What secret animals are there in shmups?

[brook4]

Dodonpachi has bees, Radiant silvergun has those dogs that bark, Batsugun has those pigs, Gunbird2 has the jar heads, Garegga has pelicans but I'm not sure if that counts

what other shmups have secret animals/creatures/items you uncover?

[Obiwanshinobi]

Not hidden, but there's a cow in the original Raiden's first stage and there are flamingoes in Sonic Wings Special (Mato Grosso).

[emphatic]

Outzone has the Toaplan mascot hidden in stage 1.

[KAI]

Pinksweets has birds (flamingos? doves? who knows).
The Ibara cows aren't hidden but they rule

[ciox]

Pinksweets has birds (flamingos? doves? who knows).
The Ibara cows aren't hidden but they rule

Those cows are in Garegga too, stage2, extremely hard to see and invulnerable unlike say the Under Defeat ones. (it's merely flamingo season I guess)
Anyway there aren't that many hidden animals in these games I don't think, powerup icons and background art sure.

[Ruldra]

Playing Carrier Airwing recently, I found a cow, a rabbit and a snowman hidden throughout the levels.

[Crafty+Mech]

1943 has lots of hidden cows!

[BIL]

Gunbird2 has the jar heads, Garegga has pelicans but I'm not sure if that counts

Easy examples from those two: Dragon Blaze's coin-spewing golden idols and Batrider's flamingos in the first stage.

The little Capcom cow appears in loads of their games from the mid-80s right up to at least Strider 2. It's in Gun.Smoke as well (maybe that was its debut?). "Holstein" is its name afaik. Other commonly recurring Capcom mascot-icons here.

[ratikal]

Milk the flamingos and pigs! Does anyone realize how silly this sounds? My friends always give me weird looks whenever I try to explain mechanics to one of these games.

[BIL]

Oh yeah, there's Trizeal's bonus Dragons in its first stage. Will probably be more of a nasty surprise than a secret if you don't know what you're getting into.

[Herr Schatten]

Oh yeah, there's Trizeal's bonus Dragons in its first stage. Will probably be more of a nasty surprise than a secret if you don't know what you're getting into.

In Trizeal, there's also an appearance of Gamera in stage 3. I'm not sure giant flying turtles count as animals in the sense of the OP, though.

[jepjepjep]

not secret, but Fire Shark has some cool sharks swimming in the water.

[EllertMichael]

If you're a hidden animal lover, you owe it to yourself to play Blue Hawk.
Power up that ricochet ball shot and enjoy meeting a variety of new friends.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

There's a hidden cow to be found in the classic Capcom's HyperDyne Sidearms PCB on both the original JPN and International versions circa 1986. Even the Romstar USA version of SA PCB with the "Licensed to Romstar from Capcom" text has the hidden cow feature as well (but it wasn't officially distributed stateside until the Spring of 1987 as a Jamma PCB conversion kit complete with a backlit full-sized marquee indeed). If you have a really sharp eye for detail, you'll even notice a sly Gorgon creature tribute (ala Nausicaa) in one background scenery as well. How cool is that? Plus a bit of that Super Dimensional Fortress Macross related small-fry enemies added in for good measure (and overall sprite eye-candy) certainly doesn't hurt.

Am quite familiar with the Romstar version of SA PCB indeed as it was a local arcade shmup staple in the spring of 1988 and into 1989-1990. "Bring down Bozon once & for all."

I'm surprised that Capcom never has made a proper Sidearms sequel to this very day...why not do so?

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Ed Oscuro]

There's a hidden cow to be found in the classic Capcom's HyperDyne Sidearms PCB on both the original JPN and International versions circa 1986.

Finally somebody tracked it back to its source!

Well, possibly the kind of idea for these things goes back to Vugus and even to SonSon, which has many hidden items (I don't think any of them are animals though).

[BIL]

There's a hidden cow to be found in the classic Capcom's HyperDyne Sidearms PCB on both the original JPN and International versions circa 1986.

Finally somebody tracked it back to its source!

Gun.Smoke was 1985, I think it may be Holstein's Patient Zero. ;3

[Ed Oscuro]

Oh, eh, I forget about that. Interesting how much Capcom fiddled around with "buttons that change shot direction" back then, only to abandon it completely soon after.

[Aleksei]

Pink Sweets has birds that come out of trees when bomb-a'd. Progear (not hidden) has birds that fly out of the woods before the first stage boss fight.

[Vamos]

Under defeat has those cows at beginning of stage 1 you can ham roll.

[Bananamatic]

Space Phallus has a dog head

[ookitarepanda]

I think Deathsmiles has a cow in it.

[Skykid]

There are some pigs in Muchi Muchi Pork afaik.

[Furry Fox Jet Pilot]

I can't believe no one mentioned the miclus from the Raiden games, and also in Raiden DX, right before you fight the Training Stage boss tank, you can see birds scattering away from the impending danger. Also, this is not a shmup, but in Ace Combat 5, you can find polar bears and a snowman in the mission where you battle the Hrimfaxi submarine.

[Crafty+Mech]

I can't believe no one mentioned the miclus from the Raiden games, and also in Raiden DX, right before you fight the Training Stage boss tank, you can see birds scattering away from the impending danger. Also, this is not a shmup, but in Ace Combat 5, you can find polar bears and a snowman in the mission where you battle the Hrimfaxi submarine.

But what animal is a Miclus?

[Furry Fox Jet Pilot]

But what animal is a Miclus?

I believe it's some sort of little dragon.

[n0rtygames]

There are some pigs in Muchi Muchi Pork afaik.

Fuck sake man, don't spoil the easter eggs like that.

On a more serious note, there are some insects in the Mushi games if you look really closely.

[Jeneki]

Not hidden, but there's a cow in the original Raiden's first stage

You know you've played too many shmups when you nuke that cow just to see if there's a bonus.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

On a more serious note, there are some insects in the Mushi games if you look really closely.

And if you look really closely, there's some people riding the dragons, zomg!

Not quite related, but Progear has the only example of ventriloquism in a shmup I can think of.

[BrianC]

I know this isn't what the topic was about, but I was thinking hidden characters like the cat in Dangun Feveron, "big bird" in Caldarius, and Rabio Lepus in one of the Sonic Wings games. I was also thinking of the Dolphin in one of thr aero fighters/sonic wings games, but he isn't hidden.

I can't believe I forgot about Super Space Invaders '91. It has that bonus round where you try to save cows from UFOs.

[Aleksei]

Cows in Ge-Sen love plus Pengo's shmup skills test. I think it was a nod at Under Defeat.