Any verts with people?

[320x240]

Does anyone know if the doujin shmup Lillian Blade is ground based?

[undamned]

Thundercade/Twin Formation should count as ground based I guess.

Huh, never heard of it called "Twin Formation" (I know, I just looked. It's all over teh intarweb). I own a Thundercade kit and I see the JP ver., "U.A.G.," on occasion. The game rules, btw.
-ud

[320x240]

The Chronicles of Toynous is a freeware pc shmup that is ground-based. It starts out very pedestrian but if you persevere and get to the second level things start to heat up a little there. It's one of the few ground-based shmups with a (somewhat) high bullet-count.
http://www2s.biglobe.ne.jp/~fub/toynous/index.html


Edit: It's a pity the game has only two levels.

[320x240]

Apparently, someone made an Atari 2600 version of Knightmare:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jumamWyL258

[320x240]

A remake of Knightmare, also available for iOS. I'm on a mac right know so I cannot play it but my impression based on the video is that the game looks faithful to the point of being a bit empty. I will probably buy the iOS version later anyway.

http://albertodehoyonebot.blogspot.com. ... emake.html


I remember seeing a brazilian game on Steam Greenlight that looked to be based on Knightmare. Does anybody know the name of this game?

[Doctor Butler]

So, you want a ground-based shooter in the vein of Guwange?

First thing that springs to mind is Pocky and Rocky: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXvVSHwqvYw

There's the halfway decent Heavenly Guardian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hkyuQLLk6s

And a doujin clone, called Space Dynagon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYGGawr08NU

The former are on PSN, and the latter I reviewed two years ago: http://doctorbutler.blogspot.com/2012/0 ... nagon.html

*shamlessselfpromotion*

[Lord Satori]

A remake of Knightmare, also available for iOS. I'm on a mac right know so I cannot play it but my impression based on the video is that the game looks faithful to the point of being a bit empty. I will probably buy the iOS version later anyway.

http://albertodehoyonebot.blogspot.com. ... emake.html


I remember seeing a brazilian game on Steam Greenlight that looked to be based on Knightmare. Does anybody know the name of this game?

gotta love these clueless gigabumps.

[320x240]

Thanks for the links.
I guess all those games are more of the top-down run & gun variety rather than strict shmups though.

[Despatche]

there's no such thing as a "strict shmup", because even after putting down a bunch of qualifiers you still have multiple sub-genres to deal with, also:

1. people like to grandfather in no-scroll while at the same time disowning forced-scroll and sometimes disowning another no-scroll like tempest

2. this is going to sound really weird, but people have no problem with the idea of moving in eight directions "toward" bullets but do have a problem with the idea of moving in eight directions "in front of" them (space harrier)

the concept itself is extremely vague and at some point i question whether it's worth "fighting" for

(fps needs more big scoring)

[Doctor Butler]

there's no such thing as a "strict shmup"

I disagree. There are ''traditional'' shooters, in the vein of Raiden, Gradius, Xevious, DonPachi, et al.

Other games; Rez, Geometry Wars, Senko, etc. are sub-genres, but the other games are what come to mind as ''regular'' shmups.

[Despatche]

i don't see how that's very "traditional" when space invaders et al exists

all over the world, space invaders is what people think of when they think of shmups, not raiden or whatever

[Lord Satori]

I don't think normal people even use the term "shmup". If they know the term, the odds are that they're familiar with more than just Space Invaders.

[320x240]

Space shooter seems to be a popular term in casual circles. Shoot'em up used to be the more established, and more inclusive, term. I hate the term proto-shmup for games like Space Invaders.

In general though, shmup seems to be the term used for games that have at least three of the restrictions contained in a definition like this: A game with forced scrolling, where the players avatar can move in only eight directions while always facing a single one, i.e up in a vertically oriented game, right in a horizontally oriented one, and where the players main weapon fire only in the direction his avatar is facing.

Of course this is only an arbitrary definition and it seems to me that while it has allowed games that fit this narrow definition to become more and more subtle and sophisticated, it has simultaneously made innovation difficult.