Best beginner / advanced / master level shooters?

[Hagane]

(strikers 1999 and gunbird 2 should NEVER be in separate difficulty categories)

Gunbird 2 is significantly harder than Strikers 1999.

[trap15]

Yeah, it is. Very significantly.

[Squire Grooktook]

...what? this is the most insane statement i have ever heard or read.

I don't see what's so insane about it.

[ChainsawGuitarSP]

Without R-Type's force pod and bits, I may have lived an ignorant life thinking all STGs are just dull SHOOT AND BOMB sims with bullet count being the sole difficulty factor.

[Some-Mist]

What sort of shooter progression would you recommend for new players?

All levels: play whatever you find fun.

That goes without saying. But if somebody's trying to get into the genre they might not know a good place to start. So they pick up Otomedius and Radirgy, don't have any fun, and decide the genre's not for them.

I know a ton about video games, but I would have no idea where to start playing adventure games. Does Day of the Tentacle still hold up, or was it just good back in the day? People loved King's Quest, but are those generally crap now? Same with music and jazz. I would listen to Miles Davis and Charles Mingus and have no idea where to go from there.

I love radirgy but to be honest, I never really got hooked to the shmup genre until I played ikargua. I guess you can say run-n-gunners like contra started me in the right direction. after finally dedicating enough time to 1CCing ikaruga easy mode (months of work at it every day), psyvariar 2: the will to fabricate grabbed me because of how flashy it was and how much fun the mechanics were.

lucasarts point and click adventures are still awesome. I just played through Sam & Max: Hit the Road for the first time and it was incredible. newer point and click adventures are awesome too such as the dream machine and the sea will claim everything.

john coltrane, bill evans, dave brubeck

[devilmanozzy]

Best beginner games are the easy ones. Hard games turn off people. Thats why first person shooters took over the industry.

Suggestions:
Space Invaders (any of them from back in the day or remakes/clones)
Demon Attack
Asteroids (clones/remakes are good too)

Gradius (nes)
Sagaia (Gen)
Darius Twin (snes)

R-Type Final (ps2)

also do not grab:
Super Nova (Darius Force)... That thing was so bad I stopped playing shmup games for years over it. Worst game to get. I remember dieing endlessly in the first stage and never getting to the first boss back when I bought it.

[Special World]

Do you guys have any manic shooters you could really recommend? I was thinking maybe I'd break them down by rough genre rather than beginner/advanced/master. The only manics can really think of that I love are Raiden Jet and Battle Garegga/Batrider/Bakraid. I was thinking maybe I'd try playing Batsugun, since I've never been able to give it a shot. Dunno if that's manic, as I haven't played it yet. Then again, you guys seem pretty divided on what "manic" means anyhow. Just tossing around ideas in my head for how to organize this, I still have a decent amount of writing to do.

I still don't know yet, but I'm enjoying the discussion.

[Deca]

Raiden Fighters 2 is probably my personal favorite manic. Batsugun is pretty fun too.

[lilmanjs]

Raiden Fighters 2 is probably my personal favorite manic. Batsugun is pretty fun too.

Raiden FIghters 2 can't really be beat. With the awesome train stage/boss you get to fight. Though is V-V considered manic? Its not a half bad shmup.

[zeroroute]

As far as shooters I could recommend to "genre-outsiders" go (in no particular order):

Gradius
Zanac
Gradius 3
Super R-Type
UN Squadron
Space Invaders Extreme 2
Super Fantasy Zone
Einhandler
Phoenix
Space Invaders

After you get them interested in any of those, let them try some treasure,cave,and milestone games

[jepjepjep]

Batsugun Special is awesome and very beginner-friendly. Once you collect enough power-ups your ship activates a shield that can absorb a hit. Batrider Normal Course is really great too and a good place for beginners to start, although it can be a little more confusing at first since there's a lot going on (shrapnel, many ships/teams, selection options, etc.).

[Squire Grooktook]

I should just throw this out there, but Gradius III SNES was the first shmup I ever played somewhat competitively, trying to master it and aim for a higher loop.

Esp Ra.De was the first bullet hell shooter I played. I got used to it real quick, and then I felt like I just knew how to play bullet hell shooters (not WELL but I at least new how to play.)