Hardest Shmups?

[Volteccer_Jack]

Even though I'm pretty bad at shmups, my favorites all seem to be the ridiculously impossible ones: Dimahoo, Gradius 3 (arcade/PS2, not the lame SNES version), Image Fight, Flying Shark. I have difficulty even reaching the third stage in some of these games, but they're such fun that I just can't help it.

So what are the most brutal, likely-to-kill-me-in-the-first-stage shmups out there? I'm particularly interested in the NES/Famicom, because my friend showed me Recca the other day, and that completely blew my mind.

[Bananamatic]

Touhou

[KAI]

Touhou 14 Black Label.

[Op Intensify]

Gunbird 2, Rezon, Gallop, R-Type III (Stage 4 in particular), Pink Sweets, the 1942 series, Garegga/Batrider/Bakraid (score), Silvergun/Ikaruga (score), probably a lot of C64 and Amiga games.

Image Fight isn't so bad with autofire. Dimahoo is only bad when playing for score.

Mahou Daisakusen gives me a hell of a time despite that it hands out extra bombs like candy. Probably has to do with the lack of point-blank bullet "sealing." Shippu is also brutal if going for a high race score, since you always have to stick near the top of the screen.

[sunburstbasser]

Try the Tatsujin games. Tatsujin Oh is the hardest Toaplan shmup I know of.

Metal Black doesn't start off too hard, but ramps up big by the third level.

[Op Intensify]

Tatsujin Oh is the hardest Toaplan shmup I know of.

The original Tatsujin is worse, even moreso without autofire. The sequel at least waits until after the first midboss to walk all over you. You also have stronger weapons, a faster ship and a full-screen bomb. It doesn't go as far as the original in stacking everything against the player.

Darius Gaiden will have broken most players by the time they reach Electric Fan, especially if they don't know that mashing/autofire increases your attack power (it's not really obvious).

[KAI]

Metal Black is stupidly easy.

Gun Frontier whitout autofire, Garegga without Gain, Pinksweets whitout the infinite lives bug.

[Op Intensify]

Let me add Eight Forces to the list of hard shmups made exponentially easier by autofire.

Lethal Thunder should go at the top of that list.

[xbl0x180]

Paperboy !



I dunno... maybe Sky Soldiers. The stages are short, but, god damn, I used to get killed on it real fast, which is why I only played it a few times and gave up

[njiska]

See: Yagawa

[Moniker]

Raiden, Raiden II, Raiden III, Raiden IV. Have at 'em.

Also Ketsui.

Can't think of any famously hard NES shmups... although I don't think I've made it through one stage of Twinbee. Not a difficulty issue, tho. Gradius II is pretty hard and is a good port. Tatsujin/Truxton and V-V on GEN/SMD are harder than the arcade, and Raiden for PCE. Less screen real estate, less time to react.

[sunburstbasser]

Tatsujin on Genny gives you built-in autofire. Balances it out a bit.

[ChainsawGuitarSP]

Darius Gaiden will have broken most players by the time they reach Electric Fan, especially if they don't know that mashing/autofire increases your attack power (it's not really obvious).

How to beat Electric Fan
Step 1: stream yellow bullets
Step 2: safespot blue bullets @ top-right corner
Step 3: safespot green bullets @ top-left corner

No mashing required.

To answer the OP's question: Twin Cobra on Sega Genesis. For the NES, there's also a competent port of Star Force. Wouldn't say it's the hardest, but it's one of the better shmups on the system.

[jepjepjep]

Same! Same! Same!/Fire Shark is absolutely brutal from the get go, but also totally awesome.

[Despatche]

yes, same! same! same! (arcade) is exactly what you're looking for. specifically, the 1p version.

many psikyo games are good picks; give dragon blaze in particular a shot.

dimahoo isn't too hard until your multiplier gets particularly high.

flying shark isn't hard at all to start, i improvised my way to the stage 5 boss after a few tries and i'm no good at these games (especially older ones).

raiden iii and iv aren't too bad actually, unless of course you jack up the difficulty or go running around in iv's loop 2.

tatsujin for the md may have a smaller screen size (not that "reaction" has much to do with anything), but it's still an easier game. compare to the pc engine version, for example.

however, i can understand grind stormer/v-v, especially with certain removed graphics/flickering/etc; it's one of those "why would i play this port when i can play the original" games (not to mention the weak parts in american cartridges).

[ancestral-knowledge]

i can only name games that i have actually tried:

R-Type 2
Ibara
Mushihimesama Futari Ultra 1.01

[Observer]

Throw another point for Gradius III. That thing is designed to kill you and once it's Game Over, you're f*cked. Gotta start all over! Recovery after death is also rough as hell mostly...

I always take into account that because a game can be cheap and kill you at many points but when the game not only kills you, but also has horrid checkpoints right exactly after the worst parts and the recovery after death is just one point for your measly pea shooter (on top of going back most certainly the default ass-speed), god damn, we got ourselves a candidate for hardest shmup!

[FIL]

Official Shmups.com Skill Test Death Label+
Darius, for all the wrong reasons.
Later Psikyo games.

[shmuppyLove]

Paperboy !

Damn you stole my answer

Strikers 1999

[Jeneki]

I dunno... maybe Sky Soldiers. The stages are short, but, god damn, I used to get killed on it real fast, which is why I only played it a few times and gave up

Interesting thing about Sky Soldier: The game has some kind of anti-autofire rank that increases boss toughness based on how fast you're shooting. This is seen as early as the first boss (the snake helicoptor thingie). Playing with no autofire, I can normally destroy it in 3 or so passes. Next trying it with max autofire and holding it down the whole level. Even with a solid stream of bullets hitting the boss, it suddenly takes me around 12-15 passes to beat. That's just crazy.

[FRO]

Same! Same! Same!/Fire Shark is absolutely brutal from the get go, but also totally awesome.

Not the brutal NES port though, that game just hands me my butt every time.

And damnit if I don't love me some Strikers 1945 II on my Saturn, but that game taunts me so. I've had it for well over 10 years now but I just can't seem to make much of any headway

[RaidenViper]

PC Engine version of Tatsujin is impossible.

[dunpeal2064]

PC Engine version of Tatsujin is impossible.

It sure feels like it. So much more difficult than the PCB

[R79]

Ibara and DDP DOJ on PS2 totally crush me. I've just got Strikers 1945 II set up on a big, flipped telly at the moment, and it feels way faster and harder than I remember other Psikyo games I thought it would be easier on such a big screen lol
Ikaruga as well for Xbox, downloaded that, but never play it, and found it rock to get anywhere score-wise when I had it on Dreamcast. It's a hard genre you could say, but the graphics, firepower and sound always keep me coming back

[MSZ]

Another vote for Gradius III

[EmperorIng]

Another vote for Gradius III

In every shmup I've ever played, there was at least this sense that I was getting better, learning the game, and making progress.
This feeling does not exist in Gradius III.
There is only pain. And death. And bubbles.

[Op Intensify]

Gradius III Arcade is a game for technical monkeys only.

It's the Super Mario Bros 2 (JPN) of Konami shooters.

[powersoul]

Star Force/Mega Force

[Ed Oscuro]

X-Multiply

[Smraedis]

Certain routes in Darius and Darius 2 are really nasty.
I'd add Border Down too.