Aquatic Themed Shmups?

[Exhuminator]

I am trying to put together a comprehensive list of "aquatic themed shmups".

That is to say the shmup takes place underwater (or mostly underwater) against marine type enemies.

So far I have:

Deep Blue (TG16)
Dolphin Blue (Arcade)
In the Hunt (Various)
Sqoon (NES)
Submarine Attack (SMS)

I am sure there has to be more. Problem is, I find it difficult to use search engines to find specific shmups which fit this theme. I would appreciate any help with suggestions. It doesn't matter which gaming era, or if the shmup is 2D or 3D, just the theme itself is important.

Thanks for your time.

[Durandal]

Darius

[Perikles]

Sea of Dreamland (NES) comes to mind, a rather terrible unlicensed game. There's also the relatively recent PCE homebrew Atlantean. Quite a few games have one or even two underwater stages (such as Barunba, Dragon Spirit, Flying Hero or Pop'n TwinBee) or at least stretches within a stage (Gaiares, Gate of Thunder, Parodius Da!, Rayxanber III, Silver Surfer, Winds of Thunder, Whip Rush), but I'm fairly certain you have most of those that focus almost exclusively on that theme.

Darius

There aren't too many underwater stages in the Darius series, though, despite the morphology of the enemies.

[clippa]

Aqua Kitty.

[KaizaCorp]

Cambria Sword. Aquatic enemies, but in space.

Batsugun starts underwater at least!

[Yoshi]

Sub Rebellion. It's a borderline fit from a genre perspective but dead on from a thematic one.

edit: Leaving the genre out of it entirely, I share your interest in underwater games and would also recommend the Endless Ocean games on Wii and Deep Fear on Saturn.

[Feedbacker]

i-20000 https://youtu.be/5jw5UEDcXOg
Vacant Ark https://youtu.be/MtbJbdgGXVY

[Shepardus]

Gunroar has you play as a boat, if that counts.

[BrianC]

Super Mario Land isn't a shmup, but has an awesome underwater shmup stage, complete with aquatic enemies and boss.

[BulletMagnet]

Not sure if Harpooned would count...

[Exhuminator]

I appreciate everyone's replies so far.

I think:

Sea of Dreamland
Aqua Kitty
Sub Rebellion

Are good fits for what I'm seeking.

I've also found Archimedean Dynasty (PC) and the Aquanox (PC) games, Atlantean (TG16), and The Hunt for Red October (SNES) to fit the bill.

Leaving the genre out of it entirely, I share your interest in underwater games and would also recommend the Endless Ocean games on Wii and Deep Fear on Saturn.

On Wii I have completed Endless Ocean, Endless Ocean: Blue World, and Dive: The Medes Islands Secret (WiiWare). I've also beaten Arika's earlier games Everblue and Everblue 2. If you enjoyed Endless Ocean a lot, I certainly recommend the Everblue series. However, I have not played Deep Fear. I'll look into it, thanks.

[Cristian_CL]

Lords of Thunder had a water-themed stage with an under-water cave section.
Biohazard Battle had some water-themed segments and creatures if I remember correctly.

Darius obviously.

A bit less related:
Steel Diver (not sure if it could be considered a shmup, I have never played it but it came to my mind).
The Ocean Hunter by Sega (definitely not a shmup but a somewhat related genre (rail shooter)).

[Exhuminator]

Lords of Thunder had a water-themed stage with an under-water cave section.
Biohazard Battle had some water-themed segments and creatures if I remember correctly.

I appreciate the information, but I should be clear I'm looking for games that take place entirely on or in water.

Steel Diver (not sure if it could be considered a shmup, I have never played it but it came to my mind).
The Ocean Hunter by Sega (definitely not a shmup but a somewhat related genre (rail shooter)).

Steel Diver counts. I'd never heard of The Ocean Hunter but it looks to fit the bill perfectly, thanks!

[Special World]

Found this shmup completely at random from an article that was linked to a review of Deep Fear (which looks rad)

Irukandji, an underwater score attack bullet hell:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaWHAfFBWXk

[Shepardus]

i-20000

[Jaimers]

Sauro

Marine Benefit

[BrianC]

Seaquest on the Atari 2600 is a nice proto shmup with an underwater theme. It's almost like a proto-Sqoon since it has a similar rescue people to get more fuel thing going on.

[Magma Dragoon]

The first stage of Batsugun is set underwater. There is also a underwater stage during Episode 5 of Tyrian 2000.

[HydrogLox]

Briefly Thunderforce V Stage 1: No Blue
"The Old Town that was submerged after
the first battle with the Guardian."

[Exhuminator]

I found another arcade shmup that fits the theme; "The Deep" circa 1987. It was developed by Wood Place Inc.

[Mortificator]

Sub Rebellion

I played through Sub Rebellion some years ago and was unimpressed.

You might also look at this thread and see if anything catches your eye.

[MathU]

Vacant Ark

Seconding this. One of the best, if not the best, freeware shooters out there and it's criminally underdiscussed around here. Very cool game that does ammo management right where most others fail.

[DoomsDave]

Stop ignoring the Darius series. Best aquatic themed enemies in games ever imo.

[Herr Schatten]

Atlantean (PCE)
X-Out (C64, Amiga, Atari ST)

[dreadnought]

The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human - modern indie, got some adventure elements but mostly shooting, PC
N-Sub - arcade classic, one of my first "favourite games"
Submarine Fury - old DOS game
Aquanox - sequel to Archimedean Dynasty. If AD counts, there`s more games in this 3D sub genre such as Subwar 2050

Also, try these search results: http://www.mobygames.com/game-group/set ... underwater

There`s also an awesome light gun game (arcade?) set entirely underwater - 2D gfx circa late 90s/early 2000 but I can`t remember the name of it...

[Imhotep]

Ocean Commander (PS2 / Wii / PC)

Aqua Rush is an arcade puzzle game (Namco 1999).
Battle Shark is an arcade mechanical gun shooting game (Taito 1989).

speaking OT, I've found the underwater stages of Donkey Kong Country and especially Super Mario 64 to be quite compelling.

[Macias]

Some early submarine themed arcade shooters:

fixed / single screen:

Heli Fire (Nintendo, 1980)
N-Sub (Sega, 1980)
Polaris (Taito, 1980)

Scramble variants:

Battle of Atlantis (Comsoft, 1981)
Mariner (Amenip Corp, 1981)

I guess Submarine (Sigma, 1985) could also fit into this category.


Cosmic Avenger (Universal, 1981) has some underwater areas as well.

[KaizaCorp]

http://www.dlsite.com/eng/work/=/product_id/RE175101.htmlB-SYSTEM [SPRITE] on DLSite is another one, although boss-rush style.

[BIL]

Marine Boy (Orca, Arcade, 1982). Vertical harpoon 'em up. I wonder if any future Toaplan staff were involved? Always dug the use of inverse scrolling to suggest descending the depths - Natsume's Abadox (FC) does similar in its vertical stages.

[Exhuminator]

I just want to thank everyone for all of the helpful suggestions. I have a lot of stuff to look into now. There were more aquatic themed shmups then I would have guessed!