...ANYWAY, Non-traditional enemy collisions: love them or hate them, lets list them and / or discuss them!
The list so far, broken up into categories and with notes on some games:
Category I: "fly over" collisions
This is to say that you pretty much have no interaction with the enemy except for your shots and theirs. You can freely overlap with them with no consequence
- Aero Chimera (Sasupoika, ?, PC)
Akai Katana (CAVE, 2010, AC)- Like its spiritual predecessor, Progear, this game has a vert-like air/ground distinction.
Demonizer (IoriBranford, 2020, PC)
Giga Wing 2 (Takumi, 2000, AC)
Giga Wing Generations (Takumi, 2004, AC)
Goldrunner (Microdeal, 1987, Atari ST)- Also on C64, Amiga, and GBA. Apparently you damage the enemies when touching them. Note that there is still scenery that can kill you
- bosses still can harm you
Imperishable Night, and Possibly other Touhou games have some enemies that harm and some that don't
Hellsinker (Ruminant's Whimper, 2005, PC)- also an example of bounce-away collisions, but only on larger enemies
Karous (Milestone, 2006, AC)
Magical Shooter Puti'nPlin (Team Dangeroude, 1997, Sharp X68000)- Getting up close and personal with enemies will damage them with your magic wand.
- incedentally, you'd think that there would be little to no interaction with scenery with this game, but there are actually several places where the scenery will block your shot or your opponents bullets, or will let you reflect bullets off of it for gold. Can actually be moderately significant for chaining. Of course you can always reflect bullets off of the enemies.
Noiz2sa (ABA Games, 2002, PC)
Parsec 47 (ABA Games, 2003, PC)
Progear no Arashi (CAVE, 2001, AC)- Has the ground/aerial distinction that most vertical games have, but it's a hori. Interestingly, touching ground enemies seals their bullets, but also raises rank. Thunder Force IV also has something like this with background enemies on the one stage that has a "beltscroller" type perspective, Daser. But nowhere else
- but not Radirgy Noa!
- Like Progear this has a vert-like air/ground distinction
Sengoku Ace (Psikyo, 1993, AC)- Small enemies still harm you
- There are only ground based enemies, so no enemies harm you
- Gives you a choice of standard enemy collisions, bounce away, or fly over
Twin Hawk / Daisenpuu (Toaplan, 1989, AC)- Same deal as Tiger Heli, above
You bounce away from enemies. This can actually be just as disruptive or occasionally even moreso if you're not expecting it as traditional enemy collisions. I think Vasara was the first game to do this, so I think of it as "Vasara style collisions" Just kidding, Vasara was not the first. lol.- Acrobat Mission (UPL, 1991, AC)
- Probably the first example of this. Also includes blaster-burn, not that that's related to this list
Aurorablast 2 (Neo Transylvania, 2012, PC)
Aurorablast 3 (Neo Transylvania, 2014, PC)- Unconfirmed
- You will bounce away from walls, and lose your special weapon, but not actually die, but otherwise collisions kill you
Border Down (G.Rev, 2003, AC)- walls do this. continue to grind and you will die.
- With hypershield, terrain will bounce you away instead of killing
- Most of the scenery will just bounce you away from it, you can usually tell which scenery is going to harm you. IIRC you will lose all your shields or die if you repeatedly grind against things for too long
- both enemies and scenery
- on large enemies
- Enemies have no qualms about point blanking you, though, so watch out, anyway
- Actually gives you points for bumping into enemies
- if you repeatedly grind against the enemies you will die
- Walls bounce you away but still deal damage. I don't know if this applies to the original Spy Hunter arcade game by Bally Midway
- Gives you a choice of standard enemy collisions, bounce away, or fly over
Tyrian 2000 (Epic Mega Games, 1995, PC)- You can still get crushed, though
Vasara 2 (Visco, 2001, AC)
Zero Gunner 2 (Psikyo, 2001, AC)- You can actually kill the popcorns just by bumping into them. Good way to collect their power.
I think pretty much every pre-Zero Gunner 2 Psikyo game is like this. Specifically you get powered down but not killed. Will not add a note to clarify this for Psikyo entries.- Deathsmiles (CAVE, 2007, AC)
- half damage normally, and nothing when in powerup mode.
Fast Striker (NG.DEV, 2010, Neo Geo / Dreamcast)- For enemies and harmful scenery you lose all of your shields or die if you have no shields left.
- The enemies actually knock the powerup out of you, so you can pick it back up right away
Sengoku Blade (Psikyo, 1996, AC)
SideLine (EMAG, 199X, PC)- In this case the unusual thing is that bombs and shields still protect you against terrain damage.
- Getting hit (by anything) will send you crashing downward but you can mash out of it.
Strikers 1945 II (Psikyo, 1997, AC)
Strikers 1999 (Psikyo, 1999, AC)
Twinkle Star Sprites (ADK, 1996, AC)- bumping into an enemy stuns you, but deals less damage than direct hits from your opponents. Also it can't actually kill you like enemy attacks.
Usually still has normal enemy collisions and sometimes other hazards. Usually will block player and enemy bullets too, I think. Death by screen crushing seems to still be a possibility in most of these.- Battle Mania: Daiginjo (Vic Tokai, 1993, Mega Drive)
Deathsmiles (CAVE, 2007, AC)- Note that if you would get crushed by obstacles, you will instead slide out without taking any damage
Guwange (CAVE, 1999, AC)- Like Deathsmiles, you will slide out instead of getting crushed
- Crushing deals damage, but it won't kill you. You can move through the terrain during the resulting I-frames
Harmful Park (Sky Think Systems, 1997, Playstation)
Jackal (Konami, 1988, NES)- Enemy infantry can be killed by running over them. More dangerous enemies will kill you, though. This is probably also the case in the original arcade game (needs further research)
Prehistoric Isle (SNK, 1989, AC)- There are also cave men who will grab onto you and weigh down your plane without killing you, which is very unique
- Static obstacles won't kill you
R-Type Final 2 (Granzella, 2021, PC/PS4/Switch/XB1)- same as Delta
Super Star Soldier (Kaneko, 1991, PCE)
Super SWIV (SCi Games, 1992, SNES)- You only need to deal with terrain as the tank, instead of being crushed by the screen you will be teleported to safety. There are also platforming sections
- 1941: Counter Attack (Capcom, 1990, AC)
- Enemies damage you the same as bullets, but when you nuzzle your ship up against the wall you spin around instead of being damaged.
- This is an odd one. You can bump other ships out of the way, and damage some enemies by bumping into them. Some will just die (because they only take one hit to kill), others will be moved slightly by your ship. Some are not damaged but still moved. There are quite a few different types of interactions here
Last Update: 2016.10.28 -- Added some italics, bolding, and color to improve readability. Also, I'm still keeping this list up to date, so feel free to post new examples or corrections.
EDIT 2018.02.25 -- Added Night Raid, added some info to TSS. I probably won't keep appending this post after every future edit.
EDIT 2021.04.09 -- Added Demonizer. (I guess I will keep appending this after each edit)