Here are the rationales behind my picks. Thank you very much for the save draft function.
[1] [Gunbird 2]
This game, to me, does everything right. The sprite work & animation are fantastic. The music (especially the remixed version) suits it perfectly and never seems to becoming tiring or overly intrusive to the action rather than accompanying it. The sound design - one of
the most important elements of an STG, and yet one of the most ignored - is impeccable, the firing & hit registration sounds just making it
fun to pick this game up and shoot at stuff. The chime that sounds when picking up a coin at just the right frame is up there with the best I can think of in gaming - like NiGHTS getting a star, Mario's 1up or Sonic getting that extend after a bonus stage. The characters have mountains of personality, and offer enough variety in play style and effectiveness to keep things interesting. Beyond that, the mechanics mixing charge shots, melees, bombs and several types of standard shots give the player a number of options to tackle each situation.
And did I mention this game is hard as balls? Even Very Easy difficulty will stomp you into the ground until you learn to route it. I'm seriously considering making this my first PCB, as there is no question that it will provide years of play just getting to that 2-All on normal. What's most remarkable to me is that I never gravitate towards this type of aesthetic. I remember looking at it thinking "who is this even for?" When I found out how difficult it was I became even more confused. Until the game sucked me in, and after dozens of hours and months of play made me the very answer to that question. A true classic which deserves to be appreciated not just within the genre, but beyond it.
[2] [Super Aleste / Space Mega Force]
The Mega Drive & PC Engine are held up as the standard bearers for the 16-bit STG, and rightfully so. But while the SFC didn't have the horses to run with those two, I have always felt, both then and now, that it did sport one particular programming miracle that topped the whole genre in that generation. Super Aleste is Blazing Lazers with an infinity gem. Despite only hitting in '92, the visuals were among the best of the generation, with all sorts of graphical trickery and brilliant use of colour which lets it shine over the other Aleste game which usually takes the lion's share of the praise, Musha Aleste. The soundtrack was one of those few where the composer made the SFC sound chip pump out
compositions that sound like they could have been on a CD game of the era. It always baffled me that Streets of Rage got so much praise while Super Aleste was largely ignored while doing a better version of the same early 90s house music style.
Beyond that, the weapon selection was the most creative Compile ever did for one of these games. The
It also had a suicide bullet mode that made it play like an early danmaku, somehow defying the SFC's reputation for slowing to a crawl the moment a second sprite came on screen:
This is where the Aleste series peaked. After Super, there was just the somewhat unloved Robo Aleste on the Mega CD, then with Power Strike II & the lovely GG Aleste II the series was put into cryo-freeze for decades, only de-thawing thanks to M2 just 2 months ago. For so many reasons, I think this is Compile's crown jewel, and deserves to be at the top of a best-of-genre list.
[3] [Esp.Ra.De Ψ]
I had never played this game until the ShotTriggers release, on account of it had never been released anywhere until the ShotTriggers release. Aside from the amount of work, care & options put into it by M2, the game itself is marvellous. The game has as much personality as a Cave title ever had - Irori's "Yurusahen dee!" and "Power uppy!" absolutely make the game for me. It feels smooth as butter. The scoring system is unique, having you tag enemies with psychic bubbles before shooting them down to keep the chain going. The last boss is epic and memorable. And if you've played it, I know that the moment I mention those level-complete montages with the newspapers, fashion plate images and the tune that plays, they'll start running through your head. My favourite Cave game.
[4] [Blazing Star]
I messed around with a billion versions of this list. I knew exactly what my top 3 would be, but after that there were about a dozen other games that all felt like they should also be in the top 10. But only one game kept landing in my top 5 on pretty much every iteration of the list, Yumekobo's brilliant Blazing Star.
Every time I thought that #4 seemed a little too high for it, I'd realize that one of its tunes had been running through my head half the day. I'd think about its particulars and how its characters & ship design were a better collective effort than most any game in the genre. I thought about that weird, quirky, esoteric scoring system. I thought about the ways it pushed Neo Geo visuals to places nobody looking at that system's games in '91 would have ever thought possible. And then I reflected on the fact that somehow, the announcer's "BOHNAS!!" voice, which should have become instantly annoying yet through some mysterious audio sorcery never did. And finally, I thought about that fact that it was always top of mind when I was putting these lists together because it was just so damn fun, the grown up party-time version of R-Type. So here it is.
[5] [Vasara 2]
This is a game with a cult following, and one which deserves to be even bigger. It's the Samurai Shodown of STGs, taking an established genre and making it all about SKVZERCH-y sword slashes of such dramatic intensity that they make you feel kind of bad for your opponents. The game does a bit of everything: shooting, bullet grazing, melee attacks, chain combos, Psikyo style shine-cycling score pickups, dramatic showdowns between characters, and a bounty system built on downing major enemies all based on real life Sengoku era samurai generals. It's another one that's incredibly intense and hard as heck, but in a much fairer way than initially appears as your melee attacks can typically dispatch bullets. But what really makes this game for me is the sound design. The SKVZERCHes are in full effect here, and Takeda's rapid fire death-storm of blades sinking into hapless opponents at 24 SKVZERCHes per second just gives you an outright
buzz. And it's getting that fix that keeps me coming back to it again and again even though stage 5 has had my number for months.
[6] [Radiant Silvergun]
Ding - Dong - DING DONG! Ding Dong, Ding Dong Ding-Dong DING!!
$300 well spent.
[7] [Thunder Force AC]
This is a game that just kind of crept up on me as I played it. TBH the Thunder Force ship designs aren't particularly unique or recognizable. Some of the sound effects are cool, some of them oddly lack punch. The bosses are the push-overiest push-overs the genre has ever seen. But I kept going back to it. The difficulty is in a perfect sweet spot for just sitting down & chilling with - I've seen people call it easy or "babby's first shmup" etc., but the reality is it's right in line with your average console game of its era (despite being the arcade version of this title). The soundtrack is as
balls-out vidjagame rockin' as that chipset ever got. And the level design that requires constant weapon & speed switching (unless you just cheese it out with the homing weapon) to really nail gives it a degree of ship-piloting control that's uncommon. It all adds up to a game that just hits the genre bullseye in a manner which holds up very well 3 decades later and makes a great recommendation for someone getting into shooters.
[8] [Tengai / Sengoku Blade]
Tons of style, cool characters and enemies, tough difficulty, really enjoyable pacing - I like everything about this game except the character hitboxes, which can be tough to judge and are a little larger than they should be for a game that loves to bait you into a clear path through a pattern then snipe you with blazing fast aimed shots. Still, the overall feel of the game is fantastic and is one of my very favourite titles.
[9] [Ikaruga]
Obscure title you probably haven't heard of. Check it out if you get the time.
[10] [Soukyuugurentai]
What do you get when you take Aleste DNA, splice it with Donkey Kong Country pre-rendered visuals, bolt on Layer Section's lock on lasers, then slap disorienting amounts of kanji in the Evangelion mincho font at 78 point size all over it? A pretty frickin' damn cool game is what. It should rate much higher on this list but: A) I don't like rank systems that punish you for powering up your ship, which is one of the core attractions of the genre to begin with, and B) shooting stuff with said weapons is super fun in this game but the scoring system discourages you from using anything other than the lock on. Ah well. Still a great time.
[11] [Dodonpachi]
Obscure title you probably haven't heard of. Check it out if you get the time.
[12] [Shippuu Mahou Daisakusen Kingdom Grand Prix]
I don't understand how this game is as low profile in the genre as it is. It's well liked among those who've played it. It has character overlap with genre titan Battle Garegga. It has the Compile/Raizing pedigree. It's on Saturn, a platform most every player rolls with. And in a space where people are talking about getting STGs into speed running or competitive play, here's a title with a ton of visual personality that's
literally a race. Yet it remains largely unspoken of, while lesser titles get a spotlight. That probably oughtta change.
[13] [R-Type]
I'm not sure there's any other title from the 1980s that is as timeless as this one. The artwork is still brilliant. The enemies striking. The ship design is as iconic and recognizable as they get - literally the only thing hampering it in that area is how massively copied it's been in the years since. The soundtrack sets the mood perfectly. And the strategic gameplay is still above most of what the genre has to offer. As evidence you don't have to look any further than the R-Type Dimensions EX release which puts a 21st century coat of paint over it, and it feels like it could've been released yesterday and would still have people talking. R-Type is just about universally appreciated for very good reason.
[14] [Strikers 1945]
Downing entire air forces worth of aliens with World War II mechs from the cockpit of an RAF Spitfire is pretty much the use-case for why video games should exist.
[15] [Crimzon Clover: World EXplosion]
Visuals, music, mechanics, scoring, this game is impeccable in every department. Though it does wear its influences on its sleeve, written in neon spraypaint. It would rate much higher, but the slot machine-like assault of cascading shiny medals and flashing lights become optically exhausting for me after a while. Still, more than good enough to rate belonging on this list.
[16] [GG Aleste 3]
I struggled with this one given how late an arrival it was. But it does so much so well, and unlike most games of this stripe does it so honestly they were able to print it out on a cart and run it on an actual Game Gear, that it makes an immediate case for best 8-bit STG that's hard to argue against. Next year it might well rate even higher.
[17] [Gradius III - SFC]
Where this title separates itself from the arcade version is balance - that version is just un-funly difficult. Yes, the SFC version's got massive slowdown & flicker. But with that out of the way, let's talk about how absolutely beautiful this game is. Its 'shining in the darkness' (apologies to Camelot) aesthetic defines the Super Famicom for me. Those blue metallic gradients glowing against deep black backgrounds had me staring at magazine screenshots for months in anticipation of the Super Nintendo launch as a kid. They were always what came to mind when I thought about the system's graphics, those palettes made the images jump off the page in a way Genesis stuff never did (for me at least).
Then there's the massive bosses, inventive obstacle-based stages, customizable power up system combining the best from Gradius & Life Force, and the soundtrack - oh man, that epic soundtrack. It ran a vast field from classic Gradius tunes to orchestral bombast. It used instrumentation that went from that PC Engine-style buzz you feel in your veins to the reverb-ey trademark SFC sound, mercifully without overdoing it. But what sets it as a masterful soundtrack are the
pace-setting determination-in-the-face-of-dread filled marches and mood-setting pieces
placing you in emotionally alien spaces, all of which become as much a part of the environment and stage design as anything the visuals are doing.
...wait, why didn't I set this higher? Maybe next year.
[18] [Gunbird]
If Gunbird 2 gets #1 all-time, the game that established its framework at least rates a spot somewhere in the top 25. The one element I don't like is the time limit for the max power shot, a mechanic they abandoned in the sequel.
[19] [Galaga]
There are a few games from the golden age that were so tightly designed that they still hold up in this era despite their codebase being small enough to write out on the back of an envelope. Asteroids, Yar's Revenge, Missile Command, but this is the best of them imo. Those echoing fanfares were so perfectly designed to punch through a noisy arcade and into the back of your brain - in a pleasant way - that a decade and a half later they were still able to provide effective emotional punctuation throughout the Ridge Racer series. The gameplay is sanded and polished to perfection, challenging and able to wipe you out in the blink of an eye, but still have you coming right back to get it right the next time. Its fixed shooter scoring gameplay is as pure as they come, and its loop-de-looping waves of enemies provide elements which would become ubiquitous components of STG design. If there's a golden age shooter that deserves all-time recognition for much more than just being there before other stuff, it's this one.
[20] [Ordyne]
While this was a bonafide arcade hit in its day (#2 in Japanese arcades in 1988) I'll fully cop to the fact that this one's primarily a nostalgia pick in 2021. I used to play through the TG-16 version again & again. Yes, that version omits elements of the arcade game that it just couldn't handle. Its shop & weapon mechanics are suspiciously similar to Fantasy Zone's. The ship controls are alright but not fantastic, TBH I didn't even really like the game that much at first. Your hit box is huge. Yet the game itself is pretty darn easy. So what was it?
The visual design is wonderful, in a super deformed anime Yellow Submarine kind of way. The stage design was just
fun to master. The weapons were great, like the giant flaming green bullets that stuck their tongue out at the enemy, or actual Pac Man attaching to the front of your ship & eating all the enemy bullets. But most of all was the music and especially the ending, which just made me happy for the main characters and no word of a lie contained
one of the most emotionally poignant songs I've ever heard. That pitch-bendy synth and forlorn echoing bell sounds get me every time. I used to play through the game over & over just to get to that.
[21] [Deathsmiles]
The first time I stumbled across this in a Kyōto arcade I loved it from the first coin. The gameplay & controls are just brilliant.
[22] [Pulstar]
If I like R-Type and I like Blazing Star it's only fitting I like the game sandwiched in between them. Built much more along the R-Type template than Blazing Star, it's also much tougher. But it's still filled with fantastic hand-drawn sprite work and is the 2nd best STG on the Neo Geo to my mind.
[23] [Gaiares]
While I mentioned the SNES impressing me in magazines more than the Genesis, this was the one game from early on that had me jealous of Sega owners. The massive bosses, cinema screens, cool mechanics, it was a cut above everything on home systems when it was released, and is still a standout to this day.
[24] [Nano Assault Neo]
Nano Assault was originally a DS game by German demo scene deities Shin'en. Neo was a shiny super polished upgrade that appeared as an eShop exclusive at the Wii U's launch and was legit one of the best reasons to own that system - a further upgrade called Nano Assault Neo EX has subsequently appeared on PSN. A score-based twin stick shooter that has you navigating a large planet-like sphere (but is in fact a microbe as you're nano-sized as per the title), it has some spectacular visuals filled with glistening, pulsating bacterial enemies and many based on real-life microscopic insectoids. I played this game tons, and it helped get me through the initial Wii U software drought handily.
[25] [Kikikaikai/Pocky & Rocky - SFC]
You like this game. I like this game. All decent people like this game, which is why it's known to repel vampires and malicious ghosts.
Honourable Mentions:
[Blazing Lazers]
One of Compile's very best, the true TG-16 flagship.
[Gate of Thunder]
The awesome Turbo Duo title which more than deserves a re-release.
[Firepower 2000 / SWIV]
Silk Worm successor, and one of the best on the SNES.
[Soldier Blade]
Some say this is the best PC-Engine shooter. Not me, but people. Still, I like it a bunch.
[Zanac]
Never having played Gun Nac, I would peg this as maybe the most intense 8-bit shooter.
[Fantasy Zone]
A whole sub genre was built off its back, and it still holds up wonderfully.
[Darius Gaiden]
I recently got very into this game after previously not being very into this game. Not enough time spent with it yet that I could put it in my top 25, which I figure is the sort of thing honourable mentions are for.
[Gradius Gaiden]
If you wanted to say this was the best Gradius, I wouldn't argue. Still never played V for comparison though.
[Darius Twin]
Honourably mentioned here because it's a decent enough game that has
probably my favourite Zuntata soundtrack.
[Asteroids]
Briefly mentioned in the Galaga comment, another golden age stalwart.