Megalith Beast: Personally, I didn't find Gradius III challenging. Maybe on Arcade mode, but every other difficulty posed little difficulty. Also, I recall that those robots were extremely easy if you had four options, twin lasers, missiles and the reduce shield.

If there was anything on Gradius III that annoyed me, it was the speed wall on level 7. The fact that the final boss was laughably easy, just barfing slow motion blobs at you, was pretty annoying too. Gradius III was the first shooter I ever played and completed.

On the other hand, I actually found Gradius V somewhat challenging, because it was a LOT faster paced compared to Gradius III. That, and I was used to the older versions of some of the bosses, so I was caught off guard a number of times by the new movement patterns they introduced.

Also! Why doesn't the thread title include Tubular Shooters? I loved Gyruss. The music in this game was extremely catchy, and although the bosses were somewhat repetitive it was still a good playthrough.

The SNES version of Gradius III is definately doable, yes. Even on Arcade mode.

But the Arcade Version is cheap. Not like Metal Black cheap. Like Shotgun to the face cheap. People actually did not like it because of the difficulty.

Hmm how very odd, I can complete Gradius V quite easily. The thing is, by the time I get to those robots I have lost all my power-ups and I'm trying to defeat them with a pea shooter. Yeah the arcade Gradius III is damn hard, I barely scraped my way through that!
Sorry what do you mean by Tubular Shooters? I do not know of this Gyruss game.

Man, Rocket Knight Adventures was great. I hated it at the same time for it being so difficult, and the boss music was actually boss music, not just a warped remix of the normal level with some fast paced beats.

Although it doesn't fit the shooting catagory. And if you think Gunbird 2 has alot of bullets, you've clearly been missing out on the CAVE shooters.

http://img483.imageshack.us/img483/5...85951rj.th.jpghttp://img483.imageshack.us/img483/2...ange3cd.th.gifhttp://img483.imageshack.us/img483/1...on180sy.th.png

Thing is, the C64 had SEUCK (Shoot-em-up Construction Kit) so quite a few of the shooters that came out and tended to be released with magazines were often home-made. This wasn't necessarily bad, but it had quite a limitation in that a lot of the games were very similar. Some of these were also insanely hard. As for others on the C64, I think Catalypse was a good one, and Iridium was insanely hard even if it was pretty short, though I don't remember too well now.

I also had X2 on the PSX which I don't think was ever very well-known but it was quite a challenge, in fact I never did beat the final boss... since then I haven't really played the genre, but it was one of my favourites especially in arcades.

Actually I've played Mushihimesama and I thought it was pretty easy compared to Gunbird 2. There may have been a load more bullets, but it was waaay more predictable.

A shoot'em up construction kit? Dam I wish I had that when I was younger, I could have made loads of bad ass shooters! Oh well!

This Wikipedia article summarizes the subgenre well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoot_%...p#Tube_shooter

Also, here's a screenshot:
http://www.games4nintendo.com/nes/thumbs/gyruss.jpg

You couldn't be more wrong. Firstly, Gunbird 2 is a Psikyo shooter. CAVE shooters are deliberately made difficult as they are. The middle of level 3 and onwards in Mushihimesama(yes, I own the game also) becomes quite difficult. Mushihimesama is easier than, say, Dodonpachi Daioujou, but it's still hard. They all are. Gunbird 2 isn't that hard in comparison, except if for if you die on the last level, you're forced to start the level over from the beginning. Which is really annoying.

I had my tv sideways last night, in fact. Playing Mushihimesama in TATE mode(or otherwise known as having your tv sideways) is really fun, but it won't improve your skill by much.

I've found myself not using bombs in these games whatsoever. I'd rather die than use a bomb, and I don't know why. For a long period I forgot about bombs even existing(during my Ikaruga phase) but yeah.

I'm looking to pick up ESP Galuda over the next month or so, just because ESP Ra.De is so awesome. While Mushi is fun, I still can't help but think that there's better games I'm missing out on.

http://img484.imageshack.us/img484/4851/esp37ta.th.jpghttp://img484.imageshack.us/img484/7...uda15xu.th.jpghttp://img484.imageshack.us/img484/5...uda24zg.th.jpghttp://img484.imageshack.us/img484/8...game0si.th.jpg

Hmm okay, well you see, in Mushihimesama I always use the tactic of dropping a bomb just before I die! I think I'm probably better at this game 'cause I've played it a lot more. It is really good! I just love the insect theme, I am a bug maniac btw.

Overkill: Yeah that wikipedia page was interesting! I didn't realise Shoot em ups had been put into so many different catergories! Well this topic can also include Tube shooters, and 3d shooters like Star Fox and Panzer Dragoon too!
The only Tube shooter I've played is Tempest, and its very good.
Has anyone played the arcade version of Tempest with the vector graphics?? It's sooo nice, everything leaves these little trails of light behind! Amazing! Why aren't there more vector graphics games in arcades??

Mushihimesama has 3 difficulty levels, so it's hard to compare difficulty to a game like Gunbird 2. Default is original, which I think is the easiest of any cave game ever (next to ESPgaluda). Manic is tricky however, but definately doable. Ultra is perhaps the hardest of any cave game ever (cept mabye Ketsui).

ESP.Ra.De is good, but outdated by later cave games in terms of level design. Bosses suck outright IMO.

Ketsui isn't hard, but playing DOOM in Ketsui is basically impossible. One of my friends owns basically every japanese 2D shooting game ever made, and I think we have both decided that Daioujou is the hardest, even on normal mode.

Disregarding the different difficulty levels in Mushihime, it's pretty solid. Daioujou on the other hand throws you right into it, and it doesn't give up. I always enjoyed ESP Ra.De on my xbox, and still do, mainly because it wasn't something that was impossible or farfetched, it was quite easy. The absorbing scheme which is replacing the bomb scheme in Ra.De is also nice, and gives it a Giga Wing feel.

Yeah, Ketsui eases you into the game for the most part.

Still, to complete the special loop seems harder than completing both loops in DDPDOJ. They are both IMO Cave's best games.

Yes, for people who don't care for the 2nd loop, Ketsui is probably easier then Daioujou (I will know for sure soon enough), but the special loop of Ketsui looks pretty crazy. Although, when you see those top players use 5 hypers all at once in 2-5 of Daioujou, well, that's impressive (winamp just randomly picked a Daioujou song...). Then again, just making the special loop of Ketsui is hard enough (no bombs or deaths in the first loop).

Can't forget to mention the seperate scoring systems and how Ketsui encourages you to camp out at the top of the screen and Daioujou often has you leaving the small fries flying around to keep your chain alive, then using hypers to max out the difficulty for a short time and pump up your chain.

ESPGaluda is nice too. Easy as many have said, but still lots of fun to play for score. Very satisfying to watch all the enemie's bullets turn to gold that your character just vaccuums up. A lot more relaxing then some of Cave's other releases.

Oh, and don't forget to watch my ESPGaluda video!

Watching now. What is with the time manipulation option, do you get any penalty for slowing bullets down?

I am definitely going to buy ESP Galuda now. I love/d Ra.De and I still play it often on my xbox, so there's no reason why this game isn't going to live up to my own hype.

Umm, no penalty. You can use the slow bullet mode (kakusei mode) strictly for survival if you don't care for score at all, but you can only use it for as long as your green gems last. The enemies also fire more bullets when you are in kakusei mode.

There's also an over kakusei mode where the bullets move even faster and you simply get points for being in this mode (not a whole lot though). This is what replaces the regular kakusei mode when you run out of green gems.

The only memories I have of this genre was chilling at pizza hut and dropping quarters on Aero Fighters.

I can still smell the grease and black people.

... You guys need to get a Saturn.

Cotton 2, Cotton Boomerang, Soukyugurentai, Radiant Silvergun, Shienryu, the Capcom Generations packs, the Parodius games...

I request MrMonkeyMan make an Kakusei-only vid. From the moment he starts, he must be in Kakusei mode. If he gets hit, he must immediately turn back into Kakusei mode. That would be cool (especially since they did it already with ESPgaluda II)

Perhaps you've heard of the Legendary Wings for NES? one of the greatest Side-scroller for its time. http://ryangenno.tripod.com/images/N...ndaryWings.jpg

Aah no I haven't heard of Legendary Wings! It looks like fun!
Dammit there's so many shooters I don't know about, I'll never get time to play them all! Righteo I'm gonna have to try and get a copy of ESP Galuda 'cause it looks awesome!

Well, anyway, someone mentioned Radiant Silvergun...now I friccin' love that game! So lets just remind ourselves of how great it is...

Here we go! Shooting a crazy boss here with a nice fading out to purple background! : D

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b4...ilvergun10.jpg

Ahh yes the almighty big, er sword thing. I can't remember what its called now. Radiant Sword??

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b4...d_02_small.jpg

Another crazy boss! Swipe them pink bullets up and charge up that sword dammit!

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b4...ilvergun-2.jpg

Hah, lets not forget 'be attitude for gains'!

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b4...id/boss5-1.jpg

And here we have, the final boss, a big glowy man!

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b4...id/boss1-5.jpg

Wow! What a game! So dynamic, and reeally long for a scrolling shooter too!

Oh, Radiant Silvergun...

An excellent gameplay experience with an outstanding soundtrack by Hitoshi Sakimoto.

The best shooter of all time. PERIOD.

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You can even write a complete novel 'a la' Xenosaga with RS's storyline. :p

I'm like the only person who think Ikaruga is better than Radiant Silvergun. Even in the music department.

I could never get into chaining in RS, because you can only chain 1 color for the majority of the levels, leaving enemies out. Sure, it's unconventional, but I wasn't too fond of it. And the fact that you HAD to score to level up your weapons made it very unforgiving. It's still a fantastic game, with some cool bosses as well.

I own both games and trust me, Ikaruga is better. Radiant is sought after and overpriced to hell, though. Just check ebay.

See what I mean?

I think Radiant Silvergun > Ikaruga in terms of gameplay and replay value, but it is just my personal opinion. However, I must admit that Ikaruga's soundtrack is just amazing. I spent HOURS with Ikaruga's soundtest...

LOL people still call Ikaruga "Radiant Silvergun 2".

Edit: Wait WTF price was an irrelevant factor in my argument.