wespons of destruction heaven (or hell)

[qmish]

Which shmups could be viewed as "military porn"?

Shmups that contain turrets, tanks, artillery, missiles, bipedal mechs, spider mechs, gunships, laser things...anything! And all of that is concentrated in one game. So it would put to shame RTS games in that.

Might that be Ibara? or...

[trap15]

Pretty much any shooting game made before 2000.

[Shepardus]

Crimzon Clover's got you covered on everything except bipedal mechs.

[Bananamatic]

sdoj

[Gespenst]

Most, if not all WW2/modern themed shmups if you're into real life military hardwares.

[Xyga]

I'd say anything steampunk, dieselpunk, alternate present, and sci-fi.

But we could even fit more subgenres like what's more WWI/decopunk (Boogie Wings/Steel Empire) and fantasy mashups (Dragon Blaze/Dimahoo have machines or beast-machines) also medieval-Japan-scifi (Vasara, MUSHA, Tengai) and why not biopunk (Cyvern) ?
Teslapunk, atompunk, clockpunk are under-represented imho, not a title coming to my mind...

Too many variants anyway.
Most shmups feature flavoured military hardware porn, though pure sci-fi/space and dieselpunk themed ones kind of dominate in numbers.

Which type do you like most ? If you know that it's easier to point at the essential and quintessential games.
Alternate present up to Sci-Fi seems to be your thing, but wunderwaffen and lazors are found in every subgenre.

[Bananamatic]

what about seapunk and vaporwave

[Xyga]

today it's all about lolipunk, which sucks in the machines department

[Shepardus]

No reason lolipunk has to suck in the machines department. You can even make the lolis themselves machines (looking at you, Daifukkatsu).

I can't think of any spider mechs in DFK, but there's no shortage of tanks, artillery, lasers, big lasers, laser wheels, criss-crossing lasers...

[AxelMill]

I've been playing Strikers 1945-III on my phone for the past 15 minutes and the military porn is there. Every ship is pretty well-designed and detailed and... Oh, yeah... Beetle battleship...

[qmish]

Now i guess i sounded a bit silly...

I meant, which shmup could be called "King of Kings of Kings" in that

Also, yeah, i m just looking to opinions on interesting military machinery in shmups, your favourites or examples

[Observer]

So many posts in and nobod mentioned Raiden? Ships, planes, submarines, aircraft carriers, trains (a constant in a lot of shmups), spider mechs, tanks, spaceships, you name it.

So, yep, I think Raiden it is since it has over five titles and a consistent mechanical arsenal through each iteration.

Then there is also Under Defeat, with tanks, choppers, ships, etc. Oh, and obviously Ketsui with the "stadium mech" (heh) and a plethora of other mechanical things.

[qmish]

I guess Raiden goes underappreciated because it may pass "generic look" impression?

Ketsui has best helicopters ever, right?

p.s.
Psikyo amazes me with bosses - be it Strikers 1945 or both Sengoku

[MintyTheCat]

I guess Raiden goes underappreciated because it may pass "generic look" impression?

Ketsui has best helicopters ever, right?

p.s.
Psikyo amazes me with bosses - be it Strikers 1945 or both Sengoku

There is no way raiden could be under appreciated - it is simply brilliant and holds it own.
In a way it looks very realistic world design wise I feel.

ketsui is brilliant I feel and again it has a more realistic look to its world's design.

[qmish]

Ok, i mean someone take a look on Raiden and say "meh, it looks bland and boring" and choose Mushihimesama or smth instead cause "wow unusual setting unique wonderful"

[AxelMill]

Ok, i mean someone take a look on Raiden and say "meh, it looks bland and boring" and choose Mushihimesama or smth instead cause "wow unusual setting unique wonderful"

I personally think Mushi's setting is unique for a shmup, while Raiden's is unoriginal for a shmup, just like dinosaurs are unusual characters for a fighting game.

[MintyTheCat]

Ok, i mean someone take a look on Raiden and say "meh, it looks bland and boring" and choose Mushihimesama or smth instead cause "wow unusual setting unique wonderful"

Depends when you grew up, how long you have been playing shmups for and what your tastes are.

Personally, mushi does not in any way attract me but I like scifi and military themed shmups, so it comes down to what attracts you, I find.

Someone will have to put down when mushi was released but raiden was back in 1990 - best part of fifteen or so years in time and evolution.

It is hardly a fair comparison I would say.

[MintyTheCat]

Ok, i mean someone take a look on Raiden and say "meh, it looks bland and boring" and choose Mushihimesama or smth instead cause "wow unusual setting unique wonderful"

I personally think Mushi's setting is unique for a shmup, while Raiden's is unoriginal for a shmup, just like dinosaurs are unusual characters for a fighting game.

When designers put together a plan prior to working on a shmup they have a set of factors and criteria and one of those is what the competition is doing and another is what the target audience expects. This may explain why raiden looks the way that it does and indeed mushi the way it looks too.

Certainly, by the end of the 90s into the early 2000s I think we had all seen quite a lot of the military and scifi themed shmups so perhaps they felt it was time to try something different. The bio look was something that came along in the mid to late 80s and that kind of stuck so I suppose the roots of mushi lie in that 'bio/organic' take on the shmup.

The genre is big enough to have it all I feel and personally I really like what they did in Gynoug with all that organic looking level design in some levels.

[Squire Grooktook]

Mushi just doesn't feel fantastical enough for my tastes, despite ostensibly being a fantasy shmup. Too many natural, believable looking environments (well, believable in appearance and familiarity to the real world, not necessarily in scale. We've all seen pictures of rain forests, just not giant ones).

I prefer (one of) Mushi's inspirations, the Dragon Spirit/Saber duology, particularly Saber for it's creative and diverse host of otherworldly fantasy environments. The Fungal Ruins/Forest speaks to me a lot more then anything in Mushi's world.

[qmish]

Any shmup sharing Quake 3's aesthetics of "cyberpunk + space sci-fi + gothic + demons/satanic" ?

[copy-paster]

ketsui

[Squire Grooktook]

Any shmup sharing Quake 3's aesthetics of "cyberpunk + space sci-fi + gothic + demons/satanic" ?

The closest thing that comes to mind is the aforementioned Gynoug, although that doesn't check all those boxes (no space, though there is tech IIRC).

Hellsinker could be called gothic + cyberpunk. Nothing space or overtly satanic though.

Some of Toaplan's stuff kinda sorta maybe calls that to mind, given the prevalence of radical flaming skulls and such.

Other then that, I'm kind of drawing a blank. Would be interested if anyone has indeed done this aesthetic well in an stg.

[MintyTheCat]

Technosoft has a bit of a satanic/cyberpunk run at it with Devil'S Crash/Crush.

I really like the big skulls in tatsujin and tatsujin ou - very 80s and metal

You most likely would find it hard going to mix in all those themes into one shmup.

Sapphire felt pretty cyberpunk and always reminds me of Slinet-Möbius in style but did not have the occult/horror elements - a pity they did not make a SM shmup as they did several Macross ones.

Edit:

Thinking on there are plenty of demons and such in spriggan and musha aleste but they are sort of mecha versions of japanese traditional demons.

Edit:

X-Multiply gets pretty organic looking too as I recall and is worth playing too.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Is Guardian Force glowpunk? Jewelpunk? Come to think of it - seems to be generically placed somewhere near Seirei Senshi Spriggan.
Most "dark fantasy" would be the Cotton series (in places).

[gray117]

Ketsui or Strikers (Strikers II my favoured) series imho. Probably under defeat though I have yet to ever really get into it.

Not sure about the heaven or hell topic... reference I'm missing? [Suggests more guilty gear anime stuff than military-mecha fun] Akai-katana I suppose if you want more anime with your shmup. Progear for just a flavouring.

[qmish]

No, it's not Guilty Gear reference. Just a thought that war machines heaven is actually a hell.

[qmish]

Suddenly i realised that i like tanks' designs in DDP. Hm....

Gunships, too, of course, has their style.

[Doctor Butler]

Surprised nobody mentioned Under Defeat yet.

[gray117]

They have... Twice... Not that it matters - I honestly think OP would probably be better off with a blog.

[Sumez]

Any shmup sharing Quake 3's aesthetics of "cyberpunk + space sci-fi + gothic + demons/satanic" ?

This needs to happen.
Although a bit of Quake 1 style Lovecraftian horror would definitely be the icing on the cake.
Of course, all of this needs to happen without SDOJ style bullets covering the screen to such an effect that you can't even discern the visual style of the game...