Domestic PS2 shmups

xghostsniperx · Post by **xghostsniperx** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 3:35 am

I was looking through what the PS2 has for shmups in NA:

R-Type Final
Gradius V
Castle Shikigami 2
Mobile Light Force 2
Silpheed: The Lost Planet

Obviously, Gradius V is a no-brainer. What about the other games? I'm looking mainly for opinions on whether or not they're worth buying. I know I've heard MLF and CS2 are horribly translated, and I've heard Silpheed is just ok. Haven't heard much about R-Type.

Thanks for any opinions.

Limbrooke · Post by **Limbrooke** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 3:41 am

Gradius III & IV was around not long after launch.
Otherwise you covered all bases as I recall ATM.

Damocles · Post by **Damocles** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 3:46 am

Not including compilations, you're pretty much there.

iatneH · Post by **iatneH** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 3:48 am

Are you looking for a list, or some opinions on what you've listed?

xghostsniperx · Post by **xghostsniperx** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 4:08 am

iatneH wrote:Are you looking for a list, or some opinions on what you've listed?

Opinions are what I'm looking for. Sorry I wasn't clear.

crithit5000 · Post by **crithit5000** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 4:46 am

R-Type Final is an atmospheric, weird trip with 100 different ships. It also has the most boring opening stage ever, and stage three (although nicely done) is the most slow stage ever. Other stages in the game make up for these two.

Gradius V is either a great reinvention of the series or a horrible bastardization of the series. Probably depends on whether you like Treasure or not.

Castle Shikigami 2 is a game that improves on its prequel so much that it seems almost absurd. XS gave it a hilariously bad translation, one that must be seen to be believed.

Mobile Light Force 2 is Shiki 1, which is an alright game. XS ripped the story out and gave us bad music to listen to. Probably ripped out tate, as well. For five dollars, you could do worse.

Silpheed: The Lost Planet is probably my least played PS2 shooter. It has a wonky perspective and just doesn't appeal to me. And apparently not many other people, it seems.

Xexyz · Post by **Xexyz** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 5:07 am

Gradius V & Castle Shikigami 2 would be my top picks. Both are quality shooters, and with Shiki, you might get a laugh out of the word for word Babelfish translation.

R-Type Final & Gradius III & IV are worth picking up, if you don't mind a few hickups. R-Type Final can be slow at times, and replaying Stage 1 over & over can be a real offender. With the Gradius compilation, the games are fun, but extremely unforgiving. Depending on your patients level, you might not find them enjoyable (especially Gradius III what with no continues and all...)

I'd personally stay away from Silpheed: The Lost Planet & Mobile Lightforce 2.

If you like old-school shmups (along with other fantastic arcade games) the two Capcom Classics Collection offerings are a steal at $20 each.

UnscathedFlyingObject · Wed Jan 17, 2007 5:43 am

The main problem with R-Type Final is that it doesn't do anything particularly well.

iatneH · Post by **iatneH** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 5:45 am

I think I'm one of the minority who prefers the gameplay of Mobile Light Force 2 to Castle Shikigami 2.

I have the Japanese version of Castle Shikigami 2, and I may eventually replace my copy of MLF2 with the Japanese version of Shikigami no shiro also.

PFG 9000 · Post by **PFG 9000** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 6:26 am

I think Castle Shikigami 2 is a must-have. Who cares about the dialogue? Obviously shmupping has nothing to do with spoken words, and CS2's gameplay is awesome. Bullet scraping is insanely addicting. It's also a gorgeous game, both visually and audibly, and the difficulty curve is excellent. And the game's dirt cheap. I can't recommend it enough.

MLF2 is more or less the poor man's CS2. It's got the same concept but none of the charm. And it looks barely a step above most PS1 games, but again, that makes no difference in shmup terms.

The only thing I don't like about Silpheed is the unbalanced difficulty curve (for me, it's painfully simple until the second level boss, at which point it became too frustrating to make me care any more. Oh, that and the repetitive, overly dramatic voice clips. But it might be worth checking out due to the price.

Gradius III/IV is also pretty essential if the difficulty level isn't a turn off to you. Gradius III is harder than Silpheed, but it kicks your ass right from the start so things seem much more balanced. And Gradius IV is like classic Gradius with pretty graphics and nice cheesy 80's muzak.

R-Type Final is probably the most atmospheric shooter I've played. It just doesn't feel quite like an R-Type to me (even R-Type Leo felt right at home in the series), most likely due to the less claustrophobic levels. But if you're dying for more R-Typage or just more PS2 shooting action, it's really not a bad game.

Honestly, all of the (western-released) PS2 shooters have turned out to be worthwhile buys to me. I wouldn't call any of them outright Bad.

MDY · Post by **MDY** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 9:24 am

It'll probably not be great, but it looks like European budget publisher Phoenix have a new shooter on the way

http://www.phoenixgamesgroup.com/fr/gam ... ander.html

It's called Underwater Commander and is a 'cute' undersea blaster - from the screens it looks like you have dual stick movement and fire direction controls - judging by the reticule onscreen..

Looks nice from stills though and it won't be expensive...

Post by **Ghegs** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 9:55 am

MDY wrote:It'll probably not be great, but it looks like European budget publisher Phoenix have a new shooter on the way

Here's the english version of the page.

I wondered why the Phoenix name was familiar, but then I saw they also published Guerrilla Strike and Shadow of Ganymede. I think somebody once said that the latter is utter crap.

At least Ocean Commander looks nice and the dual stick gameplay could be fun. Resembles Eco Fighters in a way.

The screenshots show an energy meter as well as lives. 30 levels and 30 weapons. Sounds like your basic euroshmup, doesn't bode well. And oddly they've categorized the game as a puzzle...

D · Post by D » Wed Jan 17, 2007 10:17 am

If this game has dual stick movement, that would be awesome and long overdue for a shmup. I doubt it though. too good to be true.
I don't even know where to begin. The name is the dumbest name ever.
The sprites are ripped from darius
The scope sprite looks awful and not cute.
The bottom meters also have nothing cute to them.
But the game looks great. It seems that a few simple adjustments (a day's work) and this would not be a budget release. They need to get this released in Japan after a few modifications.

postman · Post by **postman** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 2:56 pm

Ocean Commander has a PC version out:

http://www.bigfishgames.com/downloads/o ... nload.html

I had no idea it was getting a PS2 port..........

Also, I have to stick up for Silpheed - sure the pacing is off and there are lots of empty places in the game, but the story and cutscenes are top notch and I still play it from time to time. It gets pretty hectic in the end, and has a good final boss fight. You can find the game for $10 or under in most places, so you can't go wrong with that.........

Belmont · Post by **Belmont** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 3:12 pm

D wrote: The sprites are ripped from darius

It doesnt look like they are actual darius sprites, but i know what you mean if your talking about robotic fish being done already.

Post by **Ghegs** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 6:33 pm

postman wrote:Ocean Commander has a PC version out:

http://www.bigfishgames.com/downloads/o ... nload.html

Played the game, got the scars.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 1:36 am

Just played it and it's great-and it would be even better with D-Pad controls. Blasted SCEA; it's amazing how many shmup ports SCEE has let through in comparison.