BEST STAGES

[mesh control]

MARS MATRIX STAGE 3
Music + layout + patterns

The boss is ok, too...


There were a couple of stages in Giga Wing 2 I liked, but I haven't played it in years and don't remember which they were.


WHAT DO YOU LIKE WHY?

[mesh control]

FUTARI STAGE 3 ORIGINAL GETS A SHOUTOUT BECAUSE IT IS HARDER THAN STAGE 5, APPARENTLY.

[Giest118]

Futari stage 5 in all modes.

Fucking love the flow of that stage.

[jepjepjep]

Garegga cloud stage with a boss rush and black heart at the end.

Ketsui Stage 5!

[casualcoder]

Deathsmiles /w suicide bullets level 3

Stages: Volcano, Ex, Castle, Ice Palace

I don't even need to do a play through. A training run through any of those is a blast.

[Nana]

Mushihimesama stage 3. God damn. Lots of awesome patterns, you get to destroy the whole stage/boss as you fly on top of it, the music rocks, and it's incredibly visceral every time you destroy a body part. I just love it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNYm1VWv90w

And Mushihimesama Futari stage 2, as well. Milking the jellyfish and icicles are so much fun.

[Despatche]

r-type iii stage 4

[Skykid]

Mushi stg4 (ultimate audio/action blend).
Futari stage 5
Garegga stage 4 (clouds)
Zed Blade stage 3 (music pump)
Progear stage 4 (hori goes vert)
Sengoku Blade airship assault
Raiden Fighters 2 stage 3 (ultimate train battle)
Deathsmiles Ice Palace
DFK/BL stage 3
DOJ stage 4
Guwange stage 3
Gradius V stage 3

[ciox]

Garegga - Cloud
Bakraid - Cloud
Psyvariar - Cloudbank (jk, it's stage 1 - Earth)
Chaos Field - stage 2, Coccus
DOJ - first one (mood)
Bio-Hazard Battle - stage 7, war lab exterior grounds with the sunset
R-Type - stage 3

Raiden Fighters 2 stage 3 (ultimate train battle)

[Eaglet]

Garegga cloud stage with a boss rush and black heart at the end.

Ketsui Stage 5!

You sir, have impeccable taste.

[Zaarock]

Radiant Silvergun - Stage 5 (story mode) http://youtu.be/wmbtRW0noRw?t=1h6m12s

Climax of the game, all your skills get tested here and pulling off the chain on the boss takes a lot of skill and practice, the turrets are sort of random so there isn't a way to memorize a route properly. Best music in the game IMO. The way the story sequence follows into stage 6 is pretty cool as well. (wall of text because I've been playing this recently)

Garegga - Stage 5 (boss rush, music)
Batrider - Stage 5 (the boss rush)
HellSinker - Stage 5 (boss rush, music, wtf is happening)
Rayforce - Stage 4&7 (visuals, atmosphere)
Ketsui - Stage 5 (pacing, music)
DOJ - Stage 5 (^)
Under Defeat - Stage 5 (^)

Probably forgetting something but w/e. Clearly the answer to the question is Stage 5 :p

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Futari Stage 5 is my fave stage

also

DFK Stage 4&5
DDP Stage 2&3
Crimson Clover's stages 3, 4 & 5

EDIT

Rtype st 1 & 2
Xexex and Gradius NES stages 3 (both have the wrap around scrolling)
Mars Matrix stage 5

[Hagane]

Sengoku Blade stage 4 - the wonderful multi-scrolling background, with little details like the final boss tearing the roofs of the houses when he touches them and the castle rising in the back as you beat him.

Shippu Mahou Daisakusen - lots of superbly designed stages, but my favorite of all is by far Yashiki of Ninja. The music and setting are awesome, and the fight against Hayatemaru with Divided by Zero sounding in the background and then having to run away from the flames as the stage crumbles make it the all time best stage in an STG in my book, artistically speaking.

[matrigs]

Mushihimesama stage 3. God damn. Lots of awesome patterns, you get to destroy the whole stage/boss as you fly on top of it, the music rocks, and it's incredibly visceral every time you destroy a body part. I just love it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNYm1VWv90w

yeah that stage is absolutely fantastic.

i would also have to add mushi stage 2 in maniac mode, especially the beginning when you learn to milk those flowers. jesus is that good.

[Kollision]

Mushi stage 5
Axelay stage 6
Darius II any last stage (dat music)
Ketsui stage 4 or 5
Thunder Force IV stage 8
Chaos Field stage 2
Border Down stage 3
Raystorm stage 4
Söldner-X stage 1 (dat graphic)
Mars Matrix stage 4
Under Defeat stage 5

[CptRansom]

Mars Matrix stage 4
Futari stage 5
Mushi stage 4
Hellsinker stages 5 and 6
Raiden Fighters Jet real battle 2
Garegga cloud
DFK stage 5

[Bananamatic]

DFK st4
the war is here

[Muchi Muchi Spork]

Akai Katana Limited Red Mode stage 4
http://youtu.be/tJ48D8ipxvM?t=14m5s

[Vyxx]

Ibara stage 3 (train)

[emphatic]

Flying Shark stage 5.
ESPGALUDA stage 5.1.
Futari stage 5.

[xris]

Happy to see some love for Futari stage 5, good fun - hectic. Would be the perfect stage if it wasn't for that cow of a boss at the end. Also has the world's easiest late game mid-boss.
Guwange 3 is a good one as well.
Shikigami No Shiro 5-2, the huge spider space demon boss. Hella fun.
Deathsmiles - Volcano
Batrider - the first stage, it just looks great, and is pretty exciting.
Triggerheart - Stage 4, kind of tricky.
Garegga - Stage 2, fun for me, taught me a bunch of skills and tricks.

[-S.L-]

Viewpoint - stage 2, I just love the colors, the music is amazing, best shoot ever.

Also agree on Stage 5 of Futari (in maniac 1.5 for me), brilliant flow and music again.

(in the other hand i trully hate stage 4 of the same game......) like really, I HATE IT.

[Squire Grooktook]

Off the top of my head.

Rayforce stage 1-7
Gradius V stage 1 and 5
R-Type stage 3, 4
R-Type 3 stage 5 and 6
Dodonpachi DOJ stage 1-5
Ketsui stage 1-5
G-Darius zones Beta, Epsilon, Eta, and Nu

*edit*

Oh and

Axelay stage 1, 2, and 6
Einhander stage 2-6 (6 is final, or does the last boss count as his own stage?)

[Zengeku3]

DOJBL 2-4 or 2-5 are awesome.
5th stage in Ketsui and DFK are pretty epic too, though i haven't played their loop counterparts so I'm sure i'd get utterly destroyed
Also really like the final stage of Crimzon Clover.

Final stages are such easy picks but it's hard to narrow down my absolute favorite i find. Would be more interesting with a similar thread just about people's favorite Stage 1 in shmups. They are usually just filler stuff you just gotta sit through but i wonder if some people have any stage ones' they find to be an exception from that.

Dunno which one would be my favorite Stage 1 though. :/

[Despatche]

you know i'd actually give that award to r-type iii stage 1 just for being, not kidding

[ChainsawGuitarSP]

Zero Wing stage 7 is my favorite just for having the best art design ever: an H.R. Giger themed forest with a network of eyeballs making up the background.

Other favorites off the top of my head include:
GRAVE OF CULTURE
Darius Burst Zone J
R-Type 4 & 7
Gradius 1 & 4
Cotton 2 stage 5
Batsugun stage 5

[Squire Grooktook]

. Would be more interesting with a similar thread just about people's favorite Stage 1 in shmups. They are usually just filler stuff you just gotta sit through but i wonder if some people have any stage ones' they find to be an exception from that.

I like Gradius V's first stage because it just feels really random and intense with the bouncing beach ball Zelos's.

R-Type III's first stage isn't anything special gameplay wise, but is really cool aesthetically.

Axelay's first stage has a ridiculous amount of variety, from your average popcorn enemies, to a cool midboss, to destructible environments, to mazes filled with mines, to a speed up section.

Dodonpachi DOJ just blows me away aesthetically as well.

[chum]

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=41508

[Sly Cherry Chunks]

R-Type Delta final stage. More for the mood and design than the challenge.

Despatche made some excellent choices.

How is this even possible.

Gives me chills every time.

Pure awesomeness. It's nice these topics come round again - for the benefit of those of us going through the Star Trek Online content drought.

[Mortificator]

Another good moody stage is the fourth one in Prehistoric Isle. You're investigating ship disappearances in the West Indies, and after three stages of flying your biplane around a mysterious island and shooting dinosaurs, you hop into a submersible and dive into the surrounding sea to find it also teaming with vicious prehistoric life. After the halfway point, the scrolling slowly reveals a hulled ship jutting from the ocean floor.

... and another...
... and another...
... and another...

It's a vast field of wrecks, a tremendous number of lives lost to creatures that should have been separated from humanity by millions of years. Very melancholy.