What are the best shmups of the 16-bit era?

[BIL]

louis did - I was going to say, I'd probably love that game if Konami had stuck with what they knew for the vertical stages, straight 2D. Vertizontal action with those weapons would've rocked. The hori stages are consistently good - the caverns area has some neat ideas with its pest enemies, and the sense of flying right into the dragon's lair in the final stage is superb.

As it is the vert stages just feel too loose for me to wholeheartedly endorse the game. They can definitely be adjusted to, though, and it's a fun shooter for sure. I consider it kind of an essential part of my SFC collection despite it not being my idea of a first-rate shooter, just for how idiosyncratically SFC the vert stages' style is.

[Squire Grooktook]

Yeah, the vertical stages are a bit hit and miss. They become a lot tighter on higher loops though. And the stage 3 boss is consistently fun.

[BIL]

Oh no, I don't mean the pacing - I think it gets going plenty quickly on either Hard or tougher loops. I mean the collision detection - there are times, like flying through the pipe gaps in stage 3, where it can feel distinctly off, especially since collision with the environment is instant death.

edit: anyone else remember the magazines going absolutely balls mental over Axelay when it was released? At least the US ones. It was game of the month in EGM with a silver award, those graphical effects certainly won over the casual audience. Plus ça change.

[Squire Grooktook]

Oh hmmmm, I never had any hit detection problems with the vert stages. But yeah, Axelay did get a lot of attention.

[Ed Oscuro]

DEADLY EDGE

[R-Gray 1]

Axelay
Gradius III
Super R type

[Despatche]

I looked up other stuff by FACE and it was all awful

nope sry