Best Rail Shooters

[1983parrothead]

Some of the best known rail shooters I can think of are Space Harrier and several titles in the Star Fox franchise. Some that can be quite fun are the Sin & Punishment titles and Lucky & Wild. Some obscure ones include Metal Sight, Neural Gear, Iridion 3D and Star X. What are some of the best ones in your opinions?

[BIL]

The original Sin & Punishment is one of my favourite games ever, being Wild Guns + Starfox with superb rollercoaster stage design, an arsenal of immortally tricky bosses, arcade-concise runtime (and intensity, in Hard mode), and a surprisingly good scoring system. Only thing I'd add is a proper 2P cooperative mode. Was the only reason I had an N64 for years.

One of my fondest memories from any action game is going from struggling to kill Stage 2-2's Near Zero jetfighter before it'd time out, to smashing it up so quickly the camera angle had the next boss (a monstrous flying mech) come screaming in straight through its still-exploding wreckage.

[Some-Mist]

I never liked the original S&P on 64, but star successor is my absolute favorite game from last gen.
the only one (other than s&p) that I've had extensive playtime with is panzer dragoon orta... so I'm actually excited to see some other suggestions.

[KAI]

GAMERA 2000

[Jonst]

Afterburner and Rez.

[mamboFoxtrot]

GAMERA 2000

If only for dat Zuntata soundtrack...

Yeah, I like both the S&Ps, and played the hell out of Starfox 64 when I was younger.
For anyone interested in the SNES version, I think it might actually be better on emulator. On a real cart the game runs at about 3 FPS once you start hammering the shoot button.

The Cotton games on MD/Genesis and the Dreamcast were rail shooters, but I have no idea what anyone thinks of them.

A game I definitely wouldn't recommend is Yar's Revenge on the 360. From what I've played the stages are loooong, repetitive, and really damn boring. You can beat entire levels by just flying in circles.

[Zaarock]

For more recent releases Child of Eden is great. Gameplay and scoring are more interesting than Rez due to the rhythm game elements (can't think of anyone who would prefer the boss milking in Rez really). Hard mode and the extra stage have a lot of challenge just for survival.

Afterburner Climax is also excellent, it's pretty much got the dodonpachi chaining system and a hyper mode along with a rank system. A lot of fun to score attack in short bursts.

[M.Knight]

I like both Sin & Punishment games, and the second one made me buy a Wii for it, but I think that in the long run, the first is the most enjoyable one.
As you said it well BIL, the original S&P has intensity, plenty of cool bosses and levels, and an arcade-like length.

I think this latter point is important and was defintely lost in S&P2. While I understand that market conditions would not have been favorable to a retail 45 minutes/1-hour long game, not to mention the numerous ideas the Treasure guys had and wanted to put in the game, I think some of the stages in S&P 2 are simply way too long for their own good. Moreover, having to stay focused 2 hours for the full run hi-scores is very demanding. The excessive boss milking with 300 seconds timers is also detrimental to the fast pace and excellent rhythm the first game had. While the original had a bit of boss milking, it was never too much because the timer would give you 99 seconds at best.

One of my favorite parts of S&P1 is milking the planes that pop up alongside the 1-1 ninja boss (Colderon) on Hard Mode. Shooting the planes, roll-dodging the furious sword swipes and jumping attacks from the ninja and then double jumping to finish the planes with a sword attack as they get close to you is exciting! I think few bosses in S&P 2 manage to get that balance between length and excitement right. At first, when you discover a way to milk a boss, it is interesting and the feeling of discovery is pleasant as you gain a bunch of points from it, but it ends up being a chore when you have to do that and all the other previous "discoveries" every time you play the stage for score. And doing menial tasks in an arcade-like game is not a good thing. That said, the boss milking in S&P 2 can be challenging when it wants to. It is mostly way too long. Stage 5 from S&P2 is one of my favorites because it is fast and does not have any boss milking for instance.

About the scoring system, well, S&P1 does not have a very complicated system, but it fits well with the game. Shoot as many things as possible, do not get hit to not reset the point items value chain and defeat non-milkable bosses ASAP. S&P2's multiplier forces the level-design to throw tons of background popcorn ennemies at you after most bosses. Furthermore, you can not as easily pit the player against many bosses in succession as it was possible in the first game without creating a sudden difference in scores between those who can get through those fights unharmed and the others. For example, it is very frustrating to get hit just before the Stage 7 boss rush and know that all those bosses will be worth way less just because of that single mistake.

Well, that's enough ranting I guess. Maybe I'll save my complaints about Stage 6 for another time.
I do not regret buying S&P2 on release and greatly enjoyed it. It is just that it is more difficult to go back to it as regularly as its predecessor.

If only for dat Zuntata soundtrack...

I never played Gamera 2000 but this track is really great!

[Xyga]

One of my favorite parts in S&P is when you end up crossing swords with that white tuxedo guy and send him through the window with a good swing, HK action movie style.

Rename the thread 'Best Rail Shooters besides S&P', because no other rail shooter compares.
Yes, Standards & Poors rocks.

[M.Knight]

Oh yeah, that scene was awesome!
The first times I fought Brad in this melee fight, it got me so pumped-up I was "air-slashing" in rhythm with the sword clashes! Needless to say, I looked pretty stupid while doing that.
And even now, this fight feels exciting and intense even if it is not really difficult.

[BIL]

Of all the batshit awesome stuff that occurs over the game's course (gigantic monster duel in a literal ocean of blood, singlehanded destruction of an entire army via telekinetically improvised gunnery platform, the abomination-infested nightmare train), I think the #1 scene is...

Spoiler

chasing what's left of the once-hulking Spider Seemer into the back of the cafe and cooking him up on the stove.

I still can't believe that actually happens, haha. Bravura action game/movie direction!

[Kino]

.

[PAPER/ARTILLERY]

No mention of Panzer Dragoon Orta? That game is fucking rad.

[chempop]

Rez
Child of Eden
Panzer Dragoon 1, 2, and Orta
Sin and Punishment (N64)
Killer 7

Those are by far my favorite.

[evil_ash_xero]

Ranked from best to least best(but still awesome)

Sin and Punishment 2
Panzer Dragoon Orta
Star Fox 64
Sin and Punishment
Panzer Dragoon 2
Rez

Sin and Punishment 2 is kind of like the ultimate rail shooter though. It just has so much going on, and despite being on rails, you have so much freedom in your moves and attacks. It's sublime.

[chempop]

Even with the Wii mote? I don’t know if I could get into it.

[M.Knight]

While the Wiimote is not as comfortable as a "regular" controller because you have to move your wrist and can't position yourself as you want, it is still very playable and the speed and accuracy with which you point at ennemies can't be matched by the other controller options.
If you try it out, don't forget to map jump on the D-pad and Slash on C for a more convenient button set-up.

[Skykid]

You whippersnappers.

Sega's hydraulic RAIL CHASE: Madness formed entirely around Indy Temple of Doom's mine cart sequence, but an entire game of it, the most successful rollercoaster sim I ever played and you get to shoot the hell out of everything at the same time. Would love a cab. Would love to have space for a cab.

Sega's IN THE LINE OF FIRE: Twin mounted heavy machine guns strapped to a jeep as you wade into deep enemy occupied jungle and lay waste to anything you can see. Exploding towers, houses, people. The ultimate on rails Schwarzenegger sim.

[evil_ash_xero]

Even with the Wii mote? I don’t know if I could get into it.

It has the option to use a GameCube controller. That's how I play it.

[GaijinPunch]

No mention of Panzer Dragoon Orta? That game is fucking rad.

Straight up!

[Captain]

Aurail.

[Skykid]

Aurail.

...Is not a rail shooter.

[Captain]

You shoot a freaking rail gun, how is it not a rail shooter?!

It has rail in its name ffs.

[Skykid]

Your humour is spectacularly poor and increasingly grating.

[BrianC]

Sega's hydraulic RAIL CHASE: Madness formed entirely around Indy Temple of Doom's mine cart sequence, but an entire game of it, the most successful rollercoaster sim I ever played and you get to shoot the hell out of everything at the same time. Would love a cab. Would love to have space for a cab.

Part of me wants to play it, but I heard that it's impossible to beat without dying?

[Skykid]

^ No idea, probably. I used to play it in the arcade and a credit used to go a fair while. How would you play it now, Mame? What setup to control the crosshairs?

[BrianC]

^ No idea, probably. I used to play it in the arcade and a credit used to go a fair while. How would you play it now, Mame? What setup to control the crosshairs?

Oh ok. It was brought up in the credit munchers topic, along with Jurassic Park. That's a good point. I was thinking if I somehow ran into it at an arcade while on vacation. I have played Jurassic Park. It was kind of fun, but the joysticks didn't seem ideal for moving crosshairs in a rail shooter.

I wish Kid Icarus had an all rail shooter mode. Those stages are seriously fun and are good enough to stand on their own.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I loved Smashteroid, an MS-DOS remake of the Intellivision game Astrosmash with some modern features. It still has a Classic mode, but now has a couple soundtracks, a main game with several bosses, unlockable modes, etc. It was freeware, but the maker's website is down, closest link I can find is: http://www.dosgamesonline.com/index/gam ... eroid.html (horrible site that needs a signup, looking for a better link, looks like it also had a Linux version). Search is confounded by many similarly named cheap phone games...

[pcb_revival]

G.I. Joe - Arcade - Konami 1992.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhGKcRnJ-6M

Yo Joe.

[drauch]

I counter it with one of the many incarnations of Rambo III: RAMBO III ARCADE.