8th Annual Top 25 Shmups of All Time - commentary thread

[Rob]

I do question the "Styx" reference, though. What's that all about?

[boagman]

I do question the "Styx" reference, though. What's that all about?

Wow, that's...extremely vague, and not really insulting, considering.

[saucykobold]

Styx boagman sounds like Styx boatman. Hysterical, I know.

[Ed Oscuro]

Wow! I wish I coulda been there!!

Styx boagman sounds like Styx boatman.

Must be a coincidence.

[RGC]

I'm thinking I won't vote this year. Too bogged down in the only game I've played for the last month to remember my favourites, or to judge outside the context of this particular game, which I can no longer tell if I even enjoy!

[Rob]

Einhander doesn't get enough appreciation.

[boagman]

Einhander doesn't get enough appreciation.

I gave it some love in my list!

[Dale]

SonSon was their first North American release. Sonson was their 2nd game then Pirate Ship Higemaru then ether 1942, Exed Eyes, or Gunsmoke came next.

[Enhasa]

Einhander doesn't get enough appreciation.

Not enough appreciation on this forum maybe, too much appreciation elsewhere by people who "generally don't like shmups." The 3rd Strike of shmups!

Not Ikaruga enough for backlash though, that's disappointing.

[Rob]

Not enough appreciation on this forum maybe,

Definitely. People who know about the genre should see what is actually great about Einhander. Last year it placed below Blazing Star, a few Darius games and Border Down (to name only the mediocre side-scrollers).

[Dale]

Mortificator's list is off the chain. Someone who has an opened mind for old school arcade shmups, memorizer hori's and modern Danmuku? That's way too rare to see these days.

[shadowbringer]

[25] ESP Ra.De
[24] Varth
[23] Battle Garegga
[22] Raiden Fighters Jet
[21] Dangun Feveron
[20] ESP Galuda

[19] Phantasm Romance 2.5 Plus
[18] Phantasmagoria of Flower View
[17] Giga Wing
[16] Armed Police Batrider
[15] Mushihimesama
[14] Dodonpachi
[13] Eden's Aegis
[12] Lotus Land Story
[11] Mystic Square

[10] Twinkle Star Sprites
[9] X-Multiply

[8] Battle Mania Daiginjou (Sega Genesis)
[7] Elemental Master (Sega Genesis)
[6] Aero Star (Game Boy)
[5] Gynoug (Sega Genesis)
[4] Battle Mania
[3] Area 88 (SNES)
[2] Choplifter (Game Boy)
[1] Image Fight (NES)

first tier = games which I enjoy playing for score and love when my runs aren't screwed up (I have a behavior of restarting games if I die early, or getting demotivated from messing up later if something's doable or desirable at my current level, because I'm greedy). These games won't punish you too hard for dying (score-wise), and as a result, I won't get demotivated as much.

second tier = games in which I can somewhat ignore high-risk scoring potential and still have fun (with the exception of PoFV and Giga Wing; these two appeal to my greedy side, but can make me restart more and get boring sooner, for a while), or games which I like playing for survival and would like to learn to play for score (Mushi)

third tier = games which I could play when I want something different from the usual games I play (for example, trying to no-miss or speedrun TSS. As for X-Multiply, I liked to play through the stages.)

fourth tier = nostalgia tier, games which gave me fun before, and I could revisit them if I was bored and had enough free time with few other things to do


I must say that my accessibility to PS2 games or newer ones is limited, and there are more games that I should play more in order to have an opinion about them (Cyvern, for example. Looks great in theory, but can't vote for it yet). Also, I liked Thunder Dragon 2's gameplay, but I don't feel like removing any of the above mentioned games; probably could be placed between Twinkle Star Sprites and X-Multiply (or above TSS), considering the time it would take for me to get bored of playing it.

[Enhasa]

Not enough appreciation on this forum maybe,

Definitely. People who know about the genre should see what is actually great about Einhander. Last year it placed below Blazing Star, a few Darius games and Border Down (to name only the mediocre side-scrollers).

Every year the games that weren't released on MAME, PS2, or 360 (read: where to play Cave games) drop a bit as new members join who haven't played them. That's just how the math works. Only 2 of last year's top 25 aren't in Cave-land. Stuff like Einhander, Gradius Gaiden, Thunder Force 3-4 that used to make top 25 every year were HM last year. Axelay, Lords of Thunder, Musha, R-Type Delta, Soldier Blade, and Thunder Force 5 all went from HM to out completely. The site demographic has definitely shifted away from the older console players.


The one game that I think really doesn't get enough appreciation on this forum is Granada, which is to be expected since the focus here is traditional autoscrolling verts and horis. It has a much larger appreciation in the Japanese shmup community, which is true of all X68k/MSX/etc stuff. Even Granada and ChoRenSha 68k are known more in the west for their ports to other systems. Ports would have really helped games like Space Manbow.

Nothing that isn't a traditional vert/hori will probably ever make top 25 because not everyone considers them to be shmups. Again, it's just math.

[Darkseed]

Not enough appreciation on this forum maybe,

Definitely. People who know about the genre should see what is actually great about Einhander. Last year it placed below Blazing Star, a few Darius games and Border Down (to name only the mediocre side-scrollers).

I never could quite get into Einhander (for some reason I find the pacing and overall aesthetic kinda doujinish) and much prefer any any of the games you listed by far.

[Fan of MAME]

I've putted Shinobu Yagawa's games at the top, because, in the videogames, Yagawa's mind corresponds fully with mine. I also like much the gameplay of Change Air Blade, Cyvern: The Dragon Weapons and Dimahoo. In those games the developer's mind corresponds almost fully with mine.
CAVE's games sometimes are good for me, and sometimes are not. I like the gameplay of Guwange and Progear, but not DoDonpachi and ESP Ra.De. And generally I don't like bullet hell.
I may be called "Raizing's fan", but I do not like three of the Raizing's games - 1944: The Loop Master, Brave Blade and Terra Diver.
I have played shmups only with MAME, because I do not own nor TV, nor console. And I like vertical shmups, because in the horizontal shmups it is harder for me of dodging the projectiles. I could afford both TV and console, but that would be too much of an effort, only for videogames. Maybe Ibara is better than Battle Bakraid, but I preffer to wait 5 years for Ibara at the MAME, than putting too much efforts in videogames. (Battle Bakraid's intro is definetely better than the Ibara's one - Battle Bakraid's intro is one of the best intros ever!) I have stopped playing videogames for 3 years, and when I got back, I've realized that shmups are the most interesting genre. The most interesting arcade genre, because the non-arcade videogames are for morrons. Shmups look like a software (shmups are raw) - other arcades look like something "sweet"... And the non-arcade games are too "sweet".

[Dale]

You definitely have a good outlook on games. I hope you stay on this forum for a long time.

[Icarus]

Code: Select all

[=] [25] [Battle Garegga]
[=] [24] [Raiden DX]
[=] [23] [Every Extend Extra]
[+] [22] [Muchi Muchi Pork!]
[-] [21] [Ibara]
[!] [20] [Mushihimesama Futari]
[+] [19] [Ketsui]
[-] [18] [Raiden Fighters Jet]
[=] [17] [Soukyugurentai]
[-] [16] [Armed Police Batrider]
[-] [15] [Border Down]
[-] [14] [Batsugun (Special Ver.)]
[-] [13] [Pink Sweets]
[+] [12] [Raiden Fighters 2]
[-] [11] [Sexy Parodius]
[-] [10] [Gokujyou Parodius]
[!] [09] [Hyper Duel]
[-] [08] [Espgaluda]
[=] [07] [XEXEX]
[-] [06] [R-Type]
[=] [05] [Guwange]
[-] [04] [Shikigami no Shiro 3]
[!] [03] [Espgaluda 2]
[!] [02] [Great Mahou Daisakusen]
[!] [01] [G.Darius]

Let's see:

- No change in the top three. I seriously doubt anything will break into my holy trifecta, but Mushi Futari came close this year, same as MMP!.

- MMP! and Ibara switch from my last voting round, due to the fact that I love MMP!'s accessibility and full-on scoremania game style. Ibara still gets a lot of love for me, however.

- The X360 releases of Futari and Ketsui enabled me to spend plenty of time with them now, compared to the past when I had sporadic sessions on Ketsui whenever it was available in an arcade (and I never got a chance to play Futari). Love them both, will never let go of them now. Straight up into the top ten.

- The middle block of games move down to accommodate Futari and Ketsui's surge up the table.

- Hyper Duel re-enters my top 25 due to me listening to the AST a lot recently, and I've been playing it in MacMAME again, falling back in love with it. Though to be honest, I've always loved it - I consider it Technosoft's best, with TFIV just behind - but I forgot about it in the flurry of Cave and Cazing the past few years.

- Shikigami 3 plummets down the table, not due to me not liking it, but more like other games getting more love. Still a great game, however.

- Espgaluda 2 enters near the bottom - I've played the PCB before at a London Meet, and liked it, but I find the game very time-intensive at the moment, therefore I haven't given it much playtime compared to the pick-up-and-play qualities of Futari (on Original) and Ketsui. I do like it a lot, however, and intend to invest time in it in the near-future.

- Great Mahou and G.Darius pop back in at the bottom due to me sneaking a few goes here and there on the PSP the past few weeks. Fun little diversions.

[BulletMagnet]

Having finally finished up (I think) my list, I'll offer a few offhand thoughts on it...

- Yeah, I still give DDP the top spot, and two Touhou games round out my top three. Haters gonna hate.

- Several sequels that I got some time to play recently took over for their predecessors: Mushi Futari, Galuda 2, and Shiki 3 all knocked the previous series entries off the list and will (for now, anyway) be acting in their stead. I think each improves upon their forebears enough to deserve it.

- On a related note, I tried not to vote for too many games from the same series, as I like to have at least some variety up there (though not just for its own sake): Vasara 1 and Cotton 2 were nixed entirely (despite my hopes for either series to make a showing someday), and DOJ was (if memory serves) knocked down several places.

- Decided to give Nostradamus a minor shot this year, along with Space Invaders Extreme - I was tempted to bring either Radirgy, Dragon Blaze or Border Down back at the bottom of my chart, but couldn't convince myself to do it. Maybe next year...

Most of the rest is just minor shufflings around of stuff nobody else ever votes for: in otherwords, the usual. Looking forward to seeing the final results.

[doctorx0079]

<snip>

Oh also you used to be able to allocate points however you wanted (then they got scaled to 100% for each voter), but then this guy put like 9999999999999999999999 for Stargate and 1 for everything else and singlehandedly got it on the honorable mention list one year. I think the current system is a good compromise. BTW every year this guy comes out of the woodwork at this time to righteously defend Stargate, gets trolled, handles it terribly, and hijinks ensue so getcha popcorn ready for that too.

I looked and j^aws hasn't posted since June 2009. He may be butthurt from his run-in with bloodflowers, or banned, or he just lost interest in this board. He sure was a maniac about Stargate though.