What is the hardest SHMUP you`ve ever played?

[nekketsu]

Fun Hard: Dangun Feveron

Hard Hard: DOJ

5 Stages of Grief Hard: Battle Garegga


Though I admit to never touching Futari Ultra mode.

[Aquas]

Looked through the thread again since it was Necro'd... didn't see Same Same Same 1P mode (Arcade).

That shit. That fucking shit. Good freaking luck.

Toaplan unleashed a real nightmare with that one. Though, Hellfire and Zero Wing are also obtusely difficult I find, as well, but haven't spent too much time on them. (Plus, they're Horis while Same*3 is Vert)

[SuperDeadite]

X68000 Cotton ''You Do!!!'' difficulty.
Spiraling Homing Suicide Bullets, if you can clear stage 1, you got skillz.

[Mania23]

I had a go at Imperishable night the other night. Tried Lunacy mode!, Unbelievable!!

[Shepardus]

IN's actually one of the easier Touhou games, and the plethora of lives and bombs Touhou games usually give make them easier than most CAVE 2-ALLs and some of their 1-loop games (like Futari Ultra). They're hard games, but it's a real stretch to call them the hardest.

Futari Ultra or DOJWL are probably the hardest shmups I've ever played, but it's not like I've ever made it anywhere in those games. Batrider Advanced Course is probably the hardest I've actually cleared.

[copy-paster]

Vote for arcade Gradius III, the more you play this the more you die a lot.

I also find G-Darius Ver.2 MUCH harder than original/PSX ver, there are some bosses that near-impossible to no-miss.