Recommend good shmups for PS2?

[Square King]

I'm sure this has been discussed into the ground already, but I'm having issues with searching the forum, probably due to wonky IE here @ work. So far, I have Gradius V, R-Type Final and Taito Legends 2 for my US PS2. Anything else worth buying without going into external hard drives/Magic Swap/voodoo magic? Honestly, GV keeps me busy enough, but I'm always on the lookout for something new.

[Jockel]

Presented by Cave.
Screw US-Only shmups, get your voodoo magic going.

[Square King]

Yeah, had a feeling that was going to happen.

[BulletMagnet]

Indeed, to truly take advantage of the PS2's shmup library you'll have to import, but in the meantime Castle Shikigami 2 is a good domestic buy if you can track it down.

[PainAmplifier]

I'm sure this has been discussed into the ground already, but I'm having issues with searching the forum, probably due to wonky IE here @ work. So far, I have Gradius V, R-Type Final and Taito Legends 2 for my US PS2. Anything else worth buying without going into external hard drives/Magic Swap/voodoo magic? Honestly, GV keeps me busy enough, but I'm always on the lookout for something new.

Pickings are kinda slim, R-Type Final and Gradius V are pretty much the best shmups easily available for US/PS2 to my mind. That said, there are still a few more decent (and not so decent ones depending on your preferences) out there. Since your tastes may differ I'll just list the rest of the ones I have and a the general quick thought I had of them. (Take them with a grain of salt, I'm more on the casual side of shmups...if there ever is one.)

[Silpheed: The Lost Planet] This one should be pretty easy to find/get. It's a decent game overall, although it really seems to lack that overall flair/uniqueness to make it stand out. You can 'customize' your ship with different weapons between levels, but I never found this to be as exciting as it sounds. The weapons are pretty generic and so are the levels/enemies. The game is played in a classic 2D vertical style, although the levels/enemies are 3D. Somewhat like R-Type Final/Gradius V, but far less refined.

[Castle Shikigami 2] A bullet hell style shooter. It's main claim to fame seems to be it's emphasis on bullet 'scraping'. (What it calls a 'Tension Based' scoring system.) Again a mixed 2D/3D game, but the 3D backgrounds really have very little to no interaction with you and feel more like a background movie/wallpaper rather than a 'true level'. You have multiple 'characters' to choose from, each with unique attacks and alternate attack styles. The usability of many of those attacks is very debatable, but regardless of whether you take the 'easy' character or not, you can probably still play and enjoy the game enough to beat it. (Even if it takes all the earnable extended credits to do so.) I'm not a big fan of this game, but I found it decent and enjoyable enough to put enough hours in that I was able to 'beat' the game with enough earned credits and then go back and occasionally play it for kicks. Even if I have no desire to 1CC or even beat it again.

[Gradius III and IV] This is the 2-in-1 port of these two Gradius games. If you like the Gradius series and don't already have them for other platforms, this is a good way to get them.

[Raiden III] I honestly don't recommend this game at all. Not because it's bad. But because I think it's so boringly generic, I don't find it fun at all. It's solidly coded, but the enemies and levels are so bland and uninspiring it hardly feels like a Raiden title at all. In fact, the overabundance of cheap little 'gun turrets' in some of the levels had me thinking more of the old school Xevious game than the otherwise slick 2D/3D graphic engine would suggest. Looking back, the excessive use of black/grey for levels/enemies reminds me of the old cliches that surrounded the original quake for being too 'Brown'. If you find it super cheap like I did, it's worth enough to be a 'filler' game to round out your collection...but I'd check out youtube first before making any extra effort at finding a copy of the game.

[Capcom Classics Collection I] Worth noting for the inclusion of the 1942 series of games. (1942, 1943 and 1943 Kai) You also have Exed Exes, Forgotten Worlds, Legendary Wings and Section Z to round out the shooters included in this collection.

[Gekioh: Shooting King] This is actually a PS1 game, but it should be 100% playable on your PS2/PS3. A fun if not overly serious game. The only real complaint I have with this game is the lack of analog support, and the fact that the PS1/2/3 direction pad isn't that great for shooters. Worth looking for though.

[Midway Arcade Treasures] Contains such games as Defender, Joust, Sinistar, Satan's Hollow, etc. Not overly recommended, as the games are indeed a bit dated, even if the gameplay is still very classic. Worth picking up on the cheap though.

[Mobile Light Force 2] (AKA Castle Shikigami 1) This is a pretty infamous 'hack-n-port'. Horrible misnaming, re-scripting and just about every other 'porting' sin you can think of capped by some truly misleading and bad cover art. The balance in this game doesn't feel nearly as good as in the sequel, but it does seem to play a bit 'faster' overall. Almost everything I noted about Castle Shikigami 2 applies here as well, although there were a few character changes made. My main complaint against this game is there are a couple of spots with what I felt were very cheap, almost impossble to avoid deaths.

[clp]

Homura !!! assuming it had us release? it definitely had a pal one .

[BIL]

^Nope. The US completely missed out on all the Skonec and Psikyo stuff released in PAL (Homura, Psyvariar Complete, Dragon Blaze, Sengoku Ace, Sengoku Blade). Used to really burn my ass (I'm from an NTSCU region) until I discovered importing.

[EinhanderZwei]

Well, if the OP decides to use importing/swapping/voodoo, I'd propose 2 more games:

Hudson Selection: Star Soldier - surely, not be the best vert shooter out there, but it's a nice introduction to one of the greatest shmup franchises ever

DoDonPachi: Dai Ou Jou - possibly, the best installation in the DDP series, a sequel to the game that actually spawned the 'bullet hell' design style (including the zero background intercativity issue). It's a must-have that is worth going voodoo

[clp]

DoDonPachi: Dai Ou Jou - possibly, the best installation in the DDP series, a sequel to the game that actually spawned the 'bullet hell' design style (including the zero background intercativity issue). It's a must-have that is worth going voodoo

sorry what? have you heard of batsugun ?

[Jeneki]

Do you already have the PS1 shmups? PS2 will play PS1 games.

PS1 R-Types has arcade versions of R-Type 1 and 2.
PS1 Raiden Project has arcade versions of Raiden 1 and 2.
PS1 Einhander

Just off the top of my head. As with PS2 games, the vast majority are import-only.

[EinhanderZwei]

DoDonPachi: Dai Ou Jou - possibly, the best installation in the DDP series, a sequel to the game that actually spawned the 'bullet hell' design style (including the zero background intercativity issue). It's a must-have that is worth going voodoo

sorry what? have you heard of batsugun ?

I did. Since some say that it was just a precursor/inspiration/whatever, but not a first full-scale danmaku, and the fact that I've never palyed it, I'm not counting it - to avoid holywars

[Square King]

Appreciate the run-down, PainAmplifier et al. I forgot that I do have Shikigami 2 but haven't played it in ages.

It seems I'll have to work some voodoo to get the full shmup potential out of the PS2. I've always been resistant to voodoo because a) I still have some US stuff like Shadow of the Colossus I don't want to miss out on and b) PS2 and HDTV don't really mix well in my experience, even with component cables, thereby making the time/money investment not really worth it. I have lots of research to do for the voodoo...that I might do. Totally forgot about the PS1 compatibility -- Einhander and R-Type Delta always looked pretty cool.

[yyr]

The voodoo, if done correctly, will not prevent you from playing US games. It will just also allow you to play imports.

I have my PS2 hooked up via component to my HDTV and it looks fine to me...then again, I don't play too many shmups on that TV. I have a smaller CRT for that purpose. After all, I'm not putting my 40" LCD on its side. =)