The "darkest" shmup?

redeyeguy_KIO · Post by **redeyeguy_KIO** » Sat May 30, 2009 9:39 pm

Which do you guys think is the darkest shmup out there? For me, it's probably Battle Garegga - the music and art style seems to set in this gloomy apocalyptic mood just perfectly, and the story is just downright disturbing. I think Einhander is pretty dark too, but somehow Garegga's music just seems a lot gloomier and scarier.

I'm sure there's other dark shmups I don't know of. Anyway guys, post your opinions!

SuperGrafx · Post by **SuperGrafx** » Sat May 30, 2009 9:43 pm

I guess you could classify Karous as a darker themed shmup.

BIL · Post by **BIL** » Sat May 30, 2009 10:05 pm

R-Type Delta, overall. Great combination of grimy industrial + creepy alien stylings. Everything man-made looks scuffed if not ruined, everything organic looks foul; and the environments are consistently cold and dark. The night-time blizzard blowing through Stage 3, and the distant view of earth that opens Stage 4... to say nothing of the outright horror throughout 5 and 6, or the closing abyss. Metal Black (another shooter whose atmosphere I love) has a similarly bleak feel, but deliberately lightens things up via music. Delta feels lonely and uncertain from start to finish.

Garegga feels more cathartic to me than anything... certainly among the very grimiest industrial shooters, but its weird machines, indulgent destruction and relentless backbeat give it a lot of life. Stab And Stomp, enough said.

Guwange is a beautiful game with some twisted occult vibes.

kengou · Post by **kengou** » Sat May 30, 2009 10:24 pm

Garegga never struck me as all that 'dark'. Just military-themed. I would say the most depressing-looking shmups are R-Type, that organic style.

Zaarock · Post by **Zaarock** » Sat May 30, 2009 10:24 pm

I dont think you can get any further than Psyche Metal

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Sat May 30, 2009 10:28 pm

Never played it, but Baroque Shooting.

redeyeguy_KIO · Post by **redeyeguy_KIO** » Sat May 30, 2009 10:33 pm

kengou wrote:Garegga never struck me as all that 'dark'. Just military-themed.

Military themes can be extremely dark, and often depict suffering, misery, despair and fear. I seem to find Garegga similar to some sort of depressing Nazi death camp theme.

Rob wrote:Never played it, but Baroque Shooting.

For a sec, I thought you said Barbeque Shooting.

Afterbirth · Post by **Afterbirth** » Sat May 30, 2009 10:46 pm

Gynoug.

lgb · Post by **lgb** » Sat May 30, 2009 10:54 pm

Rob wrote:Never played it, but Baroque Shooting.

I really don't think it gets darker than this

The music is too light in Garegga

SockPuppetHyren · Post by **SockPuppetHyren** » Sat May 30, 2009 10:59 pm

+1 to R-Type Delta, especially if you're going by visuals alone. I would add R-Type FINAL also. It just seems that the R-Type series tops most others in terms of depressing, dark and scary locals. +1 to Karous too, on visuals at least. I can't read the game text due to it being to small.

Artesneit's shooters aren't exactly bright and happy either. Lots of organic and downright nasty enemies populate their games, Gashell and Anaru Dansyaku being good examples.

Radiant Silvergun and Ikaruga are both rather dreary, depressed feeling games; yet they also have a grand and epic feel to them. Especially for RS, which I get a feeling of absolute hopelessness from.

I know there are more, but the games listed above are what first comes to mind when I think "Dark and depressing". I would list the DonPachi games too, but it would only be for their endings, the games I've played from the series (DP and DDP) give me an upbeat and almost happy vibe. Especially with Donpachi's announcer.

EDIT: 1+ to Baroque Shooting. too. I'm mad I forgot that, since I just played it recently.

Diebythesword · Post by **Diebythesword** » Sat May 30, 2009 11:02 pm

Abadox and Zombie Nation!

BIL · Post by **BIL** » Sat May 30, 2009 11:12 pm

lgb wrote:
Rob wrote:Never played it, but Baroque Shooting.
I really don't think it gets darker than this

That game's bomb startled the hell out of me when I first fired it up.

+1 Gynoug and a nod to X-Multiply... which was always a bit too garish-looking for me, but blends demonic overtones with nonstop body-horror like little else.

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Sat May 30, 2009 11:29 pm

Shikigami no Shiro

Great topic, btw!

redeyeguy_KIO · Post by **redeyeguy_KIO** » Sat May 30, 2009 11:33 pm

Whoa, I just saw a clip of Baroque Shooting, and it looks scary as hell (no pun intended). They should release the full game on XBLA or Virtual Console or something, it'd be a nice download I think. I am hoping it is a great shmup, and not just an aesthetic thing.

..I still think Garegga is depressing and slightly scary, though.

lgb · Post by **lgb** » Sat May 30, 2009 11:42 pm

Yeah, there's a full version of it with like, 5 stages, but I don't know where you would find it

ForceDevice · Post by **ForceDevice** » Sun May 31, 2009 1:16 am

Bill wrote:R-Type Delta, overall. Great combination of grimy industrial + creepy alien stylings. Everything man-made looks scuffed if not ruined, everything organic looks foul; and the environments are consistently cold and dark. The night-time blizzard blowing through Stage 3, and the distant view of earth that opens Stage 4... to say nothing of the outright horror throughout 5 and 6, or the closing abyss. Metal Black (another shooter whose atmosphere I love) has a similarly bleak feel, but deliberately lightens things up via music. Delta feels lonely and uncertain from start to finish.

This. Couldn't have said it better myself, for both Delta and Metal Black.
I would also add Daioujou to the list.

Kollision · Post by **Kollision** » Sun May 31, 2009 1:35 am

I couldn't help but notice that Einhänder starts out during the night and stays there up until the 5th stage, when you surface out of a very claustrophobic and dark environment.

Sly Cherry Chunks · Post by **Sly Cherry Chunks** » Sun May 31, 2009 2:21 am

Galshell: Blood Red Skies was pretty disturbing.

The sequel had cutesy flying lolis

dpful · Post by **dpful** » Sun May 31, 2009 2:41 am

Soukyugurentai seems a little heavy minus the character select screen.

Gekido Shooting King has a goth mode with dog howls, neverending telephone rings and screams.

+1 for r-type delta and shikigami 1. R-type II also

Thunder Force · Post by **Thunder Force** » Sun May 31, 2009 3:12 am

Afterbirth wrote:Gynoug.

Good answer.

For some reason Bio-hazard Battle and Metal Black also come to mind, although I can't put my finger on why exactly, maybe it's the music.

Observer · Post by **Observer** » Sun May 31, 2009 3:19 am

Yet another point for Metal Black and R-Type Delta. For the latter, I remember I used to be terrified of stages 5-6, mainly the combo of the music and the increasing difficulty as others stated.

And now that someone mentioned it, yes, Baroque Shooting is quite creepy:

Yay for the explosion blocking the other eye.

Enemies explode in weird noises. Reminded me of Hellsinker and how you can hear a heavily distorted voice when revealing the "Spirit Kernel" of Scarlet Queen on Segment 2 Lead (something like: "You'll die here", coupled with the boss theme played at 4x speed), the voice that says "Unchained" when you kill the masters or "Reloaded" when your secondary weapon is fully charged.

unsane · Post by **unsane** » Sun May 31, 2009 10:29 am

Truxton looks pretty dark, in the replay i saw at least.

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Sun May 31, 2009 10:36 am

Truxton has the usual cutesy Toaplan artstyle. Can't feel particularly disturbed blowing apart big bulbous alien spaceships with baby fat.

Rozyrg · Post by **Rozyrg** » Sun May 31, 2009 12:11 pm

Truxton?

Sure, some of the alien craft are menacing (not strictly because of their appearance, either); but otherwise it's quite colorful and cheery... just how I like my space shmups.

BIL · Post by **BIL** » Sun May 31, 2009 12:29 pm

I love the Truxtons' fascination with skulls. Not done in a paticularly morbid way either (which is quite remarkable)... Truxton II's bomb unleashes the fucking fury!

j^aws · Post by **j^aws** » Sun May 31, 2009 1:09 pm

Stargate (1981):

It has suicide, homicide and genocide; humanoid abduction, with copious transgenic mutations...

doctorx0079 · Post by **doctorx0079** » Sun May 31, 2009 4:09 pm

j^aws wrote:Stargate (1981):

It has suicide, homicide and genocide; humanoid abduction, with copious transgenic mutations...

What's actually going on in that game is kind of nasty, but you have to have a lot of imagination to really notice.

redeyeguy_KIO · Post by **redeyeguy_KIO** » Sun May 31, 2009 4:24 pm

doctorx0079 wrote:
j^aws wrote:Stargate (1981):

It has suicide, homicide and genocide; humanoid abduction, with copious transgenic mutations...
What's actually going on in that game is kind of nasty, but you have to have a lot of imagination to really notice.

ROFL

CIT · Post by **CIT** » Sun May 31, 2009 5:07 pm

Battle Garegga
Guwange
Soukyugurentai
Dodonpachi Daioujou
Esprade
Rayforce
R-Type
R-Type II
R-Type Delta
X Multiply
Homura

BIL · Post by **BIL** » Sun May 31, 2009 5:10 pm

circuitface wrote:Isn't R-Type just awesomely disgusting? I love it!

Anyway - many of you probably haven't played Gynoug on the Mega Drive because otherwise it would have been mentioned already. Somewhere near the end of the game you have to fight a giant dick-brandishing monster man. He grits and cringes and strains as you fight him and the viens on his monster cock pulsate in agony.

After this fight i had to go take a shower - that's just nasty.

Awesome post from circuitface re: Gynoug. Here's a boss run featuring Penisman and colleagues. I love the classical-sounding boss themes, quite eerie. Recalls Castlevania IV's brooding OST. And the backdrop during the last boss is exceptional.