Which shmup company do you respect the most?

[mosey]

Mars Matrix is a perfect example of elegant game design. It alone elevates Takumi above most other companies.

[Jonst]

Cave for keeping up consistently high standards with their games.

[dink]

Toaplan, Psikyo, 8ing/Raizing

[nosorrow]

I'm biased towards Takumi because of my love of Mars Matrix, but I also highly enjoy GigaWing 1 & 2 (I have yet to try out Generations though, but I ordered Night Raid from Terramax - hopefully I find it engaging enough despite the mixed reviews).

[Obiwanshinobi]

Capcom made Vulgus freeware, that has to count for something.

[Westerlykraig]

Cave and toaplan the best ones for me

[Monstermug]

As much as I like Toaplan I voted taito not only for the games but for making the best cabs on the planet.

[Tarma]

No love for Santos???


C'mooooooon Toaplan

[Lilium]

Cave for creating the games that tickle my fancy the most?
I don't know why this list has these obvious omissions but I really what Cave was doing with their stuff... At least until post-Futari at which point they really seemed to have lost it. Then it turned into dumb business practices, SDOJ (eh, its okay but I don't like a lot of the more recent cave titles too much) and bottled lolita urine. Classy.

Psikyo has a good standard of quality in their releases. I've played most of them and they are mostly really well executed games and also very fun albeit a bit too memorizy in their nature for my tastes. However the games does feel a bit samey.

Nah I too would vote for ZUN for the Touhou games if he was on there because he does his own thing.
His games are weird and the guy doesn't seem to keen on offering what fans clamour for but rather to develop his own thing. I am not a big fan of a lot of his games but he made a few that resonate well with me and all on his own.

So yeah, I guess while I like Cave's titles better or companies like Psikyo has a more consistent level of quality in their games, I WOULD vote for ZUN because he is still cooler than a company that has moved way past its prime and one that never did anything too different and because I don't know too much about the othesr

[GSK]

Treasure for being smart enough to still stay afloat.

I think that has more to do with luck than anything else, honestly.

[al138]

Treasure certainly deserves top honors. It's not a perfect company by a long shot, and perhaps a bit lucky as GSK mentioned, but they made Gradius V, man...Gradius V...

[Obiwanshinobi]

Treasure for being smart enough to still stay afloat.

I think that has more to do with luck than anything else, honestly.

Well, you don't see games like S&P2 every day, that's for sure. Brings the whole "no sequels" game design philosophy to a new light.

[Furry Fox Jet Pilot]

Raiden DX is the sole reason Seibu is way better than every other company listed in this poll.

[Squire Grooktook]

Qute

[waiwainl]

Cave, no doubt!