List of the 100+ most influential arcade shmups

[The Eidolon]

Chronological list of influential arcade shmups:
Edit: My verbiage moved to after the list

Underlined entries have mini-synopses posted in this thread. Latest = #34, Tiger Heli, 5-8-10
List order last revised 4-16-10: removed KiKi KaiKai - not really a shmup

# Year Name (Alternate Name) Maker
1 1971 Computer Space Nutting
2 1975 Jet Fighter Atari
3 1978 Space Invaders Taito
4 1979 Galaxian Namco
5 1979 Asteroids Atari
6 1980 Centipede Atari
7 1980 Defender Williams
8 1980 Moon Cresta Nichibutsu
9 1980 Phoenix Amstar
10 1980 Star Castle Cinematronics
11 1980 Tempest Atari
12 1981 Astro Blaster Sega
13 1981 Bosconian Namco
14 1981 Galaga Namco
15 1981 GORF Midway
16 1981 Pleiades Tekhan
17 1981 Scramble Konami
18 1981 Space Fury Sega/Gremlin
19 1981 Super Cobra Konami
20 1981 Vanguard Centuri
21 1982 Satan's Hollow Midway
22 1982 Sinistar Williams
23 1982 Time Pilot Konami
24 1982 Xevious Namco
25 1982 Zaxxon Sega
26 1983 Gyruss Konami
27 1984 Gaplus (Galaga 3) Namco
28 1984 Two Tigers Midway
29 1984 Star Force (Mega Force) Tekhan
30 1984 1942 Capcom
31 1985 Twinbee Konami
32 1985 Gradius Konami
33 1985 Terrra Cresta Nichibutsu
34 1985 Tiger Heli Toaplan
35 1985 Section Z Capcom
36 1986 Fantasy Zone Sega
37 1986 Sidearms Capcom
38 1986 UFO Robo Dangar Nichibutsu
39 1986 Scramble Formation (Tokio) Taito
40 1986 Ares no Tsubasa (Legendary Wings) Capcom
41 1986 Salamander (Life Force) Konami
42 1987 Flying Shark Toaplan
43 1987 Darius Taito
44 1987 1943 Capcom
45 1987 R-Type Irem
46 1987 Twin Cobra Toaplan
47 1987 Forgotten Worlds Capcom
48 1987 Gondomania Nihon Bussan
49 1987 Dragon Spirit Namco
50 1988 Sky Soldiers SNK
51 1988 Tatsujin (Truxton) Toaplan
52 1988 Image Fight Irem
53 1989 Area 88 (UN Squadron) Capcom
54 1989 X-Multiply Irem
55 1989 Zero Wing Toaplan
56 1989 Omega Fighter UPL
57 1990 Raiden Seibu Kaihatsu
58 1990 Parodius Da! Konami
59 1990 Thunder Force AC Sega
60 1990 Gun Frontier Taito
61 1991 Cotton Success
62 1991 Metal Black Taito
63 1992 Sonic Wings (Aero Fighters) Video System Inc.
64 1992 Varth Capcom
65 1992 Macross Banpresto
66 1993 Raiden II Seibu Kaihatsu
67 1993 Batsugun Toaplan
68 1993 Mahou Daisakusen (Sorcerer Striker) Raizing
69 1993 Kaiteidaisensou (In the Hunt) Irem
70 1994 Rayforce (Layer Section) Taito
71 1994 Raiden DX Seibu Kaihatsu
72 1994 Gunbird (Mobile Light Force) Psikyo
73 1995 Donpachi Cave
74 1995 Pulstar SNK
75 1995 Strikers 1945 Psikyo
76 1996 Sexy Parodius Konami
77 1996 Battle Garegga Raizing
78 1996 Sengoku Blade Psikyo
79 1996 Raystorm Taito
80 1996 Sokyugurentai Raizing
81 1996 Twinkle Star Sprites ADK
82 1996 Raiden Fighters Seibi Kaihatsu
83 1996 19XX Capcom
84 1997 Dodonpachi Cave
85 1997 G-Darius Taito
86 1998 Blazing Star SNK
87 1998 Radiant Silvergun Treasure
88 1998 Armed Police Batrider Raizing
89 1998 Esp Ra.De. Cave
90 1999 Giga Wing Capcom
91 1999 Battle Bakraid Raizing
92 1999 Gunwange Cave
93 2000 Mars Matrix Takumi
94 2000 Psyvariar Success
95 2001 Ikaruga Treasure
96 2001 Shikigami no Shiro Alfa System
97 2003 Ketsui Cave
98 2003 Border Down G. Rev
99 2003 Espgaluda Cave
100 2004 Mushihimesame Cave
101 2005 Senko no Ronde G.Rev
102 2005 Ibara Cave
103 2007 Deathsmiles Cave

I'm working on a list of the most influential arcade shmups over the
years, and if possible I'd like to fill it out to about 100 entries. That's
enough to cover almost everything influential without all the Space
Invaders clones and obscure oddities. Influential does not necessarily
equal good, of course. I'm trying to pick shmups that were widely
played, popular at the time, spawned series, or introduced features that
were borrowed by other games. My list tends to tilt toward early shmups
because we haven't seen how the current generation of will affect the
future yet. (And my knowledge of the shmup scene pretty much ends
about 1996 anyway.) I would greatly appreciate suggestions to fill
out the more recent end of the list, as well as comments and constructive
criticism. List is in approximately chronological order with no attempt to
rank or compare shmups within the list. (Which would only lead to grief!)

[ROBOTRON]

No Thunderforce games? Zanac or any Compile?

[Jockel]

Seems like a really pointless list.
However i would rank Ikaruga considerably higher, as it brought many people back to shmups.

[Acid King]

I think 100 games is way too many. 25 would be more than enough.

[mr_b]

Yeah, I would say cut the list down and then also give a brief reason as to what makes it influential.

Otherwise its just rambling off a bunch of games.

[Super Laydock]

However i would rank Ikaruga considerably higher

List is in approximately chronological order with no attempt to
rank or compare shmups within the list.

He's not ranking anything here.

Anyway, I believe this is a pretty nice start for a list, though I miss some obviously influential games like GigaWing/MarsMatrix, Shikigami No Shiro & Psyvariar.

Also I agree with Acid King on limiting your list a bit to way less than 100..

[The Eidolon]

I'll be sure to add some more recent games based on suggestions such as
the Shikigami no Shiro series etc. I've never played most of the suggestions
so far, so the omission of more recent shmups is from ignorance/lack of
personal experience rather than a value judgment. As mentioned, this is a
chronological list rather than a true ranking. 100 is a lot (maybe too many),
but it's easier to make a large list and then prune it down to a top 25 or
a top 10 than vice-versa. After I've compiled the list I was thinking of posting
mini-reviews with screengrabs and a brief discussion of notable features or
why that shmup is influential, but that is a ways off.

[Jockel]

However i would rank Ikaruga considerably higher

List is in approximately chronological order with no attempt to
rank or compare shmups within the list.

He's not ranking anything here.

Oh right, sorry, didn't catch that.

[Herr Schatten]

You seem to have a lot of games in your list which haven't been influential the least bit. (Ibara, Blazing Star, Gunbird, and others.)

[BulletMagnet]

A handful of suggestions -

- I guess it sort of depends on how strictly you define "influential", but it seems to me that a fair amount of the titles you list are merely building off of something that a previous game did, and really didn't "influence" anything much after them...for instance, I'm not sure how much more influential Super Cobra was than Scramble, how much more impact X-Multiply might have had over R-Type, or whether anyone bothered to take Rayforce's concept much further after Soukyugurentai, plus several others. I know you're looking for a big list to pare down, but hopefully you've already given some similar thought to this.

- In a few cases I might suggest going back a bit further - presumably you name G. Darius because of the "beam battles", but Metal Black was the first one to do that. More arguably, you might want to consider naming Change Air Blade instead of Senko no Ronde for its "versus" influence, if you're going to mention something other than Twinkle Star Sprites.

- Once you get around to posting your reasons for inclusion it'll become clearer, I'm sure, but as others have said there are a few games here that I'm trying to figure out...off the cuff, I'm not certain what Sengoku Blade, Blazing Star, and Cotton brought to the table (again, plus a few more). Guess I'll just have to wait and see on this one.

- Just minor errors, but a few shmups have the incorrect developer listed; offhand I see Salamander (Konami) and Raiden DX (Seibu). Might want to give the list a quick double-check at some point.

Looking forward to seeing where this ends up.

[The Eidolon]

Thanks for all the suggested additions and corrections! I'm, editing the
original list as we go along. As far as methodology, I would tend to claim a
game is influential if it was one or more of these:
1) Popular/widely played
2) Introduced novel features which influenced later games
3) Marked the start of an enduring series or the high point of a series
4) Is one of the most characteristic examples of a certain style

A couple examples/explanations:
A game like R-Type is much more influential than X-multiply.
If I had to pare the list to a top 25 or so (probably a reasonable number
when all is said and done) I would only include the former. R-Type was
innovative for a number of reasons: the charge shot, partial invulnerability
(force), bio/alien/robot hybrid theme, ability to choose power up type etc.
It's not necessarily the very first example of all of these, but one of the
earlier and more influential ones. X-multiply is a good example of the
"Organic" theme (which Life Force did earlier), and the tentacles add on
was a unique and interesting evolution of the force, though not much
imitated by later games, so less influential but still notable.

I picked Sengoku Blade as an example of the increasing popularity of
fantasy/medieval themed shmups. Sengoku Ace is earlier, but feels
too close to Sonic Wings swapped to medieval sprites. I would only say
with say that with the second entry in the series did it fully develop its
own style. I thought it was interesting how it used humanoid players with
a vertical orientation in a horizontal scroller, which makes for a different
dodging style. (though games like Section Z did so much earlier, or course).

BTW, If I had to pick a top 10 most influential if would be:
1) Space Invaders 2) Defender 3) Scramble 4) Xevious 5) 1942
6) Gradius 7) R-Type Twin Cobra 9) Battle Garegga 10) Ikaruga
I'm certainly biased towards older shmups...

[Hibachi]

I'm also not sure about all of the Cave stuff at the end.

I'm no brain box on the history to be honest but I feel the Cave stuff is always just similar types of gams with little innovation. There isn't anything wrong with that as I do like them very much but felt it a good point.

[kozo]

Two cents:

I missed out on the very early stuff, from from my perspective, some important ones are:

• Xevious, for its scrolling backgrounds, colors, and thought-out background story.

• Gradius is a turning point. I know Scramble came first, but Gradius ushered in a whole new era. Powerup management, detailed environments with tight navigation, etc. Gradius on its own is enough, as Salamander, Life Force, etc. all follow its lead.

• R-Type is also a big one, as it really solidified the 'memorizer' style. Gradius has some of that, but R-Type made it the focus. IMHO it is much more unforgiving and also brought its own distinct look to the genre.

• Batsugun, as the bridge between modern and classic, especially the sp mode with it's small hitbox, its near-bullet-hell firepower, and it is also the nexus for many big offshoot devs from Toaplan that are still relevant today. It also introduced an experience system of sorts that was used in later shmups such as Mars Matrix, and had a great soundtrack.

• Battle Garrega, for being so obscure in it's scoring methods, and it's rank insanity. It brought a technical level to shmups that players can chew on for years and still find odd scoring secrets. As evidenced by the tournament, it has a profound impact on many who play it, usually disgust at first, followed by love.

• Ikaruga is huge. Not only did it appeal to a very wide audience, it is artistically sound, has a plotline that doesn't intrude but does exist, it showed how refined 3D graphics could be in a 2D shmup, and with its chaining, smart bomb and polarity merged a bit of puzzle into its formula. It may not have been the first to implement puzzle elements, but it was the one that garnered a lot of attention, and is notable not just for gameplay but for it's bleak, well-developed world, art, style, characters and soundtrack. It also brought a ton of people into the genre, both newcomers and oldtimers that forgot how fun they are. I know it's overrated with all of it's frothing demand, but it is a huge milestone. Also one of the relatively few of the modern era of shmups that actually made it big (and made it at all) outside of Japan.

• Maybe Espgaluda, because of the time-bending and some cheesy but well-received aesthetics. However, I dont know of many shmups since or before that use the kakusei mode.

[clp]

Espgaludas kakusei is imo an expansion/variation of the Guwange idea .

[WarBovine]

A handful of suggestions -

- I guess it sort of depends on how strictly you define "influential", but it seems to me that a fair amount of the titles you list are merely building off of something that a previous game did, and really didn't "influence" anything much after them...for instance, I'm not sure how much more influential Super Cobra was than Scramble, how much more impact X-Multiply might have had over R-Type, or whether anyone bothered to take Rayforce's concept much further after Soukyugurentai, plus several others. I know you're looking for a big list to pare down, but hopefully you've already given some similar thought to this.

- In a few cases I might suggest going back a bit further - presumably you name G. Darius because of the "beam battles", but Metal Black was the first one to do that. More arguably, you might want to consider naming Change Air Blade instead of Senko no Ronde for its "versus" influence, if you're going to mention something other than Twinkle Star Sprites.

- Once you get around to posting your reasons for inclusion it'll become clearer, I'm sure, but as others have said there are a few games here that I'm trying to figure out...off the cuff, I'm not certain what Sengoku Blade, Blazing Star, and Cotton brought to the table (again, plus a few more). Guess I'll just have to wait and see on this one.

- Just minor errors, but a few shmups have the incorrect developer listed; offhand I see Salamander (Konami) and Raiden DX (Seibu). Might want to give the list a quick double-check at some point.

Looking forward to seeing where this ends up.

This is what I've always wanted to see, tracing back the routes of various games. I'd love to see a gigantic tree, with things like

Metal Black -> G-Darius -> Border Down
(Taito -> G.Rev)

or

Image Fight -> Radiant Silvergun -> Ikaruga
(IREM -> Treasure)

or all the various offshoots of Toaplan, for example.

Thanks for all the suggested additions and corrections! I'm, editing the
original list as we go along. As far as methodology, I would tend to claim a
game is influential if it was one or more of these:
1) Popular/widely played
2) Introduced novel features which influenced later games
3) Marked the start of an enduring series or the high point of a series
4) Is one of the most characteristic examples of a certain style

[...]

BTW, If I had to pick a top 10 most influential if would be:
1) Space Invaders 2) Defender 3) Scramble 4) Xevious 5) 1942
6) Gradius 7) R-Type Twin Cobra 9) Battle Garegga 10) Ikaruga
I'm certainly biased towards older shmups...

I'm pretty biased here, since I'm favoring criterion 2 out of all of them, but something like Ikaruga doesn't really seem influential to me. Don't get me wrong, it's my favorite shmup, I'd consider it the best shmup ever, and I'm well aware of the fact that the popular media pretty much ignores everything between Space Invaders and Ikaruga, and certainly everything after. But at the same time, Ikaruga doesn't seem to have influence any other games (or resulted in a Project RS3, so far). By contrast, pick any other game on your ten title short list and you could name entire series of derivatives.

[kozo]

True, but:

I'm trying to pick shmups that were widely
played, popular at the time, spawned series, or introduced features that
were borrowed by other games.

I think Iky counts for the first two points. It may not have influenced many shmups after it, but it did influence mainstream awareness of shmups and give the industry a boost. It was influential not in gameplay, but in the big scheme. Just my two cents though, I don't know crap.

[brentsg]

Interesting idea..

I'd definitely lose the Cave content at the end. Ibara? I love it, but influential it is not. Even Ketsui is a cult classic and fantastic game at best (or so I hear). How would you define its influence?

Definitely you need to add your reasoning for each title to the matrix. Otherwise it's just a list without any credibility.

Oh and wow, were the 80's awesome...

[Thunder Force]

Seems most of truly influential classics have already been mentioned in this thread... Space Invaders, Defender, Asteroids, Robotron 2048, Galaga, Xevious, Scramble, Gradius, R-Type, Twin Cobra, Raiden, Batsugun, Ikaruga...

Once you try to expand this kind of list to beyond a Top 20 though, it becomes incredibly subjective to decide whether or not to include a title like Gigawing over say, Gun Frontier.

[BulletMagnet]

Even Ketsui is a cult classic and fantastic game at best (or so I hear).

That's another one where you might consider going back farther...Omega Fighter (afaik) is the one that pioneered the "closer to enemies = more points" scoring system.

[undamned]

As far as methodology, I would tend to claim a
game is influential if it was one or more of these:
1) Popular/widely played
2) Introduced novel features which influenced later games
3) Marked the start of an enduring series or the high point of a series
4) Is one of the most characteristic examples of a certain style

#2 is the only one necessary
Honestly, if you are going to title this list as "influential" and then include items just because they were popular, that doesn't really jive, imo. For example, Deathsmiles in an "influential" list is laughable. Most of the posts so far have offered some great advice. Listen to them smart folks
-ud

[The Eidolon]

Thanks for the continued suggestions. I have added several to the list up top.
Influential is a vague word to use. I had in mind games that influenced later
shmups foremost, but also that influenced the consciousness of the game playing
public. I didn't want only good/popular/recent shmups, but I didn't just want
of early shmups that happen to be the first to introduce a certain feature. The
list couldn't be very representative without all of your contributions. My own
knowledge of shmups is pretty much limited to 1978-1996. I don't think I've even
played a shmup made after Ikaruga, so I'm clearly not able to serve as much of
a judge for modern shmups...

I'm working on adding tags to help me trace the evolution of different features
to show how they influenced "successor" shmups. It makes the list look very
messy, so I'm probably have to post a link to the expanded version or something.

I put in Kesui because (I heard) it was very good, and I thought for several
years it was influential for maintaining the mystique of the arcade in an era
where the console is becoming predominant, even in Japan. Now that it
has a home port (?) that effect is lessened.

Deathsmiles is pretty recent to be influential yet, but I think it's a
good example of the gothic/Halloween-y art style that will influence
future shmups. Perhaps too soon to say! I'm still working on adding
reasons and perhaps a short write up for inclusion, eventually...

[TonK]

Deathsmiles is pretty recent to be influential yet, but I think it's a
good example of the gothic/Halloween-y art style that will influence
future shmups. Perhaps too soon to say! I'm still working on adding
reasons and perhaps a short write up for inclusion, eventually...

A lot of people hate on Deathsmiles for whatever their reasons are...

- Its too easy
- Its lame
- Not "leet" enough

But what these people fail to see is the time and creativity that went into this gem.

Since most shooters are vertical now, Cave already thought outside the box on this one - yes, there are hundreds of hori shooters - but the theme works so well with this game.

This game reminds me of a Castlevania shooter, which is awesome.

The music is amazing, again taken from the DNA of Symphony of the Night.

The scoring system works flawless and its actually very fun to learn.

The character design is top notch, even if they are "lolita" girls, the formula fits.

The enemies, although repeated, resemble the Castlevania "feel".

The stage design is just fantastic, it actually puts you in that atmosphere and the music draws you in.

Sure, this game isn't manic enough for the elitist players, but to me its an enjoyable, fantastic journey through some of the greatest designed levels with perfect music that creates the exact atmosphere you would expect from a "dark" themed game.

Maybe if there was more artifical hype surrounding this game more people would give it the time it deserves.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

I would certanly add touhou to youre list considering its practically a genre all in itself but which touhou game to add im not so sure the 2nd game was the first game that was a danmanku but it wasnt untill touhou moved to the PC with no 6 that touhou really took off especially in the west.

I would think about adding Recca aswell

also geomentry wars considring how many clones of it there is

Qix by Taito is another which had you drawing boxes aound the enemies to kill em

[evil_ash_xero]

Deathsmiles is pretty recent to be influential yet, but I think it's a
good example of the gothic/Halloween-y art style that will influence
future shmups. Perhaps too soon to say! I'm still working on adding
reasons and perhaps a short write up for inclusion, eventually...

A lot of people hate on Deathsmiles for whatever their reasons are...

- Its too easy
- Its lame
- Not "leet" enough

But what these people fail to see is the time and creativity that went into this gem.

Since most shooters are vertical now, Cave already thought outside the box on this one - yes, there are hundreds of hori shooters - but the theme works so well with this game.

This game reminds me of a Castlevania shooter, which is awesome.

The music is amazing, again taken from the DNA of Symphony of the Night.

The scoring system works flawless and its actually very fun to learn.

The character design is top notch, even if they are "lolita" girls, the formula fits.

The enemies, although repeated, resemble the Castlevania "feel".

The stage design is just fantastic, it actually puts you in that atmosphere and the music draws you in.

Sure, this game isn't manic enough for the elitist players, but to me its an enjoyable, fantastic journey through some of the greatest designed levels with perfect music that creates the exact atmosphere you would expect from a "dark" themed game.

Maybe if there was more artifical hype surrounding this game more people would give it the time it deserves.

It is an awesome game. I prefer the MBL version a good bit better though, since I think the Ice Palace is probably the most interestingly put together stage in the whole game(and for the other changes). And if people think it's too easy, they can always play 999.

I wish they had named it Guardian Angel, as originally rumored.

[KidQuaalude]

The list is way too long.

For me it would be :

Space Invaders
Asteroids
Galaxian
Tempest
Xevious
Gradius
R Type
DoDonPachi

And thats pretty much it as far as the 'most influential' games. I wouldn't say Ikaruga is that influential tbh. Can't really think of too many games that copied it.

[The Eidolon]

@TrevHead: Were Tohou, Recca, Geometry Wars ever arcade releases? I can't find any
reference, but sometimes I miss things. I'm arbitrarily limiting the list to arcade releases
to try and keep things manageable. Likewise, Qix was influential but is probably a
borderliner at best. It's impossible to get consensus on exactly what is and is not a
shmup, so one has to go by gut and make a judgment call. Quantum feels more shmup-like
than Qix to me, but probably still isn't a proper shmup.

Likewise, I feel that Robotron 2084 (for example) is a great and very influential game, and
one can see its influence in shmups (including Geometry Wars) even though it isn't a shmup
itself. If one replaced the guy icon in Robotron with a plane, or a spaceship, or a mech, would
that make it a shmup? I have no idea... I like making needlessly elaborate lists more than
making fine judgment calls, so I'll try just to yield to majority opinion on most of this stuff.

[The Eidolon]

OK, here's the first of the detailed summaries:

#1 Computer Space (1971)
Maker: Nutting Associates (precursor to Atari)

Tags: Black & White, 2P competitive, First arcade game
Scrolling: None (Fixed playfield, wraparound)

Not only the first arcade shmup, Computer space was the first commercially released
coin-op video game ever. Sort of. The "Galaxy Game," a commercialized version of
the mainframe game Spacewar, was introduced for coin-op play at Stanford University
a few months earlier, but only a single unit was made due to massive production costs.
Computer Space was commercially distributed, so it takes the honor as the first video
arcade game. A later version introduced two player competitive play, with the second
player controlling the flying saucers which serve as the enemy in single player mode.
Though primitive, it contains the key elements of later shmups: spaceships (They are
up...) and violence (...and they need to be shot). Computer space came in an uniquely-
shaped stylish fiberglass cabinet which betrays it's 70's origins.

Useful links: Pink Gorilla, Marvin, Wikipedia

[Danbo]

Ibara's a cool game but not really influential. Probably the opposite of influential considering it was Heavily Influenced by Garegga...

And thats pretty much it as far as the 'most influential' games. I wouldn't say Ikaruga is that influential tbh. Can't really think of too many games that copied it.

Dimahoo

[undamned]

Qix was influential but is probably a
borderliner at best. It's impossible to get consensus on exactly what is and is not a
shmup, so one has to go by gut and make a judgment call. Quantum feels more shmup-like
than Qix to me, but probably still isn't a proper shmup.

Likewise, I feel that Robotron 2084 (for example) is a great and very influential game, and
one can see its influence in shmups (including Geometry Wars) even though it isn't a shmup
itself. If one replaced the guy icon in Robotron with a plane, or a spaceship, or a mech, would
that make it a shmup? I have no idea... I like making needlessly elaborate lists more than
making fine judgment calls, so I'll try just to yield to majority opinion on most of this stuff.

Oh, man, can of worms officially opened I hadn't even thought of the influence of non-shmups on shmups! That pretty much blows this whole project!

Space Invaders
Asteroids
Galaxian
Tempest
Xevious
Gradius
R Type
DoDonPachi

And that's pretty much it as far as the 'most influential' games.

Awesome. I love it Although, Cave developers admitted that Battle Garegga inspired DDP
-ud

[clp]

Batsugun anybody? its the first ever bullet hell shooter , it literally paved the way to cave etc .