Shmups Played in 2025 Tier List

[M.Knight]

In general, I'm not a fan of big end-of-game bonuses in shmups and this is why, I remember in my first clear of the game I was actually about to get a no-miss, but I died a couple of frames before the final boss died and it cost me about 3 MILLION points
I still can't imagine having to do that final boss with only 1 bomb (or even 0!) like the high-level replays do, to maximise the 200K per bomb end bonus (another reason why I wasn't too enthused about pushing the game any further).
And that'd be 10x worse if you were using bomb-style lol

Yup I remember that run, such an intensely frustrating death right in front of the finish line At least the bomb cap and the relatively paltry "maximum bonus" equivalent means you can spend bombs earlier in the run (and players do on that stage 3 respawning turret section) but having to save them all for the worst boss is still daunting.

Also yeah I remember seeing Qlex's fights against boss 4 with the missile subweapon and it seemed so much harder than with Roll Perhaps it makes sense that a subweapon with higher scoring potential is more challenging to survive with, but it's already tricky enough as it is in stages, and bosses are not really where Dangun's scoring and mechanics shine the most.

[Cakestial]

I didn't play many shumps this year, but here is my list.

S-Tier
Gradius Arcade/PC Engine. I really did enjoy playing this one quite a lot, ended up being my most played. I can't believe this game came out in 1985. I also like how the pc engine version added many bonus stages, which have fun score play. Achieved 2-ALL

A-Tier
Gunvein PC. Very solid game, just the score play is not my favorite. A lot of boss milks, and many runs end at stage 3 boss. Still a great game to play for survival. Achieved Intense 1cc Top 5 score at the time.
Maiden & Spell PC. Super fun game to play with friends. Anyone I have played this with very much liked it. I still need to check out the campaign. Achieved fun times

B-Tier
Gradius II Arcade. Fun game but stage 3 is a bit of a wall in terms of consistency. The music is great, and I enjoy the boss rush a lot. I have not cleared this yet, and it will be a goal for 2026.
Mushihimesama PC. Was my first Cave 1cc, and I enjoy it quite a bit. I plan to come back at some point and try clearing maniac mode.

C-Tier
Giga Wing Arcade. I played this a lot on fightcade, their is a guy their that loves this game, and will play it with you anytime. Stages 1-4 felt like loading zones till stage 5, but still a fun mechanic.
Gradius IV PS2. The bubbles are filtering me haaaaard, but the music and weapon loadouts are fantastic. Very challenging game.
Dodonpachi Arcade. Another really tough game, still learning a route for this.

D-Tier
Salamander Arcade. Overall not a fan of salamander. The music is good, but the stages aren't that fun. The bosses are fun, but then there is the one that sends blue balls after that is really tough without the safe spot.
The whole of stage 4 is basically a safe spot. The game needed more time in the oven. Achieved 1-ALL No miss (Screw that escape sequence)
Gradius III Arcade. I have only been playing the beginner course, but this game is pretty slow. I do plan to try the full game out once I get the beginner course down.

F-Tier
Silver Surfer NES. Very memo heavy game, with a huge hit box. Played this a tournament where no autofire was allowed, so that might hurt my rating of this game.

[marus]

Merry Christmas! I didn't play a ton of games this year either tbh, but making a list sounds like fun. I'm only including games I put a minimal amount of effort in. I'll link to a replay for any games I recorded any footage of me playing.

S Tier

• Espgaluda II - This is pretty much my favorite game of all time, or right up there! The scoring offers so much in terms of interesting routing, and I love the decision making you have to do to account for how many resources you have at any given moment. It's also a really cool setting, and comes from a time when CAVE was at their peak in terms of art design and spritework. My only complaint is the variability in slowdown gets annoying - it's about as CAVE as it gets in that regard.

A Tier

• Blue Revolver Double Action - I never actually expected this update to come out, but it was worth the wait! We got tons of new modes and options, a completely reworked stage 5, plus an (arguably) more balanced scoring system, all for the price of free! I really like the changes to Parallel mode - the fact that you don't rebuild extends on the TLB now really adds a lot of missing tension back into the fight. This is a game I need to come back to down the line, as my score can still be pushed up quite a fair amount.
• Like Dreamer (Speedrun mode) - I got coaxed into playing this game for Summer Relay, but I'm glad I did! It's one I'd been meaning to try out for a while. To be honest I wasn't super feeling the game at first. I feel like the main arcade mode is a bit too drawn out, with lots of sections of dead space. But I got hooked once I started grinding speedrun mode! It's basically nonstop action since enemies are constantly spawning the faster you clear waves, and it's a unique take on a shmup "scoring" system. I'm happy with the time I got for Expert mode, but I still need to come back and work more on the harder difficulties.

B Tier

• Touhou Fantastic Danmaku Festival Part III - This is another game I never expected to actually come out, but which I'd eagerly been waiting for once it got announced! FDF2 is probably my favorite Touhou game. This one is fun too, but it's a bit of a mixed bag. The production quality blows any other Touhou game out of the water. The music and spritework are absolutely top notch, and the levels are all bursting with personality. The game balance on the other hand is pretty off - between all the resources and the system mechanics the game gives you, there's just too many safety nets for the player to fall back on, which makes the difficulty an absolute joke. A new Ultra difficulty was added in a later patch, but even that still doesn't fully account for how overpowered the player character is. Thankfully some tension comes back when you play for score, since you're encouraged to suicide all your lives away for points, meaning you now have something to do with all those resources the game gives you. But even then the scoring gets degenerate with how overpowering the bullet cancels are compared to grazing and good survival. Overall I still have fun booting this game up, but I don't think it has enough depth to justify putting it in A tier for me.

C Tier

• Touhou Scarlet Diabolique Fantastica (aka Touhou FDF 1 EXA Label) - The EXA release for this game makes some... interesting changes to the scoring system. The fact that grazing can generate i-frames in certain scenarios kind of defeats the whole risk-reward behind a grazing system (though to be fair, some of the grazing tricks are pretty satisfying to pull of). The base patterns also lack some of the polish of StarX's later games, although they're still fun to dodge overall. This one might grow on me as I play it more, but it doesn't exactly make me want to go out and buy an EXA.

D Tier

• Earthion - This is one of those games where I had fun with it when it first came out, but which I haven't felt any desire to go back to since. To be fair, if I played this on the Genesis back in the day it would have blown my mind. It's an incredible looking game which pushes the hardware to its limits, and the music really sticks with you too. Unfortunately the gameplay just doesn't stick the landing for me. There's a lot of interesting weapons and the level design is actually pretty solid, but the shield system more or less nullifies any danger the enemies provide. I think I got hit like 200 times on my first 1cc lol. Calling it a 2D Cygni is perhaps being too critical, but I just really don't think this kind of design works well in shmups.

Bonus:
Here's some short thoughts on other games I tried this year, but which I haven't played enough to feel comfortable ranking:

• Salamander III - It's a pretty cool throwback to the earlier Salamander games, but it feels a bit slapped together compared to Konami's hits. I like that you can choose to start the game in later loops. I feel like I'd rather put serious effort in the "real" Salamander and Gradius games first though before spending too much time on this one.
• Birdcage - I played the demo and thought the game had some neat ideas. The sword mechanic is cool, but I wasn't a huge fan of the "puzzle" sections of the stages, and the scoring seems like a complete afterthought. I still bought the game but I've been putting off giving it a real go due to other games.
• Locked Together - This was a cute little Touhou fangame I spent a couple days with. Graphically it's done in the style of the PC-98 games, but it has some scoring mechanics inspired by later Windows Touhou games. If you don't like Touhou then this won't change your mind, but I had fun trying to figure out some basic grazing and scoring patterns. The dev tells me there's some secret tech that might allow for a counterstop lol.

[Faith]

[*]Like Dreamer (Speedrun mode) - I got coaxed into playing this game for Summer Relay, but I'm glad I did! It's one I'd been meaning to try out for a while. To be honest I wasn't super feeling the game at first. I feel like the main arcade mode is a bit too drawn out, with lots of sections of dead space. But I got hooked once I started grinding speedrun mode! It's basically nonstop action since enemies are constantly spawning the faster you clear waves, and it's a unique take on a shmup "scoring" system. I'm happy with the time I got for Expert mode, but I still need to come back and work more on the harder difficulties.[/list]

Haha wow what a coincidence! I just wrote my Steam Review for Like Dreamer few days ago >.<!~

Aaand!! Also gave it special attention to the Speed Run mode! It really is some super crazy intense non-stop action, but, a very, very tiring mode to grind! Really crazy amount of things happening!~

And of course... super, SUPER fast paced @_@"...

[xEbb1993x]

D Tier

• Earthion - This is one of those games where I had fun with it when it first came out, but which I haven't felt any desire to go back to since. To be fair, if I played this on the Genesis back in the day it would have blown my mind. It's an incredible looking game which pushes the hardware to its limits, and the music really sticks with you too. Unfortunately the gameplay just doesn't stick the landing for me. There's a lot of interesting weapons and the level design is actually pretty solid, but the shield system more or less nullifies any danger the enemies provide. I think I got hit like 200 times on my first 1cc lol. Calling it a 2D Cygni is perhaps being too critical, but I just really don't think this kind of design works well in shmups.

Really? I thought Earthion was "shmup of the year" for me. Better than CYGNI. At least this was made by the Japanese.

[Faith]

Better than CYGNI.

lol!~

[Bassa-Bassa]

By the Japanese for the Western sensibilities, it seems.

[xEbb1993x]

Either way, I got my money's worth with Earthion.

[marus]

Really? I thought Earthion was "shmup of the year" for me. Better than CYGNI. At least this was made by the Japanese.

In retrospect, comparing it to Cygni is really harsh lol. I'm just really not a fan of the shield mechanic though. But if that doesn't bother you then there's lot of other stuff to like about the game for sure.

[xEbb1993x]

Hmm… Though I didn’t mind CYGNI.

[daniil3308]

masterpiece
macross 2 expert course
raiden fighters 2
dragon blaze
all 3 are very different but what they have in common is that they're some of the most deliberately designed shmups i've ever played.

m2 changed my perception of caravan as a whole: i used to think they were lame ass throwaway shmups made by noobdevs for noobplayers but the amount of optimizations you can do on the first level of the expert course blew my mind because there's a way to go faster on almost every part of the level and it's rewarded on the post-boss section at the end with a few extra waves of valuable enemies.

rf2 is packed with lots of secrets that are very different from each other and made with a specific route in mind instead of just giving them to you for free if you know where to stay for 2 seconds or whatever. stage 6 is definitely the highlight of the game for me, i love how clever they were with the secrets and the "destroyed at a time" bonus there.

post-videosystem psikyo games almost always have that shitty medal timing scoring with nothing interesting to figure out or spectacular to perform once you know the routes, but the db mechanic works so well with how they make levels it's almost like magic. i hate to admit it but this game doesn't have its own version of m2 expert stage 1 or rf2 stage 6, i mean it's still psikyo hehe, but AS A WHOLE db plays exceptionally well.

great
p-47 aces
raiden dx expert course
dangun feveron

p-47 aces is easily my favorite horizontal survival shmup due to its unforgiving pacing and cool gameplay ideas(stages 2,4,6; bosses 3 and 6; certain enemies).
such a shame that the scoring, however, is some of the most abysmal dogshit in the world. my guess is that they thought it was fine because they didn't really bother optimizing it during the playtesting.

the expert course of raiden dx is god-tier(i mean just look at the second half of stage 5) but the scoring is non-existent so it rather belongs here i guess.
if you see someone making a survival-oriented vertical dadshmup and they don't name this game as one of their inspirations it's a MASSIVE red flag.

dangun is hella fun to optimize for score and i think it's the only dadgame with rng boss patterns but the amount of fast and repetitive left-right spam makes it physically painful to play.

good
viper phase 1
a pretty nice game to play for a 1cc. this feels different from other seibu games because the biggest threat here is not the popcorn, instead it's bigger enemies that shoot insanely dense patterns you cannot dodge with your enormous hitbox.

lowkey interesting but for the most part giga ass:
raiden 2
stages 3 and 5 are amazing to learn and play but the rest of the game is so empty and boring. i got a practice run fluke clear from stage 3 and didn't see the reason to keep playing because the whole game boils down to dying to the same 3 chokepoints and the rest is just piss easy. dx is 10 times better

comically bad
rabio lepus
i can explain how i feel about any shmup in 1-2 short sentences but with this game i don't even know where to begin. just go read my calice writeup i posted on the discord if you're interested.

mediocre
tatsujin ou
strikers 1999

tatsujin ou is a wild combination of EXTREME, and i mean EXTREME mediocrity, unbearable length and a huge difficulty spike like 70% into the run. the only fun things in the whole game are the stage 1 boss, the stage 2 boss and CG recovery strat(and that even wasn't intentional obviously). i have no clue how people even manage to learn a game where every single stage is the same copypasted garbage with slight edits that goes on and on and on FOREVER, which makes it such a gigantic pain in the ass to memorize.

strikers 1999 is basically the psikyo version of touhou. every level is plane from the left plane from the right some zako plane in the middle repeat 20 times. s6 boss is cool, but the rest is literally nothing interesting.

[DMC]

Pilot Kids B+
Finally played this really charming game. The lock-on system is great, the art design is fantastic, and there are some very interesting differences in gameplay across some of the ships. What holds it back a bit for me is that some parts were clearly rushed and thus it feels incomplete: The second loop is just a boss rush with checkerboard background stimuli, the final stage of loop 1 has a very underwhelming design, and the lock on aim is a little bit too imprecise for serious scoring I think (although might honestly be a skill issue on my end, and depend on the ship). I will probably revisit it though at some point.

[maximo310]

S Tier
Raiden Fighters 2 - One of the coolest shmup packages ever packed with tons of secrets & lots of optimization. I do want to put some more time into the JP version & maybe check out some of the other ship types in the future.

A Tier
Battle Garegga - One of the greats. Even if some of the top routing doesn't looks super appealing, playing the game for a clear or some scoring is a good experience & you don't have to massively hold back on medal collection/ picking up power ups to have a solid game plan.

G-Darius - Who doesn't love big fishes & planet-splitting laser beams?! Still need to play this more, but from my experience, it seems solid even if most of the bosses are basically " route this until you get the boss enemy, then hit the auto win button when the laser pops out".

Dangun Feveron - Solid theming & has a very addictive scoring system. For the most part, its not too frustrating except for getting sniped right before the stage 5 boss & doing long practice sessions.
Plus Alpha - Solid Toa-like; checkpoint recovery is doable from every spot even on subsequent loops.

Psyvariar 2 Buzz Type - Much better than Shooting type; the bigger graze window allows for much more player flexibility for survival & scoring. Only main issues are the shot is garbage for stage 2 & stages 4/5 still feel underdeveloped.

B Tier
Silkworm - Playing with the jeep was surprisingly better than I expected, even though have another button to handle vehicle turret aiming took some time to get used to & the last stage is kinda annoying.

Macross II (Medium Course) - One of the few arcade caravans out there & for the most part it still holds up pretty well even if the scoring on certain stages is kinda janky ( like the last stage multi-kill bonus).

Macross I - Despite it being based on Thunder dragon 1, it plays a lot better for the most part outside of having some very silly missile milking & a last stage with annoying enemy formations.

Ketsui - "beep beep beep (x infinity)". I like the stage pacing & music, even if I'm still clueless on optimizing the game past a 1-ALL.

Pilot Kids - The simple 3D environments are pretty unique & the combo system is an interesting idea. It does feel like it needed a bit more time to cook with the easy 1st loop & 2nd loop just being a boss rush.

Granada ( X68000/Genesis) - For being heavily influenced on Assault/Grobda, Wolf Team managed to put together a pretty solid package for the most part. However, I do have to dock it for the hit detection being too strict on the Genesis version, the 6th boss patterns are pretty unfair, and the timer not resetting on death is a pretty dick move.

Slap Fight- A serviceable Gradius clone with all ground enemies; recovery does get pretty hard later on compared to the MegaDrive version.

C Tier

1941 - Game looks decent enough, even though the scoring system is incredibly silly with the rank multiplier applying to excess item pickups & silly boss milks.

Salamander III - Wasn't a huge fan of the whole "greatest hits" package that the game was throwing at me, but at least loop 1 is easy.

Psyvariar 2 Shooting Type - Tried this mode out first, shot power is good but the invincibility windows for level ups suck & the later stages don't give you much to do.

Spriggan Score Attack - I like the orb bonuses, but so many of the enemy waves are too drawn out for flexible optimization imo.

Armed Police Unit Gallop - Gritty proto- Nazca car racing sounds like a match made in heaven if only it didn't have one of the most annoying stage 3 boss setups in history.

Twinbee Yahho - Wasn't a fan of the visibility in this one.

D Tier

Rabio Lepus - Outside of mammoth hunting, there's so many bizarre design choices that its hard to come back to.
Twin Eagle II - I don't get this game at all, everything feels incredibly sluggish & ugly to look at.

F Tier
Sonic Wings Reunion - So the Sonic Wings series returns after over 25 years, and.... it does not deserve the "Success" branding with how the game's mechanics & visuals are cobbled together like Papier-mâché . It's also the first time I've seen a pacifist bonus so ridiculous that not only was everyone shocked that you can counterstop the game, but the developers ended up patching it out

[MJR]

I didn't have much time to play shmups this year, as I was mostly invested either on my own game or doing client work.
But here is what made me go zap

S Tier
Outzone - arcade PCB
Toaplan perfection, although the purple power ball makes the game too easy

Viper Phase 1 - arcade PCB
when the Switch version hit, I tried to do a save run to see how far I could go without dying. The rank made the game insane very quickly, but I also learned a lot which helped me to get much better on the PCB, which is far more playable. I still suspect that I will never 1CC this, but still, I do get better. Learning to point blank was vital, as was the installation of 30fps autofire on my arcade cab.

A Tier
Sektori - I suck at it, and the bosses have ended too many of my succesful runs, but it's great. I love the soundtrack, but it's even better when I listen to Prodigy from vinyl while playing

Raiden DX - arcade PCB
I have played this more than any other shmup in my life, probably - I used to be really good at this, but it feels like it forces you to be a like a professional juggler - take just a few months of break and you lose your touch. Getting flanked and shot in the ass all suddenly by a tank behind you often kills my excitement. I don't know if I am just not as persistent as I used to be.

B Tier
Alpha Mission II / ASO II
It's janky, and forces you to memorize the attack waves as getting wiped by a sudden enemy who emerges lightspeed from bottom left / right corner is not that much fun, it also forces you to memorize which weapons to buy and use. But still it's very atmospheric and fun.
Also getting surprise shot by a ground turret next to me is shocking, as I am so used to the blocking mechanics (enemies never shooting you if you are next to them)

C Tier
Truxton II / Tatsujin Ou
I have a love / hate relationship with this game. Levels are far too long and monotonous, and enemies are annoying bullet sponges while bosses are insufferable, and to save my sanity, I have to use the easiest difficulty on Bitwave port which probably gets the dip switches wrong. But graphics and music are so over the top that I just keep coming back to it.

Batsugun - special edition
There's lot to like in this game, even though I'm not a superfan

IO - Commodore 64
I love the graphics and atmosphere of this game, and it's very polished, though as is typical in euroshmup it feels first too hard and then too easy.

Salamander III
Disappointment of the year, clearly rushed to release. Could have benefited from few more months of fine tuning. I liked it, but lost interest as soon as I got to Loop 2.