Vertically moving & shooting Arcade STGs per year from 82-03

[heisenbergman]

Thanks for the correction re: Hishouzame... in which case, I have no vertical shmup to play from 1991 now, lol.

EDIT: Maybe Lethal Thunder by Irem.

[Imhotep]

1991 had Gun Frontier, one of the pinnacles of the genre, imo.

[Despatche]

for 1991, i'd rather go with acrobat mission or aso ii. cosmo gang the video's also kinda fun but it's not exactly "definitive".

edit: never mind, they're both 1991... gun frontier is like rayforce

[Hagane]

1988: Image Fight
1989: Omega Fighter
1990: Raiden
1992: Aero Fighters
1993: Mahou Daisakusen
1994: Gunbird
1995: Strikers 1945
1996: Battle Garegga
1997: Raiden Fighters 2
1998: Armed Police Batrider
1999: Giga Wing
2000: Dragon Blaze
2001: Gigawing 2
2003: Ketsui
2004: Gigawing Generations
2005: Espgaluda II
2006: Mushihimesama Futari 1.5
2007: Raiden IV

Had a hard time with the list, since most of my favorites were from 1994~2001, but from 2002 and onwards there's very little of interest to me in arcades. The titles after Ketsui I picked mostly to put something in there than anything else.

[Despatche]

unfortunately, he asked for vertical. otherwise 1991 would be easy.

[Hagane]

Ah, forgot about that. I guess I have to edit the list then.

[Aleksei]

Adding two important titles.

94' Darius Gaiden
11' Darius Burst Another Chronicle EX

[trap15]

Darius is not vertical.

[AntiFritz]

Darius is not vertical.

I'm sure playing 3 screen vertical darius would be quite the challenge though.

[monouchi]

2003: Ketsui - Pinnacle of the genre

This ^

Ketsui is legendary.

[heisenbergman]

So I changed the title. I'm starting from 1982 (release of Xevious, which was maybe the first of the earliest influential vertical scrolling shooters) and will cap it at 2003. So far I've got this:

82 - Xevious
83 - Mega Zone
84 - 1942
85 - Terra Cresta
86 - Scramble Formation [Tokio]
87 - Twin Cobra
88 - Image Fight
89 - Fire Shark
90 - Raiden
91 - Lethal Thunder
92 - Varth: Operation Thunderstorm
93 - Batsugun
94 - Rayforce
95 - Donpachi
96 - Battle Garegga
97 - Strikers 1945 II
98 - Armed Police Batrider
99 - Giga Wing
00 - Mars Matrix
01 - Ikaruga
02 - DoDonPachi Dai-Ou-Jou
03 - Ketsui

Kindly opine regarding this lineup. Years that I'm especially not sure about: 83, 86, 91

[Despatche]

Are "gallery" verticals okay? Galaga and such.

1983: Mega Zone's fun; I actually like it better than Xevious sometimes. But this year also had stuff like Star Jacker, and even Juno First if that counts (it's close enough for me). If free-range borderliners are ok, there's always MAD PLANETS, man!
1984: I actually like 1942, but I'm certainly not about to put it over stuff like Gaplus and Star Force, and even Vulgus.
1985: Terra Cresta is a great pick, though there's also Exed Exes, Gun.Smoke, Return of the Invaders, TwinBee, ASO, and Tiger-Heli. There's also borderliners like T.A.N.K. and Senjou no Ookami.
1986: Ooh, good call on Tokio. However, 1986 also has ARGUS, Dangar (a sequel of sorts to Terra Cresta at that), and the strangely excellent Gardia. It also has a ton of borderliners like Ikari and Dogosoken, Sei Senshi Amateless, and Argus's little brother Valtric.

I'll stop here, though I would recommend against Lethal Thunder for 1991. Again, it's alright, but I'm not sure it can compare to stuff like ASO II, Detana!! TwinBee, Cosmo Gang the Video (Galaga sequel), and Acrobat Mission. I'd probably pick Vimana over it, too.

edit: Ketsui bothers me simply because it was released on January 1; I think the program date mentions late December. I'd rather put down Espgaluda or something for 2003.

[heisenbergman]

^ Wow thanks! re: "gallery" verticals and fixed shooters, I made a concious decision to leave them out as well and just focus specifically on vertically scrolling shooters for now, which is why I started with Xevious

For 1983, I actually consulted rob's 1978-1983 arcade shooter countdown, which is why I ended up picking Mega Zone Juno First and Mad Planets are actually #1 and #2 on his list, but don't seem to qualify strictly as vertically-scrolling shooters, so I'm taking a pass on them for now. Star Jacker is not even on his list

For 1984, I picked 1942 because I played the crap out of that when I was a kid and I thought it would be a nice injection of nostalgia while I'm doing this. I must admit, Star Force and Vulgus do look very interesting though.

This is why I wish that there was a relatively comprehensive list of arcade shmups I could use as a reference to know about these games... unfortunately, it looks like there is none.

I'm half-tempted to collate the bits and pieces I see from various sources into a giant laundry list of shmups.

[BIL]

At least try out Gun.Smoke (1985), just to experience the terror of being hunted down by rabid, merciless popcorn. And its superb terrain-bound strafing action. For the love of god don't be like this guy and miss that there's three buttons!

[heisenbergman]

^ You know what, I started playing Xevious and had played it several times before realizing that the B button could be used to bomb ground units/buildings

/derp

I guess I just assumed that for a game which came out in 1982, it would just feature primitive controls, when in fact, Xevious struck me as incredibly mature for its time.

[Despatche]

I think Juno First would be fine. It looks weird at first glance, but it's really the same perspective as things like Raystorm.

[BrianC]

Juno First has an odd perspective, but it's strictly vertical. One thing that is different is that it isn't automatically scrolling and scrolls downward, as well as upward.

[nimitz]

Based on the quality of the interaction for an intermediate to advanced player (not popularity), with a fairly strict definition of "shmup". This list is not "perfect" but what you could consider a very informed opinion having played the vast majority (~99%) of shmups made between these years. I'm limiting this list to arcade for simplicity's sake and since the majority of worthwhile shmups happen to be for that platform.

Code: Select all

1982: Radical Radial (or Millipede, not sure)
1983: Mad Planets
1984: Star Force
1985: Exed Exes 
1986: Slap Fight
1987: Flying Shark (aka Sky Shark)
1988: Truxton (Tatsujin) (I could be inclined to say Image Fight for advanced players)
1989: Omega Fighter (Dangerous Seed as a close second)
1990: Raiden
1991: Gun Frontier (as long as you don't just checkpoint milk)
1992: Truxton II (Tatsujin-Oh)
1993: Batsugun
1994: Raiden DX (Rayforce close second)
1995: Strikers 1945 (or maybe Donpachi)
1996: Battle Garegga
1997: Dodonpachi
1998: The best year in the history of shmupping and gaming, too many great games
1999: Battle Bakraid
2000: Dragon Blaze (Mars matrix is too easy)
2001: Ikaruga
2002: Dodonpachi Dai-Ou-Jou
2003: Ketsui

If anyone disagrees with any of the picks i'm willing to defend them so just post a short paragraph about what makes you think another game is better for the said year.

Also keep in mind historical significance is not taken into account here, just the intrinsic quality of the interaction.

[heisenbergman]

^ Thanks!

Millipede looks more like a fixed shooter and not quite in the same vein as the other titles in the list that I hope to try out. Mad Planets seems like a multi-directional shooter. Also not quite what I'm looking for.

Aside from that, all the others look incredibly solid. I'm tempted to choose two titles per year now.

I added this to the OP

note: VERTICAL - That means scrolling vertically upward + facing/shooting upward + not a fixed shooter + not a gallery shooter + not a multidirectional shooter (think of Xevious as the general template)

At this point, some might think that I'm being very picky or strict with my criteria, but I feel like I have a clear idea of what subset of shmups I want to explore in-depth for now and some games just don't fit that mold.

[nimitz]

Mad planets is not a typical multi-directional shooter, it has separate input for rotation (like Zero gunner) and you can totally play the game facing up only. It isn't a "gallery" type shooter either.

Millipede is a weird one, analog input, enemies coming in waves (not a gallery shooter), focus on aiming as much as dodging. A very fun game when you get used to it though.


As for scrolling vertically, the scrolling of the background can be (and often is) cosmetic only, meaning it is unfortunately no basis for classification.

That being said, we can differentiate between "gallery" shooters (space invaders, galaxian, galaga) where many enemies appear at once and the goal is to clear to screen and "continuous enemy spawning" shooters which became the norm around 1985 or so. That is probably the distinction you're trying to make, the latter tend to focus a lot more on dodging whereas "gallery" shooters tend to focus on aiming as much (if not more) than on dodging, I can understand the motivation for separating those two types.

[heisenbergman]

As for scrolling vertically, the scrolling of the background can be (and often is) cosmetic only, meaning it is unfortunately no basis for classification.

Thanks. Good point. Sometimes it has a purpose wherein it scrolls and there are fixed targets as you continue to scroll upward, but oftentimes there is indeed none.

That being said, we can differentiate between "gallery" shooters (space invaders, galaxian, galaga) where many enemies appear at once and the goal is to clear to screen and "continuous enemy spawning" shooters which became the norm around 1985 or so. That is probably the distinction you're trying to make, the latter tend to focus a lot more on dodging whereas "gallery" shooters tend to focus on aiming as much (if not more) than on dodging, I can understand the motivation for separating those two types.

That is indeed the distinction I'm trying to make I was actually looking at the shmupmame list you posted on the other thread and I'm tempted to sift through everything there to find all of the mame shmups that fit this subcategory of shmups that I'm trying to explore.

Mad Planets continues to sound like an odd shmup I'll get to that eventually, but probably not for now. Same with Millipede.

[heisenbergman]

lol I just discovered the table tag.

R=[tentative list] One [or Two] Vertical Shooting Arcade shmups a YearR=Year & 1st Choice & 2nd Choice R=1982 & Xevious & Radical Radial R=1983 & Mega Zone & R=1984 & 1942 & Star Force R=1985 & Terra Cresta & Exed Exes R=1986 & Scramble Formation [Tokio] & Slap Fight R=1987 & Twin Cobra & Flying/Sky Shark R=1988 & Image Fight & Truxton [Tatsujin] R=1989 & Fire Shark & Omega Fighter R=1990 & Raiden & R=1991 & Lethal Thunder & Gun Frontier R=1992 & Dogyuun & Truxton II [Tatsujin-Oh] R=1993 & Batsugun & R=1994 & Rayforce & Raiden DX R=1995 & Donpachi & Strikers 1945 R=1996 & Battle Garegga & R=1997 & Strikers 1945 II & Dodonpachi R=1998 & Armed Police Batrider & R=1999 & Giga Wing & Battle Bakraid R=2000 & Mars Matrix & Dragon Blaze R=2001 & Ikaruga & R=2002 & DoDonPachi Dai-Ou-Jou & R=2003 & Ketsui & Espgaluda

[ebarrett]

Good job being convinced by some grumpy old farts that there's nothing worthwhile after 2003.

[Cagar]

Good job being convinced by some grumpy old farts that there's nothing worthwhile after 2003.

Good job posting another post full of whining and trying to make others look like fools instead of something constructive or maybe your own opinion on the matter. I'm sick of your school-bully attitude towards everything and everyone. You should try to correct those people who are wrong sometimes, instead of just saying "You are wrong fucking idiot, commit suicide". (like you have literally said to me) That's just pointless and childish

[heisenbergman]

Lol, he isn't even right on why the list is capped at 2003

[mice]

'85 is Gun.Smoke.
Don't let that Exed Exes guy tell you differently.

[ebarrett]

Post-2003 is strongly dominated by post-Ketsui CAVE, not my fault that the competition went out of business and made the average farmsperson uncomfortable in multiple ways.

[KAI]

Have you ever played Radirgy?

[Cagar]

2003: Ketsui - Pinnacle of the genre

This ^

Ketsui is legendary.

Agreed.
I feel like ketsui is the most polished arcade shmup of all time.

[KAI]

Except it has 2 loops.