13th Annual Top 25 Shmups of All Time - Results

[trap15]

While RS impresses me in audiovisuals, it feels so aimless for me. "Okay you have 7 weapons and you are flying and hey - use this here, this here and this here...". I never got satisfaction of blowing up enemies in RS. Even "puzzle shmup" Ikaruga gives more of it.

I don't think anyone would put Silvergun over Ikaruga. The hierarchy is pretty clear here.

imo Silvergun blows Ikaruga out of the water

by a laaarge margin btw

^ I agree with this.

[Chaos Phoenixma]

Quite a bit of people put Radiant Silvergun over Ikaruga(assuming they even put Ikaruga in their list anyway). The Ikaruga voters obviously just put higher numbers or were more common.


I really don't have a problem with Radiant Silvergun being on the list, while I completely disagree on Ikaruga.


Batrider should easily be above Garegga. It's just the better game in terms of secrets, boss design, and everything else. Even the good bosses from Garegga are in Batrider.


Even though Garegga won yet again this year, I'm definitely happy it lost its streak last year. I really don't view that game as being worthy of top spot. I wouldn't have complained about Ketsui if it somehow had managed to get #1, even if I don't really like that game either, I can at least agree it warrants a high spot on the list.

[EmperorIng]

^ I agree with this.

Someone's been playing too much Zing Zing Zip.

[Rob]

Edit - All this Psikyo talk..I think I know what I'm spending my amazon gift card on finally. Thanks guys!

Is there some Psikyo thing that can be purchased on Amazon? Did I miss something cool?

[Plasmo]

While RS impresses me in audiovisuals, it feels so aimless for me. "Okay you have 7 weapons and you are flying and hey - use this here, this here and this here...". I never got satisfaction of blowing up enemies in RS. Even "puzzle shmup" Ikaruga gives more of it.

I don't think anyone would put Silvergun over Ikaruga. The hierarchy is pretty clear here.

imo Silvergun blows Ikaruga out of the water

by a laaarge margin btw

Your opinion is objectively wrong.

[Strikers1945guy]

While RS impresses me in audiovisuals, it feels so aimless for me. "Okay you have 7 weapons and you are flying and hey - use this here, this here and this here...". I never got satisfaction of blowing up enemies in RS. Even "puzzle shmup" Ikaruga gives more of it.

I don't think anyone would put Silvergun over Ikaruga. The hierarchy is pretty clear here.

imo Silvergun blows Ikaruga out of the water

by a laaarge margin btw

Almost anything blows dot eater out of the water

[Stevens]

Did I miss something cool?

Only if you don't already have Gunbird 2.

[royalfan84]

"How is it bullshit to state a preferrence??!" Cusack in High Fidelity


I prefer RS over Ikargua. And enjoy it quite a bit more. Both games are exceptional. The list isn't "quite clear" on that over the years. Silvergun has placed higher than Ikaruga multiple times.

[d0s]

Zero Gunner 2

I don't see this discussed much and that's a travesty, game rules

[Chaos Phoenixma]

Dot Eater is definitely interesting in a way. The fact that it's possible to actually beat the game with 1cc without shooting anything is kind of impressive. Not that I'd likely ever be able to do it myself.

Maybe it does deserve an HM at least for that.

[Squire Grooktook]

Almost nothing blows dot eater out of the water

There, much more accurate.

[professor ganson]

Surprisingly well-rounded list. As usual, the honorable mentions are even more interesting than the top 25 due to the variety.

Shame about Gunbird 2, if that's not top 25 material, I don't know what is. I'm generally concerned by the apparent lack of Psikyo love. Also, no Shiki II? You people.

Yeah, Shiki II and Gunbird 2 are probably the two most serious omissions in my opinion.

Changing the subject a little, why is Strikers1945pt2 considered the best in the series and the best overall Psikyo game?
Not saying it isn't, just wondering why people tend to vote for it over the rest of the Psikyo library.

Because it's kind of a 'transitional' game between the straightforward earlier Psikyo and the more sophisticated later games. Thus, everyone who likes either flavour of Psikyo is pretty much guaranteed to also like Strikers II.

Another excellent point by Herr Schatten. Although I prefer the Psikyo games centered on proximal attacks, Strikers II does seem to be that one game that best captures Psikyo throughout its shmup-making history.

[d0s]

One thing I think should have been on the top 25 list but wasn't (and this is partly my fault because I totally forgot to vote for it at all!) is Border Down. Agreed on Shiki II also

[Perikles]

I'm honestly baffled how anyone would think that there's an "apparent lack of Psikyo love" around here when they are, in fact, the third-most popular developer. Compare that to companies like Taito, Irem or Toaplan whose games only managed to get half that amount of top 25/honourable mention spots at best. And let's not even talk about developers such as Capcom or Namco which aren't represented at all despite a vast output of good games. Depending on your taste you might wish for even more Psikyo games to make an appearance, of course, but it's quite silly to claim that their games aren't well-regarded on the forum.

[monouchi]

Almost anything blows dot eater out of the water

This.
Puzzle shmup...

Though Ketsui deserves the second spot, if not the first?
Cant think of anything that I dislike with that game.

[copy-paster]

even an average gamers in general at least know strikers series

[qmish]

Are you sure? They know Gradius or R-Type, but not Strikers.

At least in my circles, i never heard about Strikers 1945 before going shmups.

___________________________________________________________________

I would have voted for something, but OP was too scary with all that talk "are you sure you qualified?" so i decided to pass.

[royalfan84]

I believe Strikers is a fairly well-know about series even for non-shmup lovers...at least here in the states. It's accessibility as compared to other psikyo games probably has a little to do with it being a tad more popular overall. Although I would also argue it gets mixed up with the 1940 series quite often.

[qmish]

Is anyone upset that bullethells dominate over traditional shmups?

[Rob]

Is anyone upset that bullethells dominate over traditional shmups?

Yeah, where's King & Balloon?

[Squire Grooktook]

Rayforce is up there, so I can't really complain.

[qmish]

^
I said dominance, not complete absence)

[donluca]

The "why is this game so bland" kind of pain (maybe it's because I only played the first loop of strikers 1945 though)

Try one of the following:

Gunbird 2
Dragon Blaze
Zero Gunner 2

Anything but bland.

Tried out Dragon Blaze and I'm really liking it. The problem is that at the third stage its seems like the difficulty spikes and I'm having issues even getting halfway the level.

[Shepardus]

Tried out Dragon Blaze and I'm really liking it. The problem is that at the third stage its seems like the difficulty spikes and I'm having issues even getting halfway the level.

Let me guess, default stage order and you're getting killed by the big carriages with a bunch of turrets on them? That's about the part where the game starts asking you to know what you're doing in order to get anywhere, and it's where I always died until I started practicing the game. You're best off remembering where those are and dragon-shotting them to kill them as quickly as possible. It's easiest with Rob since his dragonshot does the most damage. If you're not concerned about scoring and if your character has a weak dragonshot (most notably Sonia) you can use charge shot to finish them off as well, or park your dragon there and continue firing normal shots.

Dragon Blaze heavily emphasizes speedkilling key enemies before they have the chance to become dangerous - this is especially true in stage 5. Psikyo games in general have some very tanky enemies, but Dragon Blaze gives you a spammable burst-damage attack (the dragonshot) so you're expected to take them out quickly even if you don't have charge shot available. Gunbird 2 has something similar with its melee attack, though it's not as spammable.

And yes Dragon Blaze is great, best Psikyo game IMO (though I haven't tried Zero Gunner 1 or 2). Strikers II being the top-rated Psikyo game kind of surprises me since the Strikers series is arguably Psikyo's least distinctive series (especially compared to Gunbird and Sengoku Ace/Blade), but others' explanations make sense to me (it's a transition between the older Psikyo games and the more modern ones, and the Strikers series is relatively well-known).

[Squire Grooktook]

Strikers 1 and 2 are fun and all but I can't imagine putting them higher then DB. It does everything they do good, best. And has a host of clever and unique mechanics that set it apart from just about everything else.

[d0s]

Is anyone upset that bullethells dominate over traditional shmups?

It's not to my personal taste but I'm not upset over it, it's just what the majority of players here are into and there's nothing wrong with that.

[Shepardus]

Is anyone upset that bullethells dominate over traditional shmups?

It's largely CAVE's specific variants of bullet hell, too (and Raizing's if you count Garegga/Batrider as bullet hell). Not much of, say, Touhou (though two honorable mentions is pretty good for a non-CAVE developer, all things considered).

[qmish]

Is there a legit way to separate "bullethell subschools"? As i call Cave style in english words, and Touhou/eXceed 2nd style as "danmaku".

[pegboy]

Strikers Plus > all other psikyo

[trap15]

Is there a legit way to separate "bullethell subschools"? As i call Cave style in english words, and Touhou/eXceed 2nd style as "danmaku".

There's pretty much only two, really. CAVE-style and Touhou-style.