genre defining games?

[Enhasa]

I've thought about this topic before so I'm going to ramble a bit, sorry!

CIT pretty much has it perfect when it comes to "genre defining shmups" like the thread says (although I'd put Gradius in there, maybe in place of Galaga). But like some other people have said, genre-defining != best rated != most popular != would pull in the most cash.

If you care about the last one, especially if you are located in a place like Las Vegas, you have to consider what someone outside this forum would be interested in playing. (This forum is also the only English language site anywhere where anyone plays anything other than Cave or Touhou, so keep this in mind when it comes to what people like.) That means you should shy away from something that people wouldn't even be able to pronounce like DDP DFK, Mushi Futari, etc with assloads of intimidating bullets. Luckily, there is Death Smiles, with all the positives of a Cave selection, without the negatives.

Like others said, you have to take other things into consideration like: your games have to complement each other, you should pay attention to if the games already have console ports, and look at the PCB price obviously.


To be honest, shmups are really a poor genre to make money off of in a US arcade especially. Most people are uninterested or intimidated, and the few that aren't can typically get a lot of play out of few credits. Most games have ports, you don't need special arcade-specific hardware, and there's no multiplayer draw. Anyway, I'd start out with Death Smiles + some older aircraft-based game and see how that goes. If you need another Cave game, try Espgaluda. The second game could be whatever but good choices are a Strikers game (try 1945 III), Raiden (try Fighters Jet or maybe DX), 19xx, or Under Defeat.

Actually, if you already have Naomi setups for other games, Under Defeat is a good choice because it looks modern with its graphics. 19xx is CPS2, and US arcade players are drawn to Capcom which is always a plus (witness the relative success of Puzzle Fighter vs say Magical Drop 3). Giga Wing and Mars Matrix are fabulous games but don't look very appealing to people in my experience.

[PROMETHEUS]

That means you should shy away from something that people wouldn't even be able to pronounce like DDP DFK, Mushi Futari, etc with assloads of intimidating bullets. Luckily, there is Death Smiles, with all the positives of a Cave selection, without the negatives.

I don't think it really matters at all if people can pronounce the name of the games (and they can anyway), and there's not much reason for them to be intimidated by DFK (thx to autobomb) or Futari (Original is clearly good for newbies). Something like Under Defeat might work... but even Zero Gunner 2 didn't in Toulouse. People need to be impressed, and Cave's graphics and patterns impress more.