What are the best Mega Drive shmups?

Diabollokus · Post by **Diabollokus** » Fri May 09, 2008 11:03 am

Gynoug is pretty special but stay the fukk away from curse and bioship paladin. I don't think any other MD shmup can touch thunder force 4, save maybe musha

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Fri May 09, 2008 11:33 am

Where did I write my two cents about megadrive shmups before? Oh, yes, here.

Oddysee · Post by **Oddysee** » Fri May 09, 2008 11:33 am

Bio Hazard Battle
Gynoug
Truxton
Thunder Force IV

Are the ones that stand out for me. They are all excellent.

Koa Zo · Post by **Koa Zo** » Sat May 10, 2008 5:56 am

Turrican wrote:Where did I write my two cents about megadrive shmups before? Oh, yes, here.

yup, that about covers it!

Not enough people mention Subterrania. One of the few 16-bit games I never beat, no matter how hard I tried - that last boss just kicked my ass time and time again.

edit: from the thread Turrican linked:

Shatterhand wrote:I don't have much to add, except that I want to second The Coop's and Turrican's recommendation of Subterrania.

This game deserves to be more known. It's a masterpiece. Shame most people try it for like 5 minutes, can't get a hang of the controls and give up.

It takes a while to get used, but when you do, the game becomes one of the finest games available on the Mega-Drive.

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Sat May 10, 2008 6:29 am

Koa Zo wrote:
Turrican wrote:Where did I write my two cents about megadrive shmups before? Oh, yes, here.
yup, that about covers it!

Actually there are a couple of underdogs I neglected:

Dangerous Seed (Namco)
Darwin 4081 (Data East)
Master of Weapons (Taito)

Unless some in-game depth escaped my senses, I'd fit them in the "not really recommended" category. Although MoW is the overall prettiest, Darwin has the most interesting graphic style of the three, too bad you have to pick up powerups which are nearly indistinguishable from enemies...

Pretty funny, all three of them are verts with "bomb ground targets" gameplay.

P.S. yeah Subterrania rocks!

The Coop · Post by **The Coop** » Sat May 10, 2008 6:37 am

Here's my list.

it290 · Post by **it290** » Sat May 10, 2008 6:41 am

I never could get any fun out of Darwin, no matter how hard I tried. Same goes for the Genesis version of Twin Cobra.

Now Hellfire, on the other hand... I don't know why, I just have a soft spot for that game. It probably has something to do with the music.

Vapor Trail is another guilty pleasure. It's just so generic that it almost defines what these games were all about back then.

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Sat May 10, 2008 6:47 am

it290 wrote:I never could get any fun out of Darwin, no matter how hard I tried. Same goes for the Genesis version of Twin Cobra.

Now Hellfire, on the other hand... I don't know why, I just have a soft spot for that game. It probably has something to do with the music.

Vapor Trail is another guilty pleasure. It's just so generic that it almost defines what these games were all about back then.

Hellfire's first stage music is one of the best tracks ever, I concur.

Kuuga also a guilty pleasure of mine!

evil_ash_xero · Post by **evil_ash_xero** » Sat May 10, 2008 11:54 am

Since I started this thread, I thought i'd add my 2 cents about what I thought of the shmups of the MD that I have played recently(or in the past).

It seems like a lot of them were on the threshhold of greatness that was the 32 bit era, but not quite there.

Thunderforce IV is probably the only game that to this day I just think is flat out awesome. I think it's a great game, and has enough intensity to keep you interested even in this day and age of "bullet hells".

Thunderforce III and M.U.S.H.A. are good, but have problems. TFIII is too easy, and too straight forward. M.U.S.H.A.'s levels are too long, especially the first one.

I didn't care a whole lot for Gleylancer, but it seemed alright. Eliminate Down is good, but it's not a "mind blower", but it's fun. I haven't progressed far, so I can't really critique it as well as i'd like to.

Gaiares...ARGH! Man, this game is hard. It's got it's plusses, but I once again can't say much about it, because I can't get anywhere on the damn thing. Hardcore as hell.

Battle Mania 2 has lots of personality, and is lots of fun. I'd recommend it to MD owners(or emulator owners).

It's sorta funny that a lot of reviews say this was the pinnacle of the era. I kinda think they just mean this is when they were mostly popular and when the most were made. Because the 32 bit era clobbered this era to pieces.

s/m

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Sat May 10, 2008 12:29 pm

32bit era greatness? Hardly. At least focusing on console market, even the best titles out there (R-Type Delta) were basically just a matter of polishing and refining. The innovative ones are few (Einhänder); installments of once-popular franchises (ThunderforceV) now receive massive criticism; Key developers (Compile) ended in a whimper.

So I assume you're talking of the post-1995 arcade scene, and that's a different story altogether; a story of glory, that doesn't overshadow these Genesis titles because it's a different beast.

Mind you, I agree that there's quite a lot of duds listing the Genesis shmups. But the good ones stand the test of time. Moreover Genesis managed to get lots of great ports from the older arcade scene (the Toaplan stuff) - which in the end works in favor of the system's library.

it290 · Post by **it290** » Sat May 10, 2008 5:17 pm

Agreed. The 16-bit era was the last stand of great console shooters; the 32-bit era had a few but the majority were arcade ports (which were generally quite good). Some people just don't like console-style games, and that's fine, but the few that exist on the 32-bit systems just can't compare.

Ceph · Post by **Ceph** » Sat May 10, 2008 10:10 pm

ROBOTRON wrote:
Rob wrote:http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=12029
Thread exists?

Thread exists.

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Sat May 10, 2008 10:28 pm

A recurrent thread yes, but nonetheless it's always a pleasure to discuss these games

monkeyman · Post by **monkeyman** » Sat May 10, 2008 10:45 pm

Gynoug (aka Wings of Wor) for the insanely grotesque bosses

Bio Hazard battle for it's cool settings

and Thunder Force III just because I love it (not sure why I prefer it to TFIV but I do)

Bloodreign · Post by **Bloodreign** » Sat May 10, 2008 11:53 pm

Fire Shark's been mentioned twice, but for good reason, unlike Twin Cobra for the Genesis,Fire Shark is better balanced, you actually have a chance to survive far into the game with a little practice, you still get fast aimed bullets at you (much like Raiden) but power up with the red fire weapon and the game gets much easier.

No knock on Twin Cobra though as I own it and enjoy firing it up now and then.

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Sat May 10, 2008 11:57 pm

I took Eliminate Down out of my Top 25 list, which I felt bad about but I'm not familiar enough with the game to warrant its inclusion. Same for TFIV and Gaiares - I hear good things about them but when I sit down to play them I'm not really fascinated.

Fire Shark has different level patterns and such than the arcade version. It's alright because it gives it a slightly different feel. The arcade game is much better though - just very hard (Medium on FS arcade seems like Genesis Hard, if not harder).

Stormwatch · Post by **Stormwatch** » Sun May 11, 2008 12:26 am

As I usually say, Sol-Deace is a sweet, vastly underrated game.

Air Buster (aka Aero Blasters) is pretty cool too.

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Sun May 11, 2008 2:05 am

Stormwatch wrote:As I usually say, Sol-Deace is a sweet, vastly underrated game.

Good thing I have Sol Feace, heh

SamIAm · Post by **SamIAm** » Sun May 11, 2008 9:44 am

With Gleylancer, if you can keep yourself from using the "search" setting for your options and really get comfortable with the ones that are synched to the D-pad, it becomes a very solid game with great action. Good music, too.

I have to admit, though, that with all its heart, TFIV wins out for my favorite MD shmup.

Eliminate Down seems pretty good, but the game hands me my ass at the stage 3 boss.

Bloodreign · Post by **Bloodreign** » Sun May 11, 2008 9:48 am

Stormwatch wrote:
Air Buster (aka Aero Blasters) is pretty cool too.

Yeah while not quite as frantically paced as it's arcade cousin, they did a decent job with the Genesis version with one exception, decompressing between levels, which leads to loading levels (Acck load times on a 16 bit system).

monkeyman · Post by **monkeyman** » Sun May 11, 2008 10:25 am

Stormwatch wrote:Air Buster (aka Aero Blasters) is pretty cool too.

That game lost me as soon as you got to the space levels where you couldn't stop moving. No fun at all. (was cool up until then mind)

evil_ash_xero · Post by **evil_ash_xero** » Sun May 11, 2008 1:51 pm

Turrican wrote:32bit era greatness? Hardly. At least focusing on console market, even the best titles out there (R-Type Delta) were basically just a matter of polishing and refining. The innovative ones are few (Einhänder); installments of once-popular franchises (ThunderforceV) now receive massive criticism; Key developers (Compile) ended in a whimper.

So I assume you're talking of the post-1995 arcade scene, and that's a different story altogether; a story of glory, that doesn't overshadow these Genesis titles because it's a different beast.

Mind you, I agree that there's quite a lot of duds listing the Genesis shmups. But the good ones stand the test of time. Moreover Genesis managed to get lots of great ports from the older arcade scene (the Toaplan stuff) - which in the end works in favor of the system's library.

I do mainly mean the post 95 arcade scene, yes. But a number of those did make it to the home consoles(Layer Secion, Don Pachi, Do DonPachi, Battle Garegga, Soukyugurentai, G Darius, Radiant Silvergun and others), so it was good time in the arcades, and at home.

I still believe that the 32 machine era(Saturn, Playstation) along with the arcade games of the same time were probably the most consistent era for awesome shmups we'll probably ever have.

But as for "home only" games, I guess there weren't that many good ones. Gradius Gaiden, R-Type Delta, and Einhander come to mind. But not many others, yeah.

s/m