Shmups to play on Halloween

[Abandoned Witch]

Abandoned Witch here and this is my first official topic about shmups. With Halloween coming and since I am writing a story about chaos and conflict that happened on that day, I was thinking which shmups I am going to play on that day.
Thank you and a Happy Halloween!

[VxD]

Deathsmiles, obviously!

[Sumez]

Ai Cho Aniki

[xxx1993]

Not a shmup, but The House of the Dead III is my go-to game for Halloween.

[Jonpachi]

Undeadline!

[NeoStrayCat]

Caladrius Blaze!

[Kollision]

Cotton 2 / Boomerang

[BIL]

UNDEADLINE is a super solid pick - fire up MANSION stage for Jason Voorhees cosplayer army, Evil Dead rotting fiends beneath floorboards, a homicidal fireplace and a foyer that greets you with a face-full of flying shattered glass!

GYNOUG Dicks, and torture, and more dicks! Sort of a tamer Ai Cho Aniki.
X-MULTIPLY Xenodemonic biohorror! "Do you know what I am...?"
ABADOX Same same same but in charming Natsume FCvision!
KIKI KAIKAI: NAZO NO KURO MANTLE Cute mashup of Western/Eastern horror folklore!
TWINKLE TALE Face-shredding fusillade of Anime Tolkien with lots of cute yet creepy shit!

[Shepardus]

This was the subject of an STGWeekly episode: https://youtu.be/zCnNIzXVrxo

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Biohazard Battle / Crying: Asemei Sensou for Genesis / MD (also fits with BIL's xenomorph/creepy aesthetic)

Zombie Nation for NES - you're a floating disembodied head, there really isn't anything else to explain

Barfer Sickmess 1 & 2 - PC - celebrate how much better Halloween is than Christmas by playing a game about an alcoholic Santa Claus whose special attack is him vomiting copiously after drinking too much booze

[NeoStrayCat]

Oh yeah, forgot another...

Trouble Witches! (and its various versions of the same first game, lol.)

[RawlingGunnar]

Magical Chase and OG Cotton are also solid and kinda Halloweeny because witches.

[BulletMagnet]

The first Shikigami no Shiro might fit the bill, I seem to recall it being more horror-ish theme-wise than its (superior) followups. And it has the obligatory witch, too.

Guwange has some Japanese-style horror going on, though not much "traditionally" Halloween-y.

[Abandoned Witch]

Deathsmiles, obviously!

I play that game every Halloween season, for 5 years though.

[CStarFlare]

Embodiment of Scarlet Devil has non sexy vampires

[mamboFoxtrot]

I haven't played it myself but Black Bird seems like a good candidate. Looks to be more of a Fantasy Zone / Defender / etc kind of game tho rather than the usual autoscrolling kind of shmup.

ps: good topic for my 666th post

[it290]

I'll toss Elemental Master in there. It's more fantasy than horror, but it has enough skeletons and demons in it to qualify plus those quality Tecnosoft jams.

This topic really makes me wish that Namco had made a Splatterhouse walk'em'up in the vein of EM though—imagine how cool that could have been.

[BIL]

^ I will never abandon my dream Silent Hill X Sanvein topdown manic clear 'em up. Best doorknob-rattling gameplay ever!

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I feel like Survival Crisis Z might be your cup of tea, BIL.

[BIL]

Will investigate, thanks much!

[BulletMagnet]

This topic really makes me wish that Namco had made a Splatterhouse walk'em'up in the vein of EM though—imagine how cool that could have been.

Not precisely what you're looking for, but...

While we're over on itch we might as well add this one to the list too.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Will investigate, thanks much!

The same group also did a zombie themed take on River City Ransom called "Zombie Smashers X" which was pretty fun (it wasn't particularly hard from what I remember, but fun while it lasted) as well as "The Dishwasher" action beat 'em up series for Xbox Live Arcade.

His Windows games may not work properly on Windows 10 though, so if you don't have Windows 7 installed you may need to play it in a Virtual Machine environment. Or mess with Win 10 compatibility mode settings.

[6t8k]

I'll toss Elemental Master in there. It's more fantasy than horror, but it has enough skeletons and demons in it to qualify plus those quality Tecnosoft jams.

I always thought of Elemental Master as an autumnal game. Its color choices and themes just evoke that feeling so charmingly. For that alone one could already let it pass for a halloweenish game I suppose.

Maybe Night Raid (by Takumi) suits as well? It's an edge case for sure, as it doesn't contain any horror elements per se, yet it sports a strikingly saturnine coat of paint.

[BIL]

Aha, interesting pick! Night Raid is certainly the creepiest "space shmup" without overt horror elements that I can recall offhand. Bit like Tempest sans the feelgood raver aesthetic. Argento-lurid nightmare polys with uneasy suggestions of bone, teeth and other primally unnerving stuff in an arid world of perpetual dark. If not for the leavening influence of the balls-hard bangin' metal OST and batshit hollering samples ("POWWAHH!"), its effect would be downright cyber-macabre.

November-Coming-Fire intensifies

Spoiler

(EDIT: love those tracknames too! unfeeling industrial grinder COGWHEEL, numb to all sensation ICE, and the classically alchemic Engrish that is MONORISU - moonrise/monolith, both evoke the nocturnal graveslab vistas)

[it290]

Not precisely what you're looking for, but...

Ooooh, rad, thanks for the tip!

[6t8k]

BIL:
Apt homage, it's also the only shmup I know of to feature the avant-gardist concept of negative scores

Might I also naughtily mention the completely insane & silly Mad Panic Coaster while the chance still presents itself?

Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lop2bkYjLj0

It being kind of a rail shooter and the dodging outweighing the shooting aspect, we're obviously stretching the boundaries a bit here, but hey

[A Skeleton]

Somebody mentioned, but yes, Deathsmiles.

[Zombi 6]

Late I know but this



https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzEyMzI0MDYua ... s%2FRJ.jpg


https://mulengine.itch.io/shooterhouse

[awbacon]

I knew Deathsmiles would be mentioned already lol