Shmups Played in 2025 Tier List

[blazinglazers69]

S TIER

-R-Type Delta: Hands down my favorite R-Type game and one of the finest Playstation games in general I've ever played, period. The game just OOZES 32 bit soul and polish. I love that when you submerge under water the sound shifts too. Awesome detail. They made some interesting changes to the standard R-Type formula where you can now grind against walls instead of dying! But, your force is definitely not as large for absorbing bullets, which is to me a fair trade. Also if you absorb enough bullets you get a "dose" or bomb which is cool. I No-Death'd it on hard and the difficulty was a perfect level of tough but fair/challenging but not frustrating. A perfect game in my book. I played in in Duckstation and that's the way I recommend it. The new port is flawed and overpriced. It's not terrible though if you really like collecting physical.

-Eschatos: A classic for a reason. One of the most fun-sounding and upbeat synthy OSTs I've ever heard in a game. I'd compare it to the legendary Mega Man X OST. As for the gameplay, it epitomizes easy to pick up but difficult to master with a simple combo multiplier system. I haven't delved deep into scoring, but scoring enough to earn extends and play for survival is still an absolute blast.

-Battle Traverse: So underrated. If you like Cave and bullet hell you simply must track this doujin down and devour it. Great style, easy to understand risk vs reward scoring and just an overall polished and fun experience.

-Gradius (PC Engine): My favorite Gradius game. It feels less janky than the arcade version, but the challenge is still there with an extra level exclusive to this version. I also prefer the music and look of this version more than the arcade. Shame it wasn't included in Gradius Origins.

A TIER

-CRS68k: This was a very satisfying clear since it was one of my first shmups back in the day. The newest version improves the backgrounds and some other minor details like having built in autofire. Only glaring issue is lack of a good practice mode since the final stage is tricky if you don't know the layout well enough.

-Darius Gaiden: S tier presentation. I think I only put it in A tier because I took the easiest path and I used external autofire which trivializes the game. I should go back and play it properly with the games lower rate internal autofire and explore the harder paths to get the full experience. Seems tied with G-Darius as the best in the series.

-Gradius II (PC Engine): More Gradius. I love this game, but due to the length of the game and the boss rush at the end, dying is quite painful when going for the 1cc. The original Gradius is short and easy enough that dying and having to recover or start over isn't too painful, but this game kind of loses that balance with its length. Still a mastefully crafted game, but my favorite Gradius game after 1 for the PC Engine would be III for the SNES. Even with the slowdown the difficulty and presentation in that game is just spot on.

-Gradius (Arcade): Gotta respect the original. It along with R-Type was pivotal to creating this genre that we love. Holds up remarkably well for how old it is even if it's not my favorite in the series.

B TIER

-Super R-Type (SA-1 Hack): This game was by far my biggest challenge this year. Removing the slowdown through overclocking or applying the SA-1 Hack completely reinvents this game. But be warned, getting the 2-ALL on the Hard and then Pro loop is absolutely BRUTAL. The Pro loop straight up feels broken at times without the slowdown. Still, the Normal and Hard loops feel great. I'd recommend trying out a Normal 1-ALL if you like horis. I made a 2 hour commentary with advice and general shmup thoughts on my youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMvhVGowqSg

-R-Type II (Arcade): Similar to Super R-Type, this game is great as a 1-ALL, but painful as a 2-ALL. I played the more difficult Japanese version and good lord you MUST route the ever-loving shit out of this game. Still, I'm very proud of my route in the final level since I found some cool positioning that I didn't see in any other youtube clears. Overall I do prefer Super R-Type if you can remove the slowdown. The Normal level in Super feels more fair and I actually like the OST way more. The sound and music in this game is downright abrasive and not great to me however. After 90 hours this game burned me out a little with shmups so I've actually been playing old school FPS and boomer shooters lately.

-Hazelnut Hex: Very solid indie title with wonderfully fun scoring. Looking forward to seeing what else this dev makes in the future. Very charming game and a nice unique color palette.

-Gana Blade: This game was rightfully a bit of a hit in our little community when it dropped out of nowhere for a mere 5 bucks. It's an awesome tribute to Compile but also manages to mix in some modern bullet hell style too while blending both styles very cohesively. Great stuff. Would be nice if it had a practice mode that lets you adjust your load-out though.

-Salamander (PC Engine): I definitely prefer Gradius to this game. It has blatant issues like jank that you can't really anticipate, a boss that pretty much forces you to use a precise safe spot, and visibility issues. It's cool but I'm not crazy about it. I prefer the PC Engine as I find the presentation a little tighter than the arcade version and the lava level is more interesting and arranged slightly better IMO.

C TIER

-Neko Navy: Cute cat game, simple scoring. Not a ton to say. Good but not great.

-Salamander III: Kind of disappointed with this game. I straight up hated the weird secondary option item and it actually screwed me over and ended one of my runs. This game just doesn't feel great. Near the end it feels unbalanced and I ended up just tanking through with a bunch of lives in a way that didn't feel satisfying. The first loop is simultaneously too easy and too janky.

-Salamander (Arcade): As mentioned above, it's janky and lacks polish.

D TIER

-Life Force (NES): One of the games of all time. Idk. It's a decent beginner game for the NES. Forgettable.

[To Far Away Times]

Great idea for a thread. Fully agree with those S Tiers for R-Type Delta and Eschatos. I wish I play those again for the first time. Both R-Type Delta and Eschatos will make my Top 10 when we do the voting for the Bi-Annual Top 25 Shmups of all time vote fairly soon.


A TIER


Angel at Dusk: I really like this game. It's got a very unique vibe and it really feels like something from a passionate creator with a strong vision behind it. The gameplay is fun and frantic with you pushing the bullets back. It really feels like you battle the enemies and the stages. And you get three full routes to play through. I love it. I'm quite picky with my "S Tier" and can only use it for a few games, but this was the best shmup I played in 2025.

R-Type Final 3 Evolved: This is really just a level pack with a new name built upon the framework of R-Type Final 2, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I'll fully admit I probably boost all the R-Type games a little bit just cause it's one of my favorite series in all of gaming, but I really enjoyed what I played here, even if there are obvious ways it could be better in regards to the presentation. I couldn't put the game down once I started playing and it was all I wanted to do. Took about 20 hours to get the 1CC, which feels about right.

Salamander 2: I've always really liked this one, and finally gave it the time it deserved earlier this year. It's got a pretty aggressive rank system, but recoveries are quite reasonable for an old school hori. The last boss is a really great battle.


B TIER


Devil Blade Reboot: This game nails everything with the presentation and plays great. There's lots to love about this, but it's so damn easy on normal. I think I blind 1CC'd it with like six lives left over. This game is more of a rollercoaster than a game you invest a lot of time in. I'm still putting it in B Tier though just because this game absolutely crushes it in certain aspects. I want to see more shmups copy the way this game spawns in enemies and the bullet trails. There are some really brilliant ideas in here.

Touhou 20 - Fossilized Wonders: The newest 1CC on my list, this one's alright. It's fun enough, and there are no bad mainline Touhou games, but this one lacks that something extra to put it over the top. It doesn't have a standout music piece or boss fight. It's perfectly satisfactory, but it isn't special.

Earthion: I wasn't sure if I liked this one when I first played it, but the more I played it the more I liked it. The upgrade system is cool, and the game keeps the player very active and moving all around the screen. We were promised awesome music, and the music is indeed very awesome.

Mystical Power Plant: A Touhou fangame that's as good as the real thing. This one really feels like a long lost official entry. Liked it enough to play through it a few times even after I'd claimed the 1CC. And unlike most of the other Touhou fan games that will appear later in this list, it's about as challenging as a regular Touhou game as well.


C TIER


Shining Shooting Star: A high production value Touhou fan game, this one's pretty solid, but nothing memorable.

Infinite Blade Pavilion: A well made Touhou fan game with some very good patterns. This was enjoyable but not essential.

Riverbed Soul Saver: Another solid but pretty easy Touhou fan game.

Chouyoku Senki Estique: A new NES game. How cool is that? It's pretty novel to see NES homebrew game that pushes the system to it's limits. But at the end of the day, it's an NES game, even if it's one of the better ones.

Frantically Forbidden Fruit: A Touhou fan game that's quite fun to play for score, but too easy for survival.

Hollow Song of Birds: Another Touhou fan game. It's well made but it's almost impossible to lose while playing this on normal difficulty.

Fantastic Danmaku Festival 2: This one's okay, it's a very loose remake of Touhou 07 - Perfect Cherry Blossom. They really dialed up the visuals and production value but it's just too easy. The eXA version seemed a lot better, but I've only had a chance to play that once.


D TIER


Salamander III: This game just really missed the mark for me. Weirdly balanced with long recovery times and chain dying covered up with throwing a ton of lives at the player. You have a special move that almost instantly kills bosses. It's a big step backwards in the graphics and music from it's nearly 30 year old predecessor. Feels unfinished and untested. This really should be called "Salamander Rebirth" or something. It feels wrong to have it as a numbered sequel when the first two games are really quite good.

Fantastic Danmaku Festival 3: Blind 1CC. Played once and that was it.


OTHER

I spent most of my free time working on a Castlevania inspired horizontal shmup, Requiem of the Night, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

[Faith]

Devil Blade Reboot: This game nails everything with the presentation and plays great. There's lots to love about this, but it's so damn easy on normal. I think I blind 1CC'd it with like six lives left over.

o_o"... always forget about this game, will install soon! I watched it a bit few times this year, other players doing run, and I think for this game... easy to clear, hard to score. Because, scoring is 100% PB'ing everything lol... and... even though game gives you visual on where enemy is coming from... it still looks like big challenge! Jaimers run of this game is super crazy to watch!~

I think for me... I will wait for Steam Replay 2025... because it will surely answer my question for me lol.

Started Crimzon Clover in Feb, now 700+ hours >.<!~

So, no need tier list lol!!!~

[Lethe]

Hasn't been a good shmups year for me, missed out on a lot, but I can't resist biting.
I'll only post new games or ones I've reexamined my opinion on, I don't feel like reiterating ESPrade, Batrider or Hellsinker for the 109th time.

A TIER

Nothing new.

B TIER

Mecha Ritz Revolution (hack)
RIP Chinese posters. Makes a perennial favorite perennially broken game far less broken across the board while not compromising its identity, and even adds some new stuff.

G-Darius Ver. 2
Having ignored this version before, I think it makes for a smart inversion of G-Darius' quirks and flaws, encouraging decisive speedkilling of bosses instead of waiting to counter, and playing routes that go ignored in the normal version. All area branches now have captains, and captains are rebalanced such that getting all the captures and ideal beam setups is at least a little bit closer to Darius Gaiden levels of precision. Rather than one or the other version being superior, they compliment and contrast each other. M2 reduced slowdown mode highly recommended.

C TIER

Batsugun Special
My opinion on it hasn't changed, only mentioning it because I sunk a few hours into a few 4-ALLs and tried out scoring a bit more. Simple, charismatic game with perfectly likable gameplay which isn't very challenging but can still offer a bit of excitement/frustration if you prefer smashing buttons to sensible play.

Touhou 20
The opposite of "simple and perfectly likable". Amusing mess careening from extreme to extreme. Fun stages for series standards (except the impossible parts, arguably); boss quality is spotty, the 3rd and 5th are pretty much all good at least. Has a more distinctive personality than other recent games in the series. Decidedly nu-Touhou system that gives you about 6 different ways to abuse and/or break all the patterns if you want to. It's also outrageously buggy, but some people seem to suffer harder than others.

D TIER

Varth (no pod + no wiggle + 15hz auto, full survival mode goes in E tier)
The last time I played this, I tried pods + max autofire + wiggle macro, stumbled to the end in some kind of fugue state, lost my last life AFTER the final boss and swore off ever playing it again. With no pods, no wiggle and less autofire, survival isn't a complete joke, and it actually resembles a functioning video game with strategies like anticipation and routing (!!!!!). It remains a based CapCHAD jankshmup, featuring the hallmark stage design ethos of "just cram all of the random crap onto the screen, they're going to bomb anyway", horrendous choppy slowdown that eats your inputs, and bizarre enemy aiming and shot timings. Avoiding powerups for podless is annoying as they float around in a big circle and only go away as the stage scrolls (or never, if scrolling stops). At least you can still get the podless stage bonus if you kill yourself. It can't live up to its 30 stages marketing gimmick and is made worse for trying. Nearly every boss is rematched in the second half and counts as its own full stage - even the final boss counts as both stage 29 and stage 30! You could cut at least 10 stages and not miss anything.

Having said all that, it's still a very cool and ambitious game considering it's from 1992.

Dogyuun!!
Great visuals and music, unfocused and unrefined everything else, blatant safespots everywhere, feels twice as long as it really is. Worth checking out but I wouldn't try to take it seriously.

Zero Wing
Toaclone R-Type grew on me a bit although it's clearly not their finest work. The early stages leave a bad impression, you have to get to 1-6 before it starts feeling like a real game. The bullet blocking and slight latent randomness is kinda fun and gives it a sort of kinesis other memogames lack, though getting nailed by a lightspeed bullet from an enemy that's barely on screen isn't so fun.

E TIER

Ibara
Sometimes I go back to games I know I don't like to see if my opinion still seems fair. I'm not sure how much lower my opinion of Ibara can realistically get at this point. I'm convinced that the only thing this game does right, and presumably the reason people like it, is having a stage 1 where everything explodes. It's paradoxically both too obnoxious and too simplistic, its details grate, and whatever positive qualities it has pale in comparison to other games.

Triggerheart Exelica
One step above the zero-budget crypto-doujin minimum baseline thanks to the developers understanding the building blocks of a scoring system. The problem is all the other parts. The stages are crap, the bosses are double crap, the whole thing is bereft of imagination and charisma. It doesn't even do a good job of being mecha musume which you'd think was the whole point. No, I'm not going to read the story mode.

FFF TIER

Silent Hill f

Q TIER

Platypus Reclayed

[Steven]

Sure why the hell not. New stuff only, especially because this covers pretty much everything I played this year. Looking at it now, this year mostly sucked horribly.

S is for Sektori tier
Sektori
It's good. Play it.

A tier
nothing

B tier
nothing

C is for Cotton tier
Cotton High Tension
I can't articulate why I feel this way, but this game feels like the devs just didn't care that much, and neither did I. I do not think this is a bad game, but I got a very meh whatever type of feeling from it, which was disappointing because the previous few Cotton games are awesome.

D tier
Salamander III
This game is a huge mess, and I dislike it more literally every time I play it. I was worried after Haunted Castle Revisited turned out the way it did, and my worries were unfortunately justified because this game is kind of horrid. I think someone somewhere said this game was very rushed, and it certainly seems that way because it has a very slapdash feeling to it.

E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, T, U, V, W, X, Y, and Z tiers
nothing

? tier
Earthion
Bitwave's MD emulator sucked so much that I played stage 1 and refunded it out of frustration. Maybe this game is good or maybe it isn't. Don't know. Will reevaluate once I get the Japanese Mega Drive cartridge; the Mega Drive version is the only version of the game that actually matters anyway, and no, it being a Mega Drive ROM in an emulator doesn't count as the Mega Drive version; I mean the actual, officially released Mega Drive cartridge. That's the only one that counts.


























Sonic Wings Reunion quarantine zone
Sonic Wings Reunion
So bad that it gets put in a quarantine zone far away from everything else so as to not contaminate anything. This is the worst arcade STG I've ever played, one of the worst STGs I've ever played, one of the worst games I've ever played, and probably one of the worst arcade STGs ever made. A truly shameful display that shouldn't have been released. I paid 100 yen to play a single credit of this waste and I want a refund. I guess it's better than some of the dreck on Action 52, but that's the closest thing to a compliment that I can give it. The only positive thing about this game's existence is that people can choose to not play it and do something better instead, which they should!

[Samildanach]

Here is my 2025 shmup tier list/mini review. I post my shmup mini reviews on the ex-eurogamer forum, and have mostly copied what I wrote to here so I don't have to write it all out anew. As a result it has been written for mainly non-shmup players, so apologies if it comes across too obvious for the far more shmup-educated forum members here.

Tier S

Mahou Daisakusen [Sorcer Striker] May '93 First release of legendary shmup developer Raizing and they come out swinging. Fantastic visuals of a lively medieval-yet-futuristic world, a decent sound track and slick and enjoyable gameplay. The four player characters are different enough to be all worth playing, and the six levels are all very distinct: starting with the repelling of the goblinoid army from the home castle, stage 2 being an assault on a massive airship, moving onto a partially flooded dungeon full of beholders for stage 3. Stage 4 is a surprise as you fly over the ruins of modern city before blasting into space for the final assault on the goblinoid's moon base. Heart of the moon base involves a cool boss rush (all new bosses too) in a long arena where the gobinoid audience cheers on the fighting and showers you with gifts after each victory. There is so much love and care put into it all and unlike Compile shooters (a lot of Raizing devs had come from Compile) the levels don't outstay their welcome either. The M2 release was a faff to get hold of as it is a Japanese ps store exclusive, but absolutely worth it. While having no particular flaws it is not quite as good as some of Raizing and Cave's best games, being less deep in its scoring and long-term ability to hold interest, but definitely the best shmup I played in 2025.

Tier A

Thunder Dragon 2 Oct '93
NMK were on fire at this point as they had released the two excellent Macross shooters and now, mere months later we get this fantastic game. The original Thunder Dragon had its janky charm (kind of all their games do) but this game exhibits a whole new layer of polish. Once again it is a eight level vertical shooter where your ship immediately repawns and the player gets a generous supply of bomba to get you out of tight spots. The animation to even the small fry planes as they turn in the air is beautifully done and the backrounds are detailed. As for the music, while there are only two stage tracks along with boss and final boss music, this is the debut of famed Battle Garegga and mutiple Cave game soundtracks composer Manabu Namiki, and in my opinion is far better than a lot of earlier NMK soundtracks which often sounded rather grating. The gameplay fundamentals also are great, with fast and fluid action which, while challenging is rarely unfair; mistakes being very much due to player failures rather than impossible circumstances. Perhaps the only thing holding it back is that there is just one ship type and it only has one main attack type, so although the game is a blast to play, it's true longevity is slightly diminshed by that lack in variation. The levels all follow the same pattern each playthough, encouraging memory, but if you are able to kill enemies quick enough, extra enemies and even high point scoring mini-bosses spawn in, and therefore the high skill player can achieve far more points but have to face a greater onslaught than those less familiar with the game. Great game.

Gradius Origin Collection (reviewing this release as a whole)
This was a no-brainer for me as Gradius has been a favourite series of mine since discovering it in '91. This consists of various versions of the first three arcade Gradius games, Salamander 1 & 2, along with its variation Life Force and the all-new M2 created Salamander 3! Gradius 1 & 2 are absolute classics and still wonderful to play even today. Salamander/Lifeforce has always been a slightly flawed but incredibly ambitious game for '86 and Salamander 2 is fantastic hidden gem. Playing Gradius 3 so close to 2 really shows ups its significant flaws. Many of the bosses are either a bit dull and easy (ant lion, big bubble, big fire wyvern and the brain thing in organic stage for example) or overly difficult for all the wrong reasons (moai heads with those awful ballooning mini-moais and the big plant that will suck you to your doom unless you have so many speed-ups that you would be guaranteed to crash next level). The levels also are a mixed bag rather than the consistent excellence of the prior games. I believe a mostly new set of devs made the third game and their in-experience shows, even more so in their demo version that is also included and shoots the bullshit moments into the stratosphere! Its a shame that the more-refined SNES version of Gradius 3 hasn't been included, even if its changes put it closer to being a more slavish copy of Gradius 2.
Finally the new Salamander 3 game is a fun little edition, if a little slight with its short run-time and lack of anything really that new. It does fit in nicely with the other games in this collection however, as it was made to look contemporaneous with their era, perhaps even a small step back compared to the pre-rendered graphics of Salamander 2. Still, great fun and one I will absolutely be spending more time with over the years. Many have complained at not getting Gradius IV, V and Gaiden in this collection, but I don't think they understand how much time and effort it takes to emulate these games so accurately when the budget and team is small, so I forgive their exclusion. I wouldn't say no to both a future collection of those, and an update to this one that adds some of the best console versions of the existing games (NES, PC Engine and SNES games essentially).

MACROSS Choujikuu Yousai (Arcade,) Sept '92
This was a major surprise for Hamster to release in their Arcade Archive line as the Macross brand is a notoriously closely guarded IP (probably explains why this was a Japan only release). This was developed by the wonderful b-tier developer NMK and feels in style like one of their Thunder Dragon games...indeed it appears to have the same explosions as the first game of those two. Unlike the first Thunder Dragon however, it clearly enjoyed a decent budget, as there are more music tracks and much more variation in the levels, with all seven levels being entirely unique, often with scenery varying across each level too. Another bonus is that the difficulty has been toned down,making it not unreasonable to reach the final level on one credit with a bit of practice. At that point the difficulty goes off the charts with enemies spawning continually from all directions, but at least I wasn't hitting a wall early on like I normally do. Definitely a very worthwhile addition to the Arcade Archives line.

Super Hydorah (PS4 version, 2017)
A love letter to the Gradius games, this is a beautifully made horizontal shmup where you can visit a generous number of varied and well designed little worlds and beat a myriad of bosses. Beat each world and you earn a new weapon to help you progress further. I don't think I'll spoil any more here but if you enjoy old school horizontal shmups like Gradius and Darius then you'll have a good time here. Only negative is the unskippable story segments with pretty awful voice acting. Don't let that put you off though as there aren't many and they are brief.

Tier B

MACROSS II Choujikuu Yousai - June '93
Fantastic to have now both NMK Macross shmups to buy on a modern console, and thankfully this one is available outside of the Japanese store. Horizontal shooting unlike the first game, and unusual in that you game over if time runs out before you gain a high enough point total each level. To start you pick one of three sets of three different levels which all converge on the same fourth final level. The challenge is to keep up the constant killing while picking up the quickly disappearing point medals and avoiding being hit; achieving two of those three only would be relatively easy but getting all three is where the challenge lies. You can die as much as you want, only you power down with each hit and are therefore less able to murder everything. It becomes very hard to balance the constant killing, frantic medal collection while not getting powered down and the later levels have squeaky-bum levels of scraping through the boss battles in time. The presentation and music are all decent though not top of the tier for '93; and in all it is the ultimate game for a quick blast but perhaps a little to manic and stressful for one to enjoy really sinking ones teeth into!

Eliminate Down Jun '93 Aprinet
A horizontal shooter space with impressive visuals for the Megadrive, probably up there with the best on the system. The sountrack unfortunately is much more average, missing the rock goodness of Thunder Force for example. The game is also damn hard, with more than a few irritating gotcha moments that requires memorization. Despite that it is one of the better Megadrive shooters that I would have loved had I got to play it back in the day. Going through it now, I didn't have a strong drive to learn its tricks, probably because I was just emulating it on my psp which is not an ideal system for good ship contol in my opinion. If it ever gets a modern console re-release, I will definitely buy it.

Omega Fighter (Arcade - July '89)
Fantastically well made vertical shmup from UPL that surprises in how modern the gameplay feels. Your ship can choose between power ups that keep a narrow stream of death with increasing power, or alternatively an increasingly wide spread shot that has reduced range as the spread gets wider. The on-screen mayhem is both fast and relentless to match the incredible power of your little ship. Give it a smaller hit box as well as the ability to switch between the spread and focussed shot on the fly and you would effectively have a Cave-esq title, six years before DonPachi even appeared! As it stands, it's older school larger hitbox makes it a very difficult game, and I couldn't get beyond level three on one credit due to the crazy number of turrets that kept popping up all over the screen. Shame, but one final impressive innovation is that every level is taking down a different section of a massive space ship; not just a big ship level then, but a big ship whole game!! Regrettably, for some reason, this game wasn't released in the UK on the Arcade Archives line, so for the Brits we have to use a foreign PS Store to buy it. Was worth the faff though even if it kicked my arse far too hard.

Cotton : Fantastic Night Dreams (Arcade) Apr '91
The first of now MANY Cotton games and I felt I had to go back and start here before I went on to play the later games. A horizontal cute-halloween-stye shmup (and possibly the first of this now popular style), your witch, the eponymous Cotton and her fairy entourage, murder their way through six levels in search of giant sweets, before collecting as many cups of tea as you can as they fall like rain. Naturally.
The denizens of creepy forests, graveyards, castles and a volcano are all fair game for the obsessed Cotton as you pummell them with an endless spray of magic, unlease more powerful spells and from their carcasses collect gemstones to gradually power yourself up.
It's silly fun and while there are certainly games with better mechanics, bosses, music and graphics in the same era, it has nothing significantly spoiling one's general enjoyment either. Just like R-Type, it gets enough right first time to set up a franchise that has gone on for years; crazy to think that it has had two brand new games in the last few years, and two more are in the works! If only Thunder Force had this amount of love!! My only irritation I guess is the gemstones are similar in nature to Twinbee's bells, preventing shots from hitting enemies as you instead cycle them through different colours. Not quite as painfully annoying as those wretched bells, but I had my moments of irritation. Otherwise a pretty decent little game, just a shame it didn't come with the PC Engine version's music which fecking ROCKS!!

Kaitei Daisensou/In the Hunt (Arcade Apr '93)
One of Irem's last games before some of their best devs left to make the Metal Slug series. It is a horizontal submarine based shmup where you can contol whether the screen scrolls on or not. To keep you from dawdling though, there is an ever-present countdown that will cause a loss of a life if it reaches zero. Your sub can launch torpedoes and drop mines as well as fire at air-based enemies if you surface. Much fun can be had by just wrecking shit around you with your firepower and as usual for Irem, the graphics and music are top tier. I do find the slow pace of all Irem's games a bit off-putting though, so it wasn't a shmup that I fell in love with, but I know many shmup fan holds it in very high esteem and it is easy to see why.

Tier C

Daioh - June '93
A traditional vertical shooter that later was partially remade as the shooter Shienryu. The levels are made up of the usual kind of things: canyons, ruined temples, over seas & islands, before heading into space for the second half with the obligatory asteroids and final enemy space station malarkey. It is decent in presentation with good clear graphics and inoffensive music. The gameplay is tightly designed although the difficulty ramps up too quickly to higher levels than I tend to enjoy. Other than the brutal difficulty, my other complaint is that I really struggle to remember any of it, even a couple of weeks after finishing playing it. It's all so unremarkable with little to make it stand out among its peers. I think I have had more fun with rougher more janky shmups that have a bit of identity in comparison to this. Other then the triple head-penis second boss. That was something else.
Anyway, not a bad game in truth and one that suffers more when you have played so many like me.

Ordyne Sept '88 Namco
Early horizontal cute-em-up from Namco which has some impressive rotational backgrounds for the late 80s, but then Namco were really quite ahead of the game in this era (see the impressive scaling effects on their games Assault and Metal Hawk as well as Phelios for other great examples). Ordyne is relatively easy for an arcade game; my first attempt on one credit got me all the way to stage 5 (of seven) without losing a single life, whereupon I was so surprised at my success I flew straight into a wall then proceeded to chain death through the rest of my lives by being utterly rubbish. Your ship can collect currency with which to power up via a shop, a la Forgotten Worlds. It was enjoyable for a short blast but it wasn't quite my thing due to the rather kiddyish graphics and music, so I moved on pretty soon. Its alright I guess.

Final Star Force (Arcade) Nov '92
So if NMK are a fun b-tier shmup developer, Tecmo can often feel c-tier and this one of theirs is no different. A fairly standard vertical shooter that doesn't stand out of the crowd on first glance, but it does have its charms. Relatively fun and easy gameplay due to your ship being able to fairly quickly power up and emit a wide spead of pure mayhem against your foes. The popcorn (basic enemies) are rather bland in design and while the bosses fare better, they still don't hold a candle up to those in more impressive in '91 shmups. The backgrounds are a mixed bag with some being very impressive, such as Stage 3's giant rotating space elevator, and others being dire, stage 5's moon background looking like it was done by the work experience guy. The music is the game's biggest sin, being that it switches tracks when you collect a different weapon type. The tracks range from okay to pretty rubbish, but really grate when they keep switching between the same four throughout each level. At least all is forgiven when you beat the game and the ending text congratulates you on finally finishing "The long borign (sic) war". That gave me a chuckle. It sounds rubbish, but the destruction your ship can mete out saves it from a lower tier.

Strike Gunner (Arcade - Apr '91)
A very average vertical shmup that fortunately is a quick 20 mins to beat along with not being overly difficult, so I did end up enjoying it for a short while. The backgrounds are bland and limited, being only forest, earth or various cliched space settings and the enemies are very uninspired. Add in rather poor music and you might think it had nothing going for it other than being mercifully short, however it does have one fun little innovation: before each level you have to pick from a selection of secondary weapon types. Once picked you cannot choose it again for future levels. As a result, one can has to be quite tactical in working out which weapon suits which level most effectively. It is much better than its pretty dire Snes port, which stretches the minimal game assets to over double the length turning a short and snappy arcade game into a turgid trudge of a console game.

Tier D

Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams X68000 September '93
This release on the Japanese computer Sharp X68000 is different enough to the arcade (and PC Engine CD Rom) release to have its own entry. Most accessible via the relatively recent Cotton Reboot! release which has the X68k original and its modern remake (the latter of which will be played separately at a later date). Although this game includes the same gameplay as the original '91 arcade game and the eponymous witch flies her way through the same six levels, the graphics have been improved, some of the enemy placements have changed and the bosses range from mild attack pattern changes to being completey new. It is generally seen as a better version than the arcade original and in all but one critical area I agree. What killed my enthusiasm here was the control of Cotton felt far worse and more slippery than the arcade original that I played (aka the Arcade Archives one). I think it is a combination of worse input lag in this release than the typically excellent offering from Hamster, as well as very slightly faster diagonal movement than orthogonal (a pet hate of mine which likely existed in the original release even if the input lag didn't). A quick play of the Remake did not have this issue, so I quickly gave up on this original version after a couple of full credit fed playthroughs, as I just wasn't enjoying it and knew I would be playing a better version soon enough. Its a good game for sure , just not ideal in this slightly laggy release; I suspect the actual x68000 release would play better.

Tatakae! Big Fighter [Sky Robo] Jul '89 Nichibutsu
A hidden gem? Well not really. This horizontal mech shooter is pretty mediocre and forgettable I found. Your mech can transform into a ship and back on the press of a button and the visuals aren't bad for '89, but even by then there had been better, more refined shmups that blow this out of the water. On the plus side it's not too difficult to progress at first, only truly dropping the ball on the poorly designed final level which can only realistically be beaten with heavy memorization of the unintuitive positioning you'll need. Despite that, the game is fun to pick up and play casually every so often, just not worth any hardcore time being put in to legitimately beat.

Tier E

Q-YO Blaster Jan '18
A horizontal shooter with a myriad of different ships to play which all look like a weird collection of the dev's childhood toys.Your selection flies through the 10 levels which generally consist of bedrooms, yards, gardens and later forests while you fend off insects and the like. The bosses are often well animated and more unique in nature, being wacky and varied. The music was fairly forgettable and the gameplay misses the mark too. All player ships often have rather uninteresting and slighty too weak shot so even small fry can take too many hits; enemy shots are too often lost in the animated background details and the boss fights just go on far too long. These are all common problems found traditionally in euro-shumps and this falls into the same trap. Its just all a bit dull ultimately, and the story line between levels make so little sense that even the Kingdom Hearts series nonsense appears like masterful writing in comparison.

[Samildanach]

Oh, and I am currently playing the arcade version of Hyperduel which will probably go in the A tier. Technosoft is my jam.

[eksratu]

I've got very different tastes than some of you!

S-TIER

• Mushihimesama - still my favorite shmup, explored 1.5 Max Mode a bunch and failed at all my Maniac 1cc attempts
• Blue Revolver: Double Action - loved the music and patterns, the remixes are a huge improvement, Dee is sick
• Fantastic Danmaku Festival Part 3 - the thoughtful reimaginings of all the T8 music and the deeper connections made to stuff like Tale of the Bamboo Cutter and the legend of Chang'e (on top of what T8 was already doing) elevates FDF 3 to one of my personal favorites, also the visuals are just decadent, my goodness
• Mushi Futari - got my Maniac 1cc with Reco, highly dopaminergic gem cashouts

A-TIER

• Armed Police Batrider - wish I'd played this earlier, it's so cool even if it's super janky
• Hazelnut Hex - solid danmaku, probably my favorite horizontal shooter
• Devil Blade Reboot - I can tell that a visual artist poured their heart into this game
• Sektori - pretty slick, very fun to look at, a bit random to actually approach as a beatable thing, different ship types didn't catch my interest
• Muchi Muchi Pork - why are these mechanics so fun

B-TIER

• Birdcage - I don't like the kinds of games that Birdcage draws upon, but I'm glad I gave it a try anyway
• Lilac 0 - didn't mesh super well, felt like it was less than the sum of its parts, stylish though
• Progear - it's aite
• Crystal Breaker - fun, but I wasn't super interested in the scoring stuff
• Danmaku Unlimited 3 - it's DFK stage 5 laser wheels the video game except extremely buggy

C-TIER

• Star of Providence - I think I dislike roguelites; beat my first run and uninstalled
• Night Striker Gear - just not my thing, glad I played it though

I also did a whirlwind tour of the Toaplan and Cave titles with a friend who was new to shmups. That whole experience and the subsequent debriefing took us about a month. It was an absolute S-tier great discussion, even if the games themselves weren't all individually amazing. Drawing connections across time and tracing how ideas/concepts/mechanics/play dynamics gradually developed was a joy.

[AGermanArtist]

A lot of my Shmup related gaming has been via Emulation this year thanks to the addition of a living room mini PC.

S
Raiden Fighters Aces Xbox 360 via Xenia - difficulty options aren't present in MAME, so thankfully this has the option to tone it down a little. For me, and others will probably disagree, I would rate the difficulty of the arcade versions around Fire Shark level - generally oppressive, but on Easy it's a lot more playable, and as such, I've had a great time with all three games in the collection.

Border Down DC via Redream
I spent the $5 to obtain the upgrade from the free version of Redream, and the game looks absolutely fucking amazing on a 4K display. Some of the effects just pop on screen and it generally looks ultra-sharp. This is the "HD remake" people cry for.

Gradius Gaiden PS1 via PCSX2
My favourite of the series in 1080p

A
Gradius V PS2 via PCSX2
The old girl has never looked so good.

Gradius Rebirth Wii via Dolphin

Devil Blade Reboot PC/Steam
A beautiful looking, super solid game. I just wish there was more weapon options.

B
Salamander 3 PS5
Looks great, sounds great, but lacks content and feels a little undercooked. On first playthrough my reaction was "is that it?"

C
Earthion MD via Ares
I find it kind of tedious. I tried it in an emulator first and didn't bother going any further with it.

[blazinglazers69]

A lot of my Shmup related gaming has been via Emulation this year thanks to the addition of a living room mini PC.

What kind of mini pc so you have? I love my M5 nucbox. Awesome retro/indie machine and nice for a media player on vacation.

I set up Dolphin on an HP Elitedesk with a Ryzen 5 2400g for my buddy and it’s a little beast. Got him all his old GameCube games. Such a nice gift.

[AGermanArtist]

A lot of my Shmup related gaming has been via Emulation this year thanks to the addition of a living room mini PC.

What kind of mini pc so you have? I love my M5 nucbox. Awesome retro/indie machine and nice for a media player on vacation.

I set up Dolphin on an HP Elitedesk with a Ryzen 5 2400g for my buddy and it’s a little beast. Got him all his old GameCube games. Such a nice gift.

I got a Beelink SER5 Pro Mini with a Ryzen 5825u. It's a great emulation box and desktop PC, and runs pretty much anything up to PC versions of Xbox 360 games in 4K - Outrun 2 It'll also run a lot of indie Steam stuff like Blue Estate/Devil Blade Reboot/Crimzon Clover/New Star GP/Zero Ranger and Killer 7's recent update, Night Striker Gear and the new Marvel thing with ease. I love playing the Operation Night Strikers collection with a mouse.

[Angry Hina]

I looked at my YT channel and I was a bit shocked to see, how long I've uploaded Vids of Ghost blade HD. I guess I started playing near the end of march and my last of 7 Vids came on 30th of october O.o holy crap, I guess it was good

And I would say it was in fact really good and way better as it seams at first, but it has some flaws and it lacks a bit genius. But I give it still an A Tier. Call it european but I like it, if a STG is challenging even if you don't have to rout that much. You can't see this very often in japanese STGs and of course its an art too to make an appealing memorizer or something in between but its great that some can design fair and high difficulty with a bit more freedom and less memo work for the player. I very much liked that on Razion EX too (another german STG). I was very pleased to beat this game on hard with the weak ship ^^

###

After so many months of Ghost blade, I wanted to play some more easy games to get some low hanging fruit-1CCs or at least know some more STGs a bit better. I was again interested in why some like Gradius so much. Everytime I play one or a Parodius, I think that these games suck:D So I bought the best looking and possibly easiest: Gradius Advance. The first stages are too easy and you don't have do do much and then the typical Gradius cheasyness starts. Some tentacles whant you to stop shooting if you don't want to get slapped by them. But if you got that, its ok. But there is this hig speed section and you have to fly exactly the right path. Why this difficulty spike in a game which is more on the relaxing side at most parts. I think this stage design sucks ^^ F Tier or so (I will play it next year again and possibly I like it more later)

###

Cotton 100%: got a Icc fast (as expected) but will try next year a 1LC and record that. I like how cool it looks, that the ground will not kill you and the creativity of the level design and some bosses. It was my first time playing a cotton and heard before that Deathsmiles (which I like) was a bit inspired from Cotton. It was really surprising how much Deathsmiles is a Cotton (in Danmaku Style of course). I like that game. But tbh its a bit lame, how safe you can play with this shield magic. It would even be too strong if it wouldnt stay active after a stage clear. Its surely too much so I give it a B-C Tier ranking.

###

Had some test runs with Thunder Cross. At first I played accidently the US version with its simpler Pod-Management and the obscure, super cheap and super dangerous homing shot enemies. Its the worst STG I've ever played because of that (even badder than Darius Twin): G-H Tier (or X/Y/Z). The JP version was much better but this one won't be a favorite of mine too. Its an ok game of you look at its age. It sounds and looks nice (or great for its time) but the overall feel and the stage design.... you really don't have to play this game. I aim at a 1cc this winter or so. D Tier.

###

An easy Toaplan 1cc? Take my money Vimana was as expected a very fast 1cc. I was surprised how bad it worked and how boring and empty it was, but I figured out, that the autofire breaks the game hard because of its spread shot concept. So I played a bit on autofire to get a reasonable 4th loop clear. Even with it the last stage has its moments where you have to use your rare bombs and powering up again can get a bit hard so the fourth loop clear wasn't too easy. More loops could have been done with my state of the training but I don't like games you have to play for longer than 90 minutes.

After that I played with manual tapping. I think this works really well and because of the spread shot system you don't have to tap all the time. Very good idea. The 1 All was a bit harder compared to the 4 All with AF and much more fun. I think the game took a big step to more modern STGs compared to the games before and I also like the Tatsujin style graphics and some concepts of the stage/enemy designs. A Tier. I don't like how wild the last stage gets. It depletes your recources and some moments can cause dirty chain deaths.

###

After my awesome (:D) run on the console (MD) version of Tatsujin (it was Truxton tbh, because my version switch on my MD was broken) (you can watch it her: https://youtu.be/zLvZPOMQ2A0), I now was able to play the ARC version. Surprisingly there are some aspects, I like more about the console version but the hardly visible blue bullets of the last stage still are shit. But I have to say, the buggy (?) Checkpoints of the MD port are a nice thrill and on the other hand, its a bit lame, that the ARC version sometimes warps you a bit forward to the next checkpoint. Was a bit work to get my old routs and some new routs going but now I had a version with safe stage training enabled so I could train much more effective compared to my console only MD-run. But it wasnt the thrill like than of course but great fun nevertheless.

Still,I love that game even though I am sometimes not sure if the strict positioning demand is a bit cheap but the overall balancing is so great and its hard to find a classical (pre Batsugun) Vert where everything works so well. S Tier.

###

Edit: forgot about some test runs on Final Star Force: I think its cool. I like the classic SF so I love to see some connections to it. There are also some cool background ideas and overall... it feels just nice and fun (its possibly because the difficulty is on the lower end and the stages are short). Will surely 1cc it next year. Give it a B Tier for now.

[blazinglazers69]

A lot of my Shmup related gaming has been via Emulation this year thanks to the addition of a living room mini PC.

What kind of mini pc so you have? I love my M5 nucbox. Awesome retro/indie machine and nice for a media player on vacation.

I set up Dolphin on an HP Elitedesk with a Ryzen 5 2400g for my buddy and it’s a little beast. Got him all his old GameCube games. Such a nice gift.

I got a Beelink SER5 Pro Mini with a Ryzen 5825u. It's a great emulation box and desktop PC, and runs pretty much anything up to PC versions of Xbox 360 games in 4K - Outrun 2 It'll also run a lot of indie Steam stuff like Blue Estate/Devil Blade Reboot/Crimzon Clover/New Star GP/Zero Ranger and Killer 7's recent update, Night Striker Gear and the new Marvel thing with ease. I love playing the Operation Night Strikers collection with a mouse.

Yep, I have that same processor and would definitely recommend it to people as a budget pc. I’m glad i got mine a few months ago before prices went up here in the States. Also Killer 7 is a phenomenal game.

[AGermanArtist]

What kind of mini pc so you have? I love my M5 nucbox. Awesome retro/indie machine and nice for a media player on vacation.

I set up Dolphin on an HP Elitedesk with a Ryzen 5 2400g for my buddy and it’s a little beast. Got him all his old GameCube games. Such a nice gift.

I got a Beelink SER5 Pro Mini with a Ryzen 5825u. It's a great emulation box and desktop PC, and runs pretty much anything up to PC versions of Xbox 360 games in 4K - Outrun 2 It'll also run a lot of indie Steam stuff like Blue Estate/Devil Blade Reboot/Crimzon Clover/New Star GP/Zero Ranger and Killer 7's recent update, Night Striker Gear and the new Marvel thing with ease. I love playing the Operation Night Strikers collection with a mouse.

Yep, I have that same processor and would definitely recommend it to people as a budget pc. I’m glad i got mine a few months ago before prices went up here in the States. Also Killer 7 is a phenomenal game.

Definitely top 10 - even better now in 16:9 with albeit minor QoL improvements.

[M.Knight]

If I had to put literally every new shmup I tried this year it would be 200+ or some shit because I got to try so many therefore I'll stick to the most notable games and the not-so-new ones I really focused on

Spoiler

S tier

• Psyvariar 2 One of the most exciting grazing shmups, with satisfying level-ups, incredible music, cool mecha design and boss fights, and maybe one of the better designed shmup TLBs out there where you fully engage with the game's unique mechanics and are rewarded for it.
• Muchi Muchi Pork Charming world and audiovisuals combined with an excellent medal chaining scoring system that blows away any other YGW medal system I tried in terms of raw game juice and joy of collection.
• Homura Incredibly engrossing atmosphere, stylish boss designs, and sword mechanics that are fun to use whether you stab enemies for wild multi-slash combos or swipe bullets for big and snappy reflects.
• Final Crisis - Terrestrial Police Force PC-88 horizontal space shooter which is rather straightforward gameplay-wise but has great music and fantastic artwork in between stages of its lovable and cool heroines saving the galaxy.
• Twin Eagle II Tankboatplane shmup that actually has tons of charm with its pre-rendered graphics, cheesy voice clips, and snazzy music, and is also tons of fun to play thanks to the command moves giving you lots of invincibility.
• Ootsurugi Very original and fun shmup where you are on a disc and spin around its center rather than scrolling horizontally or vertically and where you can also use a sword to slash and stab enemies or even dash through formations of them for big multipliers.
• Space Seeker A super unique and quite fascinating hybrid experimental game with a strategy map to move around, horizontal stages with variable speed scrolling, and turret stages with kamikaze enemies trying to ram your guns.
• Isin Densin Zero Captivating and well-designed short score attack shmup with a grappling hook you use to land combos on enemy formations and capture civilians for points.
• Pilot Kids Easily the best Psikyo shmup ever, with a beautiful game world and fantastic music combined with lock-on mechanics that are so immediately enticing to play with (especially on 2P side)
• Radirgy Noa (Expand Mode) A fun gimmick mode with the giant player mecha that makes some sections of the game play differently (especially the Dreamer09), and the base game itself was already quite fun to play even if a bit weaker than the OG.

A tier

• Triggerheart Exelica Grabbing enemies with your cute mecha musumes and throwing them never gets old, though I wish the game's settings looked less drab and gray and the quintillion versions and revisions of the game with different scores weren't so confusing.
• Plus Alpha Very pretty cartoony tankboatplane that features beautiful music, is exciting to play, has properly balanced recovery, and has some fun extra stuff like uncovering the ground bonuses for a unique factor even in the mechanics.
• Scorpius Grappling hook/Snake tail shmup with great music and fun controls that quickly becomes quite demanding and memorization-heavy, pushing you to really master the hook.
• Raiden Fighters 2 After initially dismissing it due to bland backgrounds, generic tankboatplane design, and fake character variety, I realized while playing it for score in Calice Cup that it is actually really tight and very well-designed when you wanna get medals and play the game as intended, even if I still didn't like the train stage all that much in the end.
• Dan Laser Despite the great music, Dan Laser is initially an unassuming Game Boy shmup when playing the Normal Mode...but one that becomes very unique in its Crazy Mode since you can now erase the walls and obstacles with your laser, which is a twist I don't think I saw in many other shmups out there.
• B-System A boss rush of Darius-like foes but with a Gradius-style powerup system using capsules you collect from boss parts, B-System blends both inspirations together rather well despite the Gradius Syndrome and keeps you playing it to see what the next cool boss fight is gonna be.
• Changeable Guardian Estique I tend not to care about NES/Famicom shmups but this one is great fun especially in its highest difficulty thanks to the special attacks as well as its cheerful and facetious music.
• Eagles 5 Simple shmup with Star Force-esque enemy waves and adorable music, which seems to be pretty tricky at first but becomes a lot easier after you get to max power and thus can't lose it anymore even if you take hits.
• Rayxanber series Excellent music and lots of memorization in this series, and the lack of power levels (and thus lack of heavy power loss) also makes it kinda immune to Gradius Syndrome.
• Mad Crasher Isometric racing-esque shmup with jumps, obstacles, crazy enemy cars and a non-stop pacing with no breaks and a really catchy tune playing the whole time.
• Us VS Them Very cool FMV shmup that may not have the tightest controls nor hitboxes but is a great cinematic experience and is paced really well with tons of stages in different shmup styles (hori, vertical, rail shooter) that never outstay their welcome.
• Touhou 3 PoDD It's Touhou, it's fast and furious and fun.
• Blast Wind Tecnosoft isn't usually my cup of tea but this less gotcha-based shmup from them is my jam, and the fantastic music helps especially with the recent famade translation patch fixing the sound balance.
• Gradius 4 Good old Gradius with really cool and unique music as well as some more interactive weapons such as the vertical mines or the expanding missiles.
• P-47 Aces eXa Applying a 16:9 format to this game makes it feel much more comfortable and the Exa Label's hypers also let you progress more easily.
• Vulgus A chaotic and surprisingly enjoyable Capcom shmup that keeps you on your toes and pushes you to perfect your cutbacks to handle enemies flying all over the place while also giving you a nice balance with specific formations of enemies to combo with special attacks.
• Equites This transforming mecha shmup was inspiration for Estique and it's not hard to see why, besides it feels very interactive and involved with its fun special weapons and engaging air/ground management.
• Jigoku Kisetsukan Touhou-style indie shmup with its own unique style, characters, lore, and world, was very comfy to play.
• Osorubeshi Xaklogian Nicely-paced MSX homage shmup with a dash of caravan-style tiles to destroy, and some unique enemy encounters.
• Idinaloq A rather easy Raystorm-inspired isometric shmup but with so much soul with its music and songs, and a blast to play with the pods that cancel bullets and recharge a strong beam.
• G-Darius Still a very routing-heavy shmup with scripted bosses, but playing this seriously for Calice Cup made me appreciate the capture and beam mechanics a lot more.
• Twinbee Yahho I would maybe rate this lower if I had to play a lot more outside of Calice Cup, but it seems like one of the coolest Twinbee shmups with the cinematic moments.
• Seirei Senshi Spriggan (Score Attack) I had no idea Compile actually made a caravan-style shmup and it was pretty enjoyable to play even if the speedkill aspect often takes the backseat compared to special bonuses and micro-milking.
• Silk Worm Surprisingly fun horizontal military shmup especially with the 2P-side jeep, and deep thanks to the turret micro-milking and score bonus heli spawn mechanics that make most enemy spawns more interesting.
• Radirgy DGJL Tower defense / survival take on the Radirgy formula which is naturally a good time as always with Milestone, however the early game could be spruced up a bit.

B tier

• Creature Jungle 16 Doujin shmup with cool music and a satisfying secondary shot featuring diagonal fireballs that you can use to get more points from enemies.
• King & Balloon Tower Defense-based take on the Galaga style with its own medieval setting and that's pretty novel in giving you infinite lives and having you instead protect a target that's actually vulnerable.
• N-Sub Submarine shmup putting the pressure on you with enemies from the top but also the sides, the latter of which can also be defeated with side shots that add extra dynamics to the game.
• Carnival A carnival-themed (duh!) precision shooter that has tons of flavor in an older style of shmup usually dominated by more generic Space Invaders-style aesthetics.
• AE Single-screen shooter that is about precision and where you can detonate your shot to potentially cause satisfying chain reactions on the conga lines of enemy waves.
• Android Fun Space Invaders style shmup except your ship is wayyyy stronger and mobile, and where enemies have silly designs and bullet attacks.
• Yellow Submarine Is a little too easy for its own good but is otherwise a cool take on the submarine shmup style with a good ship speed, upwards missiles and downward mines.
• Mystic Riders I casually enjoyed using the broom throw mechanic which just turns every encounter into a potentially fun bout.
• Mahou no Shooter Putchin Plin A simple shmup whose toolkit is too traditional especially for the colorful aesthetics and goofy enemy designs but its cool music and fun art still make it enjoyable to play.
• Sora o Kakeru Shojo Shooting An anime-based, JP-only, delisted DsiWare shmup that I have been curious to try for a long while and that was decently fun with more stuff to play with that I assumed and a proper scoring system even, though it's hard to deny the health point system is a bit euro.
• Game.X More a prototype than a full game since you just shoot an endless amount of enemies and asteroids but it got those basics right enough to grab me more than I'd expect, and the item collection also contributed to that feeling.
• Rabio Lepus (Expert Course) Stage design is a bit poor at times and the atmosphere is too random and incoherent for me but the pacing is so fast that you can't really hate it, especially for a tourney like Calice Cup, and the secondary missiles are enjoyable...before you run out of them which is very easy to do.
• Battle Traverse Decent CAVE-inspired doujin that shines in its presentation and cool scenes, but is still ultimately just a CAVE shotlaser shmup with no standout weapon and with resource dump endgame
• Kiaidan 00 Not an outstanding game especially because of the bloated length and poor pacing, but I loved the hype vocal songs, and the charged flail/chain attack is pretty unique and fun to play with throughout the stages.
• Rocket Attack A bizarre single screen Amiga shmup that's paced like Wario Ware and looks and sounds like an acid trip gone wrong, where you want to see what the next crazy micro-stage background and silly title is gonna be like.

C tier

• Polaris A submarine shmup that's not as enjoyable as N-Sub or Yellow Submarine but is still cool in its own right and also has a proto Taito cardinal-laser in the form of some enemy missiles.
• Cyber Core Alfa System's take on Dragon Spirit but bug-themed is decent for a PC Engine shmup, but the final stage difficulty spike kinda hurts it as the rest of the stages kinda become a waiting room in comparison.
• Super Space Forteress Macross Decent classic shooter but it is impossible not to compare it to the second Macross shmup which adopts a caravan focus and is so much better to play as a result.
• Mission For Adult A pretty terribly designed amateurish shmup but it was somewhat enticing to figure out how to beat the stages and especially the silly and absurd bosses just to get the H pictures at the end hahaha.

D tier

• Gallop Armed Police Unit Awesome concept of a speed shmup but the unappealing audiovisuals and the weak ship left me completely cold.
• Earthion (Steam) A euroshmup not made for shmuppers but for nostalgic retrogamers instead, and even if it still has a few good tunes and stage visuals here and there, it feels kinda cliché and lacking in a personality of its own in that presentation aspect.
• Earthion Exa A definite improvement over the non-exA version of Earthion, but is still trapped within the confines of the Megadrive design prison with uninteresting weapons and no real reason to want to be good at the game (which were also problems of the original game to be clear).
• Jam Jam'n'Jelly exA Not even CAVE shotlaser slop-tier, but laserlaserlaser slop that is so obsessed with its lame laser that it sacrifices everything else that could have been interesting in it (like its trailing options), which is a shame because the visuals and world seemed rather strong.
• Slap Fight Pretty meh game as expected for Toa but the Gradius mechanics and being able to skip the terrible early-game and being rewarded for it are at least something to work with.
• Psychic Storm Something you play with the easier character and easily beat and then forget about, which is a shame as most of the unique mechanics aren't fully explored, and some like the independent power increases among characters even discourage you to vary characters in a run.

E tier

• Space Raiders Could have been a Twin Eagle II-style cheesy take on Space Inavders but is instead just too plodding and boring to nail it.

Thunder Dragon 2
[...]Perhaps the only thing holding it back is that there is just one ship type and it only has one main attack type, so although the game is a blast to play, it's true longevity is slightly diminshed by that lack in variation.

You're one of today's lucky 10 000! Play as the second player and you will have access to a different ship, with a higher mvoement speed, narrower shot, and homing missiles. It's probably harder to clear with it but it's quite fun to play as.

[Samildanach]

If I had to put literally every new shmup I tried this year it would be 200+ or some shit because I got to try so many therefore I'll stick to the most notable games and the not-so-new ones I really focused on

Spoiler

S tier

• Psyvariar 2 One of the most exciting grazing shmups, with satisfying level-ups, incredible music, cool mecha design and boss fights, and maybe one of the better designed shmup TLBs out there where you fully engage with the game's unique mechanics and are rewarded for it.
• Muchi Muchi Pork Charming world and audiovisuals combined with an excellent medal chaining scoring system that blows away any other YGW medal system I tried in terms of raw game juice and joy of collection.
• Homura Incredibly engrossing atmosphere, stylish boss designs, and sword mechanics that are fun to use whether you stab enemies for wild multi-slash combos or swipe bullets for big and snappy reflects.
• Final Crisis - Terrestrial Police Force PC-88 horizontal space shooter which is rather straightforward gameplay-wise but has great music and fantastic artwork in between stages of its lovable and cool heroines saving the galaxy.
• Twin Eagle II Tankboatplane shmup that actually has tons of charm with its pre-rendered graphics, cheesy voice clips, and snazzy music, and is also tons of fun to play thanks to the command moves giving you lots of invincibility.
• Ootsurugi Very original and fun shmup where you are on a disc and spin around its center rather than scrolling horizontally or vertically and where you can also use a sword to slash and stab enemies or even dash through formations of them for big multipliers.
• Space Seeker A super unique and quite fascinating hybrid experimental game with a strategy map to move around, horizontal stages with variable speed scrolling, and turret stages with kamikaze enemies trying to ram your guns.
• Isin Densin Zero Captivating and well-designed short score attack shmup with a grappling hook you use to land combos on enemy formations and capture civilians for points.
• Pilot Kids Easily the best Psikyo shmup ever, with a beautiful game world and fantastic music combined with lock-on mechanics that are so immediately enticing to play with (especially on 2P side)
• Radirgy Noa (Expand Mode) A fun gimmick mode with the giant player mecha that makes some sections of the game play differently (especially the Dreamer09), and the base game itself was already quite fun to play even if a bit weaker than the OG.

A tier

• Triggerheart Exelica Grabbing enemies with your cute mecha musumes and throwing them never gets old, though I wish the game's settings looked less drab and gray and the quintillion versions and revisions of the game with different scores weren't so confusing.
• Plus Alpha Very pretty cartoony tankboatplane that features beautiful music, is exciting to play, has properly balanced recovery, and has some fun extra stuff like uncovering the ground bonuses for a unique factor even in the mechanics.
• Scorpius Grappling hook/Snake tail shmup with great music and fun controls that quickly becomes quite demanding and memorization-heavy, pushing you to really master the hook.
• Raiden Fighters 2 After initially dismissing it due to bland backgrounds, generic tankboatplane design, and fake character variety, I realized while playing it for score in Calice Cup that it is actually really tight and very well-designed when you wanna get medals and play the game as intended, even if I still didn't like the train stage all that much in the end.
• Dan Laser Despite the great music, Dan Laser is initially an unassuming Game Boy shmup when playing the Normal Mode...but one that becomes very unique in its Crazy Mode since you can now erase the walls and obstacles with your laser, which is a twist I don't think I saw in many other shmups out there.
• B-System A boss rush of Darius-like foes but with a Gradius-style powerup system using capsules you collect from boss parts, B-System blends both inspirations together rather well despite the Gradius Syndrome and keeps you playing it to see what the next cool boss fight is gonna be.
• Changeable Guardian Estique I tend not to care about NES/Famicom shmups but this one is great fun especially in its highest difficulty thanks to the special attacks as well as its cheerful and facetious music.
• Eagles 5 Simple shmup with Star Force-esque enemy waves and adorable music, which seems to be pretty tricky at first but becomes a lot easier after you get to max power and thus can't lose it anymore even if you take hits.
• Rayxanber series Excellent music and lots of memorization in this series, and the lack of power levels (and thus lack of heavy power loss) also makes it kinda immune to Gradius Syndrome.
• Mad Crasher Isometric racing-esque shmup with jumps, obstacles, crazy enemy cars and a non-stop pacing with no breaks and a really catchy tune playing the whole time.
• Us VS Them Very cool FMV shmup that may not have the tightest controls nor hitboxes but is a great cinematic experience and is paced really well with tons of stages in different shmup styles (hori, vertical, rail shooter) that never outstay their welcome.
• Touhou 3 PoDD It's Touhou, it's fast and furious and fun.
• Blast Wind Tecnosoft isn't usually my cup of tea but this less gotcha-based shmup from them is my jam, and the fantastic music helps especially with the recent famade translation patch fixing the sound balance.
• Gradius 4 Good old Gradius with really cool and unique music as well as some more interactive weapons such as the vertical mines or the expanding missiles.
• P-47 Aces eXa Applying a 16:9 format to this game makes it feel much more comfortable and the Exa Label's hypers also let you progress more easily.
• Vulgus A chaotic and surprisingly enjoyable Capcom shmup that keeps you on your toes and pushes you to perfect your cutbacks to handle enemies flying all over the place while also giving you a nice balance with specific formations of enemies to combo with special attacks.
• Equites This transforming mecha shmup was inspiration for Estique and it's not hard to see why, besides it feels very interactive and involved with its fun special weapons and engaging air/ground management.
• Jigoku Kisetsukan Touhou-style indie shmup with its own unique style, characters, lore, and world, was very comfy to play.
• Osorubeshi Xaklogian Nicely-paced MSX homage shmup with a dash of caravan-style tiles to destroy, and some unique enemy encounters.
• Idinaloq A rather easy Raystorm-inspired isometric shmup but with so much soul with its music and songs, and a blast to play with the pods that cancel bullets and recharge a strong beam.
• G-Darius Still a very routing-heavy shmup with scripted bosses, but playing this seriously for Calice Cup made me appreciate the capture and beam mechanics a lot more.
• Twinbee Yahho I would maybe rate this lower if I had to play a lot more outside of Calice Cup, but it seems like one of the coolest Twinbee shmups with the cinematic moments.
• Seirei Senshi Spriggan (Score Attack) I had no idea Compile actually made a caravan-style shmup and it was pretty enjoyable to play even if the speedkill aspect often takes the backseat compared to special bonuses and micro-milking.
• Silk Worm Surprisingly fun horizontal military shmup especially with the 2P-side jeep, and deep thanks to the turret micro-milking and score bonus heli spawn mechanics that make most enemy spawns more interesting.
• Radirgy DGJL Tower defense / survival take on the Radirgy formula which is naturally a good time as always with Milestone, however the early game could be spruced up a bit.

B tier

• Creature Jungle 16 Doujin shmup with cool music and a satisfying secondary shot featuring diagonal fireballs that you can use to get more points from enemies.
• King & Balloon Tower Defense-based take on the Galaga style with its own medieval setting and that's pretty novel in giving you infinite lives and having you instead protect a target that's actually vulnerable.
• N-Sub Submarine shmup putting the pressure on you with enemies from the top but also the sides, the latter of which can also be defeated with side shots that add extra dynamics to the game.
• Carnival A carnival-themed (duh!) precision shooter that has tons of flavor in an older style of shmup usually dominated by more generic Space Invaders-style aesthetics.
• AE Single-screen shooter that is about precision and where you can detonate your shot to potentially cause satisfying chain reactions on the conga lines of enemy waves.
• Android Fun Space Invaders style shmup except your ship is wayyyy stronger and mobile, and where enemies have silly designs and bullet attacks.
• Yellow Submarine Is a little too easy for its own good but is otherwise a cool take on the submarine shmup style with a good ship speed, upwards missiles and downward mines.
• Mystic Riders I casually enjoyed using the broom throw mechanic which just turns every encounter into a potentially fun bout.
• Mahou no Shooter Putchin Plin A simple shmup whose toolkit is too traditional especially for the colorful aesthetics and goofy enemy designs but its cool music and fun art still make it enjoyable to play.
• Sora o Kakeru Shojo Shooting An anime-based, JP-only, delisted DsiWare shmup that I have been curious to try for a long while and that was decently fun with more stuff to play with that I assumed and a proper scoring system even, though it's hard to deny the health point system is a bit euro.
• Game.X More a prototype than a full game since you just shoot an endless amount of enemies and asteroids but it got those basics right enough to grab me more than I'd expect, and the item collection also contributed to that feeling.
• Rabio Lepus (Expert Course) Stage design is a bit poor at times and the atmosphere is too random and incoherent for me but the pacing is so fast that you can't really hate it, especially for a tourney like Calice Cup, and the secondary missiles are enjoyable...before you run out of them which is very easy to do.
• Battle Traverse Decent CAVE-inspired doujin that shines in its presentation and cool scenes, but is still ultimately just a CAVE shotlaser shmup with no standout weapon and with resource dump endgame
• Kiaidan 00 Not an outstanding game especially because of the bloated length and poor pacing, but I loved the hype vocal songs, and the charged flail/chain attack is pretty unique and fun to play with throughout the stages.
• Rocket Attack A bizarre single screen Amiga shmup that's paced like Wario Ware and looks and sounds like an acid trip gone wrong, where you want to see what the next crazy micro-stage background and silly title is gonna be like.

C tier

• Polaris A submarine shmup that's not as enjoyable as N-Sub or Yellow Submarine but is still cool in its own right and also has a proto Taito cardinal-laser in the form of some enemy missiles.
• Cyber Core Alfa System's take on Dragon Spirit but bug-themed is decent for a PC Engine shmup, but the final stage difficulty spike kinda hurts it as the rest of the stages kinda become a waiting room in comparison.
• Super Space Forteress Macross Decent classic shooter but it is impossible not to compare it to the second Macross shmup which adopts a caravan focus and is so much better to play as a result.
• Mission For Adult A pretty terribly designed amateurish shmup but it was somewhat enticing to figure out how to beat the stages and especially the silly and absurd bosses just to get the H pictures at the end hahaha.

D tier

• Gallop Armed Police Unit Awesome concept of a speed shmup but the unappealing audiovisuals and the weak ship left me completely cold.
• Earthion (Steam) A euroshmup not made for shmuppers but for nostalgic retrogamers instead, and even if it still has a few good tunes and stage visuals here and there, it feels kinda cliché and lacking in a personality of its own in that presentation aspect.
• Earthion Exa A definite improvement over the non-exA version of Earthion, but is still trapped within the confines of the Megadrive design prison with uninteresting weapons and no real reason to want to be good at the game (which were also problems of the original game to be clear).
• Jam Jam'n'Jelly exA Not even CAVE shotlaser slop-tier, but laserlaserlaser slop that is so obsessed with its lame laser that it sacrifices everything else that could have been interesting in it (like its trailing options), which is a shame because the visuals and world seemed rather strong.
• Slap Fight Pretty meh game as expected for Toa but the Gradius mechanics and being able to skip the terrible early-game and being rewarded for it are at least something to work with.
• Psychic Storm Something you play with the easier character and easily beat and then forget about, which is a shame as most of the unique mechanics aren't fully explored, and some like the independent power increases among characters even discourage you to vary characters in a run.

E tier

• Space Raiders Could have been a Twin Eagle II-style cheesy take on Space Inavders but is instead just too plodding and boring to nail it.

Thunder Dragon 2
[...]Perhaps the only thing holding it back is that there is just one ship type and it only has one main attack type, so although the game is a blast to play, it's true longevity is slightly diminshed by that lack in variation.

You're one of today's lucky 10 000! Play as the second player and you will have access to a different ship, with a higher mvoement speed, narrower shot, and homing missiles. It's probably harder to clear with it but it's quite fun to play as.

Thanks for the tip, I will definitely take a look. Fortunately, I have poor enough skills to have no chance of a 1cc in that game regardless!

[M.Knight]

Oh I'm sure that with enough practice, time investment, passion, and patience, you can do it! Doesn't have to be fast either, just progressing at your own pace and then possibly getting to the point where the clear is realistic sounds like a chill and smooth time.
...well, that reminds me I actually still haven't cleared it yet even though I first played the game years ago

[Mykaizer]

A lot of my Shmup related gaming has been via Emulation this year thanks to the addition of a living room mini PC.

S
Raiden Fighters Aces Xbox 360 via Xenia -

I tried Raiden Fighters Aces with Xenia and it crashes upon loading the first level. Did you have this problem?

[Faith]

I tried Raiden Fighters Aces with Xenia and it crashes upon loading the first level. Did you have this problem?

Yes me too, same problem >.<!~ Crash when try start game @___@"...

[AGermanArtist]

I tried Raiden Fighters Aces with Xenia and it crashes upon loading the first level. Did you have this problem?

Yes me too, same problem >.<!~ Crash when try start game @___@"...

No. I had a graphical glitch in Raiden Fighters, but it was a known issue and the fix was on the Help page. No other issues. Try in Canary if you haven't already.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD055YGLMfc

[1000Eyes]

• Psyvariar 2 One of the most exciting grazing shmups, with satisfying level-ups, incredible music, cool mecha design and boss fights, and maybe one of the better designed shmup TLBs out there where you fully engage with the game's unique mechanics and are rewarded for it.
• Pilot Kids Easily the best Psikyo shmup ever, with a beautiful game world and fantastic music combined with lock-on mechanics that are so immediately enticing to play with (especially on 2P side)

Do you play Psyvariar 2 with the analog roll? Been meaning to get into this series, but was wondering if im ruining it with button inputs.

Also interesting Psikyo pick! There's always one i havent tried apparently. Im a Psikyo fan but i have none of their games on rotation atm. What makes this their best gameplay wise?

Also I like that you have a YT channel filled with replays. Very helpful!

[SquidDude]

This seems like an interesting idea, I'll split mine up into games that I put actual effort into scoring and games that I played for survival, since that affects my perception of them a lot:

Score Games

S Tier (the peak)

Ketsui: It's just the best game ever made, the game design is just on another level compared to anything else (imo). I've just started re-routing loop 1 to improve my score a bit before I go for the Ura 2-ALL, and it's still just... flawless (absolutely no surprise for anyone who knows me from discord)

A Tier (great games)

Dangun Feveron: The only other Cave game I've put any real effort into, it's possibly THE most gameplay dense shmup out there. Scoring is very simple (especially compared to Ketsui), but it's still very hard to optimise due to the enemy waves spawning at set times, and the end of game bonus.
Incredibly fun game, my only issue with it is that it genuinely hurts my wrist after playing it for a bit (and that's the main reason I didn't push my score any more once I got to 12M). Also Time Attack mode owns

Battle Garegga: Another normie pick, but it's just a fun game. The scoring process is pretty flexible with Bornnam (at least until you get to D level), I didn't really savestate it much at all and yet it still felt natural to learn the game that way, it was a very different experience to any other game I've tried scoring.
It doesn't look like a very objectively good game to me at higher levels of play, with the abundance of hard RNG, but it's an extremely enjoyable game to play at what I'd consider mid-level.

B Tier (alright games)

Salamander 2: This is a very cool looking and sounding game, but it's a Gradius game so there's no scoring system! But at least this game ends after a (realistic) set amount of loops, meaning it can be optimised if you wanted to.
Not that you would ever want to unless you're a JHA player, it's just killing enemies, milking a couple of bosses, and trying to do the two 100K bonus tricks per loop.
Still sounds alright, but it's just SO random, the game can decide to just not give you the 2 required option pickups for the first 100K trick (which is a real issue in the second loop), and there's also a good bit of hitbox jank in stage 3 because why not (who doesn't love invisible enemies spawning on top of you?).
Thank the lord I got all 4 of the 100K bonuses on my first 2-ALL
The force field drops are also totally random (fun!!)
Fun, but flawed.

Batsugun (Original): Pretty sure this is just Rabio Lepus for people who are scared of V*deo System (like me). Basically all of your score comes from one (seemingly random) trick, very cool. It's a fun game to get a ~17M score in and bounce, I can't see why you'd go any further than that though.
Oh and the characters are also extremely unbalanced, but it does have Iceman (toa power)

Honourable Mention

Battle Bakraid: I tried scoring this briefly earlier this year, but got distracted with Ketsui soon afterwards, literally 0 people play this game but I swear it's good, I'm definitely gonna try and properly score it at some point in the future. It's a very unique game where you have to essentially chain across multiple stages, by managing your resources (and rank), as each chain takes a good amount of resources to get going.



Survival Games
(most of these games I just 1CC'd and bounced, so I'll rate them on how "fun" they were overall)

A Tier

Armed Police Batrider: Cleared Advanced Course with a few characters in this, it's a yagawa game so of course scorevival is super fun, the special extend adds a bit of extra strategy to the game compared to the standard yagawas, as do the secret bosses, it's just fun.

B Tier

Hyper Duel: This game was interesting, played it in a kumite and it was a total mess (partly because retroarch's dip settings for it are messed up), but I went back to clear it afterwards using my beloved MAME 0.270 lol. I imagine this is what the console Technosoft games would be like if they were good. Soundtrack is amazing, and it's a nice compact length, would recommend.

Ibara: It's pretty dull for survival, the stages are pretty boring from a gameplay standpoint and you just have to keep the rank low enough so that each boss dies in one or two hadous. Presentation is very cool though (especially the soundtrack) so I liked it, would like to score it at some point.

Life Force (JP): Salamander if it was good, the game actually has extends, and I prefer the overall presentation to Salamander too (the voice lines are incredible)

Flying Shark: A Toaplan game that's actually kind of fun somehow. I just did a 1-ALL, but it's actually designed in a way where you can basically sight-read the game without having to huhmemo a really precise route (I guess that's a roundabout way of calling it easy)

C Tier

Salamander: Life Force if it was bad (nah). I did 2-ALL's in both Salamander and Life Force, but there's not too much to say about them since the game doesn't really get hard until loop 3 (with the suicide bullets).

DOJ BL: cave bombspam 1-all #500, nothing to say, but it's DOJ so it was kind of fun

Strikers 1945 II and 1999: Psikyo 1-ALL's

D Tier (not fun)

Nemesis (World): This is just Gradius with slightly shorter pre-boss sequences (played this on the mister and it didn't/doesn't have a proper Gradius core). I 2-ALL'd it, was planning on 3-ALL'ing but it just does not feel like the game was designed around suicide bullets to me. There are a few sections (e.g. beginning of stage 4, one bit in stage 7) that BEG for you to have a shield, and if you don't have one you're 100% screwed (unless you want to waste even more time learning the insanely precise recovery strats, I took one look at PEG's "all recoveries" video and decided it wasn't worth it lol)

Salamander III: Completely insane difficulty, the game itself looks and sounds very cool, but the loops get ridiculous very quickly, and yet the game hands you tons and tons of extra lives, so it's not even unreasonable to clear multiple loops of this after just a few attempts. Very strange game, it seems like it does actually get very hard, requiring routes, later but I never felt like playing for multiple hours per run just to get to that point.

SENGOKU ACE: This game is LITERALLY like watching paint dry, the second loop is barely harder overall than the first because all of the patterns are just psikyo huhmemo anyway, with Koyori you usually just bomb and pointblank each boss too. There's also the requisite stage randomness with one stage in loop 2 being a lot harder than all the others (the river stage), the video system ammo system also makes an appearance (yay), and the only stage that gives you any sort of resources can randomly decide not to show up, and even if you do get it, all of the item drops are RANDOM.
Which in turn also makes the scoring in this game completely deranged (and not in a funny way).

[Lethe]

Dangun Feveron: The only other Cave game I've put any real effort into, it's possibly THE most gameplay dense shmup out there.

Please refrain from making such inflammatory statements until you've played Touhou 3 for score :^)

"Passionate affair followed by dropping it like a rock" is the story of seemingly everyone who plays Feveron, it's like nobody wants to go too hard and break the mystique. I think it's because everyone plays Roll or Cat and neither the demands of survival nor scoring are balanced well against how punishing they are to fuck up. My own PB leaves a realistic +600k on the table and I've never tried to improve it predominantly because it started feeling very rote outside of stage 2, and while stage 2 is the best part of the game it's also at the mercy of some annoying RNG.

Of course lots of games can drag when it comes to the post-routing execution grind, but granularity and detail, and peaks and troughs in the pacing that make the run seem worth playing out even if you fail, smooth out the waning and keep the learning process alive. IMO Feveron doesn't have much of that. They did a great job with the stage design conceptually and got a lot of juice out of simple mechanics, the details could have done with a bit more time in the oven.

[M.Knight]

Do you play Psyvariar 2 with the analog roll? Been meaning to get into this series, but was wondering if im ruining it with button inputs.

Also interesting Psikyo pick! There's always one i havent tried apparently. Im a Psikyo fan but i have none of their games on rotation atm. What makes this their best gameplay wise?

Also I like that you have a YT channel filled with replays. Very helpful!

I play Psy 2 with autoroll on the emulated PS2 version. Manual rolling is not as painful as in the first Psyvariar since you can continously move or hug a screen edge but autoroll is just a lot more fun for me and lets me focus on proper grazing and movement rather than joystick masturbation. Besides, there's still places where you would wiggle even with the Psy 2 manual rolling behavior.

What drew me to Pilot Kids compared to most other Psikyo systems is that the lock-on is enjoyable to pull off with the tension and release cycles, and you quickly feel like exploring the possibilities on enemy waves and formations. The game's relatively easier difficulty level also eases you in more smoothly. I hate the flashing coin system they usually have because you basically have to wait until the bus shows up for every coin and it just breaks the momentum every time and just feels so stuttery. On top of that, I just love the Pilot Kids aesthetics and music a lot more so that helps!

And thanks!

Dangun Feveron: The only other Cave game I've put any real effort into, it's possibly THE most gameplay dense shmup out there.

When you say something like that, you better have played all the shmups out there to compare hahaha. I get what you mean though! Caravan-style shmups and their dynamic spawns have potential to make every moment (possibly every frame!) matter for optimization. Dangun seems high up there with the speedkilling and discoman collection, though I can see how not every wave nails it.

"Passionate affair followed by dropping it like a rock" is the story of seemingly everyone who plays Feveron, it's like nobody wants to go too hard and break the mystique. I think it's because everyone plays Roll or Cat and neither the demands of survival nor scoring are balanced well against how punishing they are to fuck up.

I'm pleading guilty Still haven't picked the game again after a Roll "scorevival" clear. I found the game so difficult to beat in the first place that trying to go back to it for even more improvements sounds daunting, and I'm still very far from you guys' levels with TLB unlocks. I guess the scoring punishing you so much for one single death also doesn't help bridge that gap between medium-level runs like mine and runs with a TLB clear.

[SquidDude]

My own PB leaves a realistic +600k on the table and I've never tried to improve it predominantly because it started feeling very rote outside of stage 2, and while stage 2 is the best part of the game it's also at the mercy of some annoying RNG.

Yeah, imo it doesn't help that a lot of sections in the game devolve into some kind of same-y left-right-left-right movement either. (that movement is also a real hand killer for anyone playing on stick)

I guess the scoring punishing you so much for one single death also doesn't help bridge that gap between medium-level runs like mine and runs with a TLB clear.

In general, I'm not a fan of big end-of-game bonuses in shmups and this is why, I remember in my first clear of the game I was actually about to get a no-miss, but I died a couple of frames before the final boss died and it cost me about 3 MILLION points
I still can't imagine having to do that final boss with only 1 bomb (or even 0!) like the high-level replays do, to maximise the 200K per bomb end bonus (another reason why I wasn't too enthused about pushing the game any further).
And that'd be 10x worse if you were using bomb-style lol

[plats]

Devil Blade Reboot: This game nails everything with the presentation and plays great. There's lots to love about this, but it's so damn easy on normal. I think I blind 1CC'd it with like six lives left over.

o_o"... always forget about this game, will install soon! I watched it a bit few times this year, other players doing run, and I think for this game... easy to clear, hard to score. Because, scoring is 100% PB'ing everything lol... and... even though game gives you visual on where enemy is coming from... it still looks like big challenge! Jaimers run of this game is super crazy to watch!~

I think for me... I will wait for Steam Replay 2025... because it will surely answer my question for me lol.

Started Crimzon Clover in Feb, now 700+ hours >.<!~

So, no need tier list lol!!!~

What does 700 hours on that game looks like? Really curious

[Faith]

Try in Canary if you haven't already.

Problem with Canary for me is I cannot use keyboard, just cannot recognize any keyboard button at all x_x"... only main branch keyboard work for me...

What does 700 hours on that game looks like? Really curious

Like this >.<!~ (Video of Clear)

[plats]

What does 700 hours on that game looks like? Really curious

Like this >.<!~ (Video of Clear)
[/quote]

Honestly this makes me want to play it, crazy good score - it must of been super gratifying !!!

[To Far Away Times]

Salamander 2: This is a very cool looking and sounding game, but it's a Gradius game so there's no scoring system! But at least this game ends after a (realistic) set amount of loops, meaning it can be optimised if you wanted to.
Not that you would ever want to unless you're a JHA player, it's just killing enemies, milking a couple of bosses, and trying to do the two 100K bonus tricks per loop.
Still sounds alright, but it's just SO random, the game can decide to just not give you the 2 required option pickups for the first 100K trick (which is a real issue in the second loop), and there's also a good bit of hitbox jank in stage 3 because why not (who doesn't love invisible enemies spawning on top of you?).
Thank the lord I got all 4 of the 100K bonuses on my first 2-ALL
The force field drops are also totally random (fun!!)
Fun, but flawed.

Fun fact, there is a trick you can do to make sure you always have two options for the first 100K trick. From game start the power up order will be as follows: Speed up, multiple, missile; and then the Laser and Ripple appear at around the same time. If you pick up the first three power ups, and don't pick up the laser or the ripple, the next power up will always be an option power up.

Not sure if this works in the second loop or not.

[SquidDude]

Fun fact, there is a trick you can do to make sure you always have two options for the first 100K trick. From game start the power up order will be as follows: Speed up, multiple, missile; and then the Laser and Ripple appear at around the same time. If you pick up the first three power ups, and don't pick up the laser or the ripple, the next power up will always be an option power up.

Not sure if this works in the second loop or not.

This is the strat I was using actually, but it seems like it still fails around 10-20% of the time, dunno if there's some extra hidden condition you have to fulfill outside of just avoiding the 2 lasers, or if it is just down to some kind of RNG.
It does also work in loop 2 (so it's a great way to get an extra 100K at the end of a 1-ALL if it works properly lol)