing. CAVE soundtracks tend to be pretty good too.

Raiden has had some damn fine music, and so did Viper Phase 1. Raiden Fighters only lags slightly behind.

Blazing Star had some pretty good music, which is ironic given that Pulstar was such a load of crap on those terms. Weird.

OutZone and Dogyuun both had GREAT music, I dig the second/fifth stage theme in Dogyuun. DoDonPachi didn't have a lot of tracks but I liked them too.

It's kind of late here so I'll try and list other things later...

[ChainsawGuitarSP]

I can't help but feel Zero Wing is being overlooked here. Seriously, 16-bit bliss.

[GettingBoard]

My favorite music in a shmup of all time is the music in Battle Squadron. *tear*

[J-Manic]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxOaCbPBiSE (Blast Wind - "Chaos Breaker")

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_Br6ar2Exc (Psyvariar - "Earth")

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MomhccErggc (Phalanx - Mission 7)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws0QJbIR3hc (Layer Section - "G")

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQpzoQfGcbs (DoDonPachi - Stage 1)

[dannnnn]

Ibara - Rose Garden (Stage 6)

Battle Garegga - Underwater Rampart (Stage 2)

ESP Ra.De. - Raging Decide (Boss)

Ketsui - Defensive Line, Lurk In The Darkness (Stage 4)

Dangun Feveron - Stage 5

DDP DFK BL - Endorphin (Boss)

[MIKEY'SEGA]

Dodonpachi resurection for iphone. Stages 1 and 2 including boss fights.