Favorite shmup explosions.

[R-Gray 1]

Under Defeat my own helicopter and the bosses

Ikaruga and Gradius V.....treasure

Raystorm on my ps1 in extra mode if i remember well..
Einhänder...specially in mechs/robots

[DragonInstall]

Ikaruga

[Klatrymadon]

Strania's stage 3 boss explosion is immense and cathartic. The vanquished ship floats rather disappointingly into the distance, then... FUCK OFF! Best sound effect ever.

[ChainsawGuitarSP]

ITT: We post like /k/

[jochen]

Galaga 88 - Arcade and PC-engine

- the sound of the exploding "ballon-enemies".

[man9child]

For boss explosions I'll have to go with Ikaruga. Pieces falling off and exploding one at a time in slow motion is awesome.

In general though, Battle Garegga. Maybe Ibara. Of course, the best explosion is your own ship's. Yeah, you shot me, but eat my debris!

If we expand this out a little bit I'll go with Metal Slug. Specifically killing anything human with a shotgun.

[kidpanda]

not so much as a standard shump, but the first boss in Assault Suits Valken for SFC......priceless, fill the whole screen and they are BEYOND pixellated

[NZA]

Gotta like that Ikaruga explosion, slow down, and rumble on the Gamecube version.

[Rex Cavalier]

Hellsinker explosions, especially Perpetual Calender one and Extra 1 boss

[toaplan_shmupfan]

Max charged bomb explosion in 19XX.

[AttObl]

Darius Gaiden's bosses explode real good when they are defeated, and it has a trippy background to boot.

Still, I prefer Crimzon Clover in terms of favorite Shmup explosions, since there are a LOT of explosions that are going on in that game.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I love the boss explosions in Ketsui, how the whole screen rumbles. Especially the Stage 3 mid boss battleship.
Do any other games have screen shaking explosions like that?
Ketsui & ESPgaluda are the only ones that come to mind. I think it's a really cool effect!

Quite a few actually, even WH40k: Dawn of War, but classic 2D shooty example would be Granada.

I still think that no shmup before or since has given as much detail and attention to explosions/deaths as Raiden II/DX.

I mean, things don't just blow up in Raiden II...they shatter, spew debris, fall down, explode in a million pieces, and then leave a big crater....

Hell yeah. Raiden DX is my personal favourite, narrowly beating Under Defeat. There's something acrid about DX's destruction... the smouldering craters left behind by larger enemies look like they'd be unpleasant to be within a hundred feet of. And as another detail, there's nothing like seeing a previously pristine suburb getting reduced to burning ruins during the course of DX's Expert Stage 2.

Before Raidens, however, there was Assault. The animations have fewer frames (the year being 1988 and all), but the attention to detail is just as great (cut above Toaplan games dare I say). You can see (and hear!) the trees getting rooted out, that sort of stuff. Every explosion is done in the "fire blossom" style and every destroyed thing leaves a crater of junk on the battlefield. Not sure about screen-shaking axplosions, but I seem to recall the screen shaking as you drive over rocky terrain.
The mecha-reptile boss explosion in Sonic Wings 2 also has that ground-violating fetish quality to it.

[Nifty]

Before Raidens, however, there was Assault. The animations have fewer frames (the year being 1988 and all), but the attention to detail is just as great (cut above Toaplan games dare I say). You can see (and hear!) the trees getting rooted out, that sort of stuff. Every explosion is done in the "fire blossom" style and every destroyed thing leaves a crater of junk on the battlefield. Not sure about screen-shaking axplosions, but I seem to recall the screen shaking as you drive over rocky terrain.

Nice vid, I'll have to try that sometime

[Obiwanshinobi]

Just realised what Assault reminds me of most - Soldiers: Heroes of World War II. Not a shmup, but makes me wish modern Raidens had such graphics. The engine, peerless back in the day, shows its age now, but the level of detail and destructibility is still dreamy (practically everything can be demolished).

[Trevor spencer]

Under Defeat has some of the best ive seen

[shmuppyLove]

I know I'm way late to the party, but seriously digging Crimzon Clover's vibe.

Huge candy-coloured explosions and bullet breaks in buttery smooth 60fps.

I really need a tate mode for it though.

[Phoenix]

Strange the most beautifull shmup explosion is not mentioned yet.

Game: Phoenix
Victims: Big red and blue birds, when they spread their wings and you fire into the eyes. Some small special birds have it too.

It looks great, the pace is perfect and the sound is brilliant.

http://youtu.be/-3upcRD5zB4?t=1m4s

[shmuppyLove]

Strange that the most beautifull shmup explosion is not mentioned yet.

Game: Pheonix
Victims: Big red and blue birds, when they spread their wings and you foire into the eyes. Some small special birds have it too.

It looks great, the pace is perfect and the sound is brilliant.

http://youtu.be/-3upcRD5zB4?t=1m4s

[J-Manic]

The explosions in Soukyugurentai are beautiful.

[shmuppyLove]

The video is terrible, but I think you can still tell -- surprisingly Shienryu has some very cool explosions.

Raizing-style debris, craters and multi-layered scaling/crashing is very cool. A lot of love has gone into the details in this game for sure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sd0Cuo5siOg

[xgunnBlaze]

The stage 3 miniboss explosion in Ketsui is very satisfying.
Black Heart in Battle Garegga.
Stage 5 boss in Espgaluda II -- so dramatic.
Under Defeat in general, especially the stage 2 boss and the last boss.

Also, this is not a shmup, but Sigma in Megaman X6.

[IseeThings]

The Death Star in Star Wars on an original vector monitor..

It's so violent and bright you think the actual monitor is going to explode, you even get funny noises out of the actual monitor...

and yeah, I know it's not a pure 'shmup' but you shoot things

[Shocky]

Under Defeat - bomb. Too bad the audio is not up to par with the spectacular visuals. I tried connecting the DC to a subwoofer and everything but the explosions still sounded weak. Wouldn't mind a remake with remixed 5.1 audio...

Some games have got the audio right though:

-Silkworm has some mean bangs
-Darius Burst: Another Chronicle
-Blast Factor: When a cell boss is beaten and the whole specimen goes boom: The most bad-ass exlosion I've ever heard after my army days. I thought my house was gonna collapse
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4exI1jv ... age#t=246s

[Eaglet]

Yaaay, necro-bump~!

Best explosions are in Donpachi and Battle Garegga.
Nuf said.

[Estebang]

Raiden II/DX has both the best explosions and enemy deaths. You can actually crash a plane on top of a house, destroying the roof and allowing you to see the inside. They'll even splash if they hit water. The amount of graphical detail that went into the games is both understated and jaw-dropping.

EDIT: Good to see I'm not the first person to mention this!

[toaplan_shmupfan]

The Truxton skull bomb is nearly the entire screen on the Genesis cart version. Appears instantly (vs the slight delay in the arcade version) and takes out everything on the screen. (Too bad they messed up the music in the Genesis cart version, since it is close enough to the arcade with its instrumentation despite being in a different key for some of the music, because it's played at double speed for all music in all parts of the game.)

[Obiwanshinobi]

I'm playing Hyper Duel (Saturn mode, CRT, RGB goodness) and while I still don't think it's a GREAT looking game (doesn't have, for lack of a better word, "personality" Gate of Thunder or Eliminate Down ooze), the explosions are easily as terrific as those of Raiden DX and the original DP. The first boss alone esplodes like in a Treasure game.

[MSZ]

My top 3 at the moment:

Gradius V
Ikaruga
Ketsui

[EmperorIng]

I'll have to reiterate what others have said in this topic:

Some of my favorite are from Darius Gaiden and Metal Black.

Metal Black, I think a bit more so, because of that awesome silhouette filter they have on the bosses with the fast-scrolling trippy background.
Though sometimes you can't just beat how some of Gaiden's bosses just crash straight into the ground and bounce before totally disintegrating (like how King Fossil's head just launches off its body, or Electric Fan falls like a sack of potatoes).

Heck I even think Gun Frontier's explosions look pretty neat (very gritty - I like that) though they aren't necessarily my "favorite."

Under Defeat's explosions are pretty good too (anything G.Rev is not too shabby really).

[KAI]

Darius Gaiden 1st Boss.
Under Defeat last Boss, Dokaaaan! and game over.