Android Shmups : List of Decency

[Matskat]

Hello.

I'm a big fan of Android, and since the beginning I've been searching for shmups that are worth a shit.

Here is my current list of "Android Shmups Worth a Shit" :

Dodonpachi Resurrection
Espgaluda II
Advent Rush HD
R-Type
Icarus-X
Blazing Star
Sky Force
Sky Force Reloaded
Magical Cannon Wars
Shogun
Danmaku Death
Battle Squadron ONE
Nokogi Rider FULL
Deathsmiles
Mushihimesama Bug Panic
Techno Trancer
Ikaruga


Honorable Mention (but not really worth their weight in shit):
Air Attack HD
Raiden Force
Robo Shooter
Magical Magic
Sonic Wings Special
Hello Alice
Enborn X


It's a boring day at work, so I figured I'd throw this list out...anybody got any additions?

Let's hear 'em!

[DJ Incompetent]

These are just bags of hope really

EnbornX
Outzone
Moon Cresta
Pew Pew 2 (arena)
Sleepy Jack (tube)
Cho Aniki 0
Centipede Origins
Super Laser
iFighter

[Despatche]

i'm sure sonic wings special is better than most of these other games or ports

android is completely useless for anything but a cheap "new" phone, even windows phone with dodonpachi maximum is more interesting as far as gaming goes

This is the epitome of "muh games".

i actually had to google that... no, it's not, at all. apparently you have NO idea what android (or open source) is. no, ios is not nearly as "locked down" as you think; no, android is not nearly as "free" as you think.

even in 2014, pretty much everything on android can also be acquired on an iphone (with less bugs), and still the only real difference between the two is that iphones have a higher price tag. i hate the idea of getting an iphone at all, i really hate the idea of getting one for some games, and i absolutely hate the idea that people want this garbage future... and i can still say what i'm saying.

[Shimatora]

Danmaku Death

Holy crap, I'm not the only westerner who has this game.

[trap15]

i'm sure sonic wings special is better than most of these other games or ports

android is completely useless for anything but a cheap "new" phone, even windows phone with dodonpachi maximum is more interesting as far as gaming goes

[TodayIsForgotten]

Xelorians. Fun little game. Might not be the most innovative but it sure does kill some time.

icarusx and blastosis invasion are two games i never got to but looked decent.

[gs68]

DaiFukkatsu and Esp2, if their trial versions are of any indication, seem pretty faithful to the iOS versions. Except for the stupid wrapper program I have to run to run those games.

Then again I generally don't like playing shmups on my phone, due to my phone's tendancy to have the screen go apeshit, not to mention the matter of my phone turning into a battery-eating portable griddle.

[Matskat]

Ah I forgot to mention Enborn X...not a bad title...kind of like Warning Forever in that the bosses precedurally generate and you can take them apart piece by piece.

Oh...and the graphics are pretty well done too...

[OBSCVRA]

Just got this last night

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... lan.SHOT04

NOKOGI Rider

its excellent, there is a lite version there too

[Nick420]

Raiden legacy.
Although it seemed laggy on my gf nexus 7

[Bananamatic]

Raiden legacy.
Although it seemed laggy on my gf nexus 7

everything is laggy while 420

[Bee Cool]

android is completely useless for anything but a cheap "new" phone

This is the epitome of "muh games".

[Necronom]

Put some time into Vritra lately...not bad overall:
http://salvo.jp/app/vritra/en/

[Keith]

Danmaku Death is what got me into trying out touchscreen danmaku, now that I have an Android device that doesn't collapse under its own weight. The pricetag (or lack thereof) certainly made it all the more attractive, too.
The throwable shield is an interesting addition, and the input for it isn't painful (tap anywhere else on the screen while you're sliding yourself around). I hope you're comfortable with point-blanking absolutely everything though, at least if you want to have a shot at the leaderboards. (which are dominated by JP/KR players)

The few Cave ports that made it over to Android (DDP DFK/Resurrection and Espgaluda II) play nicely enough, once you get past the useless (and completely ignorable) social gaming wrapper they've been encased in. Ikaruga's in the same boat, since GMO also published the mobile port for it. However, Ikaruga on Android doesn't have the same level of attention that Cave puts into their mobile ports, so it falls short in comparison.


Part of me wonders why Cave hasn't brought more of their mobile ports over to Android. I'd guess it has something to do with GMO, or the relationship they have/had with Cave.
Another part of me wonders just how much effort GMO put into the Android ports of Espgaluda II and DFK and whether that process could be applied to the data for other iOS ports. Of course, going further down that road leads to really questionable stuff. ...which my curious self just had to poke at.
For the hell of it, I decided to take a look inside the .apk (Android app) and .ipa (iOS app) files for Espgaluda II to see just how different they were internally. Unsurprisingly, they're different as hell. Who would've guessed?
As an interesting aside, GMO's Android ports use something called Vivid Runtime. Thanks to this, you wind up with things like g_ESP2_FULL.exe sitting in the data folder. Indeed, that 6.24 MB file is what contains the actual game program.


Regrettably, my phone has turned into some unholy combination Twitter/danmaku/pinball machine. Can't even tell it's a phone anymore. Poor thing.

[casualcoder]

I don't know if gaming suffers from the same lag issues as audio does with android devices but I do know that there are not many serious audio production apps on android vs iOS because of the lag issues. It could be that devs like Cave, which have a reputation to uphold seeing that they still make new games, arent porting to android for those reasons(???)

[shmuppyLove]

I wouldn't say it's a "lag" issue with the OS strictly speaking ... I believe the major difference is that Apple has special low-level libraries specifically designed to handle audio, and of course their hardware is highly standardized which makes this fairly trivial.

[Keith]

I don't think that the audio latency is as much of a showstopper for these games as it is for rhythm games or music production apps. Granted, audio cues are still important, but I tend to only really notice it in rhythm games or when mashing on a virtual piano. If it really is that big of a concern, Jelly Bean, which should eventually start seeing higher adoption rates, did introduce low-latency audio support.

[sharpfork2]

Thanks for the list.
Can anyone point out better titles that work with either USB keyboard or USB HID/joystick input? I have USB on my tablet and HATE onscreen controls.

It is worth noting that Andorid emulators are getting better if you have the horsepower:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLQeclf ... IvzltTbTjs

[shmuppyLove]

It is worth noting that Andorid emulators are getting better if you have the horsepower:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLQeclf ... IvzltTbTjs

QFT, check out RetroArch

[asu_tenan]

Just tried espgaluda 2 and ddp ressurection, that games so awesome, ridiculously though, i thinkthe ddp smartphone mode is harder than arcade mode lol.

Put some time into Vritra lately...not bad overall:
http://salvo.jp/app/vritra/en/

didn't like it, its looks so slow paced and the control is so crappy and lil bit slow for my 1ghz android, need to clock up my phone till 1.5ghz to get it smooth lol

Thanks for the list.
Can anyone point out better titles that work with either USB keyboard or USB HID/joystick input? I have USB on my tablet and HATE onscreen controls.

you can try emulate mame on your droid, then set the input to your usb keyboard. I once tried emulating dodonpachi + crappy bluetooth keyboard, man that was hardcore!

[Keith]

On a related note, I wonder if there's an Android port of MAME that employs the same relative movement controls that these other mobile shmups have. That'd be nifty. Even more nifty if it's based on 0.143u8/9.

[sharpfork2]

It is worth noting that Andorid emulators are getting better if you have the horsepower:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLQeclf ... IvzltTbTjs

QFT, check out RetroArch

The video I posted is retroarch launching final burn. Retro arch is cool as a multi platform set of emus that also runs on multi platforms. I think it is very promising. I know I can set my KADE based fight stick as either keyboard or HID gamepad and have great android gameplay in emulators, I've tried it. I really want to try at least one native android port that has known external control support.

[Shin]

Errrr. WTF. Am I the only one having EspGaluda II freeze on me every single time bullets are generated from kakusei zesshikkai?
What's the f*cking point of this port seriously?

[Necronom]

Android versions of Deathsmiles and Mushihimesama Bug Panic have been released! Just tried the lite version of Deathsmiles on my Nexus 4...runs buttery smooth and graphicswise it looks much better than the rather "washed out" graphics of Galuda 2 and Dodon Resurrection.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

On a related note, I wonder if there's an Android port of MAME that employs the same relative movement controls that these other mobile shmups have. That'd be nifty. Even more nifty if it's based on 0.143u8/9.

It's not a question of controls, it's an issue of the game not being designed for relative movement controls. You'd actually need to reprogram the shmup itself to support a trackball style movement or something, because the way they're made they're designed to accept digital controls (on/off) and move at fixed velocities when you push up/down/left/right, depending on what shot type you're using, etc.

I'm pretty sure the iOS/Android Cave ports had to have their controller programming modified to support the touchscreen which probably isn't a trivial hack (if you were planning to do such a thing for use in MAME).

[trap15]

I'd been messing around with such a thing a year or so ago. It's honestly not all that hard to hack it in, but I gave up when I remembered how ass-slow MAME is, and how I'd never get it running full-speed on any of my Android/iOS devices.

[Oniros]

Android versions of Deathsmiles and Mushihimesama Bug Panic have been released! Just tried the lite version of Deathsmiles on my Nexus 4...runs buttery smooth and graphicswise it looks much better than the rather "washed out" graphics of Galuda 2 and Dodon Resurrection.

Awesome, it's only a matter of time for the other iOS Cave shmups to reach the Play store then!

[Vetus]

Μy favourite Android shmup which are also from the best ones are Nokogi Rider and Super Star Shooter (which was previously a homebrew shmup for formats like GBA).

[Necronom]

...and another one for the list: Super Crossfire
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... rehdtmpaid

Space Invaders with a genius twist and superb controls...for those few that haven't already played it to death on the PC

[Oniros]

I think we can safely assume that Danmaku Unlimited 2 belongs here.