Vertical Shmups with "Xevious" Controls

[FabulousVioletGuy]

By which I mean you have a shot that only hurts flying enemies and a separate shot that only hurts anything beneath you.

- Arcade -
ADK: Equites***
Capcom: Legendary Wings
Coreland: Gardia
Data East: B-Wings, Darwin 4078 + Super Real, Wonder Planet
IREM: Youjyuden
Jorudan: Arbalester
Konami: Twinbee series, Salamander*, A-JAX, MX5000
Kyugo: S.R.D Mission
NMK: Argus, Task Force Harrier
Namco: Xevious series, Dragon Spirit + Saber, Fighter & Attacker
Orca/Crux: Espial, Gyrodine
Raizing: Soukyugurentai, Battle Garegga**
SNK: HAL 21, ASO 1&2, Bermuda Triangle, World Wars
Sega: Star Jacker, Scramble Spirits, Gain Ground
Seibu: SCION
Seta: Twin Eagle II
Taito: Wyvern F-0, Tokio, Master of Weapon, Ray series
UPL: XX Mission

- Home -
Toilet Kids (PCE)
Starship Hector (NES)
Vattle Guice*** (GB)
Line of Fire (SMS)
Kamui (PC)
Tiny Xevivos (PC)
Raptor (DOS)

What else might be out there...?

* stages 4 and 6 only
** no layers per se, but scenery can only be destroyed by bombing
*** your character shifts up/down between the layers instead

[floralcateyes]

I believe Fighter & Attacker (known as F/A in Japan) has the whole "one shot for air enemies, another shot for ground enemies" mechanic.

Being heavily inspired by the Ray* series, Kamui also has homing lasers that damage enemies in the "background."

EDIT: if we can include outliers like Souky and the Ray* series (as BulletMagnet points out below), then I guess the Yagawa Raizing games count as well, since certain parts of the background can only be damaged/destroyed by bombs. They're nowhere near as common as the ground/background enemies in the other titles you mention though, so yeah: very much outliers, if you want to include them at all.

[CloudyMusic]

Toilet Kids on PC Engine

[BulletMagnet]

By which I mean you have a shot that only hurts flying enemies and a separate shot that only hurts anything beneath you.

Depending on how strictly you want to apply this a couple of your items might not technically qualify; IIRC the "web" weapon in Soukyugurentai and the homing weapons in the later "Ray" titles can hit enemies on your level as well as those in the background.

[SuperDeadite]

Bit of a stretch but GainGround has enemies on multiple elevations, different characters and weapons can only hit certain types.

[BIL]

Konami's Flak Attack (aka MX5000) has this mechanic too. A shump even more forgotten than A-JAX it seems. I do like the second stage, I was not expecting that much lava!

By which I mean you have a shot that only hurts flying enemies and a separate shot that only hurts anything beneath you.

Depending on how strictly you want to apply this a couple of your items might not technically qualify; IIRC the "web" weapon in Soukyugurentai and the homing weapons in the later "Ray" titles can hit enemies on your level as well as those in the background.

Yep, those games subvert the classic shot/bomb dichotomy quite a bit. Siccing the RG-02's chain lightning on everything you can (regardless of elevation) is How 2 Score in Raystorm. You can even fry stuff on the ground, then have the arc jump onto something airborne, or vice-versa. Soukyugurentai likewise, you want to nail everything you can in that with the lock-on.

Kamui is a stricter example. Basically Souky's Web (the beloved children's novel about talking animals and scorching death from above) meets Rayforce's true "ground only" system. To the point that killing enemies on your plane with Shot/Lazor, then blowing their plummeting remains to pieces with Web is an advanced scoring technique.

[Mortificator]

Starship Hector, during its vertical stages, and Salamander, during its later two vertical stages.

[6t8k]

Scramble Spirits (1988, arcade and diverse home platforms).

Hmm.. not exactly what you're looking for, but in Vattle Guice (great name!) (GB, 1991), you toggle your ship itself between two levels of height, in turn hitting/being hit only (by) stuff that's on the level you're currently on. An uncommon feature, but the game's pretty subpar otherwise.

[Licorice]

Bit of a stretch but GainGround has enemies on multiple elevations, different characters and weapons can only hit certain types.

Never thought of it that way. Very insightful!

[BulletMagnet]

Souky's Web (the beloved children's novel about talking animals and scorching death from above)

Rank up! Rank up! Seems it's gonna be a bumpy ride!
Tame it! Shame it! With a single well-placed suicide!
Drop 'em, dodge 'em, don't let any power-ups in;
No need to be somber, let lose with a bomber, go for the single-coin win!

(A reference for those who didn't hear this every time a substitute teacher showed up in English class.)

[6t8k]

Props to both of you for that delightful juxtaposition! Mmd

[MrJBRPG]

Alpha Mission / Armored Scrum Object (ASO) 1 and 2
Master of Weapon
Argus
Legendary Wings

[CRP]

UPL's XX Mission out now via Arcade Archives on switch and ps4

[BIL]

Rank up! Rank up! Seems it's gonna be a bumpy ride!
Tame it! Shame it! With a single well-placed suicide!
Drop 'em, dodge 'em, don't let any power-ups in;
No need to be somber, let lose with a bomber, go for the single-coin win!

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Tiny Xevivos, the Xevious fangame.

https://zakichi.ojaru.jp/xevivos.html

[davyK]

Pop n Twinbee on SNES has this style of control.

Hector '87 on NES has it.

[OmegaFlareX]

S.R.D. Mission. Unrelated to Super Real Darwin, I think the acronym is "Search, Rescue, and Destroy". 1986, Taito credited on title screen, MAME says Kyugo developed. Same Z80 hardware (and sound effects) as Repulse and Gyrodine.

No targeting reticle for the ground shots, though - they go all the way up the screen. The rescue-able mans can be friendly-fired by the ground shots, and if you accidentally hit one, your SCORE GETS RESET TO ZERO. LOL

I made BBH play it on stream in MAME Roulette and he ragequit it because of that. It's a bit kusoge but I think it's a fun quirky memorizer and if I had a cab, I'd try to find a board of it.

[BIL]

The rescue-able mans can be friendly-fired by the ground shots, and if you accidentally hit one, your SCORE GETS RESET TO ZERO. LOL

That sounds amazing

[Queen Charlene]

Raptor: Call of the Shadows? your default shot can hit both ground and air targets, but there are several subweapons / weapon extensions that only hit one or the other, the most immediate example being the ground-to-air / ground-to-ground missiles. especially in later levels your optimal strategy will amount to constantly switching between your ground-hitting subweapons and air-hitting subweapons, especially when you hit Tango Sector and Outer Regions, which are practically designed around optimal use of weapon switching.

[BIL]

Irem's Youjyuden (aka Heroic Episode) is an interesting case. Starts off a ground-based push-scroller ala Commando - player has an eight-way rapid shot, and a fixed vertical bomb. Turrets can't be destroyed with shot. Second stage becomes a conventional vert where both shot and bomb will hit any enemy, regardless of its elevation - but ground targets are invincible to shot, and must be bombed. So it has an odd quasi-Xevious feel.

Seems like a neat lesser-mentioned STG from Irem's pre-Rtype days, currently enjoying the Arcade Archives release.

[TransatlanticFoe]

Line of Fire for the SMS has one shot type for enemies on the same plane as you and then a limited stock missile for anything above (or below, for when your jeep jumps or you're in a helicopter towards the end) you.

[FabulousVioletGuy]

Updated the OP and tidied it up a bit. Thanks for all the suggestions so far.

[floralcateyes]

Sorry for chiming in again after you updated to the OP, but as Nifty points out here, Jaleco's Gratia - Second Earth has a background shot. And it's a horizontal, to boot.

[Herr Schatten]

Cyber Core on the PC-Engine.

[jugemscloud]

valtric by jaleco has a nice inverse mechanic of this whereby there is a standard constant x/y coordinate shot but also a lob shot in the z coordinate that is needed for specific enemies

[6t8k]

Totally forgot about this one: Invader (GBA, 2002) (gameplay sample). Has absolutely fantastic graphics and a rad, hi-fi (for the HW), acid/DnB heavy soundtrack (which reminds me of Extreme-G/Forsaken).

Plays like a mix of Aleste and Xevious with a shop system on top. You also have two Contra III-style weapon slots at your disposal. The shop can be invoked at any point in time by pressing start - if you want to properly exploit it, that can interrupt the action quite a bit. Or ignore it and play a much harder game. It's a bit bogged down though by the overall balancing which could've used some finetuning, and the hitbox of your shots can be wayward at times, depending on the current weapon and enemy. Definitely play it on a large screen if you can* - some eneimes shoot quite fast from stage 1 on, and there's not much space and no bullet sealing whatsoever.

While we're at it: Toy Robo Force (GBA, 2001), an STG/RPG hybrid, also has Xevious style controls.

* seriously though, try playing it on a GBA Micro for once. It's so ghetto/hipster it's funny

[BIL]

Nichibutsu's Terra Force, another odd one. The vertical half combines Xevious-style shot/bomb with Raiden's "shoot whatever at whatever." Its only ground targets that seem shot-immune, the silver Raiden DX-style pyramids, seemingly aren't budging to bombs either. Hmm, mysterious.

Also, holy fuck, that's a good bomb! Level it up to BBB for some big boofin'!



Seems like Moon Cresta, Terra Cresta, Terra Force and Armed F are a loose "family" of sorts, ala the Star Force / Soldier games. I wonder if Terra Force's indestructible ground targets are just its version of Terra Cresta's "X" - shaped barricades.