I made a quiz to see how well you know your shmups from their stage 1 music

[BenDTU]

https://shmup-stage-1-quiz.vercel.app/

Currently approaching 300 games, gives a random set of 20 games per quiz. Also has a daily set quiz.

Relies on auto-playing Youtube for playing music, so ad-blockers may mess things up there.

Current record for most arrangements of a song is R-Type with 10 arrangements, current record for most songs is Lord of Thunder with 6 stages that could be a stage 1 across two different platforms.

[eksratu]

Sharing this with my friends, thanks for making this! Managed 11/20 on today's set.

[Sumez]

Fun!

Got destroyed by the Touhous

[Jucksalbe]

18/20, but only because I chose "Novice" mode, barely played any of the games. But I found most answers were different enough that I could just go by the musical style.

Got destroyed by the Touhous

Never played a Touhou game, but I got them all. If it sounds like it could be in a DDR game, it's probably Touhou.

[Starfighter]

Cool! There's no audio for me though, weird...

Edit: I checked the console and noticed it's pulling music from youtube, that would be the reason (youtube doesn't let VPN connections stream content without actually being on the site, logged in). Temporarily turned off the VPN and now it's working. (I read "Relies on auto-playing Youtube for playing music, so ad-blockers may mess things up there." too late, doh!)


16/20, many of them were guesses though, haha!

[BenDTU]

youtube doesn't let VPN connections stream content without actually being on the site, logged in

Ah, good to know. I had a couple of people say that it didn't work for them at work, guess that's why.

It'd be good if I could properly detect if the videos are successfully playing or not, but I don't think that's possible unless you're using the player API, which I had issues autoplaying in Safari with last I checked.

[guigui]

Got 2/20 in the Advanced Mode, I could recognize Progear and Ikaruga

I love the flavos texts for each song, though most of the time they may confuse you : "Be attitude for gains" with the Ikaruga music!

[MarioNintendo]

What a great idea, I wish I had thought of it myself! Good job on the execution.

[BenDTU]

I love the flavos texts for each song, though most of the time they may confuse you : "Be attitude for gains" with the Ikaruga music!

They're totally random from a set of 20ish, I need to think of more to go in. Anything that's bizzarro in or out of context is a good candidate.

[NairobiNantucket]

Pretty fun!

Once you're acquainted with it, ZUN's sound is so iconic (I don't think he sounds like any Bemani artists at all) it's at least a free elimination on multiple choice or a free answer if Touhou aren't grouped together. Although I'd never be able to place them exactly since the TH games and fangames in my Steam library are unplayed, his motifs are pervasive in the doujin music scene. Heard them so much in different places it blurs together, sort of like Joe Hisaishi's work but for otaku.

Metal Black and Ketsui I recognized instantly despite never playing a single credit of the latter in my life. PC ShotTriggers besides Taito please...

Speaking of, Zuntata and Toaplan also have strong aural identities which made guessing RayCrisis & RayStorm and Fire Shark & Flying Shark respectively easy. I had a harder time guessing DOJ Black Label Extra & Futari despite Manabu Namiki's involvement. Once again, more CAVE on PC please.

Spoiler

Console shmups are a definite weakness. Guessing Plus Alpha for TFIV is hilarious in hindsight as I just watched it in Push To Reject, though its 2nd loop starts you on Stage 3.

Getting R-Type Delta wrong on a random set felt pretty bad too, that's what I get for only playing with the arrange OST.

On technicals, I'm surprised it works on a setup I have that Youtube refuses to let play any regular embeds. Well done!

[lastemperorjubei]

Thanks, this is fun. Got 14/20 on novice and 3/20 on advanced.

I agree about Toaplan and Zuntata having unique styles. The second song on advanced sounded like Hans Zimmer and without playing it I knew this is CYGNI but then changed it to Jamestown and it was CYGNI.

[it290]

Awesome idea! This is super fun and introduced me to a few great tunes I hadn't heard. Only got 5/20 on Advanced... I would have scored 6 but second-guessed myself and picked something else when Dariusburst came on

Having that many Touhou games in the list is definitely evil! I've played quite a few of them but there's no way I can guess which game each is from.

Also, FYI not sure if this is a bug or not, but the music from Samurai Aces stops after a few seconds.

[BenDTU]

Getting R-Type Delta wrong on a random set felt pretty bad too, that's what I get for only playing with the arrange OST.

I wasn't aware that one had an arranged soundtrack, I've added that for the next song update.

Having that many Touhou games in the list is definitely evil! I've played quite a few of them but there's no way I can guess which game each is from.

Also, FYI not sure if this is a bug or not, but the music from Samurai Aces stops after a few seconds.

There's a 3 song per series limit in place pretty much purely so the whole list doesn't get filled with Touhou haha. I had that whole list in early on so I was hearing those songs a lot.

The Samurai Aces tracks are sourced from a whole-soundtrack YT upload, I've cleaned up the end times for each track so they'll hopefully sound like they're being cut off less abruptly.

[KAI]

and then i got destroyed by the advanced one

thanks for sharing this, its a lot of fun.

[BenDTU]

I’ve added the ability to share your results. Today was not my best run:

Shmup Stage 1 Quiz
29 March 2026 • Advanced
9/20 (45%)


https://shmup-stage-1-quiz.vercel.app

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

Got an abominable 7/20 on easy mode... had to make lucky guesses, too

[D]

BenDTU, just awesome. Don't know any of the houtou shmups

[guigui]

I love the flavos texts for each song, though most of the time they may confuse you : "Be attitude for gains" with the Ikaruga music!

They're totally random from a set of 20ish, I need to think of more to go in. Anything that's bizzarro in or out of context is a good candidate.

Totally random, ok ! This was misleading to me because I thought they were somehow linked to the music playing.

If you want more, I can give some from that topic I made where I gathered famous video game sentences for a cab project of mine. There are many nice from shmups games :

Code: Select all

do a barrel roll!  
blast off and strike the evil bydo empire  
all your base are belong to us  
select your battlefighter  
are you ready set we started on a trip to hell  
This is not similation. 
Get ready to destroy the enemy target for the weak points of f00kin'machine. 
you need more practice  
please continue  
approach your target and attack your mission starts now, are you ready?  
max chain splendid  
are you great ? we are great  
do a barrel roll 
hyper system ready 
I never thought I'd be frying over a jungle  
Why don't you try hard?
Let's attack aggressively!
selectyourfighterandbastardtheenemy  
destroy the core
be attitude for gains hardiness sleight of hand friend ship
just a couple more shots
Violator and subject to severe penalties and will be prosecutedt to the full extent of the jam

[Whiskers]

Random • Novice
16/20 (80%)



Ha, ha. Got destroyed by Cotton.

I like novice mode the most. It almost feels like I’m playing the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? - Shmups Edition. I’d wager this is gonna be rad to have in a shmupmeet.

[Darkseed_5150]

Novice 14/20

[BenDTU]

Glad people are still enjoying it! I'm loading in the remaining Thunder Force tracks tomorrow, forgot those had stage selection.