What are the best shmups on the [US] Xbox 360?

[Shadowduel]

ESPrade I belive... or Ketsui

[Special World]

Really wish I could get in on the Akai Katana love. The main systems for the game are fantastic and the graphics are beautiful, but good lord do I hate those bosses. Hands down the worst Cave bosses I've ever shot at.

I still like it a lot, but they really do bring down the game for me.

The AKS bosses are all bastards, that's for sure. 100% pressure with some incredibly intricate attacks. It's all about timing your blades to cut through them at optimum times to survive, or to reap points and do a recharge straight after. Definitely an interesting equilibrium to figure out, there's a great deal of depth and strategy involved.

They are pretty tough, though for some patterns I'm not really sure why. But I don't like the design of them - they're all just flying people, which is dumb, and their bullet patterns are completely sterile. None of the bullets feel alive, they just feel like they're coming at you. I really don't like them. Plus their health bars are off the chain, though IIRC Shin corrects this somewhat.

[finisherr]

Looks like they released a region-free Muchi Muchi Pork/Pink Sweets reissue on Play-Asia. At this price, I've got to snag a copy.

[broken harbour]

Looks like they released a region-free Muchi Muchi Pork/Pink Sweets reissue on Play-Asia. At this price, I've got to snag a copy.

It's on backorder, I've been waiting a month and they haven't shipped mine....

[AntiFritz]

ESPrade I belive... or Ketsui

Besides the fact Ketsui is region locked, esprade has never been ported to any console.

[n0rtygames]

Chronoblast in the indie area! Only 80 MSP for some bullet hell goodness! There's quite a few shmups in the indie arcade actually on the cheap, and all have demos you can try.

Aw, bless! Thanks man

To add to that, if you're after cheap shmups - others I would recommend checking out also for 80msp - all made by people who are part of / have frequented these forums in the past:-

* Chronoblast - mine - buy it or I will make a sad face.
* Vampire Rage - vertizontal game with a RSG style anti bullet sword. Love this one
* Vorpal - Neat
* Pester - Retro, fairly nice
* Shoot 1 Up - vertizontal insanity
* Prismatic solid - Gorgeous
* Decimation X - THE PARTICLES
* Platypus - Plastercine horizontal shooter
* Leave home - Shiny. Very shiny.
* Snops attack - costs a little more, but quite pretty

You could pick up 5 of these for $5 - so it's really not much at all. There's thread somewhere listing the best indies on 360 - think it's a bit dated but if you have a look around you'll find it, there might be some other gems in there

That's to name a few, there's others - but I really can't list them all. Just go check out the shooter section under the indie tab.


For the commercial retail shmups, I'd have to go with what's already been said. I would argue that Deathsmiles is not Caves weakest shooter at all and is actually an incredibly deep and underrated game that just happens to offer a very easy route through at the expense of a decent score. Play it. It's win and it is my current waifu until I get a divorce for Saidaioujou.

[shaowebb]

Akai Katana and Raiden Fighter Aces have been pretty big go to games for me. Aces because by GOD Raiden Fighters Jet is amazing. Akai Katana because Slash mode with its Katana's is super addictive...Origin mode is completely different but oh man is it harder to rack up the gold and the rhythm of the game entirely shifts in it. The rhythm in Slash mode felt more exciting to me going for meter, flip, steel, flip , swords *fire!* fly in swords for meter, repeat. Lots of mode flipping bullet surfing and grazing and just a really in your face style of rhythm of play. Huge scores.

For me I guess my games of choice for US 360 are in order

• Akai Katana (Slash Mode)
• Raiden Fighter Aces (Raiden Fighters Jet)
• Dodonpachi Resurrection
• Deathsmiles

Im still needing to buy Mushihimesama Futari, Espgaluda 2, Deathsmiles 2x, Muchi Muchi Pork/Pink Sweets, Soul Bullet, Dodonpachi SaiDaioujou, and Caladrius though.

I also Raiden IV, but its pretty much a game thats patterns box you in forcing you to play a style where you move very little at all times so as amaizng as it is, its really a game of patience rather than a swooping intense fest like the games I mentioned as my tops. I like threading the needle as much as any shmupper, but Raiden IV felt like you never really got to cut lose and fly like a daredevil at all to me.

[Remembrance]

Im still needing to buy Mushihimesama Futari, Espgaluda 2, Deathsmiles 2x, Muchi Muchi Pork/Pink Sweets, Soul Bullet, Dodonpachi SaiDaioujou, and Caladrius though.

(The last one of those is not region-free, by the way.)

Having just received Saidaioujou as my first of the Japanese imports, it's a great starting point. Akai Katana has great rhythm, but is quite punishing as well. Saidaioujou offers a lot of ways to get started without making the mistakes nearly as devastating.

[finisherr]

Looks like they released a region-free Muchi Muchi Pork/Pink Sweets reissue on Play-Asia. At this price, I've got to snag a copy.

It's on backorder, I've been waiting a month and they haven't shipped mine....

Thanks for the heads up. Sorta wish they made that information a little more transparent.

[ACSeraph]

Seriously no one has mentioned Triggerheart Exelica yet? That game deserves so much more love than it gets, and it's cheap too. The other good ones seem to be pretty well covered here though.

[casualcoder]

Deathsmiles can now be had for $10 or $15. On LVL 3 with suicide bullets I find fewer games so absorbing in normal mode. My only complaint is you cant turn on suicide bullets for the whole game. But you get a lot of options and even a built-in ass-mode (easy) if you are just starting out.

[finisherr]

Has anyone played this game: http://www.videogamesnewyork.com/index. ... tbn8o2n3r3

Shooting Love. No idea what's going on with that.

[Ed Oscuro]

Possibly there might be a reference to that buried deep somewhere in this thread:
http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=44671