Favorite Neo shmups

[Kewing Darksun]

My favs have to be the Sonic Wings series, Blazing Star and Twinkle Star Sprites =). Sonic Wings are always fun to play, specially 3 with such awesome music. Blazing Star has got really nice graphics, music and gameplay, a well balanced combination. And twinkle Star Sprites is just full of fun. Period .
Honorable mentions are also Viewpoint (really original but extremely hard), and Zed Blade

Zed Blade -- Call me crazy, but I'm in love with this one. The music absolutely kicks a$$.

Can't be more right about it

[Last Guardian]

Finally, someone who understands.

AM2 rules.

I've been thinking the same thing all the time mate

[PaCrappa]

i guess neo geo just isn't your cup of tea
what kind of shmups do you like anyway? the only one neo geo is lacking is those modern maniac. guess you like those most eh?

Dude. I already said there's a ton of great Neo games. In fact the ones I like are some of my all time favorite games ever on any hardware. It's just that none of them are shooters. I don't like the shooters for Neo Geo. It's not because I'm some weird system hater. I don't have the time or energy for that. I played every shooter on the list and Iron Clad too and I don't like them. At all. Pure junk if you ask me.

You pretty much hit the nail right on the head. I prefer more modern shooters. "Manic" is not necessary but most of the ones I really like are. Cave and Psikyo are obvious huge favorites. Generally, the only older shooters I like are either by Toaplan or have some personal nostalgia that goes along with. Like Galaga or something. And I said "generally" because there are obvious exceptions. Gemini Wing, Hacha Mecha Fighter, etc.

Pa

[Neon]

i guess neo geo just isn't your cup of tea
what kind of shmups do you like anyway? the only one neo geo is lacking is those modern maniac. guess you like those most eh?

I think this was directed at Pa, but...no. Not at all. I don't care about what console a game is on, I don't care about fairly meaningless definitions of shooters (there's a thread on this somewhere). I just don't like any of them. Especially Ironclad...

Neo's ok though...in other genres.

[LoneSage]

PaCrappa, what do you think of Blazing Star?

I got Blazing Star just a couple of days ago and frankly I think it's an amazing shmup, easily one of the best horis I've ever played. This is my first Neo shmup (I had planned to get Last Resort or Pulstar first, but hey, can't beat good prices) and I'm amazed at how gorgeous it is. The backgrounds look wonderful, but at the same time they look so soft in contrast to the ship and enemies...

I'm still trying to figure out how Yumekobo pulled it off: are there actual polygons in the game, or some kind of nifty trick? After a couple of days, I can beat the game on the MVS setting with 4 credits, so yeah, it's not that hard at all, but still, it's an amazing shmup with a wonderful soundtrack.

The weird thing is that this game reminds me of Thunder Force so much. I kept thinking to myself that if there was only one ship and different weapons for it, this is what Thunder Force V should have been (don't get me wrong, I love TFV, but it just doesn't feel like a TF game).

I am just wowed the fuck out by this game, it's wonderful.

[Neo Rasa]

Last Resort is soooo awesome. The atmosphere in it holds up surprisingly well given its age. Beautiful animation and you can see both the R-Type influence as well as how it influenced later R-Types.

I love charging up the pod and blasting it against that entire line of turrets in the second level.

The only flaw with that game is that you basically have to one-life the final level if you want to do the game on one credit. The level four boss also suffers from this, it's almost impossible to hit if you don't have a pod. You CAN nudge the fighter right up against it to the point where the nose is "inside" the weakpoint and do it like that but it's a massive risk for obvious reasons.

I like how each boss has its own theme song. Lots of shmups did this detail in the past, I always wondered why it wasn't carried over into other action games besides 2D fighters.


Pulstar and Blazing Star are great fun. I don't see how anyone could dislike them.

LoneSage, Yumekobo uses the same trick Rare used for Donkey Kong Country. Everything you see is a sprite. The individual frames are taken from 3D computer rendered images that are turned various ways to get the different images used for the frames of animation. The RAM on the Neo Geo lets them accomplish some beautiful things with this. Ragnagard makes big use of it too but it's of the dated variety. Double Dragon on the Neo Geo uses it to extreme effect, the intro for the game is literally clips from the movie!

Last Resort slips something in too, it's got a render of the ship as the background for the high score screen.

Zed Blade: Operation Ragnarok is so repetitive, and yet I love that game too. It definitely succeeds in getting that Ikaruga/ROBOTRON: 2084 zen state when things get hairy. Though it does suffer from some enemies just taking too many damn hits to kill for it to be fun.

Viewpoint, God damn that game is hard. I saw a video of someone one-lifing it on level eight! It was the most glorious thing I've ever seen in my life.

Aero Fighters 2 is the best of the series, but I think it's pretty bland myself.

Andro Dunos is pretty fun. Lighthearted. You get weapons you can switch between at will like Sidearms or Rock-on.

Ghost Pilots was the tech demo Neo Geo game. Very colorful and sounds great. Not much else.

Alpha Mission 2 is fantastic, that's another game that if you don't like, you just don't like fun.

Ironclad is eh. It's not bad or great, it's only mentioned often on Neo-boards due to the collectibility.

Prehistoric Isle 2 is cool, but I almost prefer the original if you can track down a PCB. At least try it on MAME, awesome shmup.

IMO SNK's best shmups weren't on the Neo Geo. People should look into Sky Adventure as an example.

[LoneSage]

Rasa, thanks for the graphical explanation.

Anyways, got Pulstar a few days ago. To be honest, I didn't have too much fun with the first 3 levels. I knew it was an R-Type clone, but not to the point where the first 2 levels are Neo-ized remixes of the first two levels in R-Type 2 -- literally. Homages are great sometimes, but I wish the first two levels were different. It is interesting to see how Irem would have also done it differently, and I will say I like Pulstar's first boss more than R-Type 2's first boss.

I hadn't played Pulstar for more than 3 levels, and I was tired, so hopefully I'll enjoy the game more. I feel so spoiled by Blazing Star, which is honestly a brilliant game. Sometimes I listen to the soundtrack while doing homework; it rivals Zuntata in beautiful scores.

I've also got Zed Blade on the way, I expect it'll arrive in a week (along with Mutation Nation; I've got a terrible weakness for Neo beat 'em ups, but that would be for a different thread). Zed Blade's been on my mind since '99, when I got EGM's Buyer's Guide. It always stood out in my mind, don't know why, but that and MN have always been Neo games I've thought of before buying an MVS.

I've got high expectations for the soundtrack on that one. Seeing as how the guy from Garegga's soundtrack worked on it, I don't see how it can go wrong.

[professor ganson]

I've played Sonic Wings 2 and 3, Viewpoint, and Last Resort (but just a few minutes of the latter). Viewpoint is my favorite by far in this group so far, but I need to spend more time with Last Resort.
I've bought Pulstar. When it arrives, I expect it will quickly become my favorite Neo shmup.

[Bishamon]

Last Resort, Pulstar and Blazing Star.

[Ex_Mosquito]

Pulstar is probably my fave neo shooter. Saying that though its the only neo shooter i've put any real time into (payed for more than 20mins) I wouldnt mind learning Last resort one day,though. From what i've played it's easily the best neo shooter. Pulstar can feel a bit messy and fuzzy at times, where as last resort feels alot more precise = better game.

Anyway, shameles plug - http://www.archive.org/details/ExMosquitoPulstar

[Gemant]

Pulstar is excellent game, but not have a secrets or extra bonus system to perform high score.

I prefer View Point.

[PaCrappa]

PaCrappa, what do you think of Blazing Star?

I didn't see that back in November. I think that Blazing Star is the best shooter on the system. And I sold my cartridge months ago. I find ALL NG shooters to be either very slow and boring or just plain shoddy. In the case of the shoddy ones, there is only so much slowdown and flicker a guy can be expected to put up with. Blazing Star flickers like a bitch and it drives me batty. PCE R-Type (shite port) has less flicker and that is sad. If it ran well I might still have it.

Not trying to bag on anybody's favorite game. Just calling it like I see it.

Pa

[doctorx0079]

Not to sound like a noob, but what's the diff between that one and the arcade Blazing Star I used to play? I don't remember flicker in the arcade one.

[PaCrappa]

No difference at all. If you don't remember the bullets flickering perhaps you remember dying and not knowing why?

Pa

[MASTER SATAN]

I love all the shooters on NEO GEO except:
Alpha Mission 2
Andro Dunos
Captain Tomaday
Ghost Pilots
Twinkle Star Sprites
Viewpoint

Never played IronClad.