4th Annual Top 25 Shmups of All Time! - Discussion thread

Herr Schatten · Post by **Herr Schatten** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 8:58 am

Alright. I cast my vote. It seemed a lot tougher to me this year compared to last year. There are five new entries and some of the others got shifted around a bit. Gunbird and Gunbird 2 have switched places. I still feel a bit guilty because I ditched TFIII to keep Rayforce, but, well, you can't have it all, I guess.

Overall I'm pretty happy with my choices. I have a feeling that Rajirugi might manage to sneak in before the poll closes, but then, maybe it won't.

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 9:08 am

Hey, assuming you and Bydobasher didn't mean the Game Gear game, Power Strike II already gets three votes! YAY!

Thunder Force · Post by **Thunder Force** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 9:28 am

MadSteelDarkness wrote:I really want to vote, but simply can't until I get to play Ibara...

Good point actually, I wonder how many members will re-edit to add Ibara before voting closes, since it is eligible. Although remember this will be voting for the 2005 PCB original mode. Technically Ibara Black Label / Arrange Mode is not eligible until next year...

Meanwhile Under Defeat has the unfortunate luck of being eligible, but preorders for its home version ship just a few days before voting closes, so most people won't receive theirs in time.

Alpolio · Post by **Alpolio** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 9:54 am

I thought about waiting untill Ibara comes out too. But I really want to play it for about 6 months so I can form a valid opinion of its gameplay. So for now, I'm just sticking to what I know.

I'd hate to be like those lame IGN reviewers -- play it for a weekend and then declare yourself an expert on the game. I wonder what kind of scores Halo would have received if the review crews had of been forced to play it for 6 months straight? Or do you think that they would have jumped from a 20th floor window before then?

Post by **Shatterhand** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 9:59 am

Turrican wrote:Hey, assuming you and Bydobasher didn't mean the Game Gear game, Power Strike II already gets three votes! YAY!

And I'd bet anything you want it will have a fourth vote.......

Alpolio · Post by **Alpolio** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 10:19 am

I'm seeing a lot of people using different formats for specifing a games port. Is that going to cause problems? I used this format...

[5] [Life Force (NES)]
[1] [Gradius III (AC)]

Is that OK or should that be different? And to avoid confusion, should we specify a port on every entry?

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 10:41 am

Alpolio wrote:I'm seeing a lot of people using different formats for specifing a games port. Is that going to cause problems? I used this format...

[5] [Life Force (NES)]
[1] [Gradius III (AC)]

Is that OK or should that be different? And to avoid confusion, should we specify a port on every entry?

4th Annual Rules wrote: 06) Specify when different games share the same title. (We're not talking about ports here -- stuff like U.N. Squadron: the SNES game and arcade game are so different we consider them separately; Gradius III SNES and arcade is another good example.) If you intend to vote for a game titled "Salamander" or "Life Force", for the love of Schirach be as specific as possible as to which format and region you're voting for.

Ports should count as a vote for the same game - however there are ports different enough that they count as a whole different game. Lifeforce NES and Gradius (SNES) are two examples. The first one plays differently and has two entire new stages; the second is significantly easier than its arcade counterpart.

Although, I wouldn't want to be Zach when it comes to decide for every single case. But as a general rule I'd tend to limit these exceptions as much as possible.

About being as specific as possible - I'd say, specify the port only when it's required to avoid confusion.

Zach Keene · Post by **Zach Keene** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 2:29 pm

Alpolio wrote:I'm seeing a lot of people using different formats for specifing a games port. Is that going to cause problems? I used this format...

[5] [Life Force (NES)]
[1] [Gradius III (AC)]

Is that OK or should that be different? And to avoid confusion, should we specify a port on every entry?

I don't yet have a copy of the auto-vote-counter thingy, so I don't yet know what exactly might confuse it. The above should be OK though.

Like Turrican said, specifying a port on every entry isn't necessary, just in cases where various ports are fairly different. Yeah, I know, define "fairly different." When in doubt I guess it won't hurt to be specific.

Super Laydock · Post by **Super Laydock** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 3:27 pm

Turrican wrote:Hey, assuming you and Bydobasher didn't mean the Game Gear game, Power Strike II already gets three votes! YAY!

Expect at least 1 more...

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 5:25 pm

I thought seriously about keeping Galaga on my list this year, but it's a headache. Do I really want to say that it's better than Galaga '88 or even Galaga Arrangement '05? In doing so I would be putting a lot of weight on originality, and maybe that's fair. It's simpler, though, for me to leave them all off the list, because I'm certainly not going to put them all on.

This puzzlement led me to put Centipede at the bottom of my list instead of Galaga, but now I see that Millipede creates a similar problem. I had a great time with this one at Chuck E. Cheese yesterday. I had to cross my arms so that I could control movement with my left hand. I never quite got comfortable and couldn't make it onto the high-score board. Still very fun.

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 5:47 pm

professor ganson wrote:I thought seriously about keeping Galaga on my list this year, but it's a headache. Do I really want to say that it's better than Galaga '88 or even Galaga Arrangement '05? In doing so I would be putting a lot of weight on originality, and maybe that's fair. It's simpler, though, for me to leave them all off the list, because I'm certainly not going to put them all on.

That's an interesting consideration, prof. I actually chose my first 5 games as "the best modern versions available" of those five classic franchises. It could have shown Gradius, Xevious, R-Type, Raiden and Tempest and it would be a fine list nonetheless. But I went for the modern ones.

professor ganson wrote:This puzzlement led me to put Centipede at the bottom of my list instead of Galaga, but now I see that Millipede creates a similar problem.

Why not putting Galaga '88 instead? I mean, you can't choose between three revs of one of your favorites - so you take out all three? Sounds weird.

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 12:41 am

Turrican wrote:Why not putting Galaga '88 instead? I mean, you can't choose between three revs of one of your favorites - so you take out all three? Sounds weird.

Perhaps you're right. My thought was that I want at least one arcade shooter from my early teens on the list. But since there's still some time before the votes get tallied, I may very well tinker with the bottom part of my list. Thanks for the input.

Blade · Post by **Blade** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 12:43 am

I've decided to add Mazinger Z to my list, just 'cuz I like giant robots!

I may decide to add Macross (SNES) later once I try it.

Randorama · Post by **Randorama** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 1:26 am

Let it be known to the masses: i'm voting on the very last day, i still need to get the latest releases, damn!

*Masses continue their lives completely undisturbed by this bold statement*

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 2:55 am

*abandons all worldly possessions and devotes rest of life to spreading the word about Rando's incomparable voting methodology*

Post by **Shatterhand** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 6:41 am

I've casted my vote. I may change it up until 1st april.

It's a lot similar to last year vote.

Newcomers in my list are: Sengoku Blade, Gigawing, Gunbird 2 and Gunnac

Gone are: Super Aleste, Aleste, Battle Garegga and Strikers 1945

And then there are lots of games that I love that are out of the list, but I tried to keep it at 25 games. (I had to leave out Game Tengoku, Shienryu, Blast Wind, Warning Forever .......)

I am glad tube shooters are allowed. Last year I insisted to keep my vote on Gyruss, and the game got at least one more vote this year

.

I've also been thinking if I really should keep my vote on "Hype". Undoubtly this is in my "top 25 shmups" list, but the game is SO obscure, I doubt it will ever receive any other vote ever. It's a vertical MSX shmup that's obscure even for MSX users

.

I also bet there will be no more votes for Uridium 2 other than mine. If Akira showed up, I am sure Uridium 2 would also be in his list.

Blade · Post by **Blade** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 4:29 pm

I keep telling people that games like Torus Troopers are quality shmupping.

I just wish whoever made Cloudphobia would give us a full version at some point.

ROBOTRON · Post by **ROBOTRON** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 8:23 pm

Ahem...

I just wanted to thank you guys for suggesting I buy Bio-Hazard Battle for Genesis...at a cost of $2.75 + shipping off ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 3AIID&rd=1

It is the BEST frickin' shmup I've played in recent memory over costly games like Trizeal and Chaos Field.

Thanks for the heads up...I don't know how this game passed me by.

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 8:09 am

Hey Robotron, I don't understand if you cast a vote for Tempest X or not.

nice list, btw. With something like 10 games in common with mine, I declare you a gentleman of fine taste.

Post by **Shatterhand** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 11:01 am

One question.

Should we consider Zanac (NES) and Zanac EX (MSX) as the same game?

I think we should....

Herr Schatten · Post by **Herr Schatten** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 12:49 pm

Shatterhand wrote:One question.

Should we consider Zanac (NES) and Zanac EX (MSX) as the same game?

I think we should....

I also do think so.

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 2:11 pm

Herr Schatten wrote:
Shatterhand wrote:One question.

Should we consider Zanac (NES) and Zanac EX (MSX) as the same game?

I think we should....
I also do think so.

Yes, just like we consider Power Strike / Aleste to be the same both on MSX and SMS.

Shapermc · Post by **Shapermc** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 3:08 pm

Turrican wrote:I'd also like to be redirected to a list of the voters's nicknames.

1st Annual voters
2nd Annual voters

I voted on both of these.

Also, I should mention that you might want to check Goggle's cache to see if it has any remains of the old shmups forum. You need to remember the old web address though to do so. It is the only way that I found some posts on a few other forums I use to go to that crashed. I don't know if it will work or not though.

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 3:28 pm

It's been a while shapermc, but I remember you from the Mk2 version of the forum - welcome back ^_^

Shapermc · Post by **Shapermc** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 3:32 pm

Turrican wrote:I remember you from the Mk2 version of the forum - welcome back ^_^

d^_^b

Yes, well, I basically made 5 posts when this version opened up and there was a particular reason that I stopped posting. It was becuase of someone, but that all started before the crash. I have forgotten why I even got into that argument, which was silly. Glad to be back.

Herr Schatten · Post by **Herr Schatten** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 3:49 pm

Good to see that you're back, shaper.

Post by **Shatterhand** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 5:15 pm

Yay, shapermc! Great to have you back

Yes, MSX/SMS Aleste should be considered the same game, even though the SMS version has one stage less.

MadSteelDarkness · Post by **MadSteelDarkness** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 2:19 am

Welcome back Lord Shaper!

ROBOTRON · Post by **ROBOTRON** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 3:15 am

Turrican wrote:Hey Robotron, I don't understand if you cast a vote for Tempest X or not.

nice list, btw. With something like 10 games in common with mine, I declare you a gentleman of fine taste.

Thank you...and your taste are of fine quality...lets toast with a Heineken!

MadSteelDarkness · Post by **MadSteelDarkness** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 5:00 am

^"Heineken?! Fuck that shit! Pabst...Blue...RIBBON!!!"

Heh. Errr...sorry.

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4th Annual Top 25 Shmups of All Time! - Discussion thread

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