Looking for two olds shmups

[josemar]

So hello, I'm new here and im sorry if this is a little rude but I can´t take it any longer. When I was a kid I used to go to arcades and there I played 2 of my favorites shmups. The problem is that I can't remember the names of them and I just remember a few characteristics of them.

In the first one you control a tiny gray ship, who can be improved by catching power ups, this ones can make improvements on your ship based on a category that you can choose, and in order to move from one category to another, you need to stack this power ups, till you are in the wante category, then start maxing it. I remember a trick that you can do at the begining of the game. If you let your self die at the very begining without moving, you will respawn with a big improvement that fire missiles out of your ship.

The second one works the same way, but it is a bigger ship. You have power ups and categories, but the main characteristic that I recall is one that turn you into a Fenix or some bird with fire, that lasted a few seconds, but can blast any enemy that it touches.

If someone there can give me a hand with those games, it will be really aprecciate, because this games bring good memories to me and for me it seems implosible to find them on my own.

Thank you for reading this and have a nice day.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

In the first one you control a tiny gray ship, who can be improved by catching power ups, this ones can make improvements on your ship based on a category that you can choose, and in order to move from one category to another, you need to stack this power ups, till you are in the wante category, then start maxing it. I remember a trick that you can do at the begining of the game. If you let your self die at the very begining without moving, you will respawn with a big improvement that fire missiles out of your ship.

Bit vague, I'm afraid. When you're looking for an old game, it helps to list very specific information, like whether it's a horizontal or vert shmup, if it's an older-era shmup or a mode modern one, what the environments look like ("stage 1 is in a jungle", etc), how many selectable ships there are, how old it is, what the bullets look like, if it has autofire, etc. This game sounds like it uses a Gradius-style upgrade system, but that seems like it'd be too obvious. I know Toaplan's V-Five has a similar powerup meter, but I don't know of any game where dying early without moving gives you a huge powerup.

The second one works the same way, but it is a bigger ship. You have power ups and categories, but the main characteristic that I recall is one that turn you into a Fenix or some bird with fire, that lasted a few seconds, but can blast any enemy that it touches.

Crisis Force isn't in arcades, but it has a transformation mechanic you can activate. Again, knowing if it's a hori or vert at the very least would rule out a lot of games, but the transformation thing probably will make it easy for someone more knowledgable to guess what it is since I can't think of many with such a thing. My best guess would be Terra Cresta. The phoenix thing is only a one-time bonus for getting all the ship modules, and you don't get it again unless you completely lose all the modules you have, so it's not really a primary mechanic in the game.

[emphatic]

First is Slap Fight, second is Terra Cresta.

[josemar]

First is Slap Fight, second is Terra Cresta.

Thank you, those were the games I was looking for. Sorry for my vague description, but as I say, I played as a kid, and I hardly looked at the name of the game while I had the oportunity of play them. Im going to look at them to play them, as well as "Hellfire S" another great game from that time, but this one is horizontal.

Thank you for your help, I really apreciate it, have a nice day!

[Edmond Dantes]

When you mentioned the ship turning into a phoenix, I was like, "... There's a Gatchaman shmup?"

[Kollision]

I was like, "... There's a Gatchaman shmup?"

Actually there is one!

The Phoenix description made me think of Burning Angels though.

[Skykid]

The Phoenix description made me think of Burning Angels though.

I thought of Nostradamus.

[ShmupSamurai]

Terra Cresta is an awesome shmup, infact just thinking about it makes me wanna go play some...There's very few moments I can think of that match completion of all armor pieces so that you can morph into the firebird-nothing like being invincible while belching fireballs and turning dinosaurs into fossil fuel! Though, if given the choice, I'd play its sequel UFO Robo Dangar instead, that city area is the shit...