Ha ha! Amazing!chempop wrote:
haha Dragoforce just awakened to the system11 conspiracy, you win a suction cup!
On the topic we're just about discussing, I've had a lot of fun on my iPod touch on a bus journey playing a number of shmups (highlights include Space Invaders: Infinity Gene, Hot Field, Noiz2sa Free, Angel Rush, Skysmask, rRootage, Roswell Fighter, Icarus-X and even 1942: First Strike). Sure they don't rival console and arcade shmups for the traditional experience (and I despise the fact that so many shun the established 'credit' model), but the point is that they are a different kind of shmup for a different kind of play.
Sure not too many are great, and they've never come close to the few great handheld shmups yet, but by any definition, iPhone shmups are real shmups.
Is Ketsui Death Label a shmup even though it's only really boss rush based and on a handheld that puts a vert game into a hori screen and gives the player a fairly tiny d-pad? Of course it is.
What defines a shmup is pretty dynamic. What defines a good shmup is another matter.