what great 2d shooters am i missing?

[lgb]

If you're looking for bullet hell, go for the touhou series and Cave games.
If you're looking for manic, go for Toaplan games and the Raiden series.
If you're looking for manic bullet hell, go for Raizing and Psikyo.

[emphatic]

Also, if you're just wanna look at great game design check out these videos of Ketsui: http://www.super-play.co.uk/index.php?c ... &gameid=38

The bullet patterns are somewhat organic and "alive". To die for.
Emph

[nimitz]

I don't get why people are recommending their favorite games in this thread.

This is not about which game is the best shmup ever or the most fun...I wouldnt recomment Garegga or Mars Matrix to someone new to shmups, he will probably be turned off by the complexity and overall difficulty level.

Dodonpachi is the way to go because it represents everything that is great about "new style" shmups BUT, also manages to be very frendly to newer players. No matter how new you are to the genre you will make nice progress and have some fun playing Dodonpachi.

(And all that coming from someone who likes Batrider and Garegga more than DDP, I mean, look at my avatar )

[Ed Oscuro]

I don't get why people are recommending their favorite games in this thread.

Maybe they looked at the title?

I second Twin Cobra, can't really talk about Mars Matrix because while it's been out of my reach for a while it's also a game worth looking at. Same for Garegga, if it weren't for the insane "wait through the attract sequence a few times" rank system

I find DoDonPachi to be even more of a pain in the butt than Mars Matrix, given that it feels like it's constantly punishing you for not following a specific route. RARGH

[The Coop]

I don't get why people are recommending their favorite games in this thread.

This is not about which game is the best shmup ever or the most fun...I wouldnt recomment Garegga or Mars Matrix to someone new to shmups, he will probably be turned off by the complexity and overall difficulty level.

The title of the thread isn't "What shmups are good for beginners?", it's "What great 2d shooters am I missing?" The original poster wants to know what they've missed over what they've already played, and "great" is of course going to be subjective to each person. How new a person is to shmupping holds no bearing on whether or not a shmup is great, and to be honest, this thread is exactly about which shmups are considered (by you) to be the best and/or most fun (that's what makes them "great", right?).

[Enhasa]

Same for Garegga, if it weren't for the insane "wait through the attract sequence a few times" rank system

OFF-TOPIC RUH ROH

Don't do that, you're only making it worse, lol. Power on / reset is min starting rank, so just reset like normal. In Batrider it's reversed, to stick it to the people who would physically power cycle Garegga cabs. But even in Batrider, you can get min starting rank by first turning on the test menu in the dip switches, then when you reset all you do is hit 1P start to begin.

Or of course you could just make a save state on the character select screen anyway.

[No_not_like_Quake]

I like the Thundercross series by Konami. They are playable in MAME. They're horizontal scrolling and of the late 80s early 90s era.

[nimitz]

The title of the thread isn't "What shmups are good for beginners?", it's "What great 2d shooters am I missing?" The original poster wants to know what they've missed over what they've already played, and "great" is of course going to be subjective to each person.

Well you do have a point if someone read the thread title without reading the first post, he may then suggest his favorite shmups. But I presume most of us read the original post and understood that the OP is relatively new to the genre.

[DMC]

Or of course you could just make a save state on the character select screen anyway.

Was this sentence about batrider? in which version(s) of mame can you use save states? doen't work in the one i use.
Also, is it true that you only can trigger "score mode" in japan version, seems like that's the case.

on topic: speaking of batrider, I think it is a good game for beginners. Lots of characters and different modes to play around with. normal mode for survival is not that hard either. and even if normal mode is considered easy for survival, there's always something going on in batrider so it's pretty intense anyway.
but I agree on dodonpachi.

[GrimoreLibrarian]

Mobile light Force 2.....

Your dog will suffer!

[Enhasa]

Was this sentence about batrider? in which version(s) of mame can you use save states? doen't work in the one i use.
Also, is it true that you only can trigger "score mode" in japan version, seems like that's the case.

Yes, it got taken out of the Korean version.

Saving on character select has always worked for me in whatever version of MAME, including the current one, and I know it worked before too since people used that before the 1P start trick was discovered. It says it's not officially supported but it still works. I think you might have to load during the actual game or sometimes load it twice. IIRC saving during the actual game is messed up, so you can't use it to practice, but you can skip for example the annoying startup time and Mahou code in Garegga. In Batrider, a great trick I found for it is:

I figured something out for special course. The game determines the stage order before character select (when you would normally stage edit), so if you make a save state at character select, you can play forward and see if you get the order you want (Sky High, Airport, Sewage System) and try again until you do. Then you basically have a ghetto stage edit this way. You have a 1/6 chance of getting the one you want, but for some reason it took me about three dozen attempts.

Also unrelated and off-topic, but if anyone is having difficulty selecting ABC in Garegga, you can just hit fast forward and wait for timeout to get ABC.

[spineshark]

Garegga's bootup sequence is sooooooo long though :( And macmame doesn't seem to have states at all.

[XERO]

axelay
space megaforce
originally the two reasons i bought the snes !!!!!

[The Coop]

The title of the thread isn't "What shmups are good for beginners?", it's "What great 2d shooters am I missing?" The original poster wants to know what they've missed over what they've already played, and "great" is of course going to be subjective to each person.

Well you do have a point if someone read the thread title without reading the first post, he may then suggest his favorite shmups. But I presume most of us read the original post and understood that the OP is relatively new to the genre.

Oh I read the first post, but again, being new to the genre has no bearing whatsoever on what constitutes a great shmup, and nowhere in his first post does he ask for shmups that are good for beginners. He's asking for the great shmups he's missed, and that leaves the floor open for all personal recommendations (regardless of perceived difficulty, quality, etc. by others).

[DMC]

Thanks for the info, Enhasa. Cheers!

[croikle]

Garegga's bootup sequence is sooooooo long though And macmame doesn't seem to have states at all.

Left Shift + F7 to save a state (prompts for an ID for the state, like a letter or number), F7 to load a state. These work on MacMame for me. Also, Command + Option runs the game at turbo speed while pressed, so you can get through the startup checks faster.

Alternatively, you can use Zakk's patches, though they take a bit of know-how to apply.

[Rob]

axelay
space megaforce
originally the two reasons i bought the snes !!!!!

Then you found Bio Metal.

[Strider77]

ewww... biometal?!?

lol.... 2unlimited version of not?

[Guardians Knight]

lol asking a question like that here is like walking into the lions den having been lightly sprinkled with mixed herbs.

a good point of reference is the xenocide files back at http://shmups.classicgaming.gamespy.com/ and/or using the mame option of display games by genre and then spending many happy hours trying lots of games out to see for yourself whats cool.