Which shooter theme do you like best?

[dessgeega]

whoops, i'm new here! didn't mean to stir up an old debate.

[BulletMagnet]

Heh heh, no big deal, you'll learn the layout soon enough.

[JBC]

I voted for organic because it breaks away from the norm and tends to lead to interesting charachter designs. Most shmups that start out sci-fi end up organic in the end, though. Abadox sorely needs for someone to snatch up the rights and churn out a sequal - it'll never happen though.

My second choice would have been mythological - being such a big fan of Gynoug and Legendary Wings. Theirs nothing wierder looking than mixing greco-roman with cybernetics. That's actually the theme of one of my comic books that i hope to publish someday.

[Xonatron]

close call between space/sci-fi and military. in fact, a combination of both is what i'm hoping to do in my 2d shooter (see sig for videos).

[captain ahar]

wow, this is an old thread.

+1

[MR_Soren]

I voted Military, but I really like variety and enjoy all the themes I've played.

[CStarFlare]

The games that make me go "wow" tend to be fantasy (Futari, Touhou, etc), so I voted that way. Other stuff looks great, but from what I've experience fantasy-themed games tend to incorporate more vibrant colors which is p cool in my book.

That said, Daifukkatsu looks amazing, if only because of the laser effects. also ikaruga froths style. Sci-Fi definitely has its moments.

[BIL]

Military is my general favourite. I prefer bullets and battlefields to lasers, starfields etc.

But I like a cross-pollination of shooter themes. R-Type Delta and ESPRade are broadly science-fiction and fantasy, but they're tempered. Delta's grimy industrial settings and ESPRade's ferocious, bloody destruction create a hard edge. The fantastical elements are more convincing when they relate to my world: aliens infesting dank sewers, or telekinetic energy ripping the roof off a building.

Conversely I like "realistic" games to have a little imagination without losing their grounding. Raiden DX / Battle Garegga bosses are monsters from mechanical hell, but they look grimly practical. You can imagine DX's giant walkers flattening your neighbourhood underfoot, then leaving an acrid football-field crater in the earth after blowing sky-high. Mechanical goliaths are more entertaining than real-world machines, but still believable and rewarding to blow off the face of the earth.

The above extends to ships, too. Delta's R13 Cerberus makes a lightning weapon look frighteningly viable. Raiden's switch to vertical thrusters during boss battles is practical and cool. ESPRade's psychic weapons are fantasy, but they have serious consequences when turned on real-world targets. Stuff like Gynoug, X-Multiply, and Flying Shark that devotes itself to one style is great too, but my specific favourites tend to bridge reality and fantasy.

[power UP]

I don't really care as long as it is colorful. DDP DOJ is an example of a game in which the athmosphere is just to dark imo

[Never_Scurred]

Military and Steampunk
voted for steampunk though.

[Ozymandiaz1260]

I voted military but now I wish I had gone with steampunk instead

[Arvandor]

Sci-Fi is definitely my favorite, but military and steam-punk are NOT far behind at all.

[Ed Oscuro]

lol steampunks

I'll take military or fantasy, space being a contender as well.

Of course it doesn't really matter so long as the game isn't a piece of crap.

[escadrille]

Space. I loved everything spaceship related as a kid, but now shumps are the only thing I'm still into.

Military would be a close second, Strikers 1945-style.

[Necronopticous]

Bugs and dinosaurs.

[lgb]

Abstract.

[poodude]

Weird and wacky for me. I love the parodius series!

[jochen]

A difficult question - because to every shooter-theme I know
at least one game that I love.

I think games with millitary-themes are often limited in the
design of the enemies - mostly you fight planes and tanks and
then bigger planes and bigger tanks. And sometimes a ship.

I would vote for a whacky theme with organic enemies ( how about a
parody of R-Type - like Parodius for Gradius ).

(in this thread I chose organic).


Jochen.

[Octopod]

Voted Sci-Fi but it was hard to decide between that and military and cute em up(which i think Parodius falls into).


Edit: I just noticed this thread was started over 3 years ago lol.

[lilmanjs]

I'd like some pics that are examples of the different themes that are in this poll.

[Pixel_Outlaw]

DonPachi and DoDonPachi could be considered fantasy military in some way.

[professor ganson]

I love this topic. There is another thread on it, and I used to bump it every year or so:
http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.ph ... sc&start=0

CIT's categories are even better, though, than the ones in the thread above.

As for the question, I love cute 'em ups, horror, and fantasy. I'll take it that Shikigami no Shiro fits into the last category.

Where is CIT???!!!

[No_not_like_Quake]

I don't really have a preference but shooting walls of sticky snot that block your path is enjoyable.

[evil_ash_xero]

I'm gonna have to go with "space". Just something about flying in a small starship in the cosmos just gets me all teared up.

That being said, I don't like it when the stages are too baren. I prefer it when you visit different worlds with different themes, along with flying in space. The Thunder Force games and some of the Gradius games(Gaiden in particular) fit the bill when it comes to settings.

However, I do love fantasy settings, steampunk, and stuff like ESP Ra.De. and Battle Garregga that's set in the near future or whatever.

Military type settings(1942) and Cute 'em up type games would have to be at the bottom of my list, but I do like some of their settings too. Just not a whole lot.

s/m

[GhostGK]

Space shooters all the way!

[Special World]

I love cute-em-ups, and wish more games were made in that style. Maybe some more hardcore games too. I'm also a fan of fantasy shooters, though I haven't played many. And as a kid I super loved the the more gross-out shooter bosses.

[Squire Grooktook]

The fact that everyone chooses "space" over "fantasy" makes me want to destroy you all.

I hope your space ships explode.

[Special World]

I love spaceship shooters but if somebody came up to me and they were like "hey I'm gonna make a spaceship shooter" I would be like "how about you don't put it in space."

You can be more original than that. The only time I want to see a spaceship shooter is if we've entered a reality where every STG is a fantasy/cute-em-up/whatever and spaceship shooters are a refreshing change of pace, something that will happen never.

[mamboFoxtrot]

Someone should make a game that's literally all of these themes at once.

[Squire Grooktook]

Personally I don't like space ships as player characters. I don't really like to play as anything that doesn't have some sort of face and human figure. I prefer a humanoid player character, whether flying (Esp Series, Cybattler) or on foot (Guwange, Elemental Master).

Only problem with that is that it's very difficult to get the perspective, style, and animations just right. Like you either get these rectangular figures just lying down in mid air (most Touhou stuff), or you get these little heads and shoulders waddling around (any overhead stage in a Contra game).

The few that get it right are rad as fuck though. Cybattler, Guwange, Vacant Ark, Hollow World of God, etc. all have great looking humanoid player characters, and that alone puts their aesthetics on a whole other level for me (even if, as with HWG, the rest of the aesthetic is kinda awful. lol at those jpg bosses).