Hardest. Shooters. Ever.

Supreme Being · Post by **Supreme Being** » Thu Feb 24, 2005 10:18 am

Go old skool and you'll find some of the hardest shooters ever created... how about Juno First or Defender?

Especially Defender - you could die in one second flat, but then again you might go on an increasingly desperate killing spree that lasted five minutes. And that was the rush.

CMoon · Post by **CMoon** » Thu Feb 24, 2005 1:35 pm

Supreme Being wrote:Go old skool and you'll find some of the hardest shooters ever created... how about Juno First or Defender?

Especially Defender - you could die in one second flat, but then again you might go on an increasingly desperate killing spree that lasted five minutes. And that was the rush.

I think I am probably the only user here brave enough to openly say they hate Midway

Anarchos · Post by **Anarchos** » Thu Feb 24, 2005 2:53 pm

CMoon wrote:I think I am probably the only user here brave enough to openly say they hate Midway

Who the fuck are Midway?

cigsthecat · Post by **cigsthecat** » Thu Feb 24, 2005 3:45 pm

Pretty surprised no one has mentioned Gunbird 2.

captain ahar · Post by **captain ahar** » Thu Feb 24, 2005 4:32 pm

i know this Topic came first, but for me Gunbird fits into the "Hard but Fair" category. of course, i can't even get close to the second loop.

Acid King · Post by **Acid King** » Thu Feb 24, 2005 7:32 pm

I'm going to have to say the only two shooters that made me continue in the first stage, the first time I played them, those being Ikaruga and Mars Matrix.

PepsimanVsJoe · Post by **PepsimanVsJoe** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 3:57 pm

Pulstar: For obvious reasons. Farthest I can get is stage 5 and then the game just backhands me.

Raiden: Strangely I can beat the Turbografx 16 version but the arcade one I'm strained to get past level 2.

Twin Cobra(Genesis): Yep

Dragon Blaze: Yeah this game is absolute madness. I see this and wonder why some people still consider Psyiko shooters "non-manic".

Blazing Star: Mandatory death on stage 6? Where at? Hell I think the entire game is filled with mandatory deaths. Especially sucks when you die at a boss and are then stuck with piddly crap weapons.

Darius 2: Easily the hardest game in the series. Die in one of the later levels and you are screwed in the ass. I went from a full stock in the second to last stage to running out of continues(All 3 of them) in the Saturn version. And yeah that's taking the high road. Oh and enemies that come out from behind you..usually crashing into your ship..Fun Fun Fun

Viewpoint: One time somebody told me there was a second stage to this game..I still call bullshit cause I've never seen it.

Gradius 3 Arcade: Ditto

XEXEX: I'm glad somebody mentioned this cause the game is nasty hard. Gorgeous, but the life meter serves as more of a detriment since you can easily lose the whole thing. Not to mention the weapons suck.

Ikaruga: Again for obvious reasons. I 1CCed easy once..that's enough for me.

Space Invaders: Yep

MSX shooters in general: I got the Konami MSX Antiques collection for Saturn. Needless to say I still haven't seen the second stage of any of the shooters in the set.

Oh and of course I can't go without Gradius 1.
I mean what sort of narcissist sits around developing this amazing weapon system? A weapon system so amazing that if the player loses it they are completely fucked in every possibly way? I get this feeling everytime I one-life my way to the volcano stage..and then proceed to die horribly.

Strychnine · Post by **Strychnine** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 4:29 pm

I wouldn't say Ikaruga is that difficult if one puts time into it. Like many have assuaged, it's really an evil puzzle game designed as a shmup - and once you figure out all the puzzles - its really not that hard.

I still say Dangun Feveron is extremely hard due to the speed of the game (is any game faster than that?) and the bullet spam. And of course Gradius III arcade, which is actually not a game.

....games are fun.

landshark · Post by **landshark** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 5:42 pm

PepsimanVsJoe wrote: Oh and of course I can't go without Gradius 1.
I mean what sort of narcissist sits around developing this amazing weapon system? A weapon system so amazing that if the player loses it they are completely fucked in every possibly way? I get this feeling everytime I one-life my way to the volcano stage..and then proceed to die horribly.

Interesting. It's not easy, but I've recovered from a death in the last stage a few times. Not nearly as hard as G3.

shmfan · Post by **shmfan** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 6:34 pm

I always thought it was hard to get anywhere in Battle Squadron.
All the enemies (especially the one that holds the weapon upgrades) takes a ton of shots to go down so I always get trapped.

CMoon · Post by **CMoon** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 7:40 pm

Anarchos wrote:
CMoon wrote:I think I am probably the only user here brave enough to openly say they hate Midway
Who the fuck are Midway?

You are joking sir...

FRO · Post by **FRO** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 9:11 pm

Nemo wrote:Most people might already know, but if you fire your weapon absorber at a shield power-up rather than just touching it with your ship, you get 5 hits from it instead of 3. It helps when you fight the Amazon Chic of Doom.

I was unaware of that, thanks! That will be a big help...

Davey · Post by **Davey** » Sun Feb 27, 2005 12:05 am

Strychnine wrote:I still say Dangun Feveron is extremely hard due to the speed of the game (is any game faster than that?)

I've proposed that question more than once, but have never gotten an answer, so I'm guessing not. Parsec47 gets the obvious mention, but that's about it.

popawell · Post by **popawell** » Sun Feb 27, 2005 8:42 pm

landshark wrote:Raiden 1 - I just cannot do good at this game. Gradius III (JP-ARC) - Level 2 hates me. Level 3's end boss hates me even more (never beat him).

Gradius 3 (arcade version) is just ridiculosly hard. If you see my review you can see why its so hard. In every level (except the fire one) there is a way to get around a bullet storm completley unscaved. But level 6 is just insane. Oh yeah there is a very easy way to beat the level 3 boss. Get the 2 front cores red, then dash out of his big lasers and use your options to finish off the center core. Thats how I did it.

rmg · Post by **rmg** » Sun Feb 27, 2005 8:55 pm

dave4shmups wrote:I almost forgot-1943, arcade version. I'm sure that someone out there's 1CC'd this beast, but I'm equally sure that that person now has a guide dog.

I've 1cc'ed 1943 on max difficulty- 1943 Kai that is. The shotgun powerup erases all enemy firepower making it pee easy, no such joy with 1943 sadly.

jp · Post by jp » Sun Feb 27, 2005 9:18 pm

dave4shmups wrote:I think that Game Tengoku must surely rank as one of the toughest shmups ever, if not THE toughest cute-em-up/parody shmup ever.

If you're not using Z-Dyne MKII then yes. Otherwise, not really.

Anyways, hardest shmups to me:

Batsugun - Jupiter and Floor of the Galaxy anybody?
Abadox - What exactly IS there after level 2?
Border Down - Its probably not so bad once you memorize where and when to use the break laser... but if you don't whip that shit out just right, you're fucked.
Mars Matrix - Fuck that final boss and his first form.

And those are my 2 candidates (despite having 1CC'd Batsugun, w00t!).

As for downright unfair, I'm going to say Layer Section, just because of how many bullshit deaths I've experienced in that game.

Super Mega C · Post by **Super Mega C** » Sun Feb 27, 2005 9:21 pm

Undead Line.

That game wil own your ass, and anything by Psyko with the levels cranked up.

Stormowl · Post by **Stormowl** » Sun Feb 27, 2005 9:24 pm

Davey wrote:
Strychnine wrote:I still say Dangun Feveron is extremely hard due to the speed of the game (is any game faster than that?)
I've proposed that question more than once, but have never gotten an answer, so I'm guessing not. Parsec47 gets the obvious mention, but that's about it.

Ketsui comes pretty darn close.

black mariah · Post by **black mariah** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 6:07 am

Giga Wing: This game destroys me and I don't know why. It feels much more forgiving than Mars Matrix but in the end I suck a lot more at it than I ever have with MM.

Final Star Force: The later levels always have me slapping the *INSERT COIN* button like a little bitch.

Gunbird 2: I'm disturbingly bad at this one. Any difficulty up to 3 I can 1cc it. Anything above and I'm lucky to make it past level 2. WTF?

neorichieb1971 · Post by **neorichieb1971** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 8:58 am

I find Batsugun quite hard. Just because my bullet spread covers the whole screen and I cannot see much else

The hardest shmup i've played is Project X on the Amiga, the origonal release. I never did beat the 2nd boss. It was made easier for the re-release as I did manage to get to level 4 on that.

I once multi credited Last resort on Neo CD, how anyone can beat that game is beyond me. The last 2 levels are impossible.

Just to put some light on things. I can get to level 3 on viewpoint, beating the first boss is easy if you use the fire weapon at the right point, it dies in 5 seconds! I can reach level 5 on Strikers 1945 plus and level 5 on ESP ra.de. I do not consider myself "the best" at this genre, and most of the time I reach my highest level I consider it luck

In all honesty I would say all shmups are hard now.

Whoever said Bakraid was really hard needs to change some settings, I defaulted the game to level 6 on my 4th or 5th attempt.

PepsimanVsJoe · Post by **PepsimanVsJoe** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 2:50 pm

I dunno about the last stage of Gradius 1..but that Volcano stage is what gets me.

I actually got to the last boss of Gigawing on one credit..couldn't finish the job however.(And for that matter I never got that far again).

The kid-settings in Psyiko games are laughably easy..but as soon as you turn it over a certain point the games start to bum-rush you.

zinger · Post by **zinger** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 9:03 pm

The MD versions of Kyuukyoku Tiger (with new, fancy, mean AI) and Undead Line are just insane. KT is possibly the most frustrating game I have ever played.

Cthulhu · Post by **Cthulhu** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 1:32 am

Super Mega C wrote:Undead Line.

That game wil own your ass, and anything by Psyko with the levels cranked up.

Yay, someone mentioned Undead Line.

I assume you're talking about the Mega Drive version... it is indeed infuriatingly hard. With a LOT of practice, you can get to the final level... but after that? Yeah right. The final boss is hard if you cheat. Bleh.

I love the game though. Try the X68k version! Extra levels! More balanced gameplay! Huzzah!

captain ahar · Post by **captain ahar** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 7:15 pm

its been said, but Gradius III (SNES is what i played).

i just bought this yesterday. i got hit going into the level with the volcanoes (after bubble-land right?). they didn't give me any speed power-ups to start and some enemies i couldn't kill (cause my ship was too slow) got to the left edge and fired some fast-shit bullets right at me!

awhile back, bloodflowers said this game was near impossible to recover in. i agree.

on top of that. my controller is slightly broken. the sensitivity on my d-pad is almost dead (my thumb hurts after 10 minutes). and the down directional is pretty selective about when it decides to register.

theevilfunkster · Post by **theevilfunkster** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 7:42 pm

the gun wall at the end of gradius II kicks my ass every time. the only gradius i cant finish.

super r-type, so much sprite flicker you cant see whats about to hit you.

NES life force, its like the arcade salamander/life force on loop 2. never finished it without cheating

captain ahar · Post by **captain ahar** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 7:52 pm

theevilfunkster wrote:NES life force, its like the arcade salamander/life force on loop 2. never finished it without cheating

ohh, i'm gonna have to pick that up. sounds like a scream (mad, frothing, scream).

Ord · Post by **Ord** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 8:27 pm

AAARRRGGG!!!

Ketsui is doing my tits in! VERY hard game.

shiftace · Post by **shiftace** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 9:24 pm

Radio Zonde is highly nasty, without being cheap. Then again, most of my experience is NES and PC shmups, I'd expect arcade ones are a couple cuts harder on average.

NES Abadox is painfully hard, but I don't care to get good at it.

MSZ · Post by **MSZ** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 11:15 pm

captain ahar wrote:its been said, but Gradius III (SNES is what i played).

i just bought this yesterday. i got hit going into the level with the volcanoes (after bubble-land right?). they didn't give me any speed power-ups to start and some enemies i couldn't kill (cause my ship was too slow) got to the left edge and fired some fast-shit bullets right at me!

awhile back, bloodflowers said this game was near impossible to recover in. i agree.

on top of that. my controller is slightly broken. the sensitivity on my d-pad is almost dead (my thumb hurts after 10 minutes). and the down directional is pretty selective about when it decides to register.

Are you serious?

GIII SNES is 10 trillion times easier than arcade GIII. At your rate, you won't be able to pass stage 2 in arcade GIII.

captain ahar · Post by **captain ahar** » Fri Mar 04, 2005 5:59 pm

for the record i have gotten a good bit better in the past couple days. i can reliably get to the Moai boss on one life (and then not pay any attention to the falling rocks to lose my credit

). your statement is true as well about ARC GIII. i doubt very much that i could do much with that one.

and in my defense: you have to admit that a broken controller isn't exactly ideal for a shooter (can't find another in town)

shmups.system11.org

Hardest. Shooters. Ever.

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