Best horizontal shmup

[P41R47]

I will add SIDELINE. It a very old DOS game, but it has a very well crafted difficult curve, interesting levels, and a lot of challenge.
Also the indie game, HYDORAH, is one of the best horizontal experiences in the recent years.

My TOP horizontals are from genesis:

1-ELIMINATE DOWN
2-STEEL EMPIRE
3-ZERO WING
4-WINGS OF WOR / GYNOUG

and i will make and exception here, its not the best, and surely is one of the least good of the console, but the obscure game CURSE for sega genesis is one that i found myself constantly returning to play, don't know why...

[Gamer683441]

Don't know if you're able to play 16-bit shooters but A LOT of good ones there. Also there's some of my personal favorites being Gradius 5, Darius Gaiden, Border Down, Einhander, R-type Delta, heck you have a lot of good ones to choose my friend. Take your pick. I say watch a few of these in action on youtube, then start cherry picking.

[AAA]

you sure lit the blue touch paper with this topic!
my top 5:

1) Progear
2) Border Down
3) G-Darius
4) Gradius V
5) ThunderForce IV

[Shepardus]

I still don't have much experience with horis, but my favorites so far, in no particular order, are Progear, Gokujou Parodius (aka Fantastic Journey), G.Darius, and Sexy Parodius. I also rather like Gradius 1 (at least the arcade version, haven't played its various ports) despite the notorious Gradius syndrome, Parodius Da despite its ridiculous rank system, and Mahou Keibitai Gun Hohki (aka Mystic Riders) despite being horrendously bad at it.

OP (from 6+ years ago...) was asking for shmups that would run on an unrotated screen, which means vertizontals would also work. In that case, add Radiant Silvergun, Mars Matrix, and Giga Wing to the list. Maybe 1944: The Loop Master too - I've only played a little of that so I don't know how good it is, but at least the spritework is impeccable.

[IBARAKURO]

My top V

- gradius V
- deathsmiles
- salamander 2
- progear
- akai katana

[Perikles]

Five games are not nearly enough, I'll go with my personal favourites (not necessarily what I consider to be the objectively best) for each system/platform I feel familiar with (edit: also added the PS1, those exclusives are just that good; much belated edit: now with Einhänder!). I don't include ports which are so close to the original that you might as well play the latter. The HuCard R-Type for example is a fantastic conversion for sure, but it doesn't differ from the arcade game enough to be specifically mentioned. Some of the other ports I either prefer over the source material or they're interesting in a divergent manner. Lots and lots of Konami & Irem, of course.

Arcade:
Gradius II
R-Type II
Salamander 2
Gradius III
Xexex
BlaZeon
R-Type
Mahou Keibitai Gun Hohki
X-Multiply
Mr. Heli no Daibouken

PCE - HuCard:
Salamander
Violent Soldier
Side Arms
Gradius
Hana Tahka Daka!?

PCE - CD:
Gradius II
Rayxanber II
Rayxanber III
Cotton
L-Dis

MD:
Thunder Force IV
Crying
Darius II
Sol-Deace
Whip Rush

MCD:
Keio Yuugekitai

SFC:
BioMetal
Gradius III
Parodius Da!
R-Type III
Choujikuu Yousai Macross: Scrambled Valkyrie

PS1:
Einhänder
Gradius Gaiden
R-Type Delta
Jikkyo Oshaberi Parodius

[copy-paster]

No particular order, random favorite pick :

Gradius II, Gaiden, V
Salamander 2
Every Parodius games
Progear no Arashi
R-Type Delta, III
G-Darius, Darius Gaiden
Thunder Force IV
Metal Black
Xexex
Einhander (I would love this game if not about that limited ammo)

[Nick420]

Gradius V is the only answer to this question...

[The Coop]

Master System- R-Type/Sagaia- This one's a tie. Both games really show off what the Master System could do, and both play well.
Genesis- Thunder Force IV- It does so much right on all fronts. The only issue with it is the slowdown, which can be gotten rid of via playing in an emulator (or with the Saturn port... though it has tinny sound effects).
SEGA CD- Lords of Thunder- It's easier than the PCE version, but it's still a well made game from start to finish.
Saturn- *Radiant Silvergun- Epic in scope, pulling some wild stuff on the Saturn. It was a tough call between *Battle Geregga and this game, but RS' longevity and scope give it the edge.
Dreamcast-* Under Defeat- There's just something about this game that I thoroughly enjoy. The gameplay, the visuals, the music... great stuff.
NES- LifeForce- I know I'm in the minority on this one, but this game's just too much fun to me.
SNES- R-Type III- Great game with a good challenge. The backward level gets annoying fast, but that's the biggest complaint I have with it. The rest of the game is awesome.
PS1- G-Darius- It was a close call with Gradius Gaiden, but the path choices give G-Darius the nudge. Slowdown rears its ugly head, but the game itself is fantastic.
PS2- Gradius V- It's treasure doing a Konami classic. Awesomeness ensues.
XBox- ???
PC- There are so many good shmups both old and new, I honestly can't pick one as the biggest stand out to me. *Crimzon Clover, Sina Mora, *Raptor, *Jamestown, *Raiden IV Overkill, the new Cave releases on Steam, DARIUSBURST Chronicle Saviours, *Tyrian, *The Tale of ALLTYNEX...
Arcade- *Raiden II- I love this game. The visuals, the music, the simple but effective gameplay and scoring... it's oldschool done right. The PS1 port is almost identical while adding in an rearranged (and well done) version of the OST.
*=verts

Edit: Fucked up the code for the bold and italics.

[boagman]

abunchastuff

You...you do understand the topic, right? You know what a "horizontal" shmup is, yes?

Several of your choices aren't horizontal, man. Under Defeat, Raiden II, Radiant Silvergun...

[The Coop]

abunchastuff

You...you do understand the topic, right? You know what a "horizontal" shmup is, yes?

Several of your choices aren't horizontal, man. Under Defeat, Raiden II, Radiant Silvergun...

I understand fine. But rather than recommend a "lesser" but still good shmup, I'd rather recommend what I feel are the best to me on each system. Most are horis, but others aren't (hence the *). I mean sure, I could have said things like Hyperduel for the Saturn, Border Down for the Dreamcast, or maybe Darius for the arcade, which are all good games. But they're not the best IMO, so the OP can go from there and take what they want from the list.

[boagman]

abunchastuff

You...you do understand the topic, right? You know what a "horizontal" shmup is, yes?

Several of your choices aren't horizontal, man. Under Defeat, Raiden II, Radiant Silvergun...

I understand fine. But rather than recommend a "lesser" but still good shmup, I'd rather recommend what I feel are the best to me on each system. Most are horis, but others aren't (hence the *). I mean sure, I could have said things like Hyperduel for the Saturn, Border Down for the Dreamcast, or maybe Darius for the arcade, which are all good games. But they're not the best IMO, so the OP can go from there and take what they want from the list.

My apologies. I firstly didn't catch the asterisks and associated explanation at the bottom, and secondly didn't get what you were going for.

I, too, think those verts you mentioned are great, but since the OP was asking about horis, I wasn't catching what you were throwing, there. Chalk it up to me being a bit dense. Sorry about that.

[iconoclast]

Deathsmiles/MBL is probably the best from a design standpoint, but I like Akai Katana/Zetsu more.

[The Coop]

You...you do understand the topic, right? You know what a "horizontal" shmup is, yes?

Several of your choices aren't horizontal, man. Under Defeat, Raiden II, Radiant Silvergun...

I understand fine. But rather than recommend a "lesser" but still good shmup, I'd rather recommend what I feel are the best to me on each system. Most are horis, but others aren't (hence the *). I mean sure, I could have said things like Hyperduel for the Saturn, Border Down for the Dreamcast, or maybe Darius for the arcade, which are all good games. But they're not the best IMO, so the OP can go from there and take what they want from the list.

My apologies. I firstly didn't catch the asterisks and associated explanation at the bottom, and secondly didn't get what you were going for.

I, too, think those verts you mentioned are great, but since the OP was asking about horis, I wasn't catching what you were throwing, there. Chalk it up to me being a bit dense. Sorry about that.

No biggie, man. As they say, no blood, no foul

[jeffmadriaga]

I know this has been a while but to summarise with the OP's request for traditional horizontals AND i'm adding not technically horis but ones that fit the screen ratio AND arcade only (for pcb)

CAVE
Deathsmiles
Progear
Akai Katana

IREM
RType
RType II
X-Multiply
In the Hunt
RType Leo
Dragon Breed

TAITO
Metal Black
Hyper Duel
Darius
Darius II
Darius Gaiden
G-Darius

GREV
Border Down

TAKUMI
Gigawing
Gigawing2
Mars Matrix

JALECO
P47 Aces

TREASURE
Radiant Silvergun

RAIZING
Terra Diver - Soukyugarentai

KONAMI
Parodius Jikkyou Oshaberi
Sexy Parodius
Salamander
Salamander 2

PSIKYO
Sengoku Blade

SUCCESS
Cotton 2
Cotton Boomerang

COMPILE
Guardian Force

NEO GEO
Blazing Star
Pulstar
Last Resort

CAPCOM
UN Squadron
Eco Fighters

[d0s]

its the first r-type game and border down OP

[PooshhMao]

I'd say right now, the very best horizontal shmup is DariusBurst Chronicle Saviours.
Gradius V is definitely a runner-up, and R-Type Final is too.

If you'd combine the ships selection of R-Type Final, the mission structure and boss fights from Chronicle Saviours and the OST of Gradius V, you'd have the ultimate hori shmup.

[Kiken]

I don't know about the rest of you guys, but anytime one of these old threads gets bumped back to the top and I start going through it not paying attention to the post dates, it just becomes so surreal when I come across one of Robotron's posts.


See you Michigan cyborg.

[CStarFlare]

Eight years and not one person has mentioned Harmful Park.

[tizerist]

Gradius V. And she knows it.

[Perikles]

Eight years and not one person has mentioned Harmful Park.

Do you think it deserves that title? I haven't played it myself (it's way too expensive and I've not bothered to play PS1 games any other way so far), would be interested to hear in which ways it may repudiate the effulgent PS1 quatrain that consists of Einhänder, Gradius Gaiden, Jikkyo Oshaberi Parodius (I know, that one is not exclusive to the PS1) and R-Type Delta. It looks a bit anemic by comparison, but mayhap it can inveigle the player by other means than what is immediately apparent. Please elaborate!

[evil_ash_xero]

Eight years and not one person has mentioned Harmful Park.

It's a really good game, I even prefer it to Sexy Parodius. I wouldn't put it in my top horis. It's good shite, though.

[CStarFlare]

Eight years and not one person has mentioned Harmful Park.

Do you think it deserves that title? I haven't played it myself (it's way too expensive and I've not bothered to play PS1 games any other way so far), would be interested to hear in which ways it may repudiate the effulgent PS1 quatrain that consists of Einhänder, Gradius Gaiden, Jikkyo Oshaberi Parodius (I know, that one is not exclusive to the PS1) and R-Type Delta. It looks a bit anemic by comparison, but mayhap it can inveigle the player by other means than what is immediately apparent. Please elaborate!

Harmful Park is a scoring game - it's a snoozer if you're trying to clear (I think Very Hard is probably a decent challenge) but it's a fantastic score game that has a high optimisation ceiling without ever really becoming frustrating. And the different difficulties change several aspects of the game which mean that trying to play Easy for score is a very different game than playing Normal for score - never mind the harder difficulties. I'm not certain they're all balanced fantastically (I've never tried scoring anything above Normal so it's possible that increased difficulty and enemy health along with reduced resources make them significantly less enjoyable to play for score) but I'll go to bat for Normal and Easy any day.

It's also got a great score attack stage (a lot of caravan stages are pretty meh), and it's really really pretty to look at. I've played all the great PS1 hori shmups and Harmful Park is the only one that really sucked me in, and then sucked me again after I'd walked away once.

[Zen]

Eight years and not one person has mentioned Harmful Park.

Hori's aren't really my thing but of the less than a handful I enjoy regularly, Harmful Park is one, simply because its fun (the other two being Progear and Deathsmiles). Love the musical score and the surreal comic design.
Playing Harmful Park = instant smile.

[davyK]

Between Darius Gaiden and Sexy Parodius for me.

Deathsmiles is a great shout too though.



(I also really liked RType Final )

[gameoverDude]

Just a quick list, the first 10 I had thought of. Not in any order.
* Darius Gaiden
* Last Resort (MVS cart/PS4 versions preferred over Neo-CD, since IMO the original soundtrack is a bit better than the CD arranged one.)
* Border Down (I seriously want this on PS4)
* Metal Black
* Gradius Gaiden
* Razion
* Pulstar
* Blazing Star
* Xexex (Japanese version only)
* Steel Empire (Watching the bosses lose bits of their armor during the battle, then starting to smoke before ultimately going down in a smoldering wreck is a blast.)