....but is it a shmup? - Rail Shooters

[Kollision]

Is Bioship Paladin a shmup?

that's not a tricky question
of course it is

The main way to attack is to summon a crosshair and rail shoot everything, but you move your ship like in any other shmup.

and you also shoot
great marriage between traditional hori and the awesome Missile Command

[Captain]

But the shots do (almost) nothing.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Some of the S&P2 bossfights (not just the prologue's last boss) allow for free movement on a cylindrical surface. Pretty sure it's spherical even during some of the endgame's encounters. Neither forced scrolling, then, nor a fixed screen. The gameplay is split in two areas - superficial one (where melee attacks work) and volumetric, where only projectiles can reach.
Then there's Panzer Dragoon where I don't recall controlling movement at all, or having any contact weapons handy.
I'd say S&P2 is more Xevious-like than Panzer Dragoon-like, yet no-one seems to call in question whether S&P2 and PD are the same genre.

[ZaKa-tokyobassist]

Westerners and their semantics

Stuff like Star Fox and Sin & Punishment require a certain level of finesse and skill to complete much like a shmup so it's depends on the rail shooter. Light gun games don't count.

[null1024]

Then there's Panzer Dragoon where I don't recall controlling movement at all, or having any contact weapons handy.
I'd say S&P2 is more Xevious-like than Panzer Dragoon-like, yet no-one seems to call in question whether S&P2 and PD are the same genre.

You do control your dragon's X/Y position in PD when facing forward, allowing you to dodge incoming shots/scenery. When you face towards the side or back, the game shifts to being more like Rez, where you no longer have control of movement and have to shoot everything down to not get hit [or face forward to dodge in the case of incoming scenery].