Good Shmups on the Snes and Gamecube?

[Khazixstann]

I love shmups, and I would love to play some that are on the Snes and Gamecube, any suggestions?

[EmperorIng]

Slim pickens on the Gamecube, though you could look into Chaos Field and Ikaruga. Mind you, the latter is on a billion different platforms, and for cheaper.

SNES carts can be expensive to collect for, but flash carts also exist as a cheap solution. With that in mind, I'd recommend Biometal (the JPN version; the USA release butchers the soundtrack with licensed 2Unlimited nonsense), Gradius III, Axelay, Oshaberi Parodius, R-Type 3, and possibly Super EDF.

[BulletMagnet]

I'd add Space Megaforce/Super Aleste to the SNES list, though obviously your personal taste for Compile's stuff will play a part in how much you dig it.

[Jonpachi]

As much as I love both consoles, they are both underserved with shmups. Gamecube has some decent games on the import scene: Shikigami no Shiro 2, Radirgy, and the ones mentioned, but one big issue is the terrible controller. By the time you get the imports and a good joystick you could probably buy a modern console and some games for the same price.

[6t8k]

GameCube's indeed meager in terms of STGs, for SNES/SFC I'll join BulletMagnet and recommend Super Aleste, or Space Megaforce, as the US version's called. I've heared differing opinions on it due to your ship's opulent firepower/focus on the spectacle/illusion of sophistication (that forumlation's by our Perikles specifically), but I always found myself able to relate to these only if you restrict yourself to playing on default difficulty. Crank it up a notch, or even two if you're enterprising, and you have a venerable challenge to sink your teeth into. It will not metamorphose into a surgically choreographed Same! Same! Same! rendition as a result--it is, after all and undeniably so, a different kind of game. Nonetheless victory will demand from you a respectable amount of dexterity and at least some noteworthy strategies, rather than just to insensately spray bullets all over the place. Let me also second the grandiose space opera that is Gradius III on this occasion, which I'm currently trying to 1CC (the slowdown-free SA-1 powered version, specifically).

I can furthermore argue in favour of Parodius Da!, which is an excellent, excellent port of the arcade original, or the technically sparkling and otherwise rock-solid Chō Jikū Yōsai Macross: Scrambled Valkyrie. The latter one is by the way one of those that allow you to capture enemies and use them to your advantage, like for example Gaplus, some Darius games and Zero Wing.

Provided you want to consider manually-scrolling multidirectional STGs, KiKi KaiKai: Nazo no Kuro Manto, or Pocky & Rocky, its western name, is generally regarded as one of the very best of its kind! And if you like MUSHA Aleste on the Mega Drive/Genesis, you might also want to take a look at Kidō Sōkō Dion, which somewhat resembles the former, but is perhaps a little more demanding. If you can, choose it over the US version, Imperium.

I'm not sure about your current skill level, but R-Type 3 might be a bit taxing to start with, although the same could perhaps be said of Kidō Sōkō Dion.

[To Far Away Times]

The SNES is underrated for shmups, though it is clearly in third place for the era behind the Genesis and Turbografx.

Of the ones I've sunk serious time into, I would rate them like this.

1. Axelay (Nice shmup with impressive visuals and a great soundtrack.)
2. R-Type III (Really good and really frustrating, Stage 4 is super memorable and I have a love/hate relationship with that stage. As a whole I'd put the game behind R-type 1,2, Delta and maybe Leo but I still like it a lot.)
3. Super Aleste/Space Megaforce (Standard Compile game, though I'm a fan of their formula.)
4. Gradius III (Pretty good game, probably the best in the Gradius series. Worth it for the music, but there are better shmups out there.)
5. Darius Twin (Pretty eh Darius entry, though I like it better than its SNES sibling, Darius Force, which I just can't get into despite many attempts.)
6. Super R-Type (Just play R-Type 2 instead.)

----

The Gamecube really doesn't have much on it.

Ikaruga is the big one, since that was the first time it was available outside of Japan, but it's available on many platforms now for dirt cheap.
Chaos Field, Radirgy and Karous and just kinda okay. With Radirgy being the best of the lot.
Shiki 2 is okay.

That's pretty much the Gamecube list as far as I can remember.

[djsheep]

^ Karous never came out on Gamecube.

Another notable Gamecube game is volume 2 of the Hudson Selection series: Star Soldier, which is a nice remake.

[M.Knight]

Here is the list of GameCube shmups, as far as I am aware :

-Ikaruga (All regions) : No need to say more, it's the classic. Great game, and the GC version has a conquest mode to practice specific sections that I don't think is there elsewhere. AFAIK the PAL version has a glitch against stage 1 boss where the homing lasers won't target it during one of the phases or something like that.

-Shikigami no Shiro 2 (JP) : The second episode in the graze-based series. Continuously scratch bulelts while quick-killing waves of ennemies for sweet x8. Excellent game with lots of characters to play as and they all feel quite different. If you can play it on PC, I think it's better since you have replays, but this one should be good. I remember the boss 2's last phase slowdown being a bit different though (it's easier on GC)

-Chaos Field (JP/US) : The first Milestone game, a boss rush where you use various bullet-cancelling weapons to maintain a bullet-cancel chain and get big points, and can switch between Order Field and Chaos Field, the former giving you more recharge for the bullet-cancelling weapons and the latter more enemy bullets to cancel. The GameCube port (and maybe the PS2 one too?) adds Original Mode, tat has some small popcorn sections between bosses. OST is great!

-Radirgy (JP) : The second Milestone game, a very beautiful and extremely fun cel-shaded shotoer where you move all over the screen with your mecha, slashing enemies and regularly firing off force fields/bombs that can increase your multiplier. Tons of fun, amazing sountrack and a very unique and fresh art syle! Easily my favorite out of all the shmups on the system (not that there are many, but heh). The GC port also has an exclusive Manpuku mode, which increases the game's scoring potential by extending the multiplier cap from 16 to a whopping 256.
Note : If you play this on a non-JP console with the freeloader you won't be able to save properly.

-Hudson Selection Vol 2 : Star Soldier (JP) : A remake of the original Star Soldier with a 2.5D visual makeover and level designs in the arcade that play like the intense caravan modes. The jank from the original game is also gone. (only the shield behavior is a bit weird here) A very good game in the series (if not the best one) but you need a turbofire controller because Hudson doesn't like your wrists nor your fingers.

-Space Raiders (JP/NA) : A Space Invaders re-imagining but with a B-movie style atmosphere, you play as a grounded character shooting bio-horror monsters. I haven't played it so I don't know how it is.

There might be some shmups in game collections too, maybe Midway Arcade treasures.

[ACSeraph]

5. Darius Twin (Pretty eh Darius entry, though I like it better than its SNES sibling, Darius Force, which I just can't get into despite many attempts.)

Totally opposite opinion here. I find Twin to be a broken game (tons of safe spot abuse) that can be 1cc-ed on your first day playing and lacks any real reason to return.

Force (Super Nova) on the other hand has an awesome atmosphere, great stage design and 3 very different ships that require different strategies and routes to be successful. The game is also much more challenging than Twin. The one thing you have to keep in mind with it though is that it shares far more of it's DNA with R-Type than its namesake, so if you don't enjoy that style it may not work for you.

[To Far Away Times]

5. Darius Twin (Pretty eh Darius entry, though I like it better than its SNES sibling, Darius Force, which I just can't get into despite many attempts.)

Totally opposite opinion here. I find Twin to be a broken game (tons of safe spot abuse) that can be 1cc-ed on your first day playing and lacks any real reason to return.

Force (Super Nova) on the other hand has an awesome atmosphere, great stage design and 3 very different ships that require different strategies and routes to be successful. The game is also much more challenging than Twin. The one thing you have to keep in mind with it though is that it shares far more of it's DNA with R-Type than its namesake, so if you don't enjoy that style it may not work for you.

I love R-Type but I just can't get into it. I think it's the enemies swarming in from all sides with no notice. In most well designed shmups, if you're going to do that and not have a warning indicator, you lure the player to an area on the screen then make the enemies spawn from the where the player won't be. In Darius Force, if you're in the wrong spot its an implicit game over since enemy collisions just melt through the shield. And many of the stages do this. I can't tell you how many times I got clipped by an enemy that hit me from behind, above, or below from the very edge of the screen. IMO, R-Type is a little more thoughtful about stage layouts and signposting, which makes it more desirable to keep pushing towards a clear. But maybe that is cherry picking since Force is generally considered one of the lesser Darius games (along with Twin) and well, R-Type in particular is lauded for its level design.

I keep giving it a go every few months or so but I get frustrated by the sloppiness and it never sticks. It's definitely not as hard as R-Type but I guess just it's not the type of memorization I want to learn.

Twin is indeed on the easy side but Darius games have enough content that I think it's fine.

And good call by djsheep about Karous. I always lump those three games together.

[pegboy]

I also prefer Darius Twin to Darius Force (aka Super Nova) because it's much easier and accessible and doesn't require any memorization unless you are trying to score. Speaking of which, it is one of the few SNES shmups with a non-busted scoring system. That cannot be said for Darius Force. I'm also biased because Twin was one of the first shmups I ever 1cc'd.

Anyway, my top SNES shmups are
Super Aleste/Space Megaforce - When played on wild mode this game is pretty crazy and fun. The main drawback, and it's a big one, is that it's way, WAY, too fucking long.
Axelay - Certainly the most interesting from a technical perspective with the vertical stages and I actually love the effect it creates. The final stage is easily the best stage of any SNES shmup. I'm actually inclined to rank this #1 out of all of them.
Sonic Wings/Aerofighters - It's a video system game, so it's also basically the closest thing to Psikyo you will see on the SNES. If you like that sort of thing, you will like this.
Gradius III - Solid port of the arcade game, and in some ways is better because of the significantly reduced difficulty.
Area 88/UN Squadron - A shmup/RPG hybrid? I'm in. In many ways better than the arcade version.
R-Type III - A lot of people seem to like this, and I admit is does have some good stuff going for it, but at the same time I don't think I'd ever play it again (or Super R-Type for that matter).
Darius Twin - Yes, I actually like this game.

Garbage tier:
D-Force - Easily the worst shmup on the SNES, the only redeeming thing it has AT ALL is the stage 1 music. That's literally the only reason to play it.
Raiden Trad - The worst version of Raiden ever made? I guess they made aversion that plays on the Atari Lynx too? This may still be worse.
Blazeon - This game goes on forever and is made all the worse because of so many long stretches where literally nothing happens. I'm told the arcade version is actually good, but this game turned me off from ever trying it.

[Gamer707b]

Only good one I know of on the Cube is the amazing Ikaruga.
A lot more on the Snes.
Personally I like Axelay, Space Megaforce, R-type 3 and Un Sqandron.
Google Snes Shmups. You'll get a whole list.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Firepower 2000 is pretty neat for the SNES. Play it with the Jeep though. It's much less interesting with the Heli.

[Licorice]

I cleared Biometal.

I can vouch for it. Pretty unique. All about bashing things with a charged shield. Heaps of slowdown, brutally hard if removed via emulation.

[Bawa]

I was looking into some SNES shmups myself a little time ago and most of the recommended ones here are top notch.
Just to pile on the good stuff that I'd endorse: Super Aleste, Axelay, Gradius III and Parodius Da!

[FRO]

-Space Raiders (JP/NA) : A Space Invaders re-imagining but with a B-movie style atmosphere, you play as a grounded character shooting bio-horror monsters. I haven't played it so I don't know how it is.

Space Raiders is campy fun. It's not a great game, and might even be considered as not a "good" one, but it's a blast to play in that sort of b-movie spirit. Mostly mindless fun.

[Jonpachi]

Oh more addition I had forgotten about for the SFC: Cosmo Gang the Video. Pretty clever and funny Galaga-like with nice colors and animation. Should be quite cheap too.

[trap15]

I cleared Biometal.

I can vouch for it. Pretty unique. All about bashing things with a charged shield. Heaps of slowdown, brutally hard if removed via emulation.

Seconding this one. I think it's probably the best shooter on SNES/SFC, but particularly on SFC for the not-murdered soundtrack.

[MathU]

Phalanx is one of my favorites. In spite of some flaws (stage 5), it's got a really catchy soundtrack and impressively low slowdown-per-bullet ratio considering most other shooters on the system. Play it on Funny mode for SNES bullet hell! Unlike later loops of Gradius III for instance, where you're basically wading through an ocean of molasses, Funny mode in Phalanx is relatively fast and exciting.

[opt2not]

Also, Phalanx has the greatest US box art.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Space Raiders.

[Ddshot]

Un squadron on snes


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[MintyTheCat]

SNES :

Super Aleste
Axelay (looks pretty and sounds good but not that amazing to play)
R-Type III (one of the best)
Macross: Scrambled Valkyrie
Darius Force - there's also Darius Twin

Some other SNES games that involve shooting things - overhead/arena and operation wolf in style:

Wild Guns
Chaos Engine
Smash TV
Contra III
ikari no yousai / Operation Logic Bomb

Sadly there weren't too many decent Shmups on the SFC/SNES.

Give them a go though

[MathU]

Don't forget the two Pocky and Rocky games.

[MintyTheCat]

Don't forget the two Pocky and Rocky games.

Completely forgot those, cheers. I have the first one here still.

[BrianC]

The Space Invaders port on SNES is quite good, though that game is everywhere (similar ports are on Saturn, PCE CD, and PS1). Though that version alone comes in two forms. SNES cart and US/EU GB cart with actual SNES version that can be launched from Super Game Boy.

I'm not sure of Raiden for SNES is the worst port, but it's probably the worst port that came from Japan. Too bad the MD version was often given a bad rap for its graphics. It's actually a very nice port.

[To Far Away Times]

Yeah the Genesis version of Raiden smokes the SNES one and it's not particuarly close. They almost feel a generation apart. Probably one of the reasons the SNES has the (somewhat undeserved) reputation it has with shmups.

[WelshMegalodon]

Funny how no one has said Pop'n TwinBee yet. Is it as frustrating for everyone else to play as it was for me?

Namco Museum 50th Anniversary was released on the GameCube and has Galaxian, Galaga, Bosconian, Dragon Spirit, Sky Kid, Xevious, and Galaga '88, which is a pretty decent selection.

The Midway compilations have Defender, Stargate, Blaster, Robotron: 2084, and some arena shooters, but no traditional shooters, unless you count Spy Hunter.

[MintyTheCat]

Thinking on: avoid the SNES' entry in the Thunder Force series : Thunder Spirits - it's not very good.

Phalanx had its moments and might be worth playing.

I could never really get into Spriggan: Powered but I didn't play it all that much either.

[MintyTheCat]

Funny how no one has said Pop'n TwinBee yet. Is it as frustrating for everyone else to play as it was for me?

I had forgotten that too Yes, it is a good, fun game and quite long as I remember it being with quite a few levels. Well worth playing and I prefer it to the PCE game.