Is Paperboy a shmup?

[Kollision]

I don't know any shoot-'em-ups where the point of the stage is how you control the ship on a course...

ahn...
DoDonPachi?

[Ed Oscuro]

Battle Formula looks nice, maybe a cut above Konami's City Bomber, or Data East's Break Thru. Along with Dodonpachi, I don't really see those as being like what xbl0x180 is talking about.

[Obiwanshinobi]

In Battle Formula you can fall off the road as there are bits of car "platforming" to it, like a primordial, slower take on F-Zero. It may look like a "normal" shmup, but the controls are quite unusual (I don't want to elaborate on the subject, having only played it briefly many months ago).

[BrianC]

The odd thing about Battle Formula, despite being Super Spy Hunter in the US, is that it still has Spy Hunter references in the JP version (Peter Gunn music, power up based on the cars with spiked tires, oil slicks, etc.).

[Dale]

The Shmup Radical Radial literally has no enemy projectiles, I don't think anyone would dispute it being a shmup.

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

[xbl0x180]

Battle Formula looks nice, maybe a cut above Konami's City Bomber, or Data East's Break Thru. Along with Dodonpachi, I don't really see those as being like what xbl0x180 is talking about.

See, that last part of the Paperboy route with the course track is more akin to a racing video game such as Super Off Road:







But, hey, RoadBlasters mixed driving and shooting, as well. Paperboy does come off as an unusual shoot-'em-up

[Ed Oscuro]

I think there's a fair number of circuit racers that feature shooting. Atari's Wasteland(s?) is a typical example. So would be Escape Kids, except it features clumsy children and no shooting (...probably something to be thankful for, as clumsy children and shooting is a bad combination).

[ebarrett]

I didn't beat any scores on some questionable website (officially) and was thinking how I likely will never be anywhere near any shmup records for the rest of my life. Then I thought "Wait, Bayonetta is kinda a shmup". You fire bullets and rockets at numerous targets (some of which are moving) in a destructive fashion which you get points for, you avoid objects that end your life, there are scantly clad protagonists and a cheesy soundtrack and chaining and multipliers, it's got an intricate scoring system which rewards abusing glitches and not losing any health (kinda like no miss?). It's almost like a kitsch and hilarious form of SDOJ. Maybe that's a bit of a stretch.

Anyway, your thoughts please.

[Ed Oscuro]

Anyway, your thoughts please.

Green. Definitely green.

[kid aphex]

This was a great topic, thumbs up to the OP

[NOAH]

Battle Formula looks nice, maybe a cut above Konami's City Bomber, or Data East's Break Thru. Along with Dodonpachi, I don't really see those as being like what xbl0x180 is talking about.

See, that last part of the Paperboy route with the course track is more akin to a racing video game such as Super Off Road:





But, hey, RoadBlasters mixed driving and shooting, as well. Paperboy does come off as an unusual shoot-'em-up

I actually own "Ivan Stewart's Off Road" also, but I wouldn't compare it to Paperboy's obstacle course at all really. A racing game like Off Road is cyclic with multiple laps, though it does have jumps like the Paperboy course. The Paperboy course is just straight with moving and static obstacles that you can crash into, there are shmups with those same properties.

I guess the one component that hurts the case for Paperboy as a shmup is that you only shoot left while you scroll upward.