Most satisfying bomb

[Aleksei]

Whether its quantity or impact, bombing is a relief, a release from the responsibility of shooting. Take a deep breath and enjoy your momentary invincibility while you decide which bomb brings you the most satisfaction and why.

For me it has to be bombing over the huge ship on the first approach in level six of Raiden Fighters followed by 19XX level 3 bomb. Seibu Kaihatsu bombs for the win.

[Shepardus]

Here's a little something to start things off.

[chempop]

Big fan of the Ibara Hadou, Shorty and Carpet's bombs in Batrider, DDP laser-bomb, shield barrier in both galudas, all the gigawing and most of strikers1945pt1 bombs too

[BrianC]

Not the greatest bomb ever, but I love how Reco says "bomb" when a bomb is used in Mushihimesama.

[Vludi]

Gotta agree with Shorty's bomb, but pretty much any of the bombs in Batrider feel great coming from the vulnerable bombs in Garegga.

[Squire Grooktook]

I like the laser in Imalice.

[Durandal]

Darius Gaiden BHB. It's a fucking black hole, dude. No contest here.

[Shepardus]

I like the laser in Imalice.

I like this one too, and similarly one of Kagura's four subtypes in Hellsinker also has a quick and powerful laser as a bomb.

[Perikles]

To name a less obvious one: the bombs in Acrobat Mission engulf almost the entire screen whilst producing a hefty sound effect that reflects the sheer impact, that's a really satisfying one to use. I like the blue bells in the Parodius games for a similar reason (those are bombs for all intents and purposes as far as I'm concerned). Maybe I'm weird, but I also think the blistering noise from Sand Scorpion's bombs works exceedingly well with the electrostatic animation, the explosion sound effects are probably my favourite aspect about the game. Fire Mustang's bombs are not as impressive visually, yet great from a gameplay perspective since they render you completely invincible for a while, allowing you to cheekily move through tanks without any remorse (Sapphire's bombs are comparable to this). Tiger-Heli's shrapnel bombs are the opposite: instead of a glorified, majestic explosion à la Tatsujin Ou you get a mean cloud of death, turning tanks to shred in seconds.

[Squire Grooktook]

-Dangun also has some nice bomb effects. Too bad you're penalized for using them ever.
-I really like the background distortion on Gun Frontier's bomb
-Miyamoto bomb in anything he's in is always cool for the concept alone.
-Refrain's various "supers" are all cool and fun, especially if you can speed kill a boss with a nice combo of them.
-Varstray has a lot of nice weapons. The super laser and blackhole battering ram might be thoughtless to use, but they're a wonderfully flashy spectacle.

[mamboFoxtrot]

Under Defeat's, especially in HD's widescreen mode. Just covers the whole fucking screen in explosions and slowdown. Crimson Clover's is basically the same, though I think UD's explosion graphics look better.

I also like the Bomb+Shot FUCKYOU LASER in Dodonpachi.

[TransatlanticFoe]

Truxton (and by extension, the tribute ship from Gekirindan) because it's a giant exploding skull. What could be a more satisfying form of mass destruction?

[OmegaFlareX]

Lv 3 in 19XX
Ruby in Giga Wing
Type A in DonPachi series
Tatsujin Oh
Mao Mao in AF2/3/Special
the temper tantrum robot in Muchi Muchi Pork

[BIL]

Kyuukyoku Tiger (MD)'s bomb was a formative aesthetic experience for me, a bit like the white-hot enemy explosions in The Revenge of Shinobi or the buckling stagger of SFII's meaty hits. Screen shake and thunderous SFX are key to its concussive violence, but "the wait" prior to the shattering impact is critical too. Bewww...

Slap Fight MD's Typhoon Bomber has a really cool displacement aspect - bullets aren't merely cancelled but wrenched away from your ship, while point items are dragged about the screen. Along with it being something of a kamikaze attack, it's grittily satisfying to unleash.

Spoiler

Max Warrior has one of the more unique and nuanced bombs I've seen, launched exclusively while your character is airborne. Tap the button for an aimable blast perfect for searing hard targets. Hold it for a swirling firestorm that'll scorch the ground clean. Just like those of KID stablemates Recca and Burai Fighter, it's a Weaponised Bomb meant for aggressive use, and its aerial deployment perfectly suits the quasi-platformer concept. Actually handles a bit like the aforementioned Revenge of Shinobi's shuriken burst.

Under Defeat's carpet bomb is cool, but for me the game's real star is the blue missile (which is kind of a Recca-style passive charge bomb). It's simply the most violent, cathartic impact I've seen in the genre. Anything at the epicenter is going to explode like a snowglobe under a sledgehammer, stuff caught in the shockwave won't fare much better. Pure kinetic release of the most universal sort.

[Stevens]

Nice seeing Under Defeat getting so much love here.

It's my choice as well. Since I use it for defence only I like to think the blue sparks at the start are counter measures.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Searching for "Truxton skull" revealed these threads:

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?p=764625

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?p=23472

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?p=342557

Mine would likely be found in Raiden DX.

[copy-paster]

-Darius Gaiden BHB
-Gun Frontier max bomb
-(insert your favorite player bomb in Batrider)

[Xyga]

Spam-bombing in Ibara is actually fun.

BOMBAH! BOMBAH! BOMBAH! BOMBAH! BOMBAH! BOMBAH! BOMBAH!

[monouchi]

-Gun Frontier max bomb

This.

[Gespenst]

Raystorm's SP attack. Raycrisis version has more satisfying explosion sound effect.

Any carpet bombing type bombs

Shoving Shinden/F-4 Phantom II's Samurai Sword at point blank range

[Despatche]

akashicverse eliminators

darius gaiden black hole bomb

tempest superzapper

shienryu red bomb

dangun feveron bombs

gunbird valnus bomb

gunbird 2 alucard and valpiro bombs

[Samuray]

No "Neo XYX" yet? Where are my fellow cat lovers in here?!

[pegboy]

I always thought the bomb in Space Megaforce/Super Aleste was awesome, you can control how far it shoots forward and then watch it spiral outward annihilating everything on the screen.

[ZacharyB]

Darius Gaiden Black Hole Bomb, Raiden II cluster bomb. The Raiden II cluster bomb blew me away when I first saw it, because it was the first time I saw background graphics change to represent bomb damage.

[Austin]

A little predictable, but the bomb in the original Raiden does it for me. The massive explosion, sound effect combination and animation used makes it *feel* destructive.

For stylistic bombs, the ones in R-Type Delta have been a favorite of mine for a long time. Likewise with Darius Gaiden's bomb. I just wish the later actually did meaningful damage to bosses. Damn, now that I think of it, the Radiant Silvergun powered-up sword attack is basically the bomb for that game. It doesn't get much better than that for me--tons of damage, awesome animation and cool sound effects to go with it.

[MintyTheCat]

tatsujin ou's is impressive to me and I quite like the bombs in ibara to name a couple for the visuals but I am not a big fan of using bombs in Shmups generally.

[Mills]

Energy bomb on Dodonpachi BeeStorm, Lv3 19XX

[BrianC]

I like the heavy bomb (which I feel counts since it's a limited ammo super bomb, though the type of bomb that doesn't count is in the game too) in Fantasy Zone. Cartoon anvil that wrecks havoc on bosses.

[ave]

Raiden Fighters Jet (slave) - Very satisfying to smash the bomb in an enemy's face
Air Gallet (blue bomb) - The slowdown right before the bomb and the higher pitched cracking sound make this bomb very satisfying to use
Battle Garegga (Gain's bomb) - BOMBAAA!! Do I need to say more? This, and it looks really psychedelic, like a black hole of energy.

Here's something different. Some of the LEAST satisfying bombs:

1941 - some ships shooting a little more, really?
Dodonpachi Daioujou - The hollow explosion sound really emphasizes you feeling like a loser for using the bomb
Guwange - just very boring and the effect stands out to me as cheap-looking compared to the rest of the game

[EllertMichael]