What is your favorite shmup style/setting?

[tehkao]

Personally I like a bit of variety in my shmups...the lone spaceship vs huge alien armada themes gets tiresome after a while...

[landshark]

I like most genres, but favor sci-fi. However, there's always a place for medieval stuff ... dragons rule.

[Ord]

I'm a big fan of the steampunk setting - Progear, Steel Empire and to a lesser extent Espgaluda. Ibara looks like it may have some steampunk qualities, which is cool.

[system11]

For steampunkish stuff - see also Boogie Wings, and P-47 Aces.

[raiden]

I like unique settings, that´s why I didn´t vote for a genre. Examples would be Dangun Feveron and Esprade. The only case where I can forgive a game for cloning a genre is when it improves so much upon its predecessors that it makes them obsolete. Medieval Japan had been done in MUSHA and Sengoku Ace/Blade already, but Guwange did it so much better that I wouldn´t think about going back, at least for style.

Things that haven´t been overdone yet/not done good enough yet:
- Castlevania style
- abstract style. Everybody compares ABA games to Rez, but they must have somehow forgotten how great Rez really looks.
- Wild West. Gun Frontier is a joke.
- Old Egypt. One of the Dezaemon2 games does it, but it could be done so much better.
- cute Anime style. Neither Parodius nor Gunbird or all those doujin games realize the potential.
- Game Tengoku needs to be remade with modern hardware.

there are certainly more. But I don´t need any more military, spaceship, insect, medieval settings.

[Jon]

I prefer the bio-organic themes to mechanized ones any day of the week. Any fantasy or midevil settings also earn high points in my book.

[FatCobra]

I like either fantasy settings or WWII settings. Dragons and prop-driven airplanes rule. Actually I'd like to see a combination of both settings in one game.

[Imhotep]

I really like the medieval Japan stuff, but what I dig most is occult-driven technology.

[Anarchos]

Didn't vote. Gameplay is what matters the most in the end, and some games which I wouldn't like normally like Strikers, are very charming although they are in a WW2 setting, which I usually don't like. Mushihimesama looks really cool, btw.

[Andi]

I like either fantasy settings or WWII settings. Dragons and prop-driven airplanes rule. Actually I'd like to see a combination of both settings in one game.

Dude, Kingdom Grandprix for the Saturn. It's got a steam-age technology combined with fantasy theme.

[BulletMagnet]

And then, of course, there's its predecessor, Mahou Daisakusen...I would almost group Gunbird in with that area too, since it's got dragons and other mythical critters flying around amidst giant robots and the like.

[alpha5099]

Pirates!

I don't think I've seen a single pirate themed shmup, and that makes me sad.

I had a hard time deciding. They all have their advantages. It was a toss up between Cute and Fantasy. I think I'll go with the crowd and voice my approval for steampunk settings. Lots of Psikyo games have nice steampunk settings, even to some extent the Strikers games, if we allow gigantic mechs in the 40s to be steampunk.

I guess I like a novel setting best of all. Gameplay can carry a shmup most of the time, but a nice design can make me overlook other shortcomings.

[Ganelon]

Sci-fi all the way. And I can't stand the latter 2 settings (modern and wacky) for some reason.

[Davey]

I'm still waiting for a sickeningly cute manic shmup. Imagine DDP DOJ with Boobahs as enemies... how could you possibly get mad at that?