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Game Score 2003 "2002"
[01] DoDonPachi 6.57 . .
[02] Ikaruga 5.86 . +
[03] Gradius V 5.13 * *
[04] Radiant Silvergun 4.89 + +
[05] Gunbird 2 4.44 + +
[06] ThunderForce III 4.26 - -
[07] Mars Matrix 4.18 + +
[08] Soukyugurentai / Terra Diver 4.10 + +
[09] Gradius Gaiden 3.90 + +
[10] Layer Section / Rayforce / Gunlock / Galactic Attack 3.87 - *
[11] R-Type 3.74 - +
[12] Shikigami no Shiro 2 3.65 * *
[13] DoDonPachi Dai Ou Jou 3.57 + *
[14] Strikers 1945 II 3.55 + -
[15] ESPGaluda 3.511 * *
[16] Batsugun / Batsugun Special Edition 3.510 + *
[17] DonPachi 3.509 - -
[18] Armed Police Batrider 3.44 * *
[19] Giga Wing 3.43 - *
[20] Raiden DX 3.30 * *
[21] ESPrade 3.11 - -
[22] Thunder Force IV / Lightening Force 3.08 + -
[23] Thunder Force V 3.07 * -
[24] Einhander 3.02 * *
[25] R-Type Delta 2.83 * *
- . denotes the game holds the same position now as the year indicated.
- + denotes the game holds an improved standing compared to the year indicated.
- - denotes the game holds a reduced standing compared to the year indicated.
- * denotes the game was not on the list for the year indicated.
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2003 "2002"[1]
19XX: The War Against Destiny +
Axelay -
Battle Bakraid .
Battle Garegga -
Blazing Star +
Border Down +
Cyvern +
Darius Gaiden +
Dangun Feveron .
Dimahoo .
Dragon Blaze +
G Darius .
Gaiares .
Galaga +
Gate of Thunder .
Giga Wing 2 .
Gradius / Nemesis .
Gradius II Gofer no Yabo .
Gradius III (SNES) .
Gunhed / Blazing Lazers .
Guwange -
Imperishable Night +
Ketsui no Kizuna +
Life Force (NES) - [2]
Lords of Thunder / Winds of Thunder .
Musha Aleste / M.U.S.H.A. -
Parsec 47 +
Raiden II .
Raiden Fighters Jet .
Recca +
Salamander - [2]
Sengoku Blade / Tengai -
Sexy Parodius +
Soldier Blade .
Strikers 1945 .
Super Aleste / Space Megaforce .
U.N. Squadron (SNES) / Area 88 (SNES) .
Zanac (NES) / Zanac EX (MSX) +
Zanac Neo -
Zero Gunner 2 -
- Note: Honorable Mention Comparisons are not given for 2002 because the mechanism used to calculate them was considerably different from what was used for 2003 and 2004.
- Note: For 2003, NES LifeForce was not considered separately from Salamander, which collectively made the top 25.
- . denotes the game was also on the HM list for the year indicated.
- + denotes the game was on neither the HM list nor the top 25 for the year indicated.
- - denotes the game was in the top 25 for the year indicated.
- Axelay
- Battle Garegga
- Guwange
- (Life Force (NES) AND Salamander) (see note above and comment below)
- Musha Aleste
- Sengoku Blade
- Zanac Neo
- Zero Gunner 2
- Gokujou Parodius
- Hellfire
- Parodius Da!
- R-Type III: The Third Lightning
- Raiden
- Shienryu / Shienryu Gekioh / Gekioh: Shooting King
- Tatsujin / Truxton
- Twin Cobra / Kyukyoko Tiger
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Top 25 Hon.M. Overall
Cave 5 8 13
Konami 1.5 6 7.5 [3]
Compile 0 6 6
Psikyo 2 4 6
Raizing 2 3 5
Seibu Kaihatsu 1 2 3
Takumi 2 1 3
Taito 1 2 3
Technosoft 3 0 3
Treasure 2.5 0 2.5 [3]
Capcom 0 2 2
Irem 2 0 2
Red 0 2 2
ABA Games 0 1 1
Alfa System 1 0 1
G.Rev 0 1 1
Hudson 0 1 1
Kaneko 0 1 1
Namco 0 1 1
Naxatsoft 0 1 1
Renovation 0 1 1
Shrine Maiden 0 1 1
SNK 0 1 1
Square 1 0 1
Toaplan 1 0 1
Breakdown by Year
Breakdown by Original PlatformBydoBasher wrote:Some notes:Code: Select all
YEAR TOP25 HON.M. OVERALL TITLES 1981 0 1 1 Galaga 1982 0 0 0 1983 0 0 0 1984 0 0 0 1985 0 1 1 Gradius 1986 0 2 2 Salamander, ZanacEX 1987 1 1 2 R-Type, LifeForce(NES) 1988 0 1 1 Gradius2 1989 0 1 1 Gunhed 1990 1 3 4 TF3, Gaiares, Gradius3(SNES), MUSHA 1991 0 1 1 UNSquadron(SNES) 1992 1 5 6 TF4, Axelay, GoT, Recca, Sldr.Blade, S.Aleste 1993 2 2 4 RayForce, Batsugun, LoT, Raiden2 1994 1 1 2 RaidenDX, DariusGaiden 1995 1 1 2 DonPachi, S1945 1996 1 4 5 Souky, 19XX, Garegga, Tengai, SexyParo 1997 6 1 7 DDP, GradiusG, S1945II, APB, TF5, Einhander, GDarius 1998 4 4 8 RS, GB2, ESP, RTD, BlazStar, Cyvern, Feveron, RFJet 1999 1 2 3 GigaWing, Bakraid, Guwange 2000 1 2 3 MarsMatrix, Dimahoo, DragonBlaze 2001 0 3 3 GigaWing2, ZanacNeo, ZeroGunner2 2002 2 1 3 Ikaruga, DDPDoJ, Ketsui 2003 2 2 4 SnS2, ESP2, BorderDown, Parsec47 2004 1 1 2 GradiusV, ImperishableNight
- In the "Titles" column, top 25 games are listed before the honourable mentions. For example, in the 2003 row, which has two top 25 games and two honourable mentions, SnS2 and ESPGaluda are top 25, while Border Down and Parsec 47 are Hon.M.
- I'm not sure about the date for Giga Wing 2. I have it here as 2001, but I've seen some places on the web that have it as 2000. Can anyone confirm? Of course, if anyone spots anything else that may be incorrect, please say so.
- I have the date on Life Force (NES) as 1987. Actually, LF is dated 1988, but Salamander (Famicom) is dated 1987, and as they are basically the same thing -- give or take an option -- I thought 1987 was more appropriate.
- 20 of the 65 games listed here -- almost a third of the total (!) -- are from the three year span of 1996-1998.
- 1992 does particularly well for itself, with 6 total entries. I've always felt that 1992 was a good year for shmups; it can boast of titles like Gley Lancer, Last Resort, R-Type Leo, Viewpoint, Mystic Riders, and Truxton 2 in addition to those games listed above.
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Top 25 Hon.M. Overall
Arcade 17 24 41
PS1 4 1 5
Mega Drive/Genesis 2 2 4
PCE and PCE CD 0 4 4
SNES / SFC 0 4 4
NES 0 3 3
PC (Windows) 0 2 2
PS2 1 0 1
Saturn 1 0 1
- Number of Actual Voters: 55
- Scaled Number of Voters: 49.28
- Games Supported by at least half of voters: 1
- Games Supported by at least 1/4 of voters: 26
- Number of Honorable Mentions: 40
- Top 25 Score Spread: 2.832 - 6.568
- Honorable Mention Score Spread: 1.422 - 2.817
- Total Score Spread: 0.003 - 6.568
- First off: a massive thanks to Zhon! The past couple years I'd done this all with a convoluted spreadsheet, which required manual data entry. Zhon volunteered to write an app to do all the calculations and data entry if we had a standard vote format. He did and it freed me from having to run several time-consuming checks. Instead, I was able to concentrate on making sure votes were valid; complete; etc. If it wasn't for Zhon making the effort to write this program, I would not have had time to do this this year.
- For the Honorable Mention list, I usually just alphabetize the list and leave it at that. In this case, however, Zanac (NES) -- practically 20 years old -- missed the top 25 by a mere 0.02, despite never making even the mention list in previous years.
- OK...one more. This is the first year votes for protoshmups (i.e. one-degree of player movement; e.g. Space Invaders, Galaga) were explicitly encouraged. And Galaga did come quite close to making the top 25.
- Treasure nabbed the 2-4 spots. It will be interesting to see whether Gradius V goes up or down next year.
- TF III, DonPachi, and ESPrade continue to lose position, but only TF III remains in the top 10.
- Gradius Gaiden, Gunbird 2, Mars Matrix, Radiant Silvergun, and Soukyugurentai all continued bubbling up to higher spots on the list. (All are presently in the top 10.)
- Of the eight games new to the top 25, only one was released in 2004. (R-Type Delta finally made the top 25, but R-Type Final didn't even show up as honorable mention.)
- Raiden DX seems to have supplanted Raiden in most voters' minds; this year Sexy Parodius replaced Gokujo Paro and Parodius Da!.
- Old school vs new school: only one top 25 game (R-Type) was released on an 8-bit console. Only two were released for 16-bit consoles. (Compare with nine 16-bitters on the 2002 list. Every one of them is still on the Honorable Mention list, however.)
- Once again, Progear was the only non-new Cave game not to make either list.
- Again: based on discussion about the series, votes for NES Life Force were separated from votes for Salamander this year. Had that not been the case, the "game" would have nabbed the 13th spot. As is, both NES Life Force AND Salamander made the honorable mention list. corrected
- Gunbird is still the only game to make the top 25 at any point yet fall off both lists.
- You can find previous discussion about this year's votes here.
- The votes themselves are here.
- Thanks to all who voted! (Especially those who disagree w/ the shmup definition used but decided to cast anyway. Overall, I think we're picking up about a dozen voters each year.
EDIT:2005.05.05: Added Bydobasher's breakdown of games by release-year. mumbleandmumblecorrectedmymumbleerrorabouthowmumblemanymumblegameswerereleasedin2004mumble.
CORRECTION:2005.06.05: Only one game -- not two -- received votes from at least half of voters. (It was Ikaruga; DDP missed by a smidge.)