Help with DS/GBA must have shooters

Guardians Knight · Post by **Guardians Knight** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 9:46 pm

Suddenly discovered ive got money again, so thort hunting down some shooters for my neglected little friend would be a cool plan, can any kind person gimmy a few names of must have titles to go find?

Thanks a lot

Necronopticous · Post by **Necronopticous** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 9:53 pm

Until the Ketsui port comes out, Space Invaders Extreme is the only thing I can recommend, as far as DS "shooters" go.

Momijitsuki · Post by **Momijitsuki** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 10:04 pm

I know there's a Geometry Wars release for the DS, but I haven't played it, so I can't exactly recommend it. Your call.

Frederik · Post by **Frederik** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 10:08 pm

Nanostray 2 for the DS is pretty good.

Necronopticous · Post by **Necronopticous** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 10:09 pm

FrederikJurk wrote:Nanostray 2 for the DS is pretty good.

If you like torture.

The Coop · Post by **The Coop** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 10:41 pm

Here are quick reviews of the GBA shmups I can think of...

* Gradius Galaxies- Horizontal shmup inthe famed series. Very good game.
Iridion- 3D "into the screen" shmup. Plays like Galaxy Force II, but with real power ups. A bit tech demo-ish, but decent.
* Iridion II- The better sequel that goes into the screen at a 3/4 view like Raystorm or RayCrysis. A bit long, but not a bad game at all. Rather pretty too.
Steel Empire (import)- A port of the great horizontal Genesis game. It's supposedly good, but I've never gotten to play it.
Darius R (import)- A pseudo-port of the first Darius game. It's not a bad game, but it has fewer levels. Decent music, decent game as well.
R-Type III- A horribly botched port of the great SNES game. Smaller movement space, really bad hit detection, bad "music"... it's just a mess.
* Phaylanx- A port of the SNES game. A horizontal shmup that plays fine and looks alright. It's pretty good over all.

MX7 · Post by **MX7** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 11:31 pm

Geometry Wars for DS is really great

Frederik · Post by **Frederik** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 11:49 pm

Necronopticous wrote:
FrederikJurk wrote:Nanostray 2 for the DS is pretty good.
If you like torture.

You have an interesting definition of "torture".

The Coop wrote:Here are quick reviews of the GBA shmups I can think of...
* Gradius Galaxies- Horizontal shmup inthe famed series. Very good game.

Totally forgot that one. I hated it at first, but then again I wasn´t too much into Gradius in general at that time. It´s certainly no Gaiden, but it is a lot more enjoyable than III.

glitch · Post by **glitch** » Thu Aug 21, 2008 9:26 am

Space Invaders Extreme is made of pure awesome.
if you like StarFoxy shooters too, Time Ace is pretty charming (and glitchy).

for GBA, Phalanx and Steel Empire / Koutetsu Teikoku are nice & twitchy. Also, there's Invader (euro-only, i think). pretty manic, for a gba shooter, and looks rather gorgeous. it commits a few euro sins (e.g. shop), and a bad case of Gradian instant-repawn syndrome, but otherwise it's very well done, and one of the very few verti's on the system.

maxi · Post by **maxi** » Thu Aug 21, 2008 12:14 pm

Darius R isn't one of the best shooters that I already play, but is good. And the Mega Drive version of Steel Empire is better than the GBA version, but it is also a good game.

JoshF · Post by **JoshF** » Thu Aug 21, 2008 12:34 pm

Just to recap: (heh heh heh. heh heh

heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh hehheh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh hehheh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh hehheh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh hehheh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh hehheh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh hehheh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh hehheh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh I would recommend (depending on how much money you have) spending that money in a way that would allow a proper su'mup gaming experience with decent video display and input (controller) options. I guess there's Game Boy Player, but...mmmmmm, the GBA resolution just sucks for these games and there are better offerings elsewhere, probably cheaper too. If you have to have a portable game, I'd say buy Space Invaders Extreme so you can get on the good side of jam and download the ROM and increase the screen size and play with a nice joypad or stick.

PC Engine Fan X! · Post by **PC Engine Fan X!** » Thu Aug 21, 2008 6:02 pm

The GBA release of Steel Empire/Koutetsu Teikoku has been upgraded to the arcade spec 60 frames-per-second framerate. Very nice touch compared to MD/Genesis offerings of the same name. As JoshF said, a good solid Gamecube arcade stick is recommended to play a serious gaming session of it on the Gamecube with a Gameboy Player accessory setup. ^_~

I like how the GBA port saves your high scores and initials for posterity. As to why such an official USA release wasn't done, it could've easily been done given the right American software distributor.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

Guardians Knight · Post by **Guardians Knight** » Thu Aug 21, 2008 9:03 pm

thanks guys ill hunt some of em down, might get side tracked hunting all the old saturn stuff down i sold a few years back tho

lgb · Post by **lgb** » Thu Aug 21, 2008 11:38 pm

Hmm...

GBA:
-Steel Empire
-Iridion II
-Phalanx
-Gradius Galaxies
-Darius R

DS:
-Geometry Wars Galaxies
-Nanostray
-Nanostray 2
-Space Invaders Extreme

Then you have "XG Blast", which appears to be an arena shooter for the DS, now in production.

You also have some homebrew GBA games, namely BulletGBA and Super Star Shooter Advance. Those two probably aren't what you're looking for, though.

That's everything I can think of...

sfried · Post by **sfried** » Thu Aug 21, 2008 11:48 pm

Bangai-O Spirits.

It's out now. Get it!

Frederik · Post by **Frederik** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 12:12 am

sfried wrote:Bangai-O Spirits.

It's out now. Get it!

I didn´t mention it myself because this is mandatory.

sfried · Post by **sfried** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 12:35 am

FrederikJurk wrote:
sfried wrote:Bangai-O Spirits.

It's out now. Get it!
I didn´t mention it myself because this is mandatory.

It's Treasure, so it's a must have by my book.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 2:24 am

For old school, there's Konami Arcade Advance GBA (Time Pilot, Gyruss, and Scramble), Atari Anniversary Advance (Asteroids, Centipede, and Tempest), Namco Museum GBA (Galaga), Konami Arcade Hits DS (Gradius, Time Pilot, Twinbee/RainbowBell, Scramble, and Pooyan), and Namco Museum DS (Galaga, Xevious, and Super Xevious). I also recommend Gradius Galaxies, Steel Empire, and Iridion II for GBA and Space Invaders Extreme, Nanostray, and Nanostray 2 for DS. There's also Big Bang Mini coming up for the DS from the developer of Nervous Brickdown which looks promising.

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 9:21 am

maxi wrote:And the Mega Drive version of Steel Empire is better than the GBA version, but it is also a good game.

No. The GBA version is superior like you wouldn't believe.

Some opinions:

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.ph ... 938#197938
http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?p=68666#68666
http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=14924

Guardians Knight · Post by **Guardians Knight** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 3:51 pm

thanks a lot, one more question, with lik-sang gone what is the importers shop of choice now? still play asia?

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 3:56 pm

One of the few titles which haven't been mentioned yet is "Invader" (no relationship with Taito's classic), a vertical shmup made by european team "Lost Boys" (which later became the infamous Guerrilla soft behind Killzone!).

The game is decent at best with sluggy controls and ultraresistent popcorn waves, but it's still something to look for as GBA verticals are a rarity. Also, it would support 2players with two gamepaks and a link cable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxzhL754nwA

glitch · Post by **glitch** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 4:03 pm

Turrican wrote:One of the few titles which haven't been mentioned yet is "Invader" [...]

glitch wrote:Also, there's Invader [...]

>_<

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 5:12 pm

glitch wrote: Also, there's Invader [...]

>_<

My most sincere apologies, fellow shmupper!

Octopod · Post by **Octopod** » Wed Aug 27, 2008 7:00 pm

Nanostray 2 is an awesome game. Havent played the first one though. GW is really nice too...fun game. Still havent played SI Extreme or Bangai-O yet but i plan on picking them up soon.

mr_m0nks · Post by **mr_m0nks** » Wed Aug 27, 2008 7:50 pm

avoid R-Type III for GBA like the plague!

RemyK313 · Post by **RemyK313** » Wed Aug 27, 2008 11:48 pm

Nanostray 2 is quite possibly the finest shmup you can buy and play on your DS.

After that, I would seriously recommend Gradius Galaxies (or if you can get your hands on it, the Japanese release called Gradius Generations if only for the mission modes)

If you can run homebrew, pick up BulletGBA.

Unfortunately, that's it. Shmup support is so poor on the DS that I ended up picking up a PSP just to play PSX shmups, MVS/CPS2 emulation, Genesis and GBA emulation.

Oh well, I eagerly await the new Ketsui.