Comical/parody shmups

[Vetus]

'90s was the best era for parody/comical shmup. Parodius series, Space Invaders '95, Star Parodia, Gunbare The Game Paradise series (any other fans of Gunbare The Paradise here?)...And after '90s? The only good comical shmup I've played is Trouble Witches Neo and despite being a great game (it's included to my Top10 favourite shmups) it doesn't have the wackiness of the other games I've mentioned and it focuses more on moe stuff (which personally I don't mind but it's a huge turn-off for many other traditional shmup maniacs).

Any other recommended comical/parody shmup? Retro ones, modern ones, arcade ones, indie ones...anything goes.

[Kiken]

So are cute-em-ups technically included under "comical"? If so, see anything with Cotton (except the awful DC-only Rainbow Cotton), Twinkle Star Sprites and its sequel, Twinkle Tale, perhaps a stretch... but wouldn't Gunbird and Gunbird 2 fall under comical? Doujin-wise, try and track down Bike Banditz.

[Pretas]

So are cute-em-ups technically included under "comical"? If so, see anything with Cotton

The original Cotton is a fairly dark and foreboding game.



Cotton 2/Boomerang isn't exactly "cute" outside of the cutscenes, either.

[Vetus]

Games like Cotton have only comical moments during the cutscenes. I also love games with comical, crazy endings like Gunbird series (another favourite of mine) and Sengoku Ace series. Thanks a lot for recommending me Bike Banditz. It looks great.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cjnJNvU-JQ

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Fanasty Star Soldier (aka Star Parodia) was another one of those TTI Super CD-Rom2 titles that never saw light of day (considering it has a different title screen) back in the early 1990s. And thus, it remains one of the few TTI/TG-16 prototype games alongside with Tengen's unreleased prototype Off The Wall arcade puzzler Hu-Card port (based off of the original Atari Games 1991 PCB of the same name).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[BIL]

Astro Port's Meglilo The Wichborg (Windows Doujin) made me smile a bit with the OTT vintage robo/magical girl anime stylings. The way its cute bosses materialise from demonic runes and 80s black metal standards ("MÄRCHEN DIMENSION") is so lovably ridiculous.

[BulletMagnet]

The Twinbee series isn't a direct parody of anything, but it's definitely cute and silly: the last Twinbee shooter made, Twinbee Yahho!, has the most polished presentation if that's the part you're most interested in.

Harmful Park for the PS1 is also loaded with visual puns and other jokey stuff.

Geppy-X, also for PS1, is a four-disc spoof of old giant robot anime, if that's up your alley.

[CIT]

There are a lot of games like this on PC Engine, ranging from great (Magical Chase, Coryoon) to garbage (God Panic, Toilet Kids).

The Choaniki games also fall under the "comical" category, though not so much "cute".

[Aquas]

Namco defines Ordyne as their "Comical shooter" and it's pretty cool. Even showed it on STG Weekly #10.

[gs68]

My friend got the PS1 Cho Aniki game. Hilarous in a campy way, but the game itself plays like garbage.

[BPzeBanshee]

Odd Mobs! http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=41250

[Stealthlurker]

The ones that NEVER get mentioned for this category of shmups are the 2 verizontal Time Bokan shmups on both JPN Saturn and PS1. Great for old school Sentai fans as well.


.

[Pretas]

The ones that NEVER get mentioned for this category of shmups are the 2 verizontal Time Bokan shmups on both JPN Saturn and PS1. Great for old school Sentai fans as well.

Or especially Yatterman/Tatsunoko Pro fans, since you play as Doronjo and her henchmen, and the games are filled with cameos from other Tatsu series.

Bokandesuyo! is one of the only shooters I've played where you have unlimited use of your bombs, except they take a long time to charge up. The other is PC Denjin/Air Zonk. It's actually a neat mechanic that's satisfying without breaking the difficulty. Another impressive thing about the game is the sheer number of attacks that bosses have, which can be as high as 8.

Also, the second Time Bokan game didn't get released on Saturn.

[BrianC]

Fanasty Star Soldier (aka Star Parodia) was another one of those TTI Super CD-Rom2 titles that never saw light of day (considering it has a different title screen) back in the early 1990s. And thus, it remains one of the few TTI/TG-16 prototype games alongside with Tengen's unreleased prototype Off The Wall arcade puzzler Hu-Card port (based off of the original Atari Games 1991 PCB of the same name).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

Star Parodia still came out in Japan for PC Engine CD and is playable on the US Super CD-ROM 2. Too bad Off the Wall never came out for TG-16. The arcade game sounds like fun and it's a pity a home port was never released. There is the Atari 2600 Arkanoid like game with the same name, but it's a completely different game.

[VixyNyan]

For comical, I'd like to add Psikyo's games: Gunbird, Sengoku Ace, Sonic Wings.

[davyK]

Gunbare The Game Paradise series (any other fans of Gunbare The Paradise here?)...

Yep - one fan here. It's a classy little game - I always considered Jaleco to have a slightly dodgy rep as a game dev but they did a really nice job with this. I like the fact that they made an effort and added a Saturn mode and caravan modes and a suicide bullet option as well - not to mention TATE too. It feels pretty solid - one of my favourites on the Saturn.


Star Parodier got a release on the Wii's virtual console and runs at 60Hz and all that. Nice game.

[BulletMagnet]

Bokandesuyo! is one of the only shooters I've played where you have unlimited use of your bombs, except they take a long time to charge up.

Not only that, but if you get hit while carrying one it can knock you down to "bicycle mode" instantly - never quite figured out exactly how it worked, as it seemed somewhat inconsistent, maybe I just need to play the games more, heh.

[Kiken]

Gunbare The Game Paradise series (any other fans of Gunbare The Paradise here?)...

Yep - one fan here. It's a classy little game - I always considered Jaleco to have a slightly dodgy rep as a game dev but they did a really nice job with this. I like the fact that they made an effort and added a Saturn mode and caravan modes and a suicide bullet option as well - not to mention TATE too. It feels pretty solid - one of my favourites on the Saturn.

Game Tengoku actually uses the same front end/menu system as every Suchie Pai game that they ported during the 32-bit era (down to font size, type and even relative screen location). It's like they just took the basic "engine", as it were, from Suchie Pai and programmed a shmup for it (in fact, a couple of the characters from Game Tengoku appear as cameos in Idol Janshi Suchie Pai Mecha Gentei Ban... and in the Game Tengoku anime, there's a scene where one of the evil genius' sidekicks dresses up as Suchie Pai).

[pcb_revival]

The game that never gets a mention, the unloved - Dr Toppels Tankentai - Dr Toppels Adventure.

[BulletMagnet]

The game that never gets a mention, the unloved - Dr Toppels Tankentai - Dr Toppels Adventure.

Shame I hadn't heard of that one before my most recent Racketboy article, that one mighta made a nice Honorable mention at least!

[RoninBuddha]

KiKi Kai Kai games seem comical.

[Vetus]

The ones that NEVER get mentioned for this category of shmups are the 2 verizontal Time Bokan shmups on both JPN Saturn and PS1. Great for old school Sentai fans as well.

I love this game and it has a decent fanbase at the western audience as well (expecially since it got a european release, dunno if it was released in America) partly due of the anime popularity. Even people who have never seen the anime liked it because it was quite colorful, lively and funny and graphics, music and gameplay were quite decent. Without doubt one of the best license video games.

Gunbare The Game Paradise series (any other fans of Gunbare The Paradise here?)...

Yep - one fan here. It's a classy little game - I always considered Jaleco to have a slightly dodgy rep as a game dev but they did a really nice job with this. I like the fact that they made an effort and added a Saturn mode and caravan modes and a suicide bullet option as well - not to mention TATE too. It feels pretty solid - one of my favourites on the Saturn.

For me Jaleco is one of my favourite companies. Games like Gunbare, Rodland and Avenging Spirit made me love them. My first touch with Gunbare was with the second one at PSX which I learned about it from SNESOrama. At first I thought that Gunbare series was console exclusive but later I learned that they were first arcade games. I was lucky to play and enjoy the Saturn version on Game On 2.0 in Greece ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_On_%28exhibition%29 ) and later I found out that the arcade version plays perfectly on MAME even on my crappy, old PC.

[SuperDeadite]

Ku2 Comical. Note Ku2 is 2 games in one, Serious and Comical. Was ported to many systems, I'm only familiar with the X68000 retail version, which would have been the 2nd release of the game. (Original release Ku2 Front Row was a Takeru vending machine game).

[Bananamatic]

space phallus

[Ixmucane2]

Setting aside the bizarre subject, Toilet Kids is a surprisingly good game; not innovative or exceptional, but head and shoulders above many arcade releases.

[evil_ash_xero]

[Master O]

The ones that NEVER get mentioned for this category of shmups are the 2 verizontal Time Bokan shmups on both JPN Saturn and PS1. Great for old school Sentai fans as well.

Or especially Yatterman/Tatsunoko Pro fans, since you play as Doronjo and her henchmen, and the games are filled with cameos from other Tatsu series.

Bokandesuyo! is one of the only shooters I've played where you have unlimited use of your bombs, except they take a long time to charge up. The other is PC Denjin/Air Zonk. It's actually a neat mechanic that's satisfying without breaking the difficulty. Another impressive thing about the game is the sheer number of attacks that bosses have, which can be as high as 8.

Also, the second Time Bokan game didn't get released on Saturn.

I suppose that would mean that Doronjo is one of the only anime characters to appear in both a fighting game and shmup?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyMGtHbpMu0 <--- Time Bokan Desu Yo!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnGGhKG39BA <--- Tatsunoko vs Capcom

Oddly enough, Morrigan (Darkstalkers) also appeared in at least 1 fighting game and 1 shmup.

[Jeneki]

Oddly enough, Morrigan (Darkstalkers) also appeared in at least 1 fighting game and 1 shmup.

And a puzzle game (Puzzle Fighter), a turn based strategy game (Cross Edge), a golf game (We Love Golf), and a digital card game (Card Fighters Clash). Morrigan really gets around.

On topic, my favorite was Star Parodier on the PC Engine.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Doesn't Ultimate All-Shooters of Tatsunoko vs Capcom feature playable characters from other anime shows than Yatterman?