Favorite 'anatomic' games/levels

[EinhanderZwei]

One of the top recurring themes in shmup visual designs is building levels or whole games around flying in someone/something's intestines and blowing up the baddies there. From what I've played, the following ones are most memorable:

- X-Multiply. I do not know what the hell Irem were smoking to send our hero into the guts of an infected woman to destroy the virus that spawns micro-eyeballs within the body. It's totally outrageous

- Lifeforce. I consider its rebranding a nice idea, actually, for several reasons. If Salamander was brought to US intact, there'd be one awesome game. But now there're two And without all that meat on the first level it won't be so memorable

- Abadox. Thank God I didn't have it on my NES back in the day, or I'd shit my pants. A planet with the giant mouth inhabited by H.R. Giger's kitchen experiments...

- Not a game, not even a level, but the first midboss in GG Aleste. That's one of the few things I DON'T want to see in HD

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Even the tagline on the NES cart of Abadox says "The Deadly Inner War" -- was released by Milton Bradley in the USA. Natsume sure had some excellent taste when developing it back in the day. The opening intro seems something like out of a hybird sci-fi/horror film with the proper chiptunes to accompany it.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[monkeyman]

I remember stage 5 in Gynoug / Wings of Wor being pretty unsettling (even by that game's standards). Didn't help that it was really unforgiving too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5OHr9H4yrU

[Square King]

I've been trying to remember the name of a recent(ish) horizontal doujin PC shmup with the standard blood, guts and flying eyeballs, but to no avail. Not Galshell, but it might be by the same guys. edit: I was very, very wrong.

But yeah, R-Type and Abadox stand out in my mind.

[Ghegs]

I've been trying to remember the name of a recent(ish) horizontal doujin PC shmup with the standard blood, guts and flying eyeballs, but to no avail.

Psyche Metal: The Bleeding?

[Square King]

Bloody Blood Blood: The Bleeding 2: Blood Harder?

That's it! Thanks.

[Zweihander]

Gradius V's "giant intestinal tract" stage.

[BIL]

Salamander 2's third stage, largely for the eerie, pulsing BGM "All is Vanity." Creepy name for a creepy song for a creepy stage.

edit: oh yeah, R-Type Delta's Fifth Contact, literally a nightmarish hallucination the pilot's experiencing. The use of light / darkness, unsettling ambient noise and grotesque imagery wouldn't be out of place in the first Silent Hill.