What's your orientation?

[StoofooEsq]

Vertical, Horizontal, Isometric, etc., the orientation doesn't matter to me.
As long as I find a Shmup to be enjoyable, I'll be playing it.

[320x240]

I think that vertical orientation is easier primarily because of a sense of gravity. When I see bullets flying horizontally across a screen in a side-view shooter, my brain is always trying to tell me that they are going to arc downward...or something like that. With vertical orientation, everything just falls down more-or-less like it should.

It's the same with me.

A hori with gravity working on the bullets but not the ship? Hmm...

[DEL]

For what its worth - HORI.

Like a couple of people have already mentioned, a lot of my favourite shooters are HORIS.

[Shatterhand]

I prefer isometric shmups.


No, not really. I don't think I have any preference towards Hori or Vert, I just like a good shmup I guess. My yearly top 25 always had more or less the same amount of Horis and Verts,

[NAVVARR]

Horizontal shooters have always been my favourites. Games like rtype have that- wonder whats around the next screen feel. Mind you- there is a bit in xmultiply when the ship starts descending down and down- its one of my favourite bits of any shooter.

I play verticals as well- but they don't hold the same fascination.

[MR_Soren]

haha first person is only good shooter with quality graphic and realism and good multip;ayr. old 2d games fun for noslga but not more than a hour two tops


Oh, sorry, somebody got my keyboard.

Vertical. They just feel more natural and instinctive, but I also enjoy horis.

[evil_ash_xero]

I like both. I like MORE verts, but some of my favorites are horis.

I guess i'm bi too.

s/m

[shoe-sama]

i like my shmups horizontical

[roker]

I'm straight, but I've been known to dabble in the art of procuring two women of the lesbian sex for an all out sex fest

thank you very much!

[PsikyoPshumpPshooterP]

vietnamese

[Enhasa]

All screen orientations are fine, variety is good. But the one thing that kinda bothers me very slightly is the playfield being larger than the visible area. So in a vert, scrolling left and right. For this reason I actually like the verts in yoko style of Radiant Silvergun, Giga Wing, etc.

[moozooh]

ABut the one thing that kinda bothers me very slightly is the playfield being larger than the visible area. So in a vert, scrolling left and right. For this reason I actually like the verts in yoko style of Radiant Silvergun, Giga Wing, etc.

I actually agree with this. As I see it, this was originally done for vertically oriented games to increase the perceived playfield size by aligning the monitor with primary scrolling direction, even if the playfield wasn't strictly bounded by it horizontally, at no cost (rotating a monitor is inarguably cheaper than getting a new 33% taller one, which would still likely have unused vertical borders unless designed customly). Playing vert shmups with wide play field (DDP et al.) in yoko would just show you the entire play field instead of just a part of it, which I personally would find more comfortable, even if less aesthetic, dynamic or "true" to the roots of the genre.

[doctorx0079]

Just want to point out that shmups designed for home consoles are usually either horizontal or vertizontal like The Guardian Legend.

[sfried]

Straight horizontal shooter.

This discussion is starting to sound a bit akward.

[doodude]

Straight horizontal shooter.

This discussion is starting to sound a bit akward.

Starting to!? Bwahahahahahahaha...

[sfried]

Personally, I have no preference on shmup orientation. As long as they don't screw up on other areas, then they're fine by my league.

[Nate]

Questions:

*Is there a difference ( other than the obvious ) in a side scrolling flying, shooting shmup & a vertical flying, shooting shmup?

*Is there a theme or style or quality or any kind of real difference?

*Could you say there are more or less of either kind?

*Which came first? Which seems more popular? Which country prefers which?

*Which way do you lean?

My answers:

-Yeah. I've always noticed that navigating through scenery (floors & ceilings, breakaway earth, exploding blocks etc.) and tactical weaponry have always been what defines a horizontal. It could then be said that Radiant Silvergun/Ikaruga are the most "horizontal-ey" verts.

Verticals seem to be all about button-mashing, frantic bullet dodging and bombs; not a bad thing at all, mind you. Darius Gaiden and Blazing Star may be the most "vertical-ey" horzies out there...not to mention a couple of the most popular ones.

-Pretty much the same question; but I would like to note that (if I'm not mistaken) the "series" shmups (Gradius, Aleste, Darius, R-Type, Raiden) pretty much appear in both "orientations" on a fairly balanced scale - same can be said for their "evolutions"...and Broken Thunder doesn't count.

-I really couldn't say if there are more or less. You could go to the "Xenocide Files" and take a pencil and paper and (sort of) figure that one out...I'd be interested to see the numbers you came up with actually!

-Which came first? Tough one. Better question: What was Vanguard? It scrolled vertically, horizontally, even diagonally!...And shots could be directed in all directions! If only it had featured power-ups, bosses, or maybe a shield? It could have been the shooting shmup ever!

*you know I could be wrong (can't remember) - Vanguard might have actually featured 2/3 of those things, but I think you know what I'm getting at nevertheless.

Probably the most interesting question is the "global preference" one. That's something we'd have to seriously poll to get a real answer. I would venture to guess that Americans generally love their verts, Europeans might find horzies to be more fascinating, and the Asian countries (esp. the Japanese) may love both equally as much...as long as they're good.
But, what about the Austrailians, Africans, Russians, Canadians, Mexicans, Central/South Americans, and those living in the Middle East?
How 'bout the Cubans, Icelanders, Jamaicans, Greeks, or Polish?

Madagascar? Antarctica? Greenland? What the FUCK?!?

-Personally, I favor horizontals.

[Asherdude]

When I started out playing (80's), I preferred verticals. But later on, during the 16-bit years, I gained a love for hori's. But here recently, the industry has thrown me a curve, namely an arena shmup called Geometry Wars. I can't put the thing down! Damn them! Damn them all!!!

[elvis]

I suck on American sticks.

Does that pay well?

[unsane]

Questions:
*Could you say there are more or less of either kind?

-I really couldn't say if there are more or less. You could go to the "Xenocide Files" and take a pencil and paper and (sort of) figure that one out...I'd be interested to see the numbers you came up with actually!

A quick search on MAWS turns up:

Shooter / Flying Horizontal - 229
Shooter / Flying Vertical - 423

Consoles might compensate a little for that unbalance tho, my vague impression is that older consoles had more horzies than verts.

[sven666]

lol at all the folks jumping at the opportunity to come out of the closet

[320x240]

Consoles might compensate a little for that unbalance tho, my vague impression is that older consoles had more horzies than verts.

Because of the fixed screen orientation and the need to be "cutting edge" in the graphics/presentation department. It's the same with home computers, which I believe is part of why Europeans (at least the none hardcore players) prefer horis over verts and in fact seem to look down on vertically oriented shmups.

[Ex-Cyber]

Is there a difference ( other than the obvious ) in a side scrolling flying, shooting shmup & a vertical flying, shooting shmup?

Yes; the design traditions are pretty different. Generally speaking, I think vertical shmups can be traced back to Space Invaders (although Xevious was probably the first one that we'd recognize as such) and horizontal shmups can be traced back to Scramble (Defender came first, but I think Scramble was much more influential). There are exceptions to this, but I think it's accurate more often than not. Others have mentioned some of the specific differences.

[spadgy]

Which came first?

If you count Space Invaders counts as the first, I guess you'd say vert, but the there was stuff like Space War way before. Do things like Space Invaders really count as shmups though? I guess they're more like proto-shmups...

[unsane]

Which came first?

Do things like Space Invaders really count as shmups though? I guess they're more like proto-shmups...

IMO all those early games don't count as shmups in the way we use the word. Many are fixed shooters (Space Invaders, Galaxian), some are just plain deviant (Defender: gas button, non-autoscrolling). There's no question these are all grandaddys of shmups, don't get me wrong.

But imo the first present-day scrolling shmup was a horzie: Scramble (Mar. 1981). Flame away! Or ideally, just point us to the threads where the issue was beaten to death.

[spadgy]

While I tried to be snazzy with 'proto-shmups', you hit the nail on the head far better. Those are grandfathers... not shmups as such.

In terms of which came first out of vert and hori, I do feel when I was younger there were more horis about. Or at least it was even between the two. The recent dominance of the Vert (by recent I mean last 10 years. God time has flown.) does seem, well... recent. Probably thanks to Cave, Raizing, Pyskio etc becoming such leaders.

Just realised the brilliantly shit pun in 'time has flown'... terrible, but I like it.

[320x240]

Galagas enemy formations certainly trumps those of any modern game. What happened to enemy formations? Did they somehow turn into bullet formations? A little bit of both is what I prefer.