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

You know, in terms of my gaming interests I've always strictly been an rpg player, but with me and a few friends back home seriously thinking of opening a retro arcade it made me think of some of my favourite games that I use to play when I use to go to the arcades religiously as a teenager.

One of my favourite games to play were always the top down shooters, because I always found them ridicously hard and I use to dump so many quarters just trying to finish one due to avoiding so many bullets being shot at from every possible direction at a ridicously fast speed.

I guess my interest for these type of games was rekindled when I use to travel back and forth between my job and I seen a lot of these kind of games at the airport and while waiting for my flights I use to play them all the time and they're still as difficult now as what they were when I played them as a teenager.

These days with games being very story driven, I just don't see much of this game style anymore. I know there is not much you can really do with these types of games since they tend to be very linear and very straight forward, but there is a hidden nostalgia I like about them and they're difficulty and I always liked that some of these games actually had some amazing soundtracks.

Some of the recent ones that I've played for consoles is Raiden III, and Castle Shikigami 2. I would really like to get a chance to play Ikaruga even though I know that game will probably rape my soul in more ways than one. I remember watching someone play Ikaruga for the first time and it absolutely amazed me of how utterly beautiful that game looked with its background graphics and the music was almost heavenly.

So to the gamingforce community, I would like to ask if you are a fan of these type of games and what do you like the most about them and do you think they can still still do something fresh with that genre of game to make it survive.

I would generally like to see more of those games come out but I don't see them being popular anymore. I am going to try my best to play them as much as possible if any do come out. I even still enjoy playing the horizontal shooters such as Gradius, R-Type, and UN Squadron. I hope to get a chance to play Radiant Silvergun someday even though I kow its one of the rarest games to own.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I've always liked these kind of games despite if they were bullt hell games or not. I guess one of the biggest reasons why I love these style of games is that out of all the games that I do play there are not very many games that give you that WTF????????? feeling.

I haven't played many of the strictly japanese top down shooters, and its a game style I've only recently got into but I love it in these games when your fighting a boss and he/she throws this bullet hell move, and the first thought that comes into your mind in a split second is How In The Hell Am I Suppose To Dodge This. There aren't many games that give me that same kind of feeling anymore. Throughout the mass amount of bullets you can't help but wonder and be amazed of how colourful it looks and it just gives you the immediate feeling of frustration.

I'll probably end up giving a poor example:

Ever since I got Castle Shikigami 2 I've been whoring out that game as much as possible just to get all the endings and open up all the artwork. The first boss for World 5, I think his name is Shin. This boss still frustrates me to this very day. He throws this one move at you, when you almost have his life bar depleted. That he throws all these red and green arrow projectiles and totally fill up the entire screen in every direction and it gives me that WTF satisfaction. I just look in utter amazement and say there is no way I can dodge that and amazingly enough I manage to dodge it on a very rare occassion.

I'm sure Touhou and other vertical/horizontal games probably have worse bullet hells than that game, but I kind of love that unexpected satisfaction when you don't know what kind of bullet pattern the boss is going to throw at you. The more insane the bullet hell is, the more I'm satisfied and frsutrated all at the same time.

There's nowhere I can't reach.