STGs with fetishes

[cuttingagent]

Darius is addicted to fish, Gun-Nac has a boner for bunnies. Doujin devs like loli girls WAY too much and Platine Dispositif and others seem to be fairly into pumpkins. Cho Aniki really digs... men. Gradius goes manic for megalithic Moai.

What are your favorite shmups obsessed with that certain something-or-other? Least favorites?
What are the most unique or obscure character and enemy type obsessions?
What are the driving forces behind certain things being featured so prominently?

[Jeneki]

hmm, considering which game that avatar is from ...

[Ed Oscuro]

Very early Konami (Scramble, and the chopper upgrade too I think) is addicted to oil. NATIONAL SECURITY, grab all the fuels!

[Bananamatic]

Psyvariar has a boner for elementary particles

[shmuppyLove]

I'm going to be horribly pedantic here (PEDANTRY ON SHUMPS FARM GASP), but it really bothers me when people use the word "fetish" incorrectly.

The term has a very specific sexual meaning, but somehow it's gotten twisted and diluted and now people use it to mean "obsessed" or "obsession".

Sorry to be a dick I've been working since 9am yesterday and now I'm taking it out on you.

[Aliquantic]

To be even more pedantic, the word fetish also refers to items that are believed to have/given a supernatural meaning, with the sexual meaning being more current... and some dictionaries recognize the use in the sense of obsession as well. I'm too lazy to check them all, but I'd argue it's a commonly accepted usage that has been recorded for quite some time, and it's really hard to set down rules for what a word "is supposed to" mean.

[Voxbox]

R-Type - sexual organs...

[Moniker]

it's really hard to set down rules for what a word "is supposed to" mean.

Indeed. Definitions are descriptive, not normative.


Also, I believe Muchi Muchi Pork covers all meanings, with pigs.

[Vyxx]

[Chaos Phoenixma]

Ibara?

[Zengeku3]

Doujin devs like loli girls WAY too much

Implying that such a thing is even possible.

[null1024]

Nothing says fetish like a boss made of vaginas/vaginae with a penis snake.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Artesneit does the whole HR geiger mutated fetish thing quite well.

http://artesneit.halfmoon.jp/fortuna/

[Obiwanshinobi]

Air Duel machinery looks a lot ( and I mean A LOT) like Hemiptera, Coleoptera and whathaveyou. Very consistent "high concept" visual style. It's like a grassland wieved from above.
Pulstar looks mighty microscopic. Acari and stuff.

[Avatar Ignis]

Air Duel machinery looks a lot ( and I mean A LOT) like Hemiptera, Coleoptera and whathaveyou. Very consistent "high concept" visual style. It's like a grassland wieved from above.
Pulstar looks mighty microscopic. Acari and stuff.

A fellow entomologist?

[AttObl]

Uh... The Siter Skain games have a fetish for insane robots?

Oh, and DoDonPachi has a fetish for Bees?

Okay... This is weirding me out.

[Obiwanshinobi]

A fellow entomologist?

Not really, but I got strongly influenced by one pal of mine (archeologist, funnily enough), who is massively into bugs and all the stuff crawling down there. Them hours of picking 'shrooms out on the meadows took their toll as well.

[cuttingagent]

I wouldn't say any one dev likes lolis too much, I would say that as a whole I wish I saw more doujins change up the formula a little. Yes, the departure from spaceships was refreshing at one point when that itself was the norm, but now it seems like there are only 2 norms: spacecraft and loli. Personally I wouldn't mind my ship being a flying grizzly bear with laser cannons once in awhile.

As for Artesneit, I played Multiply Spiral and the dynamics are interesting but the sprite art is just... ugly. I'm trying to like it still, for some reason.

[Herr Schatten]

Also, I believe Muchi Muchi Pork covers all meanings, with pigs.

And beautifully so.

[Ed Oscuro]

I'm going to be horribly pedantic here (PEDANTRY ON SHUMPS FARM GASP), but it really bothers me when people use the word "fetish" incorrectly.

The term has a very specific sexual meaning, but somehow it's gotten twisted and diluted and now people use it to mean "obsessed" or "obsession".

Actually, if you want to talk about that, a fetish attributes a sexual meaning to something non-sexual in nature. It would be proper to say somebody is fetishizing a car if they say the car is sexy. I suppose it gets really messy if you see a picture of something sexy on your computer, but you're ascribing sexual meaning to something non-sexual (the photons emitted from your computer screen in a certain pattern...whoa maan, this holds true for seeing something sexy in person too, far out).

So the thing from R-Type is arguably a fetish but based on something that's inherently not a fetish. I guess...hard to make sense out of that big mess of Bydo.

Air Duel machinery looks a lot ( and I mean A LOT) like Hemiptera, Coleoptera and whathaveyou. Very consistent "high concept" visual style. It's like a grassland wieved from above.
Pulstar looks mighty microscopic. Acari and stuff.

A fellow entomologist?

Huh, I hadn't thought of this before. I knew there was a reason those sprites looked so cool. Shouldn't we roll in Fire Barrel too, though (which really does seem to be the sequel)?

[gs68]

Geo Wars 2.

DELICIOUS BLOOM

[MathU]

Every single game by Akira Hut Original and Artesneit.

Psyche Metal: The Bleeding probably counts as well, unless it's just metal as hell.

[ciox]

Psyvariar has a boner for elementary particles

Sanvein shares that boner very closely even though the teams don't share any people, wonder if there's any more.

[shmuppyLove]

This thread is such a mess.

We already did The most sexually suggestive imagery in shmups, if that's what you're looking for.

And then people are just listing common thematic elements ... Darius has a fetish for fish? Not really, it's a core design theme for the series.

It's like saying Touhou has a fetish for ghosts.

I'll stop my ranting now though. Glass houses, rocks, etc.

[cuttingagent]

Fine then, we are discussing core design themes for various shooting games.

Also Touhou has a fetish for ghosts.



But really, I wanna hear anyone speculate on the why of these things. Who on the original Darius art design team walked into the office and said "Hey guys, you know... I REALLY fucking like fish"?

[Skykid]

Fetish for kids in bunny outfits.

[gs68]

Deathsmiles II. lol traps

[Klatrymadon]

But really, I wanna hear anyone speculate on the why of these things. Who on the original Darius art design team walked into the office and said "Hey guys, you know... I REALLY fucking like fish"?

I'm not sure, but I think they were inspired by an anime that similarly featured biomechanical fish-battleships in space. I have no idea where I read that, though, and can't remember the name of the cartoon, either. My memory is balls.

[ShmupSamurai]

Gaiking?....though, the enemy group name(Bessilar) comes from Space Battleship Yamato...I think.

[Klatrymadon]

Gaiking certainly sounds like the one, mate. A quick Google search indicates the show even featured a "Darius Army", heh. Thanks for that! (I might have to watch this stuff - I'm dying to know why the army's named after the Persian king, now.)

The baddies are usually called "Belser", but I don't know where that's from. You could well be right; there's also a boss in Darius II that inhabits the Yamato.