[General Discussion] Top Down Shooters: A Lost Gaming Art Form

I have to admit I also find myself liking horizontal more often than vertical, simply because nearly every vertical goes for the bullet hell route, with some small trick to its controls or scoring system in an attempt to set it apart from the rest.

Sometimes it works, Ikaruga was a brilliant reinvention, sometimes you're stuck with just one more complication to take into consideration as you try to survive. Other people love this, they like their brain overworked with reactions, memorisation and calculation, but for me 2D shooters have always been about atmosphere, visuals and setpieces. Tight controls are like a good battle system in RPGs, they get you where you're going, but they're not quite the focus for me.

On the visuals terms, much like 2D fighters, I like shmups a lot for the spritework and I'm usually terrible at them. Most of the 2.5D shmups being made these days don't appeal to me so much. The cell-shaded flash-game looks of the indie DC shooters of now look pretty awful to me and are a big turnoff for discovering what else is there.

Ikaruga and Gradius V did 3D in 2D masterfully, not forgetting to throw in a number of inspired and exciting setpieces, not to mention a great soundtrack. But in general I prefer the spritey look of Parodius, Raiden DX, Donpachi and the like.

I suppose I am a graphics whore of sorts as the visuals of Mars Matrix prevented me from really anjoying that game. Yes, the system is pretty neat and it's a really challenging title, but I just couldn't get into it. Radiant Silvergun on the other hand I adore. Superb visual identity, awesome soundtrack, excellent weapon system and more incredible setpieces than you can throw at an Indiana Jones movie. Not to mention it's expansive, inventive, extremely challenging, while still managing to be very welcoming, thanks to the statistics save function of the Saturn mode. Brilliant.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

My issue really wasn't that you don't enjoy playing Ikaruga (or any other game). I simply disagree with you that that somehow makes it a bad game. You said quality is subjective, when I felt it's the opposite. I can easily tell that Porco Rosso is Hayao Miyazaki's finest film, while Laputa remains my personal favorite. I enjoy playing Tenchu: Fatal Shadows a lot, but I could never say it's a good game, qualitywise. You see this distinction of assessing merit objectively as opposed to only subjectively?

Similarly, while I no longer enjoy playing Ikaruga (as I played it far too much), I could never deny that it is a fantastic piece of work and a superb overhaul of shooter conventions, much like something like Halo was with FPS games.



On the subject of gushing, Radiant Silvergun was indeed a revelation for me when I finally got to play it.

It is a massive shame it's such a notoriously high-priced game, because that always overshadows what an amazing videogame it is in its own right. It produced absolutely amazing visuals on hardware you wouldn't think possible on (barring Panzer Dragoon Saga perhaps). It completely reworked the weapon powerup system (as later did Ikaruga) and played with structure and chronology in a genre where experimentation was usually strictly limited to gameplay. Hitoshi Sakimoto's rousing score, the juxtaposition of the colorful and cheery characters and the bleak world and story (similar to FF6 for me), and the masses of breathtaking and brilliant setpieces, both in levels and boss fights. Penta will probably forever remain my favorite boss fight ever, the delivery was simply peerless.

Not only was the weapons powered up through use, RPG-style, but dying and restarting the game with your new stats in Saturn mode was akin to grinding for experience and levels in RPGs as well. It allowed for the game to be satisfyingly challenging for the people who didn't want to use the save system (by allowing them a simple choice of whether to save or not, instead of doing it for them), and for lower skilled people to get further and further in the game with each reload, if they so wished, without any need to fiddle with actual difficulty levels. It allowed for easier access to the game and easier learning of the levels for more skilled play later on. I can not think of a more excellent system for a shooter of this calibre.

Granted, playing without the save system, the game can be merciless if you don't know when and how to milk the score system to boost your weapons. Many complained you simply won't be powerful enough to beat the later bosses. The game doesn't really punish you for not beating the bosses within their time limits though, so I don't see it as a flaw. If you want high scores, you need to be good and know things inside out, and this is no different from any other shmup. If you want to learn, the game will teach you. If you just want to play, you can do that, without feeling like you're not getting the whole game (as with easier difficulty settings sometimes).

There's nowhere I can't reach.

One of the issues I've always had with R-Type games is how they truly represent the memorisation spectrum of shooters. Not so much in Final, but especially the first two games were downright painful unless you knew the levels inside out. Bullets and enemies appear from the top and bottom of the screen, combined with the ship's slow movement speed made for a lot of frustration when dying. I blamed the game more than myself, which never happens with most (good) shmups I play these days.

That said, R-Type is a veritable classic and I happily love and hate it. Lovely spritework too. Final is an amazing experience too, very high up with atmospheric shooters.

Darius Gaiden is another favorite of mine, even if most of the later bosses just make you go

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Just to prove you're both up your own asses, it was a jab at bullet hell shooters in general as opposed to Cave or touhou. Both of those are just as specific, so shut up already.

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