Colourful Shmups like Trouble Witches, Keio Flyin, Mushiheme

[cj iwakura]

Hmm, couldn't get into Radirgy. But I've seen it pretty cheap on the gamecube, so maybe I'll give it another shot sometime.

May as well get the 'Ultimate Shooting Collection' for Wii, it has Radirgy, Chaos Field, and Karous. Mostly worth it just for Radirgy.

[Danny]

There is a game Studio Seista(?) made called Air Rade Air which is my personal fave of their games. It an indie Japanese PC game so it might be tough to find now but if you liked trouble witches you will love this game and it's crazy meele chaining scoring mechanics.

[Tyjet]

I think the Doujin PC game, Bike Banditz is worth mentioning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AAU7RBnDNg

[BulletMagnet]

BTW, I've just noticed Mamoru-kun for the 360. May I ask what people think of that game? My local store is selling the special edition version of it. Does that come with the soundtrack?

Mamoru-kun plays more like Pocky and Rocky than a "standard" shmup, since you have to move your character forward manually to progress (and are on a timer throughout), but it certainly fits the "cute and colorful" criteria you're looking for. It also got a PS3 port which had some extra stuff, and rumor has it that it's being localized, but nothing too concrete on that yet.

I THINK the 360 LE came with an artbook and superplay DVD, not sure if a soundtrack was included. There was an LE for the PS3 version as well, but I'm not sure what that came with.