What other types of games do shmuppers play?

sffan · Post by **sffan** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 2:06 pm

I mainly shmup, but when I'm not shmupping I'll play some early '80s arcade games (console ports & mame) or some online light-saber dueling (Jedi Academy). Also I'm still somewhat hooked on Katamari Damacy and looking forward to the sequel.

Darkcomet72 · Post by **Darkcomet72** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 3:45 pm

I'm a sucker for "Fun racers": Like Kart racers(Such as mario kart), Fast racers(Such as F-zero) and any racer with excellent level design(Such as Splashdown).

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 3:49 pm

I'm mainly an RPG (esp. SRPG) fan although I'm backlogged too far back and uninterested in them currently.

I play 2D fighters whenever I get a chance except Guilty Gear. OK at them, sometimes comparable to minor tourney players, sometimes ass.

Played plenty of 2D sidescrollers and most beat-em-ups out there.

I occassionally play arcade-style racing games like Ridge Racer. Better at them than I am at shooters even but not interested at the moment.

Blade · Post by **Blade** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 4:56 pm

I'm not a strict "bound by genre" type of gamer. I've played them all...except I'm not really interested in certain types of Sports Games.

I'm all for obscure stuff too.

Chaos Legion
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
Zone of the Enders
Gundam Battle Assault 2
Guilty Gear Isuka
Final Fantasy you-name-it
Legend of Zelda you-name-it
Star Ocean 3: Till the End of Time
Ico
Tetris Worlds
Dragonball Z: Budokai 3 (Cheezy, yes, fun, definitely)
Tenchu 3: Wrath of Heaven
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battle Nexus (Gotta love Bemups)
Castlevania: Lament of Innocence
Super Bust-a-Move 2 (C'mon, I love Puzzle Bobble!)
Dance Dance Revolution Remix (got the Pad too)
Valkyrie Profile (non-rpg players should try this one)
Mobile Suit Gundam: Encounters in Space
Rygar: The Legendary Adventure
MTV Music Generator 3 (I like all kinds)
Disgaea: Hour of Darkness (for TRPG Fiends)

Of course, I've only just started on my Shmup collection:

R-Type Final
Mobile Light Force 2 (Yeah, yeah, it's crap, but it's my first Vert, so leave me alone!)
Gradius V (would you believe I bought this "used"? O.o)

I play MAME of course, but usually to find out what kinds of games are worth playing repeatedly like Dodonpachi and Cyvern. Of course, I'm extremely hopeful that they find a way to emulate Radiant Silvergun and Ikaruga on MAME soon...heh. I'd buy them of course if I ever own a Dreamcast or Saturn at some point.

FRO · Post by **FRO** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 6:24 pm

I would consider myself a hardcore shmup player, evidenced by the fact that I have more than 10 gaming systems and have at least one shmup for all but 2 of them.

Other genres I like:

2-D & 3-D fighters - gotta love Street Fighter 2, Tekken 3, Soul Calibur, etc.

2-D & 3-D platformers - everything from Super Mario Bros to Spyro the Dragon.

3-D action games - I'm mostly talking about certain games, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds, Metal Gear Solid, Syphon Filter series (which I often obsess about)

RPGs - mostly modern stuff like FF7, Parasite Eve, Lunar, etc.

Puzzle games - I go through phases on these. I played a LOT of Tetris & Dr Mario on Gameboy at one point, along w/ an obscene amount of Columns on my Genesis. My current puzzle addition is Bejeweled on my Pocket PC.

I suck at and don't care for most sports games (except Mike Tyson's Punch Out of course!), and I suck at most simulation games, i.e. flight sims.

Neon · Post by **Neon** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 6:45 pm

Is Magical Drop 3 a PC game? I haven't heard of it.

Like homeboy said, it's on the neo geo...also got ported to Saturn and PSX. Magical Drop 2 actually has a decent port on the SNES. I recommend it. money puzzle exchanger is on the neo and psx.

SpooN · Post by **SpooN** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 6:47 pm

Mmmh I seem to be the only shmup fan who likes RTS games as well.
To mention some of them:
Homeworld 1/2 and even Cataclysm (for the story/atmosphere)
Battle Realms (for the multiplayer, too sad it's rather unknown)
Broodwar (I was late to discover it's multiplayer values)

Because I was always stuck to PC games I'm not into platformers very much.

Other games I like(d):
Thief
American McGee's Alice
Grandia 2
Rayman 2 (never finished Rayman 1 but it was fun back in the days too, I should play it again)
Giants

And many more which are not outstanding enough to be mentioned.

So besides RTS games (and shmups of course) there is no particular genre of games I like.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 7:03 pm

Neon wrote:
Is Magical Drop 3 a PC game? I haven't heard of it.
Like homeboy said, it's on the neo geo...also got ported to Saturn and PSX. Magical Drop 2 actually has a decent port on the SNES. I recommend it. money puzzle exchanger is on the neo and psx.

Money Puzzle Exchanger is on GB too. There is also a GB Magical Drop, but it seems to be US or European designed and it's pretty bare bones, though not bad from what I tried. However, there are the NGPC Magical Drop games too and I heard that they are better than the GB one.

dboeren · Post by **dboeren** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 7:45 pm

BrianC wrote:
Neon wrote:
Is Magical Drop 3 a PC game? I haven't heard of it.
Like homeboy said, it's on the neo geo...also got ported to Saturn and PSX. Magical Drop 2 actually has a decent port on the SNES. I recommend it. money puzzle exchanger is on the neo and psx.
Money Puzzle Exchanger is on GB too. There is also a GB Magical Drop, but it seems to be US or European designed and it's pretty bare bones, though not bad from what I tried. However, there are the NGPC Magical Drop games too and I heard that they are better than the GB one.

Heh, I just bought a Magical Drop 3 MVS cart on eBay a couple of days ago. I'd like to get Money Puzzle Exchanger sometime too, but it tends to be more expensive. I also have Puyo Puyo 2, Puzzle Bobble 2, and Tetris Plus in the arcade puzzle game category.

raiden · Post by **raiden** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 7:56 pm

if you want to play Magical Drop 3 in singleplayer (not recommended, versus gets much more exciting - similar to Twinkle Star Sprites), you should try to play it on a japanese bios (or Unibios) in order to enable hard mode. If you don´t, you might end up asking yourself what´s supposed to be so fast about this game.
btw. the answer to that question is "the player". You can pull lines down with the C button (the main difference between Magical Drop 2 and 3), enabling you to set up big combos in a few seconds, but risking a quick game over at the same time.

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 8:03 pm

Not to mention the US versions of Magical Drop have no story...

visuatrox · Post by **visuatrox** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 8:36 pm

Shmups
2D Fighters & 3D Fighters
Survival Horror

I also enjoy RPG's (also strategy) but I rarely have any time to play those

ED-057 · Post by **ED-057** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 9:41 pm

In the 8/16-bit days I played every kind of game, even a few sports games... Now it's mostly shmups and Super Robot Taisen, and an RTS or FPS game when I can play multiplayer. Occasionally I go back and revisit my favorites from other genres like SSF2, Phantasy Star, Megaman, Sonic, etc.

dboeren · Post by **dboeren** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 9:50 pm

There seems to be a definate preference among shmuppers for 2D gameplay over 3D, particulaly in fighting games.

I'm totally onboard with this, 2D games tend to have better precision and a tighter feel since you can see exact distances better. I also happen to think that well drawn sprites look much better than textured polygons. They just have more personality to them, you know?

Ord · Post by **Ord** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 10:02 pm

When i'm not playing shmups it's usually FPS that do it for me. Lately i've been playing a lot of Half Life 2 : Deathmatch which is great fun. I Loved Oddworld: Strangers Wrath, it turned out to be one of the best titles on the bloody x-box. Thief III for atmosphere and Brothers In Arms so far has been excellent although i'm beginning to think it's all about performing flank & pincer movements.
Oh and Resident Evil 4 is superb!

tehkao · Post by **tehkao** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 10:30 pm

I love shmups, but I completely abhor FPS games. When I heard they made Metroid into a FPS, I almost puked.

Resident Evil 4 isn't a FPS though. It's mostly a 3rd person game.

Now it's mostly shmups and Super Robot Taisen

Wow...another Super Robot Taisen fan?...which ones are you favorites? I love those games but since they take forever to play, I haven't played too many...my favorites are Advanced, Final (Saturn), Alpha (Dreamcast/PS).

FRO · Post by **FRO** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 11:47 pm

SpooN wrote:Mmmh I seem to be the only shmup fan who likes RTS games as well.

My bad, I was thinking only of console games. I also like RTS games. My wife and I obsessively play Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds w/ the Clone Campaigns expansion pack. We even design our own scenarios

We are also into Diablo II, though that's more hack-n-slash as opposed to RTS.

captain ahar · Post by **captain ahar** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 12:41 am

while i've not been playing much besides shooters lately. i love 2d action games (castlevania, mega man, others) and 3d shooters (1st and 3rd person, old and new) and 3d action (God of War looks sweet and i liked Splinter Cell until it got boring).

some games (specific or types) i want to get into are Pop n' Music looks like a blast, and i really want to learn how to play mahjong. the Puyo games are also awesome from what i have played. there are others i can't think of.

The Bullet Dodger · Post by **The Bullet Dodger** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 12:54 am

I'm a 2D lover

So when I'm not shmupping, I'm most likely fighting. 2D fighters are my second favorite genre right under shmups. Samurai Spirits 4, Garou MOTW/Desentsu 3/Real Bout Special, Last Blade 2, King Of Fighters 98-2003, Street Fighter 3rd Strike/Alpha 3/Double Impact, Vampire Chronicle, and Capcom vs SNK 2 are what I might be playing to feed my 2D addiction. Hell, sometimes I get sick of playing both shmups & fighters, and I'll throw in a nice FPS or even a 3D fighter of some kind, like Project Justice, DOA 3 or Virtual Fighter 4, and a few others. It really all depends on the mood I'm in. But still, I cannot go a whole month without playing at least one shmup. It's like medicine. I need my fix!

tehkao · Post by **tehkao** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 2:14 am

I used to play a lot of RTS games, but only 2D ones like Starcraft. When most RTS started to go to icky-3D, I stopped playing them.

alpha5099 · Post by **alpha5099** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 3:24 am

When I was little, I played lots of games on my Mac. I was in love with WarCraft II, although I sucked really bad. I never got that into StarCraft, it was missing that certain je ne se qua (damn French, how the hell can I be expected to know how to spell that) that WC2 had. I think it was the Troll Berzerkers. If they had put them into Space Suits, I would've been in heaven.

I also really loved this game that no one has ever heard of, called Gridz. I think it would be considered a RTS. It was this big *gasp* grid and you had to build robots to construct large matrices of territory on the grid. It was one of my favorite games. I've been meaning to get a new copy because a) I lost my serial number, and b) my old copy probably isn't compatible with OS X.

I also loved Sim City 2000 and the You Don't Know Jack games. These days though, the only gaming on my computer is MAME and the occasional ABA game.

Dylan1CC · Post by **Dylan1CC** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 3:27 am

Moving this to OT.

When I'm not playing shmups the main games I play are:

Old school platformers, adventure or actioners like SMB, Metroid, Contra, ect.

3D games such as Metroid Prime, Mario 64 & Sunshine, Jet Grind Radio, Shenmue and started playing Sonic Adventure again this weekend (best in the 3D Sonic series IMHO despite the dull Cat and Amy levels, everything else is excellent) after finding the disc which was lost and then found after 2 years.

I also really enjoy playing Halo multi player with my brother and friends and Bomberman '94 multiplayer (this ends up being the favorite Bomberman game hands down for almost every friend I have introduced it to except for one friend who has nostalgia for super bomberman)

shiftace · Post by **shiftace** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 3:56 am

A hardcore shmupper shouldn't be playing much of anything else, should s/he. I guess I'd call myself hardcore if I actually spent money on it instead of just my time. I used to play a lot of RPGs, and there are some board games I like. Some puzzle games, too, for good measure.

Davey · Post by **Davey** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 2:03 pm

This has always been of interest to me, since we seem to like a lot of the same things (a lot of us like puzzle games), but we also get divided over some genres such as RPGs and FPSs.

If others show an interest in it, I'd like to get a little more quantitative about it (ugh, nerd). If I have couple spare minutes at work (which is likely) I'll whip up a little "rate how much you like these genres" ASP page.

I'm just listing genres off the top of my head here, let me know if I leave any out:
2D Platform
3D Platform
FPS
RPG
Sports
Puzzle
Fighting (Street Fighter, etc)
Beat 'em up (Final Fight, etc)
Strategy
Rhythm
Run n' gun
Racing
Light Gun
Classic (too broad?)
Pinball
Party
Adventure
Survival horror (or should this be lumped with adventure?)

I'm sure I'm leaving some out.

dboeren · Post by **dboeren** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 2:46 pm

I forgot to mention, I like some of the empire management games. I sunk a LOT of hours in Civilization and Rollercoaster Tycoon back in the day. I've also played a lot of Angband, which is an open-source fantasy RPG game. I even worked on the Angband project for a while back in about 1994 or so.

incognoscente · Post by **incognoscente** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 3:49 pm

Davey kinda wrote:2D Platform
3D Platform
Adventure
Beat 'em up (Final Fight, etc)
Classic (too broad?)
Fighting (Street Fighter, etc)
FPS
Light Gun
Party
Pinball
Puzzle
Racing
Rhythm
RPG
Run n' gun
Sports
Strategy
Survival horror (or should this be lumped with adventure?)

I'm sure I'm leaving some out.

I'm fine with a larger list that is more specific. Others may disagree.

Other possible categories:

3D action (I don't know a better term. Meaning titles like the newer Shinobi, also Devil May Cry, P.N. 03 and the like)
Management/SimCity (might belong in Simulation below)
MMORPG
Online/Flash games (Nanaca Crash, NeoPets, Orsinal)
Rail Shooters
Simulation (Flight Sims, Tokyo Bus Guide, Densha de Go; also Nintendogs, Totoko Hamtaro, etc.) -- I'm not sure enough play these for it to need to be on the list

Possible distinctions:

Racing: Simulation-based Racing and Arcade/Arcade-inspired Racing (and then someone will cite Ferrari F355 Challenge)
Strategy: Real-Time Strategy and Turn-Based Strategy
RPG: RPG and Hack&Slash or maybe Eastern RPG and Western RPG. I don't think there are enough First Person RPGs for it to be a category yet.
I do think classic is too broad, but I'm not sure how to break it up without being overkill:
Classic Arcade and Classic Console, for one. I think most beyond that is just going to repeat your final list with "Classic" before each.

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 4:53 pm

incognoscente wrote:
Racing: Simulation-based Racing and Arcade/Arcade-inspired Racing (and then someone will cite Ferrari F355 Challenge)

Strategy: Real-Time Strategy and Turn-Based Strategy

RPG: RPG and Hack&Slash or maybe Eastern RPG and Western RPG. I don't think there are enough First Person RPGs for it to be a category yet.

Good distinctions.

For racing, there's definitely a big difference between arcade and sim racing (and street racing I guess since they definitely don't play like arcade racers and aren't sim at all). I can only tolerate Gran Turismo but give me Ridge Racer or one of Sega's arcade stuff (yeah, F355 is a bit shady) and I'm on it. I guess the major difference with arcade racers is looser control and the focus on power sliding. Record times without heavy use of power sliding is unheard of in any RR game.

As for strategy, obvious distinction there but most turn-based strategy titles are actually/also considered SRPGs.

RPGs are generally separated into action RPGs (e.g. Ys), SRPGs (e.g. Langrisser), traditional RPGs (e.g. Phantasy Star), MMOs (e.g. Evercrack), and dungeon crawlers (e.g. Eye of the Beholder). Many modern RPGs blur action and traditional play. FYI, there are plenty of first-person RPGs, nearly all of which are dungeon crawlers and all of which focus heavily on dungeons.

judesalmon · Post by **judesalmon** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 6:43 pm

Anything and everything.

ED-057 · Post by **ED-057** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 8:37 pm

tehkao wrote:
Wow...another Super Robot Taisen fan?...which ones are you favorites? I love those games but since they take forever to play, I haven't played too many...my favorites are Advanced, Final (Saturn), Alpha (Dreamcast/PS).

SRWF and F Final on Saturn are my favorites. I also liked SRWA on GBA and the little bit I played of SRW on Gamecube. Now I'm playing SRW4 for Playstation but that one is kind of like a less-complete version of F, although it has some different units like Raideen and Daimos.

You're right of course about the games being very time consuming.

Imhotep · Post by **Imhotep** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 1:47 am

besides shmups I like arcade-style action, 2D fighting games and platformers.

I also like blockbuster games like Resident Evil 4 and Metroid Prime, but I despise everything with a "realistic" setting like GTA 3+ and those infamous army games. No sports simulations, but I do play "abstract" sports games like Windjammers and Neo Turf Masters. I hate Metal Gear Solid for being a collection of mediocre mini games stretched with a pathetic storyline. Racing games tend to bore me lately.

I actually like adventure games a lot for the story and atmosphere. While they are not on a level to be considered as "literature", their multimedia and interactivity aspects sometimes result in more intense and inspiring experiences, i.e. the sense of humour in Paper Mario 2.
But more often than not RPGs are not "efficient" because of boring fights and time-consuming leveling-up issues.