Top 5 Famicom/NES Shooters

[daskrabs]

Just curious what everyone's thoughts are on this.

1. Gradius 2
2. Over Horizon
3. Salamander
4. Crisis Force
5. Recca

Honorable Mention: Uchuu Keibitai SDF, Twinbee

[Imhotep]

Zanac
Recca
Battle Formula
Final Mission
Abarenbou Tengu

[astroid]

Zanac
Gun-Nac
Blade Buster
Crisis Force
Star Force

[evil_ash_xero]

Haven't played many, but...

Recca
Crisis Force
Gun Nac

[ProjectAKo]

1. Crisis Force
2. Abodox
3. Zanac
4 ~ 99. Anything
100. Star Force

[CIT]

Salamander
Recca
Zanac
Battle Formula
Abadox

[Moonwalker]

Haven't played many, but...

Recca
Crisis Force
Gun Nac

+1

Also nice, but in another league (actually Recca is a league of it´s own):

Over Horizon
Final Mission
Abadox

There are a lot of really good Run´n guns and of course Contra.

[o.pwuaioc]

I still have not played Recca, Crisis Force, or Over Horizon. I need to track that them down one day.

5. Abadox
4. Gun*Nac
3. Zanac
2. Salamander
1. Galaga

I've not played a lot of NES/Famicom shooters recently except for Galaga, so this is going by more my gut feelings when I looked at what I owned.

[Kiken]

1. Recca
2. Salamander
3. Gradius II
4. Zanac

Still have yet to play Crisis Force or Gun Nac.

[BIL]

In no real order, FC-only as I'm not into NES/FDS atm:

Recca - Blistering hardware thrasher with a bestial BGM pulse. One hell of a shooter, too, in both long survival and short caravan formats.

Max Warrior - ground-based isometric shooter from Recca developers KID. Avoided for ages due to the perspective, but it is in fact tight as hell and arcade-relentless. Bad music offset by cool post-apocalyptic mood.

Gun Nac - sort of the FC's Super Aleste. Rather sedate on defaults but fiddle with settings and it gets surprisingly fraught, with previous luxuries now vital to survival. Very nearly as lovely to witness as Recca with typically smooth Compile handling.

Gradius II - quality reworking of the arcade material that ultimately feels like its own game, much like Umechan Team's better-known Contra and Salamander ports.

Star Soldier - the terrain hiding seemed so utterly daft I was sure the emulation was glitching, but upon discovering it was legit I became a bit enamoured. What the fuck, seriously, but such a unique twist and a great complement to the simple, fast action.

Also cool and would not be without (again in no order): Abadox, Final Mission, Crisis Force, Gradius, Salamander, Guardic Gaiden and Burai Fighter. Great Tank, Guevara and Gremlins 2 for badass topdown manual scrolling.

edit: oh, and Sqoon. YEEEAH ITS SQOON - hey, fuck off you lousy fish!

Spoiler

[copy-paster]

1. Gradius II
2. Recca
3. Crisis Force
4. Salamander
5. Tiger-Heli

Worth mention : Galaxian, Final Mission, Silk Worm, Silver Surfer, 1943, Top Gun, and so on.

Spoiler

Is that the actual title screen? It's like the coolest TS ever.

[BIL]

Yup! Fun little Defender-esque rescue hori (albeit automatically mono-scrolling), but the standout feature is the charming micropixel art. Lovely music to accompany that screen too!

edit: behold its Japanese TVCM and be both perplexed and horrified! The manual's bizarre too... what a weird yet tight little treasure. edit2: my god it's getting to me, that last sentence wasn't meant to be naughty I swear

[Perikles]

Worth mention : [...] Silver Surfer [...]

I'm glad someone mentions Silver Surfer, I think it is certainly one of the better shooters on the system. Solid level design, varied if goofy graphics, great soundtrack, neat "option" system. Yeah, the hitbox is a bit huge, but that's not really a problem once you get accustomed to it. Much, much better than its reputation.

Most games that I personally like have already been mentioned, but I definitely want to add Jackal, Gun.Smoke and Gyruss, they're all astoundingly competent ports.

[MintyTheCat]

1. RECCA
2. Crisis-Force
3. Gradius 2
4. uchuu keibitai: SDF
5. Gunnac

But RECCA is a lot better than any of these in my book but I am a lost case but I still managed not to shell out for it on the famicom - yet...

[davyK]

Dropzone on the NES is magnificent. Silky smooth and lightning fast. Archer Maclean coded this and because he is UK based the PAL version is every bit as good.

Sqoon is a great shout. Lovely little game.

[dingsbums]

1. Recca
2. Over Horizon
3. Crisis Force
4. Gun Nac
5. Uchuu Keibitai SDF

Honorable mention: Abadox, Final Mission (SCAT / Action in NY), Burai Fighter, Guardic Gaiden (Guardian Legend)

PS: I would love to own Battle Formula but it's so fucking expensive :/.

[MintyTheCat]

Honorable mention: Abadox, Final Mission (SCAT / Action in NY)

Yes, I agree; these two are great Shmups but perhaps the name put a few people off a bit

[BIL]

SCAT

This is what should've occurred at the offices of Final Mission's overseas titlers:



^ shaweet intro also chopped from NTSCU/PAL!

[030079AR]

Me would be:
Recca - It's soooo harrrdddd
Crisis Force - Descent but their BGM and Fighter Modes is sooo coool
Life Force - Mild Abadox and also easier than those brute
Abadox - I dunno with other, but its BG give me a creep when I was child
Gradius - The first Shmups I ever finish :,)

is it Top gun Shmups? I love those game and finish it soooo many times

[horaceappleton]

1. Over Horizon
2. Over Horizon
3. Over Horizon
4. Over Horizon
5. Over Horizon

Honorable Mention: thank god somebody else has played Sqoon

[BIL]

I admire the concept of Air Fortress's non-autoscrolling half; a game comprised of self-destruct escape sequences sounds rad. But I found the overall intensity really lacking. Had ambled like seven Air Fortresses in before deciding to call it quits, for the time being.

The atmosphere is quite something in those escapes, though, with just the artistry I'd expect of HAL. Lights flickering, machinery juddering perilously, time and gravity working against you... it's a concept I'd love to see explored with Alien Soldier-style devotion, if it hasn't been already.

Speaking of HAL-made shooters... Totsugeki! Ponkotsu Tank aka Trax for Game Boy is a really good topdown tanker. Invoke the Elemental Master Principle (individual lives = credits) for best result. Short intense arcadey fun, played that way. Collateral damage factor is seriously gratifying! Nothing is safe from the earth-razing artillery fury.

[Despatche]

haven't really played enough fc shmups to make a top 5, but i can say that max warrior and silver surfer should be in everyone's honorables.

Star Soldier - the terrain hiding seemed so utterly daft I was sure the emulation was glitching, but upon discovering it was legit I became a bit enamoured. What the fuck, seriously, but such a unique twist and a great complement to the simple, fast action.

you should locate a pc game called soldier force. basically some fans went and made a game that actually resembles the original, plus More Stuff like multiple ships to choose from.

[BIL]

Oh yeah, always liked the look of Soldier Force. Actually it was the PCE tunes that initially got my attention ("Gunhed BGM! wtf is a Hector lmao"). I'd be wayyy more interested in its FC elements now. Good time to seek it out.

[Despatche]

believe it or not, i discovered hector through the caravan shooting collection. seems like a pretty cool game!

post's silly little review on the site will never not make me angry... and he praises hector.

[hanasu]

Starship Hector (if only for the caravan modes)
1943
Lifeforce
Zanac
Recca

[Shin Daisuke]

In no particular order:

Recca
Salamander
Gun*Nac
Gradius 2
Crisis Force

[Perikles]

Having re-familiarised myself with both FC Gradius and FC Gradius II again I'm surprised that so many people mention the latter but not the former. I really don't want to lose bad words about FC Gradius II as they did a great job in trying both to get somewhat close to the original and to create something in its own right, but it's sorely lacking in intensity. This becomes especially noteworthy in subsequent loops: the only difference I noticed in Gradius II is that the little barriers in front of the Covered Core have suicide bullets, other than that every loop is virtually identical. Gradius on the other hand gets really tense on loop 4 and onwards, constantly challenging the player while not being as merciless as the arcade version upon a checkpoint recovery. If you can beat one loop of Gradius II Famicom without dying you've basically seen everything the game has to offer. Gradius on the other hand gets more and more interesting. I'm aware that Gradius II is technically a lot more impressive, but Gradius offers much more fun in my opinion.

Now, arcade Gradius II is substantially better than arcade Gradius, no doubt about that.

[BrianC]

Twinbee 3
Gun Nac
Zanac
Life Force
Recca

[Despatche]

Now, arcade Gradius II is substantially better than arcade Gradius, no doubt about that.

It absolutely is not. Gradius II is broken, Gradius isn't. You can say II might be more "fun" all you want, but you can't say it's a better game when there are way too many places where you can die and hey there goes the credit. Pretty much the only "big" Gradius games that don't suffer from this are Gradius and Gaiden.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

edit: oh, and Sqoon. YEEEAH ITS SQOON - hey, fuck off you lousy fish!

YES, OHMYGRASH, you have no idea how happy it was to see this thread and see YES, Sqoon was mentioned.