Most beautiful shmup?

[Spyke]

What do you think?

Espgaluda II or Sine Mora for me I think, though I suspect this post will educate me!

Ant

[KAI]

Pinksweets is super cutemoekawaii.

[Spyke]

I'd better add Gunbird 2 to my top 3...

Ant

[Friendly]

Resogun is a current contender.

[Spyke]

Was completely unaware of Resogun (don't own a PS newer than PS2!)

Ant

[DMC]

Darius Gaiden - Original, impressive bosses. For instance, the angry big fish on stage 1 that first swims slowly in the background, then suddenly enters the screen by trashing the scenery with its tail followed by spitting out an astonishing massive pink/purple laser beam. Great colorful visuals in overall. I also like the psychedelic stage complete screens. Silver Hawk is a cool protagonist ship and I Always liked to look of Darius shield, plus the Warning screens.

Radiant Sillvergun / Ikaruga - Epic, Clean, modern design in a futuristic space setting with large gorgeous and very original bosses. Artsy bullet patterns with extreme adherence to symmetry of Blue/Yellow/Red and Black/White colors, respectively, which were nicely incorporated into gameplay.

Soukyugurentai - Similar as above minus the color symmetry but added more diversity in environments. Simple but beautiful first stage flying over big city (tokyo?) at night only lit up by window lights, ad signs and of course lots of fire weapons. Third stage has a great depiction of flying above the Clouds, then diving down to reveal a desert setting. Sixth stage has an awesome beginning with a simple pink background color contrasted by weird laser beams that are beautiful and extremly destructive. Lots of spaceships you fly over with many details, and huge 3d bosses that are all awesome.

Mushihimesama Futari - harmonic RPG/adventure setting with original bugs theme accompanied by beautiful Cave-typical bullets and screens filled with golden-glowing gems. Ugly last boss though.

R-Type - Coherent Aliens design with very well detailed iconic bosses which were very impressive at the time of its release.

Battle Garegga - Gritty, dirty setting with lots of bullet splitter and camouflage bullets covering the screen throughout - along with all the medals, bomb fragments, Power up items, and the actual bombs as you should use. Some very memorable bosses as well, most prominent being the two Black Hearts. Stage 5 is especially beautiful with the dark cloud setting, all the lightning bolts and the classic sick-sack appearing platforms that Raizing used a lot and Yagawa has reused even in a couple Cave games. I also like the Battle Garegga title screen that really nails the mood of the game.

[Pretas]

Technical: Resogun

Artistic: Metal Black

[Friendly]

Was completely unaware of Resogun (don't own a PS newer than PS2!)

Ant

Strange you haven't seen a game looking like that then, because according to some of the more technologically proficient members here this could easily have been done even on Dreamcast.

[Squire Grooktook]

I think G-Darius is also worth a mention. I think the worlds are even more colorful and vibrant than Darius Gaiden, despite the textures and polygons not aging as well as the sprite work.

[professor ganson]

fantasy zone ii dx
zanac
detana twinbee
mushi futari
shikigami no shiro 2

[Krooze L-Roy]

Xexex

[Wyrmnus]

Ikaruga comes to mind.

[chempop]

Probably a tie between SDOJ and Trap15.
Honorable mention goes to Chid of Eden, if you consider it a shmup.

[Laurel_McFang]

Espgaluda II is really beautiful, I remember Einhander's trails really impressed me.
It's a difficult question, because it depends on how you judge. Air Zonk's crisp cartoon lines looked more impressive to me as a child than any other shmup I can think of. In terms of engine prowess and contemporary probably that doujin game revolver 360 I think it's called. The Darius games and r-type all had great art design too.

[boagman]

I'm a huge fan of the looks of View Point and Pulstar for the Neo-Geo.

[professor ganson]

R-Type

Yeah, it's part of what makes the game epic. No doubt.

[finisherr]

I'd say futari.

[Aisha]

I'm not sure about most beautiful, but I think both Astebreed and Revolver 360 Re:Actor look very impressive.

[chempop]

Astebreed

Holy shit.

[Casey120]

Didn't care much for the game play but Sturmwind looked pretty impressive on the DC .

[astroid]

Mushihimesama, Crimzon Clover and IBARA are best!

[Spyke]

Was completely unaware of Resogun (don't own a PS newer than PS2!)

Ant

Strange you haven't seen a game looking like that then, because according to some of the more technologically proficient members here this could easily have been done even on Dreamcast.

Sorry, not following you?

I do have Sturmwind on DC and that is pretty beautiful too. Similar style to Resogun?

Ant

[BareKnuckleRoo]

The art in Deathsmiles is worth a mention, particularly in the stage artwork. I'm also really fond of ChoRenSha's art - its gritty mechanical style and that wickedly flashy bomb are a treat for the eyes.

Espgaluda II and Futari are great too, obviously, but they're kinda obvious choices as they're both very high resolution games. If I had to pick one, something like Darius Gaiden I think goes even further in terms of sheer aesthetic appeal. The surreal soundtrack, the enemies, the background art, it all makes for a great experience, even if the game itself isn't your thing.

[Friendly]

Sorry, not following you?

That was a quip at the inane comments in the Resogun thread. Resogun's graphics consist of hundreds of thousands of voxels on screen; obviously no previous hardware was powerful enough for this.

There are some more screenshots on the developer's homepage: http://www.housemarque.com/games/resogun/

[CStarFlare]

Harmful Park is packed with colorful and imaginative sprite work. It's significantly nicer to look at than 99% of games in any genre and generation.

[Spyke]

Sorry, not following you?

That was a quip at the inane comments in the Resogun thread. Resogun's graphics consist of hundreds of thousands of voxels on screen; obviously no previous hardware was powerful enough for this.

There are some more screenshots on the developer's homepage: http://www.housemarque.com/games/resogun/

Ah I get it!

[Ed Oscuro]

Sorry, not following you?

That was a quip at the inane comments in the Resogun thread. Resogun's graphics consist of hundreds of thousands of voxels on screen; obviously no previous hardware was powerful enough for this.

There are some more screenshots on the developer's homepage: http://www.housemarque.com/games/resogun/

Could you take a break from settling scores, please?

[Bloodreign]

Twinbee Yahho and the Parodius titles, beautiful games, busy background animations (especially the Parodius games). So much love poured into parody games that are as hard as the games they spoof, Gradius (Parodius of course).

As for the Twinbee games, the last 2 really were remarkably beautiful, lighthearted but not spoofs of anything to my knowledge.

[Astraea FGA Mk. I]

I am pretty sexy

[Special World]

Mushihimesama Futari Black Label

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