Platform-shooters with a homing attack as your main weapon.

[Drum]

Just discovered Spiritual Assassin Taromaru (or however you translate it) and am surprised that I never heard of it before because it seems like exactly the sort of game that would be famous-for-being-obscure and it's right up my alley - I love Thexder and Firehawk, as well as Alisia Dragoon, but I wanna know if there are more games in the sub-sub-genre.

So far I got:

Thexder http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVfRGsfnI_c
Firehawk: Thexder the Second Contact http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4r6oJnLge0
Alisia Dragoon http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v27JpjvGuUQ
Spiritual Assassin Taromaru http://youtu.be/Uc4BrGUA294

Also acceptable:

El Viento
Iconoclasts http://www.konjak.org/index.php?folder=4&file=30
Metroid Other M, I guess

[Obiwanshinobi]

Contra: Shattered Soldier with the charged shotgun (Bill; not sure about Lucia).
I'd be surprised if no Mega Man/Rockman game had a weapon like that.

[Drum]

To make the list not include every platform-shooter ever made, I'm restricting it to just the primary attack. So I guess Gunstar Heroes would sorta count, but no Mega Man game will ever make the list and I'd rather die than add one >:(

[ChainsawGuitarSP]

no Mega Man game will ever make the list and I'd rather die than add one >:(

Why?

[Drum]

Because no Megaman games have a homing attack as your primary weapon. To my knowledge.

[ChainsawGuitarSP]

Oh, for a second there it sounded like you just plain hated the games, lol. On topic: Silhouette Mirage has auto-aim. Strider 2 has boost mode, which is a more limited secondary mode of fire. (Though you can allow for infinite use of it once you unlock it in the options menu. There's also Strider Hien.)

[Obiwanshinobi]

Doesn't Dante/Alastor in Viewtiful Joe have such a basic attack?

[Sumez]

Taromaru is famous for being one of the most expensive Saturn games ever, so I'm also surprised you hadn't heard of it.
I had the pleasure of playing it once, and it just doesn't look (too much pre-rendered 3D) or play as great as it seems from screenshots etc. IMO, so nothing I'd waste my money on any time soon. The world does need more games like it though.