SEGA Master System shmups

[BrianC]

I just got SMS recently and I have been enjoying it. It's known that many games came out in Europe that didn't come here, including some shmups. I was looking at Sega8bit.com and I noticed some shmups for SMS that haven't had much of a mention here and aren't even in the Xenocide Files, Line of Fire, Satellite-7, and Submarine Attack. Line of Fire sounds especially interesting since it's a shmup based off a lightgun shooter and has a 3D mode.

So far, my only shmup for the system is Fantasy Zone, unless you count Choplifter. Both are excellent. I was a bit disappointed with Fantasy Zone at first since it has less big enemies to shoot down, but I found it to be a great version in its own right after playing it a bit more. Choplifter is good stuff and more fun than the original computer versions.

I was surprised to find out that the Sagaia port for SMS was done by Natsume. Sanritsu/SIMs did some shmups on SMS, as well. Bomber Raid, Aerial Assault, the port of Forgotten Worlds, and Line of Fire were theirs. And, of course, there's Compile with the port of R-Type and the Power Strikes.

It seems most EU games not only work on US systems, but play at the correct speed on them as well. I heard it's also the case with most of these shmups, aside from Xenon 2 and maybe Super Space Invaders. So far, I only have two imports, Land of Illusion and Gain Ground, but both play at the correct speed on my standard model 1 NTSC SMS.

List of shmups on SMS:
Action Fighter
Aerial Assault
Aleste/Power Strike
Astro Flash/Transbot/Nuclear Creature
Astro Warrior/Sapo Xulé: S.O.S. Lagoa Poluida
Blade Eagle 3D
Bomber Raid
Cloud Master
Fantasy Zone
Fantasy Zone II
Forgotten Worlds (EU/BR/AU? only)
Global Defense/SDI? (unique game, not sure if it counts)
Line of Fire (EU/BR/AU? only)
Power Strike II (EU/BR/AU only)
R-Type
Sagaia (EU/BR/AU? only)
Satellite-7 (JP only in physical form, but included in one of the Brazil SMS models with the built in games)
Scramble Spirits (EU/BR/AU?/CA only)
Submarine Attack (EU/BR/AU? only)
Super Space Invaders (EU/AU? only)
Thunder Blade? (shmup and pseudo 3D stages)
Xenon 2 (EU/AU? only)


Edit: Doh. Forgot Action Fighter. Thanks!

[louisg]

Yeah, SMS has some good stuff! I didn't realize Power Strike II came out in Europe too. Somehow I thought it was a Brazil-only release.

[core]

Action fighter should also get a mention, half Spy Hunter, half shmup. One of my favourite games on my favourtie console.

[ROBOTRON]

Action fighter should also get a mention, half Spy Hunter, half shmup. One of my favourite games on my favourtie console.

Action Fighter is a shmup.

[JJ9000]

WOW! i had no idea there were that many shmups out there on the master system , im gonna notepad this list into my shopping list

[Cthulhu]

Yeah, the SMS has a lot of good stuff on it shmup-wise (and non-shmups too! ), but the system is often overlooked. As usual, I guess. Compile did a bunch of the really good ones for the system (the previously-mentioned Power Strike / Aleste games), and you can't go wrong with Compile.

[Sonic R]

Sega Master System is probably the most underrated console
I love my SMS and am always playing it. I still need to get many shooters as well as other games to my growing library. I think my friends think it funny and odd, as well as unique of my love for the Sega Master System… I love it though…

Another game to consider, though not a traditional shooter is Quartet. Its been years since I play this as a friend in high school had it, and I am actively seeking it out today. It is not rare or expensive, but I am cheap and I still have a couple of flea market to check before resorting to internets.

There is also Zillion II - Tri Formation which is slightly shootie… Some like to knock Zillion II for being a departure from the first game (a Metroid style game) but Zillion II is a decent game in its own.

and finally, how can we forget Zaxxon 3-D?! Great Zaxxon game and it does offer both 2D and 3D modes. SegaScope 3-D is an amazing thing… I regret that my glasses have been misplaced

EDIT: speaking of SegaScope 3-D there is another shooter for 3D, Blade Eagle 3-D.

[ZOM]

There is also Zillion II - Tri Formation which is slightly shootie… Some like to knock Zillion II for being a departure from the first game (a Metroid style game) but Zillion II is a decent game in its own.

Ooooh, I loved that game back in the day. Played the shit out of it with my younger brother, alternating lives haha.

[BrianC]

EDIT: speaking of SegaScope 3-D there is another shooter for 3D, Blade Eagle 3-D.

There's also that Line of Fire game I mentioned as well. I found the code for the 3D mode at gamefaqs. Oddly enough, SMS Tributes/SEGA 8 Bit mentions the code, but doesn't list it.

Here's the code:
Hold button 1 and 2 while pressing power

[Ed Oscuro]

Strike Bomber Raid from your "play this before you die" lists. Horrible game.

Some good games in there still however (isn't Action Fighter mostly a scrolling beat-em-up though?), like Cloud Master, Power Strike (although faster on MSX I heard), Cloud Master, FZ, Power Strike II. I bet R-Type and Sagaia are pretty decent too. Satellite-7 I haven't heard of so I'll check that out.

[D]

Bomber raid is not so bad. This is the SMS we are talking about.
I have a love for my first console too.
Still waiting for a reasonably priced Japanese SMS.

[Riot Zone]

Man I loved Bomber Raid!! I could make to the last level on my first life with max Firepower. Only thing I didn't like is once you get killed and lose that firepower your pretty much toast.

[Herr Schatten]

Is Line of Fire really a shmup? I always was under the impression that it's a light gun game.

Never heard of Satellite 7. Is it any good?

[BrianC]

Is Line of Fire really a shmup? I always was under the impression that it's a light gun game.

Never heard of Satellite 7. Is it any good?

The arcade Line of Fire is a light gun game, but the SMS one is a shmup. That link in the first post has a screen and there are some more screens here.

I haven't played Satellite 7, but it's a MyCard game and it sounds a bit simplistic from the description at SMS Tributes. From what I heard, JP Mark III card games aren't playable on standard western SMS1s with the card slot (though the card will fit), but are playable on a western Genesis/Megadrive with the Power Base Converter. Games using the SG-1000/SC-3000 mode won't work since its compatibility was removed from the Genesis/Megadrive, but from what I read at the sega8bit.com forums, Satellite 7 is not one of those games and will work on a US/EU Power Base Converter. It's also included on one of the Brazilian SMS systems with the built in games (which also includes some other JP games like Woody Pop and Machine Gun Joe).

[professor ganson]

Sega Master System is probably the most underrated console

I dunno. I find the controllers for the system worthless, so I sold my system a while back.

[BrianC]

Sega Master System is probably the most underrated console

I dunno. I find the controllers for the system worthless, so I sold my system a while back.

Genesis/Megadrive controllers can be used with most games, and they can be modded for the games that can't use them. Unfortunately, one of the games that can't be used with the Genesis/Megadrive controllers is a shmup (Bomber Raid).

Right now, the only stock SMS controllers I have, aside from the light phaser, are two control sticks. They are oddly designed (stick on the right and buttons on the left) and seem to be a bit sensitive, but they seem alright and I might just need to get used to them. I have been playing my games mostly with the official MD/Genesis three button pad with the uncolored letters on the buttons. I like the feel of it better than the red letter model.

I only have a few games, but so far, I have to agree that it's underrated. I was pleasantly surprised by Gain Ground, Kenseiden, and Fantasy Zone. Choplifter, Hang On/Safari Hunt, and Land of Illusion are good stuff. I'm not too far in Zillion yet, but I'm enjoying it so far. I also like the SMS Ys so far, but I heard it's better on other systems.

[Shatterhand]

Sagaia is horrible, but R-Type is pretty good.

Power Strike while good, pales when compared to the original MSX version (Aleste).

[BrianC]

Sagaia is horrible

What changed your mind on Sagaia? I remember you liking it in a previous thread.

Do you have that SMS 3 with the built in games? If so, what are your impressions of Satellite 7?

I can't believe I forgot about Sapo Xulé: S.O.S. Lagoa Poluida, the graphical hack of Astro Warrior. It seems Transbot was renamed in Brazil as well. "Nuclear Creature"?

(isn't Action Fighter mostly a scrolling beat-em-up though?)

This is definitely a shmup.

As far as exclusives go, I think these shmups are exclusive to SMS:
Aerial Assault (different from the Game Gear one)
Astro Flash/Transbot/Nuclear Creature (arcade Astro Flash/Transformer is different)
Astro Warrior/Sapo Xulé: S.O.S. Lagoa Poluida
Blade Eagle 3D
Bomber Raid
Line of Fire (arcade version is different and not a shmup)
Power Strike II (different from GG Power Strike II)
Satellite-7
Submarine Attack

FZ II is off since it was ported to Famicom. Action Fighter and SDI/Global Defense are off since they are arcade ports.

[Herr Schatten]

I find the controllers for the system worthless, so I sold my system a while back.

Get one of those SG Commander pads. They are not easy to come by, but are usually very inexpensive. They have a NES-style d-pad and are very responsive. They also have built-in rapid fire for both buttons. The SG Commander is probably the best choice for gaming with the Master System, as it works perfectly with all games that refuse to work with an MD controller.

Sagaia is horrible

It's okay-ish. It's a very ambitious effort, but in places, it's just more than the SMS can handle. The last level of the uppermost route in particular is a flicker fest that'll make your eyes water. Add the fact that, after all, the original is just boring old Darius II with its run-of-the-mill level design and it's been severely downsized for the SMS (half of the content is missing), and you don't exactly have an amazing product.

[BrianC]

The GG Power Strike II recently got an unofficial hack port to SMS. I heard that it even detects region like the GG cart and will play as GG Aleste II on a JP SMS.

How is the epyx 500xj for SMS? I heard some good things, but I have the NES version of it and that version sucks. It looks cool, but the buttons are uncomfortable and the joystick is terrible at diagonals.

[Kollision]

Sagaia is horrible

It's okay-ish. It's a very ambitious effort, but in places, it's just more than the SMS can handle. The last level of the uppermost route in particular is a flicker fest that'll make your eyes water. Add the fact that, after all, the original is just boring old Darius II with its run-of-the-mill level design and it's been severely downsized for the SMS (half of the content is missing), and you don't exactly have an amazing product.

What do you mean by "just boring old Darius II"? That it's a bad game???
Tsc tsc...

[tsuruki]

Some of them are absolutely outdate .I don't know why I feel that way,but that thought basiclly obsessed me after I have experienced a lot of recent title in next generation system.

Anyway,I proudly respect on our nostalgic feeling when being turned back to the past by that game.

[Herr Schatten]

What do you mean by "just boring old Darius II"? That it's a bad game???

"Bad" is too strong a word, but if you strip all the novelty (multiple screens, giant robo-fish, branching paths), all that remains is a solid, yet fairly mediocre, game with painfully bland level design and uninspired enemy waves. The series picked up a bit with Gaiden and then G-Darius, but the earlier games are as generic as shmups can possibly get. (Strictly talking about the gameplay, of course, I like giant mechanical versions of aquatic creatures as much as the next guy.)

[Shatterhand]

Sagaia is horrible

What changed your mind on Sagaia? I remember you liking it in a previous thread.

Do you have that SMS 3 with the built in games? If so, what are your impressions of Satellite 7?

I can't believe I forgot about Sapo Xulé: S.O.S. Lagoa Poluida, the graphical hack of Astro Warrior. It seems Transbot was renamed in Brazil as well. "Nuclear Creature"?

This:

It's okay-ish. It's a very ambitious effort, but in places, it's just more than the SMS can handle. The last level of the uppermost route in particular is a flicker fest that'll make your eyes water. Add the fact that, after all, the original is just boring old Darius II with its run-of-the-mill level design and it's been severely downsized for the SMS (half of the content is missing), and you don't exactly have an amazing product.

I actually had excellent memories from the game. Other day I fired it up for a local competition, and saw how my memory was fucking with me. The game is horrible. That last level Herr Schatten says its not just a flicker fest, most of the enemies just go INVISIBLE for 90% of the time, and you have to dodge invisible shit and pray for god to not die. The game is stupidly slow most of the time, and the original Darius II wasn't a very brilliant game at all.

I have 2 SMS3, one with Alex Kidd and the other one with Sonic. So no, no fancy games for me.

Transbot is renamed "Nuclear Creature" only on the box and on the cartridge label, the title screen still says "Transbot" (Much like "My Hero" was renamed to "Gang's Fighter" or "California Games" to "Jogos de Verão", yet all they retain their original names on the title screen).

[BrianC]

Thanks for the info on Sagaia. I think I'll pass on it and get something like Bomber Raid instead. Scramble Spirits also looks decent and seems to be one of the only 2p shmups on the system (seems 2p was removed for the SDI port, though Global Defense still looks like a unique and interesting shmup). I also plan to get Power Strike II, but the hard part is finding it. R-Type also sounds like good stuff. Power Strike looks like it might be worth picking up if I can find one that's not too expensive, but the MSX one does sound better. FZII also looks like one worth picking up, though, from what I heard, the PSG in that game is especially terrible compared to the FM sound.

I have 2 SMS3, one with Alex Kidd and the other one with Sonic. So no, no fancy games for me.

At least you can play Micro Machines on it. I heard it won't even play on some models of the SMS1. Funny how you guys got our SMS2 as the SMS3 and the Alex Kidd SMS1s as the SMS2.

Transbot is renamed "Nuclear Creature" only on the box and on the cartridge label, the title screen still says "Transbot" (Much like "My Hero" was renamed to "Gang's Fighter" or "California Games" to "Jogos de Verão", yet all they retain their original names on the title screen).

Interesting. Is "Dragon Maze" (Bubble Bobble) like that as well?

Some good games in there still however (isn't Action Fighter mostly a scrolling beat-em-up though?), like Cloud Master, Power Strike (although faster on MSX I heard), Cloud Master, FZ, Power Strike II. I bet R-Type and Sagaia are pretty decent too. Satellite-7 I haven't heard of so I'll check that out.

Cloud Master is so nice, you mention it twice?

[Ed Oscuro]

Cloud Master is so nice, you mention it twice?

Guess I did...the only version I have of it is on the X68000 though.

[Shatterhand]

Yeah, Dragon Maze is Bubble Bobble on the title screen.

Tec Toy fucked up some stuff, but they were an excellent company back at that time.

Nowadays they are a big screw up and their Zeebo console is a joke. Everything they do nowadays is a joke.

[Herr Schatten]

Inspired by this thread, I got me a copy of Submarine Attack off ebay for an incredible 3.95€. I'm glad I didn't pay more, because the game is quite terrible.

It reminds me a lot of Deep Blue for PCE, although it's not nearly as difficult. In fact, Submarine Attack is laughably easy: There's seldom more than two enemies on screen, and you can shoot 90% of all enemy fire, which gives you little incentive to dodge anything. (Indestructable enemy bullets look exactly like destructable ones, btw.) Your ship can take two hits before you lose a life. Since you instantly respawn, this gives you the equivalent of 9 lives from the get-go. Additionally, you can pick up "Health"-powerups, which repair all damage you might have taken on your current life.

Graphics are fairly good. The backgrounds look nice, although it's not easy to tell obstacles from mere background graphics. Luckily, you are allowed to touch obstacles. The sprites look a little primitive, but they are allright. Bosses' looks range from ridiculous (stage 3) to actually pretty cool (stage 4). The music is nerve-wreckinly annoying. Sound effects are almost nonexistent.

Your ship shoots two kinds of projectiles when you press the two buttons on your control pad respectively. The main shot goes straight to the right, but it spawns a little below the middle of your ship, which is a bit annoying. The second projectile is fired in a strange arc upwards that makes it all but impossible to hit anything except by chance. The level design is bad to the point that it seems almost random. The difficulty ramps up in stage 4 quite suddenly, because cheap attacks start popping up: Enemies move in erratic and totally unpredictable patterns and take a truckload of hits, or they materialize right on top of you (!). On my first try, I got to the boss of stage 4 (the game has 6 stages in total). There, I couldn't find the weak spot I was supposed to hit and lost my remaining lives because rocks that fell from the boss room's ceiling strangely kept materializing in the middle of the screen directly in my ship.

[BrianC]

Inspired by this thread, I got me a copy of Submarine Attack off ebay for an incredible 3.95€. I'm glad I didn't pay more, because the game is quite terrible.

It reminds me a lot of Deep Blue for PCE, although it's not nearly as difficult. In fact, Submarine Attack is laughably easy: There's seldom more than two enemies on screen, and you can shoot 90% of all enemy fire, which gives you little incentive to dodge anything. (Indestructable enemy bullets look exactly like destructable ones, btw.) Your ship can take two hits before you lose a life. Since you instantly respawn, this gives you the equivalent of 9 lives from the get-go. Additionally, you can pick up "Health"-powerups, which repair all damage you might have taken on your current life.

Graphics are fairly good. The backgrounds look nice, although it's not easy to tell obstacles from mere background graphics. Luckily, you are allowed to touch obstacles. The sprites look a little primitive, but they are allright. Bosses' looks range from ridiculous (stage 3) to actually pretty cool (stage 4). The music is nerve-wreckinly annoying. Sound effects are almost nonexistent.

Your ship shoots two kinds of projectiles when you press the two buttons on your control pad respectively. The main shot goes straight to the right, but it spawns a little below the middle of your ship, which is a bit annoying. The second projectile is fired in a strange arc upwards that makes it all but impossible to hit anything except by chance. The level design is bad to the point that it seems almost random. The difficulty ramps up in stage 4 quite suddenly, because cheap attacks start popping up: Enemies move in erratic and totally unpredictable patterns and take a truckload of hits, or they materialize right on top of you (!). On my first try, I got to the boss of stage 4 (the game has 6 stages in total). There, I couldn't find the weak spot I was supposed to hit and lost my remaining lives because rocks that fell from the boss room's ceiling strangely kept materializing in the middle of the screen directly in my ship.

ouch. Sounds like a good one to avoid. Thanks for the impressions.

One thing that's interesting about the SMS Cloud Master/Chuka Taisen is that, AFAIK, it wasn't released in Japan. It seems to have been planned for Japan since the title changes to Chuka Taisen when played on a MD/Genesis with SMS adapter in Japanese mode and it has FM sound built in.

[Specineff]

Funny also how Bomber Raid has a sleek Blackbird/Firefox-looking jet on the cover, but you end up with something that looks like a propeller-driven Spitfire or Thunderbolt. I would have settled for a Shinden.