Sky Shark (NES) is nice!
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CecilMcW00t
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Sky Shark (NES) is nice!
This shooter is hard as nails and fast-paced! It really surprised me! Great music too. What are some other good NES/Famicom shmups? I have Gyruss as well. Wanted to know about some other ones to watch for. One day when I win the lottery I'll try to buy Recca. X_x
"I've always wanted a thing called Tuna Sasimi!"
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SheSaidDutch
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Bloodreign
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You can't go wrong with Silkworm. Also, they may be more on the primitive side, but Hudson Soft's Star Force and Star Soldier are solid verts and run at a pretty fast pace like Sky SHark.
Last edited by Xexyz on Tue Dec 06, 2005 4:25 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Zweihander
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CecilMcW00t
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Yeah I believe Sky Shark is a port of Flying Shark. I went to www.arcade-history.com and checked it ot and they seem to be similar. But maybe someone who knows more about the Toaplan shmups could shed some light. Too bad the Toaplan fan site is still down. 
And thanks a ton for the suggestions I will definitely check out those games. But question, Life Force is Salamander right? And for Gradius I and II, if I have the Saturn Gradius collection should I still bother with the NES ones? Part of me wants to get them anyway as Konami NES ports have a certain charm to them.
And thanks a ton for the suggestions I will definitely check out those games. But question, Life Force is Salamander right? And for Gradius I and II, if I have the Saturn Gradius collection should I still bother with the NES ones? Part of me wants to get them anyway as Konami NES ports have a certain charm to them.
"I've always wanted a thing called Tuna Sasimi!"
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SheSaidDutch
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Life Force is indeed Salamander apart from Life Force has afew enemy changes and the power-up feature of Life Force is like Gradius.CecilMcW00t wrote:And thanks a ton for the suggestions I will definitely check out those games. But question, Life Force is Salamander right? And for Gradius I and II, if I have the Saturn Gradius collection should I still bother with the NES ones? Part of me wants to get them anyway as Konami NES ports have a certain charm to them.
(I'm not that well aqquinted with the Salamander/Life Force Series so I may have missed something etc)
My Trying Not To
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incognoscente
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The FC Salamander and Gradius II are "arranged" versions with many modifications to the stages and even including entirely new stages:CecilMcW00t wrote:And thanks a ton for the suggestions I will definitely check out those games. But question, Life Force is Salamander right? And for Gradius I and II, if I have the Saturn Gradius collection should I still bother with the NES ones? Part of me wants to get them anyway as Konami NES ports have a certain charm to them.
FC Salamander stage 1 is based on AC stage 1
FC Salamander stage 2 is based on AC stage 4 with stage 2's boss
FC Salamander stage 3 is based on AC stage 3
FC Salamander stage 4 is original
FC Salamander stage 5 is original
FC Salamander stage 6 is based on AC stage 6
FC Gradius II stage 1 is based on AC stage 1 with some Salamander stage 3 thrown in
FC Gradius II stage 2 is based on AC stage 2 with an original boss
FC Gradius II stage 3 is AC stages 4 and 3 combined; the boss is Crystal Core
I don't remember how the rest of the FC Gradius II stages map to the arcade stages.
Oh man NES Sky Shark is great! I never noticed it as a kid but some of my favorite games have the awesome design idea of making the sprites poorly animated/colored but keeping the backgrounds very detailed (for an NES game of its year) for smoother and better looking overall gameplay. That game moves FAST! Faster than Zanac if you don't count the scrolling speed.
I got this game as a birthday present as a small kid, couldn't even remotely pass level five for years.
Also CecilMcW00T you should check out S.C.A.T. (Special Cyber Attack Team). That's another game that moves fast as hell in the later levels. It's great horizontal shmup. You can play as either Arnold or Sigourney (heh) and you get a couple of different weapons reminiscent of the Contra games (most of the sound effects are of the Contra library also, as are some of the tiles, it's a VERY slick game).
The graphics seem unrefined like an older title at first but then you see how fast it moves in later levels and it becomes understandable. Catchy soundtrack. Your guy on a jetpack can face either way or strafe like Sidearms plus you have these rotating options you can control the movement of. Very fun.
I don't know about getting it in a box and everything, but if you just want the cartridge you could probably still get it for around 5 USD.
What is Flying Shark? I should know this since I love Taito/Toaplan so much but honestly, I hear some people refer to it as simply the Europe version of Sky Shark, and others refer to it as if it's a completely different game (are they confusing it with Fire Shark?). I can say that the NES Sky Shark is a port of an arcade game called Sky Shark in the US.
D'oh, thanks for clearing that up incongnoscente.
Interesting music on the NES port. The first level/level five/etc. music is the intro music from the arcade game (when you take off for the first time) expanded into a full song.
NES Life Force gives you the Gradius style power-up bar but the weapons have the properties of Salamander (no checkpoints, the laser's length varies depending on how long you hold down the button, enemies have low vitality in exchange for more things on screen at once, etc.). Salamander/Life Force arcade just lets you grab power-ups directly instead of building up a bar.
There's this shooter on the NES called Thexder that is crazy good. You play as a small fast moving spaceship that can transform into a larger giant robot (see? already it's amazing in theory). You can run around in any direction and jump all over the place. The levels have a ton of walls you can blast through/run on and obstacles. It's very fun.
Very primitive graphics though to allow for the amount of freedom you have, so you might want to try before you buy. I really like it though.
ABSOLUTELY get S.C.A.T. if you don't have it yet.
Guardian Legend is also an outstanding game though you probably already have it. It's an outstanding, massive game. It's The Legend of Zelda (with a bigger game world!) only in a sci-fi setting and the dungeons are shmup levels. You get a wide array of weapons and items that can be used the same way both in the shmup levels and as you're walking around. So you can attatch a Marx Matrix like laser blast thing onto the front of your ship that functions like a lightsaber when you're a person. It's badass and fast as hell because it was brought to us by Compile.
Aaaah Compile. "Game desinded by Compile."
1943: The Battle of Midway is an excellent port all around.
Burai Fighter is quite fun, another Forgotten Worlds/Sidearms type shmup that again, is pretty common. Your guy can shoot in any direction in this one and there's a nice variety of weapons.
I got this game as a birthday present as a small kid, couldn't even remotely pass level five for years.
Also CecilMcW00T you should check out S.C.A.T. (Special Cyber Attack Team). That's another game that moves fast as hell in the later levels. It's great horizontal shmup. You can play as either Arnold or Sigourney (heh) and you get a couple of different weapons reminiscent of the Contra games (most of the sound effects are of the Contra library also, as are some of the tiles, it's a VERY slick game).
The graphics seem unrefined like an older title at first but then you see how fast it moves in later levels and it becomes understandable. Catchy soundtrack. Your guy on a jetpack can face either way or strafe like Sidearms plus you have these rotating options you can control the movement of. Very fun.
I don't know about getting it in a box and everything, but if you just want the cartridge you could probably still get it for around 5 USD.
What is Flying Shark? I should know this since I love Taito/Toaplan so much but honestly, I hear some people refer to it as simply the Europe version of Sky Shark, and others refer to it as if it's a completely different game (are they confusing it with Fire Shark?). I can say that the NES Sky Shark is a port of an arcade game called Sky Shark in the US.
D'oh, thanks for clearing that up incongnoscente.
Interesting music on the NES port. The first level/level five/etc. music is the intro music from the arcade game (when you take off for the first time) expanded into a full song.
NES Life Force gives you the Gradius style power-up bar but the weapons have the properties of Salamander (no checkpoints, the laser's length varies depending on how long you hold down the button, enemies have low vitality in exchange for more things on screen at once, etc.). Salamander/Life Force arcade just lets you grab power-ups directly instead of building up a bar.
There's this shooter on the NES called Thexder that is crazy good. You play as a small fast moving spaceship that can transform into a larger giant robot (see? already it's amazing in theory). You can run around in any direction and jump all over the place. The levels have a ton of walls you can blast through/run on and obstacles. It's very fun.
Very primitive graphics though to allow for the amount of freedom you have, so you might want to try before you buy. I really like it though.
ABSOLUTELY get S.C.A.T. if you don't have it yet.
Guardian Legend is also an outstanding game though you probably already have it. It's an outstanding, massive game. It's The Legend of Zelda (with a bigger game world!) only in a sci-fi setting and the dungeons are shmup levels. You get a wide array of weapons and items that can be used the same way both in the shmup levels and as you're walking around. So you can attatch a Marx Matrix like laser blast thing onto the front of your ship that functions like a lightsaber when you're a person. It's badass and fast as hell because it was brought to us by Compile.
Aaaah Compile. "Game desinded by Compile."
1943: The Battle of Midway is an excellent port all around.
Burai Fighter is quite fun, another Forgotten Worlds/Sidearms type shmup that again, is pretty common. Your guy can shoot in any direction in this one and there's a nice variety of weapons.
NES Shooters...
I love Sky Shark!
I remember my friend & I spent weekend’s trying to beat this, but alas the bullet storm was always proven overwhelming back then!
The Graphics & the Bomb effect were very good for the 16 colour NES standards.
This is one of the better shooters, along side:
Cobra Command (This is a very underrated horizontal / adventure shooter. One of the few of its kind with Adventure / RPG elements, multiple paths, non linear gameplay & lot’s of weapons to choose from)
Crisis Force (A technical marvel on the NES imo)
Gradius
Gradius II
Gunnac (The Hyper intergalactic Rabit was so funny! )
Life Force (This got me into shooters in the 1st place back in 1990!)
Parodius
S.C.A.T. - Special Cybernetic Attack Team (Team Natsume at their best!)
I remember my friend & I spent weekend’s trying to beat this, but alas the bullet storm was always proven overwhelming back then!
The Graphics & the Bomb effect were very good for the 16 colour NES standards.
This is one of the better shooters, along side:
Cobra Command (This is a very underrated horizontal / adventure shooter. One of the few of its kind with Adventure / RPG elements, multiple paths, non linear gameplay & lot’s of weapons to choose from)
Crisis Force (A technical marvel on the NES imo)
Gradius
Gradius II
Gunnac (The Hyper intergalactic Rabit was so funny!
)Life Force (This got me into shooters in the 1st place back in 1990!)
Parodius
S.C.A.T. - Special Cybernetic Attack Team (Team Natsume at their best!)
Last edited by ST Dragon on Tue Dec 06, 2005 10:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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"In the first battle against the Guardian's weapons, created with Vasteel Technology, humanity suffered a crushing defeat."
Thunder Force V
Seconded. Fun can be had w/ Abadox (if your masochistic), but Hector 87 is the absolute hardest NES/Fami shmup ever IMO; unless you're a true collector & must have everything, steer very clear. It sucks - hard.Andi wrote:There have been recommendations for Abadox and Starship Hector on this thread. While, it's ery true that these games are hard as nails, they aren't very fair.
Gun-Nac is fun (but easy). Zanac is also great.
Another absolutely horrible game I forgot to mention is The Adventures of Dino Riki. If you're interested in playing a caveman based shooter, by all means go ahead, but don't pay too much for it.FRO wrote:Seconded. Fun can be had w/ Abadox (if your masochistic), but Hector 87 is the absolute hardest NES/Fami shmup ever IMO; unless you're a true collector & must have everything, steer very clear. It sucks - hard.Andi wrote:There have been recommendations for Abadox and Starship Hector on this thread. While, it's ery true that these games are hard as nails, they aren't very fair.
Gun-Nac is fun (but easy). Zanac is also great.