modern western shmups

[Lord Satori]

I've noticed that alot of shmup discussion is centered around arcade classics, and japanese shmups. so how about a little love for the western side of the world?

I'll start by linking to a super obscure indie shmup that was made back in 2005 I think, and is still one of my favorites today.
http://www.z2games.com/zirc2battle.php

[Op Intensify]

It's because there's so few good modern ones, unfortunately. I think the best example of the past few years is Hydorah, which draws heavily from the Japanese shmup Gradius. It doesn't help that there really aren't any non-indie Western shmups coming out anymore, and the most recent one (Sine Mora) was rightfully blasted by this forum's critics.

I haven't played it myself, but The Red Star is a modern Western-developed shmup that seems to be pretty well regarded.

[ciox]

I haven't heard of that game before, looks kinda gimmicky but I don't want to be too hard on it since you like it.
Other than Hydorah, Demonstar is the only example I can think of myself, dunno how appreciated that one is here, I haven't given it a spin in a long time but it felt like a legit shmup.

Edit: apparently it's had some sequels (Secret Missions), maybe I should get back into it

[Op Intensify]

Nanostray would be a solid above-average shmup if not for two crippling flaws: you have to switch weapons with the touch screen, and you can't use your special weapons, EVER, if you're playing for score. Why even have them there in the first place?

I think Nanostray 2 improves some things, as well as adding horizontal sections, but I didn't really care enough at that point. There's also Nano Assault on the 3DS, but that's an arena shmup.

[CStarFlare]

(Sine Mora) was rightfully blasted by this forum's critics

I've actually warmed up to Sine Mora a lot. It's got its flaws for sure, but it's actually quite enjoyable. There's a few people over at Cave STG who liked it as well.

Jamestown looked neat, but I've never used Steam so I don't know how it is.

[EmperorIng]

Jamestown is a great shmup for beginners - it's pretty forgiving and easy, and it's kind of like an easier DoDonPachi in terms of general bullet density.

It's very slick and polished (some of the bosses, particularly the stage 1 and 2 bosses, look quite nice) and fun to play (though Gauntlet/Arcade mode is pretty annoying - it's almost like the game was meant to be played in small level-by-level chunks).

It definitely gets my recommendation.

[Lord Satori]

as far as quality goes, Jets n Guns Gold is probably one of the best shmups out there for the PC. even though it was made about 6 years ago, its still just as good as it was back then. and yeah, I've heard of demonstar, as well as the secret missions. never bought the secret missions, though. I just youtubed it.

jamestown? never heard of it. I also doubt I'd be able to find it because google.

a pretty good one is Defenders of Avalon. its set in the mideval era where you play as king arthur or merlin. pretty hillarious for a danmaku game but its actually pretty fun.

[Formless God]

jamestown? never heard of it. I also doubt I'd be able to find it because google.

"jamestown steam"

an easier DoDonPachi

It is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa)

(aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay harder.

[blackoak]

I keep forgetting about Hydorah, need to try that sometime.

I can heartily recommend Jamestown as well. I haven't played it recently so I don't know if patches addressed this, but I found it unbalanced in single player (ships too slow and underpowered to cover things alone, not enough true popcorn enemies, etc). It was really great for 4player though. I've read that one of their design goals was creating a game that beginners and veterans could both play without either feeling bored, and they succeeded imo. The production values are refreshingly high too.

[Paradigm]

an easier DoDonPachi

It is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa)

(aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay harder.

Jamestown is nowhere near as hard as Dodonpachi.

[Lord Satori]

freepcgamers.com is an excellent place to look for some shmups.

theres also a company called jagged blade shooter games that makes... (wait for it) SHOOTER GAMES! they aren't free, but they sure are great.

[Despatche]

ooh i really really want to talk about aleste but i don't think this thread will get there.

[KidQuaalude]

Gridrunner on iphone/iPad is the best western shmup I've played in years.

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/gridrunn ... 40657?mt=8

[shmuppyLove]

I haven't played it myself, but The Red Star is a modern Western-developed shmup that seems to be pretty well regarded.

BIG UP FOR THE RED STAR

I've got a copy on the way to me as we speak, after hearing about it in the 3rd person action game thread.

It looks like a delicious blend of Cannon Spike and Outzone.

http://youtu.be/1ApKHGLbyAw

[Mischief Maker]

Jamestown looked neat, but I've never used Steam so I don't know how it is.

Huh. They went DRM-free on gamersgate for a short bit, now they're back to steam exclusive?

I hate cloud computing.

Fren-Ze is a pretty nifty (albeit easy) gigawing-esque abstract shmup.

There are also the Xop shmups, though I haven't been able to run them properly on my Windows 7 machine.

[Marc]

I haven't played it myself, but The Red Star is a modern Western-developed shmup that seems to be pretty well regarded.

BIG UP FOR THE RED STAR

I've got a copy on the way to me as we speak, after hearing about it in the 3rd person action game thread.

It looks like a delicious blend of Cannon Spike and Outzone.

http://youtu.be/1ApKHGLbyAw

Playing this on PSV at the mo, can't say I'm impressed so far. It's a lot more sluggish and weighty than Cannon Spike. Caught partway between a brawler and run n gun, but not particularly excelling at either.

[Op Intensify]

If nothing else, the developers behind The Red Star are clearly massive Treasure nerds. I'm not fond of how the entire game looks like it's being viewed through a futuristic security cam, though.

There were canceled Wii and original Xbox ports of the game. I wonder if a control scheme using the Wii pointer (no waggle) would have improved things. There's also an iOS version, but it settles for using a virtual pad.

The PSP version of Army of Two: 40th Day looks rather shmuppy, if obviously mediocre.

[Kaiser]

Everyone forgets Tyrian 2000 and it's arcade mode.

[Lord Satori]

are you KIDDING?! Tyrian is AWESOME!

[Lord Satori]

There are also the Xop shmups, though I haven't been able to run them properly on my Windows 7 machine.

if you mean the screwed up colors, theres a bizzare, yet simple fix for that:

before you run one of them, simply right click on the desktop, go to screen resolution, and click advanced settings. it makes no sense, but it works. (most of the time)

edit: oops. sorry for the double post.

[Chaos Phoenixma]

an easier DoDonPachi

It is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa)

(aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay harder.

Jamestown is nowhere near as hard as Dodonpachi.

Try Judgment difficulty then try saying it's easier than DoDonPachi.

[Erppo]

Try Judgment difficulty then try saying it's easier than DoDonPachi.

Try DoDonPachi.

[Chaos Phoenixma]

I did try it. I didn't like it.

But Judgment is still harder than DoDonPachi is.

[sikraiken]

Judgment difficulty clear is easier to do than 2-ALL DDP in my opinion.

[exquisite_torture]

If The Red Star's being chucked about, then Killzone Liberation on PSP's worth a look as Guerilla Games' only decent Killzone game.

[null1024]

Oh hey, thanks for reminding me that The Red Star exists. I remember having quite a bit of fun with it, although it is much better of a shooter than a brawler, all the particularly beat-em-uppy bits felt rather bleh.


The XOP games are loads of fun, definitely recommended, and the color issue is entirely Windows deciding "hey, lemme go dick with the palette" shortly after the mode is set, instead of leaving the palette the program used [coders: keep changing the palette every once-in-a-while]. Anex86 does the same thing when I go to fullscreen with it, and it goes away if I go fullscreen at the DOS prompt right before a game loads [where it then sets its palette again].

Yes, it's effing annoying.

[damakable]

The Red Star is fun but waaay too easy unfortunately.

Jamestown is great. Definitely up there in difficulty, but no, not as hard as DDP's 2nd loop. Perhaps harder than the first by the end of Judgement, though.

XOP is also pretty awesome. Tons of stages and modes. If you want a single definitive mode I guess that's XOP Black Ultra Special. Also really, really difficult.

Talk of Tyrian reminds me of Raptor: Call of the Shadows. Health bars and upgrades, but it was one of my favourite games as a kid.

I'm going to look up Gridrunner for iOS right now. Definitely a fan of Jeff Minter / Llamasoft.

Is Nier any good?

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Talk of Tyrian reminds me of Raptor: Call of the Shadows. Health bars and upgrades, but it was one of my favourite games as a kid.

Raptor was my fave as a kid, too, one of a handful of shareware games I HAD to register (though it was pretty easy, especially with a fully upgraded ship where the azure beam wrecked bosses in a few hits). Shame I lost the fourth floppy disk for it. Hadn't played Tyrian until much later, though I loved it too. Now that I'm into more 'serious' shmups like Cave's stuff, the whole inertia thing and bullets causing you to bounce like crazy is rather irksome, feels iffy to control. Would be nice to see more arcade style shmups offer a bigger variety of weapons though, but then I guess it'd be harder to balance properly.

Another DOS game I played for a bit was Stargunner. Very polished graphically, I tried to go back to it recently and couldn't stand it. Hitbox felt way too huge,those orb enemies early on seem to drop debris when they're destroyed that can actually hit you, majority of deaths seemed to be from enemies rushing in from the sides of the screen to slam into you before you could kill them... just didn't like it. Playing it again definitely makes me think of a euroshmup - the amount of extra lives hidden in levels makes me think you were expected to get killed often.

[Op Intensify]

Would be nice to see more arcade style shmups offer a bigger variety of weapons though, but then I guess it'd be harder to balance properly.

This is why Pink Sweets and Ibara Kuro are awesome.

[Giest118]

For what it's worth, I'm a westerner, and I've made some shmups that one or two people liked. Links in my sig.

I'd contribute something other than a shameless plug, but it's hard to think of Western-developed shmups other than Jamestown.