Background
Discussion
Results
Voting Thread
Polls will close February 6th at 11:59am GMT.
It it acceptable to both post new lists and edit current ones up to this point.
Voting rules:
00. If you haven't participated before, read the Background section in the following post, noting the requirements, before proceeding any further. Even if you have it's probably a good idea anyway because it changes slightly every year.
01. Use the following vote format, including brackets:
- [integer score 1 to 25] [first game title]
[integer score 1 to 25] [second game title]- etc.
- [25] [Favorite]
[24] [Second Favorite]
... etc ...
[2] [24th Favorite]
[1] [25th Favorite]
02. You must vote for exactly 25 games. Your list can contain the games you think are the best overall, the most influential, most personally enjoyable, most underrated, etc. If you are eligible to vote under rule 00 but still can't come up with 25 games, you have a month to try and fill in the gaps if you so desire.
03. Shmups released in calendar year 2014 are not eligible for consideration.
04. Don't vote for games you haven't played.
05. Please be specific when voting for ports, or different games share the same title. Some versions are similar enough to count as the same game, but others are counted separately due to significant differences (e.g. Gradius III or UN Squadron). In the case of games like Salamander/Life Force, both region and platform may be important. Votes that do not specify platform will be assumed to be for the arcade/other original release, or in isolated cases the most well-known version (e.g. [Zanac] will be considered a vote for Zanac NES). Be careful with notation too, as [Slap Fight MD] is not considered the same thing as [Slap Fight (MD)]. This year I'm going to be re-evaluating any of these that I'm not overly familiar with as they crop up, possibly even some of the ones mentioned here as separate, but still if you have any doubts I ask that you please take care to specify platform(s), or ask me privately or in the vote discussion thread.
In case there were any doubts, all versions of DoDonPachi Saidaioujou will be merged.
06. Vote for games, not compilations that include them. You can't vote for Raiden Fighters Aces but you can vote for each of the three games it contains. Games that never got an independent release are also permitted, such as Xevious Arrangement.
If someone wishes to vote for a part of a game that qualifies as a shmup, but is not the entire game, I believe this should also be permitted, as long as the voter is capable of judging the quality of that section on its own shooting merits.
07. Vote for games, not their different modes of play. Exceptions are granted for revisions of games that were sufficiently different from the original and received a standalone release.
08. No off-limits games! Please consult the chart below to see if your game is eligible for consideration:
No voting for:
- First-person perspective shooters (Doom, Solvalou)
- including Lightgun Shooters (House of the Dead, Rail Chase)
Platform Shooters (Contra, Metal Slug)
Rail Shooters (Rez, Panzer Dragoon)
Gallery/Carnival Shooters (NAM-1975, Cabal)
Action-adventure games (Alien Breed, Gauntlet, Legend of Zelda) - including Lightgun Shooters (House of the Dead, Rail Chase)
You may vote for games in any of the following categories:
- Non-scrolling playfield
- Fixed Shooters (Space Invaders, Galaga)
Maze Shooters (Berserk, Tank Battalion)
Field Shooters (Robotron, Smash TV, Geometry Wars)- including those set on a cylinder or torus (Asteroids, Star Castle)
- Automatically scrolling shooters
- Vertically scrolling shooters (Xevious, Cybattler)
- including those set on a cylinder (Scion)
- including those set on a cylinder (Fantasy Zone)
- Vertically scrolling shooters (Xevious, Cybattler)
- Manually advancing horizontally scrolling shooters (In the Hunt, Mr. Heli no Daibouken)
- including those set on a cylinder (Defender)
Manually advancing multi-directional shooters (Granada, Kiki Kaikai, Bangai-O)- including those set on a torus or infinite plane (Sinistar)
- Every Extend series
Gyruss and clones
Tempest, clones, and sequels
- Fixed Shooters (Space Invaders, Galaga)
I'm not going to bother waiting to send out vote corrections this year, as last year all that achieved was leaving me with ballots I couldn't tally properly for longer. Anything by the end of voting that either remains unfixed or looks like someone's idea of a joke will potentially be either changed or discounted.