really bad shmups

Thunder Force · Post by **Thunder Force** » Sun Feb 27, 2005 11:46 am

^ I was a fan of Xenon II, and I'm glad Herr Schatten wrote that partial defense above because I was starting to think I was insane for having Xenon II as one of my cherished western shmups in those days... the Amiga version always put a smile on my face, the Atari ST version wasn't too bad either, and hell, I even enjoyed the crappy PC version with PC speaker sound.

The game may have aged badly but it has a respectful place in the annals of shmup history. It literally re-ignited the Euro shmup scene at the time with its "Megablast" attitude.

Now, dare I speak out in defense of Transbot...

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Sun Feb 27, 2005 11:48 am

Blazeon on the SNES. Horrible, horrible job by Atlus. Super Earth Defense Force mops the floor with this abomination.

FRO · Post by **FRO** » Sun Feb 27, 2005 2:07 pm

Let me throw in a couple votes for 2 that aren't on the list yet:

The Earth Defend - horrible Genesis/Megadrive shmup w/ lots of Engrish in the manual, probably somewhat rare. I had the misfortune of spending $5 on this one. I still have it in my collection because it's too awful to resell for money.

Darwin 4078 - Not sure why anyone would want to play this game. The colors are weird, the weapon/transformation system is confusing, and it's a little more difficult than it probably has to be.

Frogacuda · Post by **Frogacuda** » Sun Feb 27, 2005 2:09 pm

MASTER SATAN wrote:TIGER HELI FOR THE NES. The age old question remains: does it end or does it loop for eternity?

That reminds me of another pretty bad one: Transbot. It loops forever, but it never gets that had, so you can just play it forever.

jp · Post by jp » Sun Feb 27, 2005 6:56 pm

Planet Joker...

I cannot fathom a game being worse.

Post by **nZero** » Sun Feb 27, 2005 7:05 pm

Specineff wrote:Blazeon on the SNES. Horrible, horrible job by Atlus. Super Earth Defense Force mops the floor with this abomination.

Shoot, while we're at it, BlazeOn in the Arcade was helluva sucktastic too.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Sun Feb 27, 2005 7:55 pm

I just tried Scramble Eggs. That has to be one of the worst shmups ever. It even makes X-Dazedly-Ray look good.

Super Mega C · Post by **Super Mega C** » Sun Feb 27, 2005 9:30 pm

Biometal for SNES the bullets tended to blend with the back ground pretty bad and there was so much paralax and shit going on it made tracking enemy shots even worse.

I also remember a $10 PS game that was just called shooter or something. It had these really horrible cut scenes that I don't think it would let you skip .

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Sun Feb 27, 2005 9:37 pm

Super Mega C wrote:I also remember a $10 PS game that was just called shooter or something. It had these really horrible cut scenes that I don't think it would let you skip .

You might be referring to "Shooter: Space Shot." It was hardly a masterpiece, but for the price it wasn't too bad. And IIRC you could skip the cutscenes.

iatneH · Post by **iatneH** » Sun Feb 27, 2005 10:10 pm

Yeh, I bought Space Shot recently, and I don't find it too bad, once you get into the scoring mechanics (even though they're not too deep). I didn't like it at first, but then as I went through the tutorials, I enjoyed it a bit more.

LoneSage · Post by **LoneSage** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 1:33 am

Super Mega C wrote: I also remember a $10 PS game that was just called shooter or something. It had these really horrible cut scenes that I don't think it would let you skip .

You're thinking of Shooter Space Shot. In Japan, it was part of the Simple 1500 series.

Starship Hector on the NES has the greatest box art I've seen for the system (it used the Japanese Star Soldier's box art), but underneath it is one of the ugliest, most boring shmups I've ever played.

Thunder Spirits on SNES is incredibly tepid compared to TF3 on the Genesis..I don't understand it, for some reason it's telling me it looks better and probably sounds better too, but it just doesn't give me that feel like TF3 does.

Darius R for GBA is easily the worst Darius game ever. The people who developed that should be known for further tarnishing the Darius name.

1942 on the NES was an absolutely horrible port. 1943 on the NES is leagues ahead of it.

Captain Planet on the NES may have that awesome retro feel I love, but even my loving bias for the series can't save the hate I have for this game.

Also, I know some people here like this game, but I think Firepower 2000 on the SNES sucks a big one. So does BlaZeon.

Stormwatch · Post by **Stormwatch** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 2:51 am

theevilfunkster wrote:oh, and sol feace on the mega cd was pretty bad too

No way! That game* is one of the most fun horizontal shmups ever made, it looks really good, and the music is, well, typical Wolfteam, which is always a good thing. I pity the fool who puts this classic in a "bad shmups" list rather than a "best shmups" list!

* [assuming Sol Feace and Sol Deace are exactelly the same, other than name, music, and cutscenes; I've only played the Genesis version]

Post by **Shatterhand** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 2:53 am

Shooter: Space Shot is a nice game... it's just doesn't feel like amazing the 1st time you play it.

The score mechanics are really cool to play, and the level desing is not all that bad.

I don't think Xenon 2 is terrible.. but it's below average.. the GFX and Music are great, but the gameplay is really faulty.... the 1st one though is cool.

And good thing someone else played Scramble Eggs.. BrianC, as you had the trouble to emulate an MSX to try it out, now check out Battle Cross.

After playing Battle Cross and Scramble Eggs, it's hard to say that Xenon 2, Transbot, Darwin 2047 or Biometal are THAT bad...

Oh.. anyone ever played Terra Cresta 3D ? it sux a lot too.

Blue Lander · Post by **Blue Lander** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 3:04 am

I thought Shooter Spaceshot was pretty decent. I don't consider it a bad game, it's sort of "Thunderforce V lite". It's just... mediocre. I wouldn't pay more than 10 bucks for it.

Is Sol-Feace on the X68000 better than the Sega CD version? The game isn't even in the Xenocide file, but I know it exists. I can't play it on my X68000 because I don't have enough RAM.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 3:14 am

Shatterhand wrote: After playing Battle Cross and Scramble Eggs, it's hard to say that Xenon 2, Transbot, Darwin 2047 or Biometal are THAT bad...

Yeah. Even Darwin 2047 has its fans as evidenced by that one fansite that was linked to in another topic. Xenon 2 has had bad luck with ports, though. I haven't tried the Genesis or Master System ones, but the GB one I tried doesn't seem to be very good.

I remember reading about a GB shmup named Triple A in Nintendo Power that seems to have similarities to Gradius and Alcon. Was the game released at all? I know it didn't come out in the US. The description in NP made it sound terrible (slow gameplay and poor controls), but I often take their opinions with a grain of salt. If the game did get a release, was it as bad as NP makes it sound?

I think I might try Battle Cross just to see how bad it is. I found some good places for MSX games (I'm not linking to them for obvius reasons).

ED-057 · Post by **ED-057** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 3:54 am

Action Fighter on the SMS seems pretty lame, certainly not as good as Astro Warrior or Transbot.

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 5:37 am

@Stormwatch:

The Sega CD Sol-Feace is absolute crap. Games on the inferior hardware of the SMS have better graphics. Some of the enemies look like they were made out of stalks of dried grass, the sounds your weapons make remind you of tiny farts, and it's just not fun to play. The evil WTC-G40 or whatever that computer is that is holding the universe hostage can keep on doing so. I'm aborting this mission now!

Android Assault/Bari Arm, and Robo Aleste are way better than that.

I would go as far as saying that Curse has better graphics. Just not framerate.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 5:55 am

Specineff wrote:@Stormwatch:

The Sega CD Sol-Feace is absolute crap. Games on the inferior hardware of the SMS have better graphics. Some of the enemies look like they were made out of stalks of dried grass, the sounds your weapons make remind you of tiny farts, and it's just not fun to play. The evil WTC-G40 or whatever that computer is that is holding the universe hostage can keep on doing so. I'm aborting this mission now!

So much for having an opinion. I have heard mixed opinions about the game, but this is the first time I have seen someone be this harsh on the graphics and the sounds of the game. I heard both high praise and serious dissing of the game and I'm confused why the opinions are so mixed. Same deal with the Genesis version. However, I don't see much point in trying to prove that the game is absolute crap, especially when it's clear that it's a love it or hate it game (same goes for the Genesis version, which I plan to get). This is why I'm sometimes afraid to say that I actually like Star Soldier and what I played of Hector '87/Starship Hector.

black mariah · Post by **black mariah** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 5:59 am

I know I'm going to get reamed for this one... I think R-Type is total shite. I don't particularly mind the methodical gameplay but the utter slowness of everything puts me to sleep. For me, R-Type wasn't worth a damn until R-Type Leo showed up.

As far as games that actually suck and not ones I just hate a whole lot, Insector X probably tops my list. 30 seconds with that game is enough to make the most hardened shmuppers give it up and play DDR.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 6:04 am

I know of some really crappy shmups. I haven't tried them, but I heard that all of the games in the NES Action 52 suck really bad and many of them are shmups. The shmups in that game are supposed to be some of the worst shmups ever made!

Stormwatch · Post by **Stormwatch** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 6:04 am

Blue Lander wrote:Is Sol-Feace on the X68000 better than the Sega CD version?

Review.

gameoverDude · Post by **gameoverDude** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 6:11 am

landshark wrote:Insector X for the genesis. I remember this game having god aweful animation.

I didn't like it either, but the arcade version (which actually has some cool Parodius-y graphics) is good. The makers of the Genesis one slapped in some lame futuristic sci-fi graphics.

Stargoose Warrior on Amiga and PC is a real turdgulper. A friend of mine saw me playing and started calling it "Cheesegoose", and I couldn't keep from laughing.

Transbot I liked at first, but it is an utterly shallow and hellishly repetitive game. Action Fighter is actually a good game- starting out like Spy Hunter but with the car eventually becoming a jet.

XDR is one MD game that I played a single stage of and never, ever touched again.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 6:46 am

I tried Battle Cross. It is a horrid game, but I like it better than Scramble Eggs. Unlike Scramble Eggs, Battle Cross has some good ideas in it, but they are implemented very poorly. What is the point of making the ship turn around if it makes it hard to aim?

tehkao · Post by **tehkao** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 9:04 am

I know I'll get reamed for this, but I really hated Super Aleste and Axelay on the SNES.

Maybe they're not necessarily bad shmups, I just hated them for some reason. They just felt boring and soulless.

TVG · Post by **TVG** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 12:44 pm

i dont get whats the deal with sol deace, its not as bad as people make it sound, i even consider it quite good, but whatever.

a very bad game: XII stag.
both in design and gameplay.
design: super generic, there's nothing that stands out, nothing creative, you've all seen it before and done way better (special mention to the main shot wich looks like flying tampoons)
the gameplay could have been good, but its poorly done, not only it a rehash of psyvariar kind of, but if you dont play for score, enemy placement doesnt make no sense whatsoever, and looks like shit, and if you happen to learn to kill the ennemies properly with the side shot and do a good score, the level design changes completely, putting you in an area that you absolutely dont know.
talk about flawed.

anyway, XDR stands unrivaled as far as horseshit goes.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 2:28 pm

I tried the Genesis Action 52 and it really is pathetic. The shmup G-Fighter isn't the only bad shmup in it, but I'll use it as an example of how bad the collection is. The game is a very simple shmup with no score display visible on screen and very poor graphics. The enemy placement is very poorly designed and the ship has an extremely large hitbox (makes me wonder why there is no in game score display). I'm surprised nobody else mentioned the shmups in action 52. They rival crap like Scramble Eggs!

PepsimanVsJoe · Post by **PepsimanVsJoe** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 2:35 pm

Seeing Planet Joker in action automatically makes me deem it the worst.

Then again I've never played these horrific shooters.
Luckily I have you guys to point them all out.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 3:01 pm

Here's a review of the Genesis Action 52 from the xenocide files. http://www.classicgaming.com/shmups/rev ... index.html It really is THAT bad. I tried some of the shmups in the NES version and they are even worse!

Naiera · Post by **Naiera** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 3:41 pm

Sanvein is downright awful. Other recent disappointments were Skull Fang and Tiger Heli II for the Saturn.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 4:11 pm

Naiera wrote:Sanvein is downright awful. Other recent disappointments were Skull Fang and Tiger Heli II for the Saturn.

The game is Kyoukyu Tiger II, not Tiger Heli II. Technically, it's really Tiger Heli 3. And, just for the record, the TG-16 Kyokyu Tiger is not Tiger Heli. BTW, this topic is for games that are truly awful and poorly designed, not games you dislike. What is the point of labelling games that many people like like Super Aleste/Space Megaforce, Axelay, Sol Deace, Sanvein, Skull Fang, Kyoukyu Tiger II as the worst when games that deserve to be called the worst like the shmups in Action 52, Curse, Battle Cross, X-Dazedly-Ray, and Scramble Eggs exist?

shmups.system11.org

really bad shmups

Gah