Amusingly Good Shooting Game Reviews

[Blackbird]

Figured I'd start this to reduce the depression from the bad reviews thread. This is for reviews/reviewers that actually understand the appeal of this genre (or at least don't appear to have an overt bias against the genre).

These reviews are from Classic Game Room, a generally light-hearted game reviewer from the East Coast US. He typically isn't overly critical about the games he reviews, preferring to emphasize a game's fun factor first and foremost. A child of the Atari generation, he seems to appreciate "space ship shooting games" with particular fondness.

Some positives from his reviews include:
- Not considering high difficulty/challenge as an inherent negative.
- Appearing to actually enjoy this style of gameplay.
His reviews often feature hilarious non-sequiteurs, as well.

He has reviewed many games that people seem to like around here =D:

M.U.S.H.A (Part 1 of 7 part review, I believe he actually plays through the whole game in this review)

DonPachi

Layer Section/Rayforce/Galactic Attack (Part 1 of 2 part review)

Batsugun "Like the other Toaplan shooters, the trick is to not get hit by anything."

Darius Gaiden "Hell hath no fury like fish during lent." LOL.

Radiant Silvergun

Mars Matrix

Giga Wing "You're playing this to get scores that you can't even pronounce."

Ikaruga "I thoroughly enjoyed having my ass handed to me."

Raiden III

Raiden IV "Just look at these tanks parked on the left, there. I hope they were insured."

Raiden Fighters Aces "Well, they aren't spaceships, but if you really think about it, we're all in space. So yes, it is a spaceship shooting game."

Einhander

In The Hunt "Because headbanging and submarines go together like peanut butter and jelly."

Gley Lancer "What is this girl, like 15!? Better put her in charge of a 65 billion dollar spaceship against hordes of mindless enemies." Also, "A fish fry? Hell yeah, where at!?"

Thunder Force III (Part 1 of 2)

Thunder Force IV

Thunder Force V

Fire Shark/Same! Same! Same!

[scrilla4rella]

Haha, I love this guy! I have never followed a youtube channel in my life but somehow I got addicted to watching this guy's game reviews. His theme song hits me with nostalgia for some reason. Like you said ,some of his commentary is pretty hilarious. I guess what I like about these videos is that the content of the reviews seem to be from a pre-internet era. He doesn't thoroughly research the developers and the series history in an attempt to out-nerd other gamers. He's just a guy that seems to genuinely enjoy games and older hardware even if it's not some crazy obscure hidden-gem of a game/system. How many game reviewers would spend the time to play and review Datona for Saturn?

Edit: I also like how he focuses on games that are cheap and easily obtainable. Someone who is just starting to get into shooters is much more likely to pick up MUSHA or Gekio because it's not gonna cost them a ton.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

In the past I liked watching many of his reviews, although he isnt all that active nowadays where stg are concerned. Personally i think he might of run out of things to say about new shooters as some of his vids are quite bad where he hardly talks about the game but some half baked joke.

Serroxar is my fave shmup video reviewer by a long shot http://www.youtube.com/user/Serraxor
StarSoldier1 is well worth subbing to aswell if youre into Turbo Graphics games http://www.youtube.com/user/starsoldier1

[Sumez]

I got a little disturbed by his claim that he was literally getting his ass handed to him...

[R-Gray 1]

yep is a good reviewer.
im not saying im totally agree with all he says....reviews are just a reference.

but i liked his reviews, specially about cleaning snes and megadrive cartriges, street fighters games(snes, sega genesis..sega saturn, psx, street fighters with marvel characters....), Einhänder, when he used to appear with another guy ...and others that i dont remember now.

as an old school gamer i found many reviews that im interested in his channel.

[HIGHSPEEDDIRT]

I am a big fan of Mark of classic game room, and have been watching him since he first started. He does take a simple approach to his reviews and trys not to get super technical with scoring or real in depth game mechanics. I also like the fact that he always takes a non biased approach to his reviews as well. You all should visit or sign up to his website( if you haven't already), he has a pretty cool forum, and I believe ( not sure anymore) will allow you to write reviews but only if you apply to do so ( kind of like a job interview or something). I wonder if he has looked over this forum a few times, being a space ship shooter fan that he is

[Hair]

I'd almost put CGR in the "bad reviews" category for shmups. He calls the options in MUSHA "little buddies" because he doesn't know they are called options, says the NES Advantage and Sega Saturn Virtua Stick (US) are as close to the arcade as you can get, and didn't review his first real arcade stick until the current generation.

He is a casual retro-leaning gamer that plays prettty much anything and everything. He has an interest in shmups and that's cool, and his reviews can be really funny, but he doesn't offer a shred of insight into the shmup genre specifically.

This site (shmups.com) has some good shmup reviews... I just wish they were more current.

Edit: It wasn't accurate for me to say CGR should be in the "bad reviews" category, referring to the thread on bad shmup reviews. He definitly "gets" the genre, unlike the average professional game reviewer (IGN, Gamespot, GI etc...). I can just tell from his reviews that he is a more casual shmupper who plays and enjoys them, and he appears to be good at them as well. I was just surprised to see people on this forum listing CGR as a good shmup reviewer because I have noticed several times in his shmup reviews that he doesn't totally understand the genre or culture surrounding it (I gave examples above; I've known since I was a little kid what "options" were called). I think some guys on this site have written fantastic and detailed reviews that have provided me insight, while CGR is more of an entertainment thing for me.