Shoot-Em-Ups

[radiator]

How do we define a shoot 'em up? Are we talking purely side-scrolling/vertical scrolling score attack shooters, or are we allowed 3d games?

I always loved the Ghost in the Shell game for the original Playstation, that was a great arcadey style shooter, really underrated imo - I really wish they'd rerelease it on PSN!

I've also got a thing for on-rails shooters - I'd say that Lylat Wars on N64 is probably my all-time favourite videogame. And Rez is a beauty too.

Anyone played Sin & Punishment? I noticed it was on the Wii Virtual Console the other day and wondered if it was worth the money?

[James Stacey]

I've also got a thing for on-rails shooters - I'd say that Lylat Wars on N64 is probably my all-time favourite videogame. And Rez is a beauty too.

The worst thing about Lylat Wars is that they called it that. Why would you want it to sound like a tampon. Starwing 64 was the logical thing to call it with its original name still unavailable. But yes it was a great shoot-em-up only mildly hampered by the N64s tendency to over anti alias absolutely everything. Wonder if its on the wiiu virtual console schedule.

[Little_Tengu]

How do we define a shoot 'em up? Are we talking purely side-scrolling/vertical scrolling score attack shooters, or are we allowed 3d games?

Well "Shoot-Em-Up" is most commonly associated with airplane,helicopter, and space ship shooters. But then there's games like "The Adventures Of Dino Riki", "King's Knight" and "Twinkle Tale" which are SHMUPs that have you playing as people

[JamesC]

Silk Worm was a good game where you could play as either a Jeep or Helicopter. It became SWIV (or Silk Worm IV) but i never thought it worked as well as a vertical scroller.

Prehitoric Isle was a fun arcade shooter that unfortunately hasn't been included on the new Neo Geo X system (disappointing) .

Ikari Warriors and Midnight Resistance were both great games that utilised the short lived revolving joystick which controlled your aim.

There were a couple of games in the early 80s that used real film backgrounds (but they didn't play very well). One was Firefox and I think the other was called Mach 3.

[Satanist]

CAVE do a rather nice line in oldskool SHMUPS these days. Though few make it to the UK.

[I, Cosh]

Probably not much here that nobody else has said but hey ho. Basically, I'd rather play a game I can conceivably finish in half an hour but which has almost infinite replayability than spend 6 months navigating shitty rpg dialogue.

I always thought I was one of the younger members of the forum but my love for shoot em ups started in the arcades. I wasn't exaggerating when I said R-Type is my favourite game ever, even though I've never managed to finish it! Also got fond memories of various others of a similar vintage - Twin Cobra, Raiden (is the purple twisty laser from Raiden 2 the best power up ever?) and the like - as well as memories of playing Xevious in dismal seaside towns out of season.

Early home computer outings which made a favourable impression include Uridium and Xenon. I'm sure you can find emulators for these if you really want to.

The Megadrive/SNES era of gaming passed me by completely, nor did I ever own my own Playstation so I don't know what gems there were to uncover there, although the PS1 port of R-Type was pretty much perfect and still gets cracked open from time to time.

Getting into the current millenium, Ikaruga is the obvious reference point. I bought it so I could take it round to my mate's and play it on her Gamecube. She wasn't impressed. Rez was another classic from around the same time and I also adored last year's sort-of follow up Child of Eden.

CAVE do a rather nice line in oldskool SHMUPS these days. Though few make it to the UK.

Absolutely. Anyone who's into the genre owes it to themselves to check out Deathsmiles. I've had DoDonPachi Resurrection sitting in the house for a while and still not played it.

It's great being able to get ports of older or previously unreleased games via XBLA. Geometry Wars or the likes of Super Stardust on PSN are worth a look. As are some of the indie games: Vorpal is a cracking little game with a fantastically cheesy soundtrack which is great value at 60p!

Warning Forever is an even better PC game which you can download for free here. Progressively bigger iterations of the same randomly generated mothership keep on coming as your time gradually runs down. Magic!

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

1942 on the X-box is a fun, easy, shooter. My boys love it... even if they think I am lying about playing the original in 1985.

[Zarjazzer]

Can't see any links but this looks like it might be interesting.

http://uk.games.yahoo.com/blogs/plugged-in/halo-creators-unveil-massive-game-destiny-184623655.html

apologies if it's up already.