Shmups for Nintendo Wii

[nesrulz]

Castle of Shikigami III
Geometry Wars Galaxies
Ultimate Shooting Collection

What do you guys think of these games?
Did any of you played this games?

I plan to try them...

[Obiwanshinobi]

Geometry Wars Galaxies isn't awful, but too much grind for the sake of unlocking the whole game. Still, if you want boxed GW (technically for two platforms at that), it's pretty much the Hobson's choice. Unfortunately doesn't support GameCube controllers, which makes no sense whatsoever.

[CStarFlare]

The Milestone Shooting Collection 2 is a much better version of the Ultimate Shooting Collection. Not hard to get imports running on a Wii, either.

[DwightDL]

On this same topic what are the best ones on virtual console/WiiWare?
It seems like a good resource as somebody who is trying to get into shmups. So far I have:
Lifeforce
Zanac
Gradius 3
Darius Twin (pretty meh)
Rtype 3
Axelay

[Obiwanshinobi]

Mega Drive/Genesis homebrew emulation: Eliminate Down.

[Krooze L-Roy]

Don't forget The Monkey King: The Legend Begins.


Actually, do.

[Pretas]

Star Soldier R was an early WiiWare release from the late Hudson. It's quite good, if you're okay with it being a caravan-only game. I'm not sure if the online leaderboards are still active. Gradius Rebirth is an essential WiiWare game, and the best of the three Konami Rebirth titles.

Some of the standout STGs available on the US Virtual Console include Soldier Blade, Cho Aniki, Air Zonk, Gley Lancer, Gate/Lords of Thunder, and Axelay.

R-Type III was de-listed, as part of Irem's campaign to scrub away every trace of their work from digital distribution services. You can still re-download it if you purchased it.

[Squire Grooktook]

Blast Works is amazing and comes with several other excellent games.

[BulletMagnet]

Don't forget The Monkey King: The Legend Begins.


Actually, do.

There's a similar game by the same developer (I think) called "Saint", and it's also supposed to be subpar...speaking of which, there's Ocean Commander too. The Data East collection also has a shmup or two on it.

[EllertMichael]

I tried to make a complete list a couple years ago. If you notice anything missing, please let me know

-Bit.Trip Fate (WiiWare)
-BlastWorks: Build, Trade, Destroy
-The Castle of Shikigami III / Shikigami No Shiro III
-Data East Arcade Classics (Super Real Darwin)
-Geometry Wars: Galaxies
-Gradius Rebirth (WiiWare)
-Illvelo Wii/Illmatic Envelope Wii
-Kyotokei (WiiWare)
-Ultimate Shooting Collection/Milestone Shooting Collection
-Milestone Shooting Collection 2
-The Monkey King: The Legend Begins/Shin Chuuka Taisen: Michael to Meimei no Bouken
-Namco Museum Remix (Galaxian, Gaplus, Xevious)
-Namco Museum Megamix (Bosconian, Galaga, Galaxian, Gaplus, Grobda, King & Balloon, Xevious)
-Ocean Commander
-Radirgy Noa/Rajirunogia Wii
-Saint
-Simple Wii Series Vol. 4: The DokoDemo Asoberu - The Shooting Action
-SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1 (Last Resort)
-Space Invaders Get Even (WiiWare)
-Star Soldier R (WiiWare)

Shmups available on Virtual Console:
NES:
Zanac
Star Soldier
Gradius
Life Force
Galaga
Xevious
S.C.A.T.

SNES:
R-Type III: The Third Lightning
Gradius III
Axelay
Super R-Type
Space Invaders: The Original Game
Darius Twin
Super E.D.F.: Earth Defense Force

SMS:
Fantasy Zone
Fantasy Zone II: The Tears of Opa-Opa
R-Type (delisted on September 30, 2011)

GENESIS:
Bio-Hazard Battle
Gley Lancer
Super Fantasy Zone
Forgotten Worlds
M.U.S.H.A.

TG16:
Super Star Soldier
R-Type
Soldier Blade
Blazing Lazers
Dragon Spirit
Air Zonk
Gate of Thunder
Galaga '90
Super Air Zonk: Rockabilly-Paradise
Lords of Thunder
Psychosis
Star Parodier
Cho Aniki
Final Soldier
Gradius II: Gofer no Yabou
Detana!! TwinBee

NEO GEO:
Ironclad

C64:
Cybernoid: The Fighting Machine

ARCADE:
Gaplus
Star Force
Zaxxon
SonSon
Exed Exes
1942

[Ghegs]

I liked Kyotokei, even though it was just a horizontal Ikaruga with easier chains. Clicked with me enough that I even played it for score.

[Krooze L-Roy]

Don't forget The Monkey King: The Legend Begins.


Actually, do.

There's a similar game by the same developer (I think) called "Saint", and it's also supposed to be subpar...speaking of which, there's Ocean Commander too. The Data East collection also has a shmup or two on it.

Same dev also did Heavenly Guardian, which looks very Pocky and Rocky-esque. I've had the PS2 version for years, but never actually popped it in.

[near_miss]

Sin and Punishment Star Successor. It's a borderliner/rail gun game - has all the things I love about STGs; tons of epic bosses and mini bosses, intense bullet volume, amazing music, stunning graphics, arcadey controls, stage variety, risk/reward scoring system, and it's by Treasure. It blows my mind that you can currently buy it new for about 5 bucks.

[Obiwanshinobi]

S&P2 doesn't look great I'm afraid (animations being the worst of it and character models not helping). Good game, though, even if the default controls layout isn't optimal.
There's also the original S&P on Virtual Console.

[EmperorIng]

I have a copy of Shikigami III for the Wii that I'm looking to sell if you're interested.
Good game, fun point-blank mechanic; however, I don't have a Wii anymore.

[near_miss]

S&P2 doesn't look great I'm afraid (animations being the worst of it and character models not helping). Good game, though, even if the default controls layout isn't optimal.
There's also the original S&P on Virtual Console.

Okay, Obiwanshinobi - I agree the characters have creepy dead dolls faces etc - still though, the enemies (giant eels!), boss design (crazy robots and aliens), the level design, the neon bullets, explosions etc; I'd have a hard time finding a more visually striking shooter esp on the wii. If I'm missing out, I wanna know

[Obiwanshinobi]

Oh, I agree that S&P2 doesn't have any direct competition at what it does in this day and age; more polished visuals would take resources Treasure simply didn't have. Neither did they seem to have any hopes for S&P3; hence it's like many games in one.
You might wanna play Contra: Shattered Soldier, though. Just saying. Or, while we're at "2.5D", ChainDive and The Red Star (co-op!)

[near_miss]

@ Obi - Cool. I did dig a lot of the contra games (Alien Wars is my fav) - will have to track those down. I'm hoping they'll do SnP3 for 3DS. Kid Icarus was on the right track (til they went off the rails and added broken platforming).

[MathU]

Uprising was not "on the right track". Why would you want to ruin another Sin and Punishment with the same horrible controls that ruined Uprising? Kid Icarus: Uprising should have been a Wii game, plain and simple.

[R79]

What's the deal with Ocean Commander, is that any good? No PAL release I take it?
MUSHA on VC, that sounds pretty sweet, can you still download that? Haven't had a modern Nintendo unit set up for so long now...

[near_miss]

MathU - I said it's possible, not that they should use every broken control scheme from Uprising. Uprising had great production values, most immersive use of 3D I've seen on the system, and while the controls admittedly did suck - was fun to play before your hands cramped up.

This is old, but this is what put the thought into my head. If it were up to me, I'd want it on ps3.

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2012/1 ... _exclusive

[Pretas]

http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=776045

Someone may want to begin archiving the leaderboard scores of Wii and DS games. Nintendo is discontinuing online services for those systems on May 20th, likely as a cost-cutting measure and to force the stragglers to buy their new hardware and games.

Note that the Wii and DSi shops will be unaffected by this.

[MathU]

Aww damn, I guess I better stop procrastinating and beat Seahawk's Gradius Rebirth score already.


Goddamnit, they're shutting it down for Planet Puzzle League too. Will this affect friend code play as well?

[Pretas]

All online connectivity for Wii/DS games is being shuttered, with or without friend codes. You'll still be able to buy DLC for the few games that have it, though.

One of the biggest casualties of this I haven't seen mentioned yet is Advance Wars: Days of Ruin's online play. Especially after the Japanese release was recently de-canceled (it made it to Japan as a downloadable Club Nintendo reward).

[Hibachi]

You could explore Gamecube games too if you feel like it.

Chaos Field got a release in the US. I can't vouch for it's quality as haven't played it but if your Wii is hacked (Easy) you could run it.

Likewise Shikigami 2 also got released as well as Ikaruga if that's your bag.

[MathU]

One of the biggest casualties of this I haven't seen mentioned yet is Advance Wars: Days of Ruin's online play. Especially after the Japanese release was recently de-canceled (it made it to Japan as a downloadable Club Nintendo reward).

That's actually one of the other things that popped in my mind as well. I can't believe they're doing this shit. I was even planning to get Days of Ruin one of these days as well, online multiplayer in the most balanced game being one of the major allures to me.

[Pretas]

Nintendo has never really understood how online infrastructures are supposed to work, or how online communities should be run. One of the many reasons why they will inevitably either go third-party like Sega, get absorbed into another corporation, or abandon video games for an entirely different industry (i.e. home health appliances) within the next ten years.

This will hit the Smash Bros. Brawl, Conduit 2, Mario Kart Wii and Goldeneye (2010) communities particularly hard...these games have large playerbases that are still quite active online.

[MathU]

Nintendo is never going third party. Get real.

[Pretas]

"Of course, that's just an opinion."

I didn't say it was the only possibility for their future. I do think that if they remain independent while going third-party, it's more likely that they will develop for smartphones and tablets exclusively (as investors have been calling for them to do), rather than grovel before Sony or Microsoft.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I don't trust any console game to stay online forever. Online console gaming has been sigh-worthy at least since MGS3 online trauma.