A resurgence of shmups?

Super Mega C · Post by **Super Mega C** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 3:28 am

Strange, for this to be percieved as such a dead genre by popular media it seems as if there has been an awful lot of shmups released in the past two years. Could it be that shmups and maybe 2d games all together are making a comeback right under our noses? Has all the glitz and pizzaz of the latest 3d marvels blinded us to the fact that more of the games we love the most are being released than ever before? I'm ashamed to admit that I think it has, to me at least. I'm estimating half a dozen shmups are being released right now and/or soon will be. Chaos Field was just released for the cube, preorders are being accepted for trizeal, and that new cave shooter just looks awsome (anybody know if its going to be ported?).

Here I thought things were drying up a little. Damn was I ever wrong. I'm glad too. They may not be on the shelves at wal-mart or gamestop, but they're there for those of us who really want them. To me that just rocks. Looks like it's time to break out the old soldering iron. I've got a DC that's way overdue for mod chip.

Any of you guys more "in the know" than I, mind giving me a general rundown of games and release dates for new and upcoming shmups?

MOD EDIT: joke poll removed. -TF

tehkao · Post by **tehkao** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 5:16 am

I think it's got to do with a couple of factors...one, developers have realized that a shmup can be made rather inexpensively these days...and that shmups are pretty easy to develop, compared to most modern games...and that there is still somewhat of a small market for it...

Especially with the advance of console hardware, it's quite easy to make an impressive looking shmup with 3D graphics.

It used to be that making a shmup required intensive 2D artwork, but no longer.

Blade · Post by **Blade** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 5:26 am

Well, it's not just 2D "shmups" that have made a resurgance you know....2D fighter games such as Street Fighter 3 and Guilty Gear have resurrected the 2D genres...which I'm glad for. <3

tehkao · Post by **tehkao** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 5:43 am

I think 2D fighters seem to be dying, not resurging. The last true Street Fighter game came out over 4 years ago. (SF3 3rd Strike)

All the 2D fighters we've gotten recently are ports, not brand new games.

Neon · Post by **Neon** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 6:00 am

Wrong

icepick · Post by **icepick** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 6:03 am

tehkao wrote:All the 2D fighters we've gotten recently are ports, not brand new games.

Guilty Gear Isuka; Vampire Chronicle: The Chaos Tower; NEOGEO Battle Coliseum; Spectral vs Generation; The Rumble Fish 2? I know those aren't new-new, but, they're still kind of new...

(Note that I'm less versed in 2D fighting than I am in 2D shooting, so, I probably shouldn't be attempting any sort of point in the matter.)

I thought that the shmups arena seemed to be booming these days, but, I figured that it was simply because I hadn't peeked in through the doorway, before. I was reading a product description recently which stated that there was a time when "shoot-'em-ups were a dime-a-dozen."

When was this, exactly?

tehkao · Post by **tehkao** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 6:13 am

By a true SF game I mean a real sequel to the Street Fighter series, not a throw together piece of turd like CFE.

tehkao · Post by **tehkao** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 6:15 am

which stated that there was a time when "shoot-'em-ups were a dime-a-dozen."

I think from around 1987 - 1990 was the "golden age" of shmups.

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 6:18 am

Vampire Chronicle is a port of the DC game with an extra tower. No surprise since Capcom has practically no 2D animators left. One could mention KOF Neowave, KOF 94 Rebout, and CFE but they're not really brand new.

The 2D fighting community is well aware of this and they're in a similar predicament, except there's no small companies willing/able to risk their necks to release a 2D fighter to a console.

I don't see any sort of comeback though. Did shooters die a couple of years or something? As far as I could recall, new shooters have been chugging along year after year. To me at least, there just seems to be a bit more than usual this year.

simian · Post by **simian** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 12:40 pm

tehkao wrote:
which stated that there was a time when "shoot-'em-ups were a dime-a-dozen."
I think from around 1987 - 1990 was the "golden age" of shmups.

Really? When people list the best shooters, it's usually stuff from AFTER that time period.

Davey · Post by **Davey** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 2:57 pm

simian wrote:
tehkao wrote:
which stated that there was a time when "shoot-'em-ups were a dime-a-dozen."
I think from around 1987 - 1990 was the "golden age" of shmups.
Really? When people list the best shooters, it's usually stuff from AFTER that time period.

"Dime-a-dozen" doesn't mean "quality." By definition, it's quite the opposite.

The more popular something is, the more filler you find. The obscurity of shmups is a good thing in my opinion. I'd much rather have a couple good ones come out per year than 100 mediocre ones.

icepick · Post by **icepick** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 3:55 pm

Ganelon wrote:Vampire Chronicle is a port of the DC game with an extra tower.

Oh, pff. I thought that the name looked a little suspicious, because I was like, "Isn't the name of the series actually 'Vampire,' and wasn't 'Vampire Chronicle' on DC?" Ah well...

Davey wrote:The more popular something is, the more filler you find. The obscurity of shmups is a good thing in my opinion. I'd much rather have a couple good ones come out per year than 100 mediocre ones.

Indeed. From what I can tell, the recent numbers have been very positive, and I couldn't complain that there are too many or too few. Then again; When there are more in the arena, do you suppose that there is a greater push for uniqueness and advancement? I suppose not, given that new shmup from MileStone. Hopefully it won't end up being the black sheep in this flock.

PS- Davey; Toledo, eh? I'll have to send an unsolicited PM concerning the whereabouts of decent shmupping (at arcades or otherwise) the next time that I'm visiting my grandparents(' house). Or, I could probably check out the "Shmupmeets" area...

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 4:54 pm

simian wrote:
tehkao wrote:
which stated that there was a time when "shoot-'em-ups were a dime-a-dozen."
I think from around 1987 - 1990 was the "golden age" of shmups.
Really? When people list the best shooters, it's usually stuff from AFTER that time period.

Yes, for my part I would say that the 32-bit era was the golden age.

Tar-Palantir · Post by **Tar-Palantir** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 5:11 pm

'Resurgence' or the 'Resurgam' on tombstones?

Super Mega C · Post by **Super Mega C** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 4:41 am

Aw man, they took my poll. It was my first poll (snif).

Ganelon wrote: To me at least, there just seems to be a bit more than usual this year.

Yeah, that's kind of what I was getting at, but it also seems to me that it's something that's picking up momentum (for the time being at least).

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 2:28 pm

True that.