Most popular mainstream shmup...

Ixmucane · Post by **Ixmucane** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 9:33 am

The most common shooter coin-ops I've seen (in Italy) were the 194x, Raiden, Xevious series; R-Type, U.N. Squadron, After Burner; less often the Sonic Wings and Gradius series and older games like Galaga and Asteroids.
(Nothing newer because arcades are almost extinct and a bar that has a half-broken pinball among the slot machines should be considered enlightened.)
On the PC, Raptor and to a lesser extent Tyrian had some diffusion.
For recent consoles, Psyvariar and some R-Type remixes got decent shelf exposure in stores.
On the whole, I think many have played scrolling shooters and are subconsciously familiar with the genre, but they don't remember specific games from occasional childhood entertainment; if I had to choose one less unpopular shmup series, I'd say R-Type.

worstplayer · Post by **worstplayer** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 9:58 am

Around here, best way to describe shmup is "it's like Tyrian, but...", so i'd say it's most popular.

Mortificator · Post by **Mortificator** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 1:21 pm

Leandro wrote:I know what site he was talking about, 1941 is the most downloaded shmup there, slightly above Raiden 2

I'm looking at a different site, but Raiden 2 is in it's top MAME downloads list too. Which is kind of sad, since to the best of my knowledge the arcade game can't be emulated yet.

Post by **Shatterhand** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 1:32 pm

doodude wrote:
By the way, can you record stuff from You Tube? Id like to show them just a couple of minutes of a lot of different games...

It won't help it. They will say the game is impossible, and if it's a super play, that the guy is cheating.

I know, I've tried it

The best thing you can do is invite them to your home, and when they get there, they see you playing DDP DOJ with your TV Tated. This works well. Don't tate the TV in front of them, just let them get at your place and see the TV alread tated. Instant respect

Post by **spadgy** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 1:34 pm

Shatterhand wrote:Don't tate the TV in front of them, just let them get at your place and see the TV alread tated. Instant respect

Funny that isn't it? Tate it publically and you get ridiculed. Have it tate'd in advance and you seem like some rogue gaming operative in their eyes...

HardcoreOtaku · Post by **HardcoreOtaku** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 11:27 pm

ROBOTRON wrote:Depends on how old you are

If you're ancient its going to be Space Invaders

If you're old its going to be R-Type / Gradius

If you're a N00b, well over the last year or so I've heard shite loads mention Radiant SilverGun and Ikaruga, both been very hyped in the mainstream press..

doctorx0079 · Post by **doctorx0079** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 2:56 am

Actually ROBO said that not me.

I don't believe most kids know any shmups at all. They would rather play Pokemon, Rock Band/Guitar Hero or Halo.

HardcoreOtaku · Post by **HardcoreOtaku** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 9:53 am

doctorx0079 wrote:Actually ROBO said that not me.

edited

moozooh · Post by **moozooh** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 11:47 am

HardcoreOtaku wrote:If you're a N00b, well over the last year or so I've heard shite loads mention Radiant SilverGun and Ikaruga, both been very hyped in the mainstream press..

As hyped as it is, RSG is far from mainstream. How many people have actually played it? How many of them own a physical copy? Compared to Ikaruga which has been released on three different consoles already, the actual amount is hilariously low.

HardcoreOtaku · Post by **HardcoreOtaku** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 11:58 am

moozooh wrote:
HardcoreOtaku wrote:If you're a N00b, well over the last year or so I've heard shite loads mention Radiant SilverGun and Ikaruga, both been very hyped in the mainstream press..
As hyped as it is, RSG is far from mainstream. How many people have actually played it? How many of them own a physical copy? Compared to Ikaruga which has been released on three different consoles already, the actual amount is hilariously low.

Agreed, I don't think many have actually played RSG.
More my point is currently no SHMUPS are Mainstream, SHMUPs are not a Mainstream genre of Video Games (outside japan), all you'll really hear of lately in mainstream press is the odd mention of Ikaruga or RSG.

moozooh · Post by **moozooh** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 12:31 pm

Well, on the other hand, shmups have been a "mainstream" genre for over a decade… It's just that the time is long gone as of 2008. Stuff like Geometry Wars (lol) can arguably be called mainstream even now, though. I'd say Ikaruga is really close as well, with its amazing (for a shmup) recognition.

HardcoreOtaku · Post by **HardcoreOtaku** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 1:05 pm

moozooh wrote:Stuff like Geometry Wars (lol) can arguably be called mainstream even now,

Thing is you could agruably go on to say Halo 2 is a modern shoot em up game, or what about Metal Slug??? where are the boundries of definition???

I personaly would say with the type of SHMUPs discussed on this forum 'Ikaruga' is as close to mainstream as you're going to get.. and it isn't mainstream..

Kron · Post by **Kron** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 1:46 pm

The answer is Space Invaders.

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 2:26 pm

R-Type, Gradius, Raiden -- in that order of popularity/familiarity, at least here in the States.

black flag nc · Post by **black flag nc** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 9:31 pm

professor ganson wrote:R-Type, Gradius, Raiden -- in that order of popularity/familiarity, at least here in the States.

Yep, agree.

Post by **spadgy** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 9:40 am

Kron wrote:The answer is Space Invaders.

Of course that's at the crux of it. While shmups aren't mainstream now when they were called shoot-'em-ups without any confusion they were a mainstay of gaming.

RSG might be known but untouched by modern gamers, but Space Invaders is known by parents and grandparents (even the ones without Brain Training and a DS!) worldwide.

Funny how a gaming icon has become an extraordinary niche....

ubersaurus · Post by **ubersaurus** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 5:33 pm

Among more modern games people actually played, it's obvious to me Raiden, Gradius, and the 194X series are the top ones. I say this, for I know people who've never known a damn thing about shooters, but know all about those games. The fact Raiden is so easily findable in arcade areas, and that all three have console ports through the years, makes them visible.

Galaga is extremely well known, simply by the virtue of being one of the oldest games that still brings in mucho cash for an arcade machine. There's a reason namco rereleased it. Space invaders and Radiant Silvergun may be games people know the names to thanks to the media, but never actually played.

And I really, really wouldn't discount arena shooters; Robotron and Geometry Wars are very, very well known.

shoe-sama · Post by **shoe-sama** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 7:42 pm

halo 3

HardcoreOtaku · Post by **HardcoreOtaku** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 7:46 pm

I've thought about this more...... and here's my 10 pence worth..
yes I agree the most famous Shooter on the planet is Space Invaders, without doubt, when it was released and in the years that followed it was very much a mainstream game.
Other titles also entrered mainstream such as R-Type, Gradius, Raiden etc.. because up untill the mid nineties Shoot-em-ups were still a mainstream gaming genre. But since then I think we all agree that Shmups as defined by this forum are no longer a mainstream genre.
So that then proposes a problem with the question of this thread,
"Most popular mainstream shmup..."

I suggested Ikaruga, RSG because they've recently managed to get some coverage in the mainstream Press but they are definitely not mainstream games.

Personally my conclusion to all this is the question "Most popular mainstream shmup..." is redundant.

The most famous shmup of all time is Space Invaders.

Right that's enough thinking for me for one day, I'm off to blow some shit up and then spank my monkey... and I don't mean watching the Neo CD load screen...

UnscathedFlyingObject · Sun Mar 23, 2008 7:47 pm

professor ganson wrote:R-Type, Gradius, Raiden -- in that order of popularity/familiarity, at least here in the States.

People have like played all games of those series. Anytime I play any of them, people swear to me they've played it on their SNES.

KindGrind · Post by **KindGrind** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 2:55 am

Gradius by a mile, although as stated by some, Ikaruga got some "recent" press.

doctorx0079 · Post by **doctorx0079** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 5:07 am

I seem to see a trend here. It seems to vary depending on what region/country you're talking about. Like the Europeans never heard of Galaga and on the other hand, hardly any Americans have heard of Ikaruga . .

Personally I never heard of Iky when it came out and I still wouldn't know about it except for this board. Where I am (Ohio) you can still find original Galaga machines in laundromats, next to original Ms. Pac-Man machines. Time was when they were literally everywhere and everyone with a pulse saw them, and most people knew their names. Gradius has never been like that here although many NES gamers know it of course.

EDIT: Raiden 1 is another big one. You used to see that at truck stops, and Ghosts 'n' Goblins. I used to play Lifeforce at the mall but that was the only one I ever saw. I used to play Vs. Super Mario Bros. at the bowling alley.

Post by **spadgy** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 6:53 pm

HardcoreOtaku wrote:
Personally my conclusion to all this is the question "Most popular mainstream shmup..." is redundant.

Yeah maybe... but then you could say that about alot of our blethering here! When I posed the original question I was just curious as to whether there was a general consensus, or international/personal discrepancy. Also just wondering how people felt about the notion of shmups contrary 'mainstream' nature (which I know we've all discussed before!)

sven666 · Post by **sven666** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 11:19 pm

Ikaruga and/or Gradius 5 id say are the most known amongst current generation casual gamers.

both were released for all regions and hyped to death just about everywhere to boot.

Vexorg · Post by **Vexorg** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 11:40 pm

If you look at what's in the arcades/pizza parlors around here, I'd say the most likely ones you'd find would be Strikers 1945, Raiden Fighters 1 or 2, or Aero Fighters (oddly enough.) I've also seen Blazing Star in a number of 4-slot NeoGeo systems here as well.

Post by **spadgy** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 9:29 am

sven666 wrote:Ikaruga and/or Gradius 5 id say are the most known amongst current generation casual gamers.

both were released for all regions and hyped to death just about everywhere to boot.

I was rather underwhelmed by the hype for Gradius V in the UK. It deserved more. Ikaruga of course got tonnes. Wonder what makes the mainstream games press pick the ones they do? The odd shmup games journo on the team of a magazine perhaps, as it follows fairly closely the hype from the shmup community. I guess that's it.

Mitsuho · Post by **Mitsuho** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 2:51 pm

doodude wrote:By the way, can you record stuff from You Tube? Id like to show them just a couple of minutes of a lot of different games...

http://vixy.net/
Than just string the avi's together with virtualdub or something.

Google
73,000 for gradius shmup
71,000 for r-type shmup
51,900 for ikaruga shmup
41,500 for raiden shmup
16,900 for 1942 shmup

Ruldra · Post by **Ruldra** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 4:12 pm

Remove the 'shmup' from the search and r-type wins by a long shot.

Post by **spadgy** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 4:22 pm

Mitsuho wrote: Google
73,000 for gradius shmup
71,000 for r-type shmup
51,900 for ikaruga shmup
41,500 for raiden shmup
16,900 for 1942 shmup

Of course! That's one very reasonable way to answer the question. Looks like we were all right then! I think removing the word shmup makes sense as loads of people know the genre but not the term shmup.

Hang on though... is the above just roughly how many sites contain the search term? Perhaps using Google Zeitgeist to get the numbers of people doing the searching would be better. I'll try that after work, unless that is what you did Mitsuho.

HardcoreOtaku · Post by **HardcoreOtaku** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 5:30 pm

'space invaders shmup' I got 412,000 google results...

how does this really reflect how mainstream a game is though????
lots of specialist niche games get loads of internet coverage.... see youtube for example

still, would be interesting to see what games get what result...