Is anyone making old style shoot em ups these days?

[Jonesyy]

I’ve been hunting around for some pc shoot em ups lately, and all I can really find are the bullet hell type of games. I bought a few of them in steam to try them out, such as Crimson Clover, Deathsmiles, Ikargua etc and I simply don’t enjoy them.

I still have my Megadrive and Mastersytem linked up to a pvm monitor on my desk and still love an hour or two on games such as R Type, Phelios, Wings of Wor, Raiden Trad and the like. I also spend a fair amount of time on my Nintendo Switch since they have released a load of old shooters like Gun Birds, Samurai Aces, Strikers 1945 etc

Those are the type of games I enjoy playing and I was really hoping there would be people who were making these type of games for pc. Either professional studios or just home brews and I’m surprised all I’m finding is the silly neon pink bullet pattern type of games. Am I looking in the wrong places or am I destined to stick with the old classics from the 80’s and 90’s?

[spmbx]

Stick with the classics, you'll just find indy-stuff from more recent years.

[Sumez]

(Super) Hydorah is fairly classic. Not to say pretty much Gradius.

[LordHypnos]

Infinos Gaiden is pretty old school, I think, and seems to have been pretty well received (Also, I think the music is by Hyakutaro Tsukumo of Tecnosoft fame). From what I saw it was pretty Gradius inspired. That's on Steam.
I found VASTYNEX pretty fun, though it's really easy, but it's free at least (Also I think still unfinished). It's pretty much a Thunder Force clone, but more fast paced. download here

You could also probably search through the development forum to find something. There's all kinds of stuff there including old school and a lot of it is free. I feel like I've seen a ton of oldschool inspired stuff in recent memory, though I can't think of much else off hand.

[OmegaFlareX]

Satazius and Super Hydorah are Gradius-likes.
Battle Crust (same dev as Infinos) is inspired by Irem games like Image Fight.
Wolflame is inspired by Toaplan games.
Space Invaders Extreme maybe?
There's also Raiden 3 and 4, if you can stomach the TypeX 3D (R4 looks pretty decent).

All of these are on Steam.

[Tokyo-J]

Not quite Old School but Crimson Clover is $1.99 on Steam right now and reminds me of Rayforce mixed with Dodonpachi.

[Shepardus]

Not quite Old School but Crimson Clover is $1.99 on Steam right now and reminds me of Rayforce mixed with Dodonpachi.

OP specifically mentioned that game as an example of something he doesn't want.

[Aggro Sky]

(Super) Hydorah is fairly classic. Not to say pretty much Gradius.

I agree with Super Hydorah. It's about as classic as you will get. Great game too.

[BrianC]

The maker of (Super) Hydorah also made a fixed screen shooter named They Came From Verminest.

[Necronom]

Darius Burst CS on steam and ps4
Steel empire on the 3ds - if you like the mega drive version, you'll love this "remake"
Resogun on ps4, fantasy zone 2 on 3ds...

[Sumez]

The maker of (Super) Hydorah also made a fixed screen shooter named They Came From Verminest.

A lot of them aren't shooters, but since we are on the subject, I really recommend checking out everything made by Locomalito! Most of the games are free, and not too long either.
Just finished the ZX Spectrum looking L'Abbaye Des Morts the other day. Super enjoyable exploration platformer.

[FRO]

Not to mention all the classic Psykio and Neo Geo shmups on the Switch and PS4 lately, R-Type Dimensions on PS3/360, Radiant Silvergun on the 360, etc.

[Darkseed_5150]

I feel ya OP.

Infinios Gaiden
Battle Crust
Star Mazer DSP
Super Hydorah
Darius Burst

There's more but I can't think right now.

[MommysBestGames]

I'm a big fan of non-bullet hell shmups as well.
I've never heard of Battle Crust, but from the trailer, it looks and sounds great! The name has a strange, yet enticing engrishy vibe too.
Thanks for the tip.

[WarpZone]

It's hard for me to recommend because I don't think there's that clear of a divide with modern being "silly neon pink bullet patterns" - I mean, I think Ikaruga's character is closer to R-Type than Mushihimesama.

Three Steam reccomendations I haven't seen are Zangeki Warp (definitely), Eschatos (maybe, there's some bullet hell stuff like the final boss), and Kamui (from the 90's but you probably haven't played it).

[XoPachi]

SkyCurser is another in the works right now.
As is Xydonia.

[MommysBestGames]

Based on the free demo Cambria Sword is close fit also.
The second boss had some bullet patterns, but nothing too difficult to dodge, so I would put it closer to Gradius/R-Type than bullet hell.
Actually it's like Darius--a lot of Darius, in a good, way, except you are fighting cambrian undersea creatures instead of robot sealife.
The heavy metal soundtrack is nice as well.
All weapons seem to have a charge shot that differs pretty wildly based on the weapon which makes them fun to discover and experiment with.
I haven't figured out what the 'blue bar' does yet.

Here's an easier link to finding the demo:
http://www.dlsite.com/eng/work/=/produc ... 92078.html

[Shepardus]

I haven't figured out what the 'blue bar' does yet.

I was just playing that last night. From what I can tell, you get some extra items when you fill up the blue bar. There's also some little blue and red items that appear in some places - those fill up the blue bar.

[Sumez]

SkyCurser is another in the works right now.

Please stop giving that game any attention until they fix it [unlikely] :3

[Jonesyy]

Thanks for all the great recommendations guys!

After checking out demos and youtube videos I decided to buy 3 to get me started:

Infinios Gaiden
Super Hydorah
Wolflame

My Hori RAP 5 joystick for switch and pc just arrived yesterday too, so I've got some great games to get stuck into.

I'm still open to suggestions if people think of any more!

Thanks again

[MathU]

Hydorah is more comparable to Axelay, it's not all that arcade-like.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Haven't played it yet (Steam doesn't seem to wanna know my vintage PC, I'm increasingly reluctant to upgrade), but what I saw (and HEARD) of Zenohell, it at least attempts to be the type. That's about as "these days" I can think of.

[MarioNintendo]

+1 on battle crust.

[Obscura]

The lack of Strania in this thread makes me sad.

OP, get and play Strania.

[NeoStrayCat]

The lack of Strania in this thread makes me sad.

OP, get and play Strania.

Yeah, either way, this! I recommend this a lot, lol.