Horizontal and Vertical Scrolling Shooters!

Hello everyone! It's time to discuss this supreme genre!
Ok so side scrolling shooters have been around since the dawn of gaming (starting with Space Invaders!) and they've come a long long way! But what's happening to them now? Are they starting to die out or are they still going strong? Europe certainly doesn't seem very interested in them anymore. If I'm right, there are still scrolling shooters being developed by 'Cave' in japan, and maybe some other companies.

Okay well what sequels do we want to see next??? Gradius VI? Yes please! And maybe the Radiant Silvergun series could continue? C'mon Treasure! Give us more gold!!! The latest one I've played was Raiden III, and it was just....awful. Such a disgrace to the series...

Anyways, I think these are my top 5 favourite horizontal/vertical scrolling shooters:

1.Thunderforce IV
2.Radiant Silvergun
3.G-Darius
4.Gradius V
5.Raiden II

How ya doing, buddy?

I"m a fan of Ikaruga easily. Difficult, but no impossible, but yet getting a high chain score is so damn hard.

Perfect game

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Yeah I must add my support for this genre of games too. Dimahoo, Ikagura and Gunbird are my favourites. Gunbird is hilarious, such a funny game, and so much gameplay value, especially in the Special Edition that they recently brought out with Gunbird 1 and 2 in one.

Dimahoo is probably the hardest one I know. It also has the black/white system that Ikagura has, but it's harder because you still get damaged (power-down) from whatever bullet you get hit by. It has really groovy music too. I always like the music in these games, so funky and crazy.

Igakura is just brilliant, I love that game. It's almost more like a puzzle game in certain passages, but with like, speed and techno music and lots of shooting. Great!

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Ah yes Ikaruga is damn good! Brilliant fast paced action and awesome music! Although I can't seem to avoid being killed multiple times on the 4th stage (the one with hundreds of bullets coming out of that big core)!

I just picked up a copy of Gunbird Special edition recently. I wasn't too impressed by the 2nd Gunbird, but the 1st one was really fun, and yeah very funny too!

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

The game that really got me in to shooters would be The Guardian Legend. Fun game really, and I don't think many actually know about it. I haven't played any others as of yet, because I just found the game a few days ago really. It really sparked my interest in shooters now. I definetly have to check out Ikaruga. That's gotta be next on my list...

I was speaking idiomatically.

I'm not really an expert regarding Shooters, but I'm a fan of games like Ikaruga, Bari Arms, R-Type and Gradius as well. I always see people crying about the difficulty of those games, but actually there are not that hard. Challenging fits the whole thing a lot better. Ikaruga for example was claimed to be one of the hardest games ever made. It wasn't easy, that's for sure, but as long as you have great ambitions and want to beat that game, it's not impossible to do. Getting high chains on the other hand, is something completly different.

Together with the intense music and the great and fast gameplay, Horizontal and Vertical Scrolling Shooters might not be everyone's taste, but usually, games from this genre make fun and are always good for a short break.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I haven't peered very hard into the genre, but R-Type III and Thunder Force 4 are great games for me. Also the freeware Warning Forever is a very fun and addictive scroller, one of the best freeware games on the PC.

FELIPE NO

Ikaruga is definitely up there somewhere - an excellent addition to anyone's collection. Other notable shooters include Soukyugurentai, Batsugun, Darius Gaiden (which I prefer over G-Darius), Do Don Pachi and a slew of others.

It's a shame companies won't port over some of the newer releases to our shores.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Ah I haven't heard of these japanese shooters you are mentioning NoMaD! Yeah why don't they release them outside Japan?? How rude! Well as I said before, outside japan I don't think there's much of a market for these games. Everyones still obsessing over 'superb graphics' instead of wanting some hardcore intensive action!
I really hope that we get another scrolling shooter as revolutionary as Ikaruga again sometime soon, so people might start paying more attention to the genre!
I'll mention a few more classic shooters now just for the hell of it! -

Axelay (SNES) - brilliant graphics, music and gameplay! It was cool because the player had all the weapons at the start of the stage, so there were no powerups. You just had to hang on to your weapons! It featured horizontal AND vertical scrolling levels. Loads of fun!!

Gynoug (Megadrive) - I'm not sure if this is a well known one or not. You take on the role of an angel guy, who shot the crap out of reeeally strange enemies. Some of the bosses were VERY disturbing! I'd like to see this game with a graphical update, it would be truely scary I think! Yeah, well, cool style, but the gameplay is kind of mediocre.

Zero Wing (megadrive) - Hah, well this game is pretty dam mediocre! Fun for the first level, then it just gets sooo boring! But it's just legendary because of the 'engrish' on the intro screen, I'm pretty sure I don't need to explain what I'm talking about!

Xenon 2 (megadrive) - This one is probably below average I think! First of all, it featured one pretty lame music track that repeated over and over, which was incredibly annoying. Secondly, the rate at which you fire is just, horribly slow, you end up missing half the enemys. It was just a pretty dull game! But...there were some cool powerups, you could get bullets and lasers firing everywhere!

Bio-Hazard Battle (megadrive) - This is an AWESOME horizontal shooter! You play as bio-ships (look like bugs), that shoot at organic things, including bees, eyeballs, big worms, bats, and err plenty of bugs really! Graphically its stunning for a megadrive game! Plus, you have these reeeally cool charge up shots. Did I mention it's simultaneous 2-player too?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Megalith Beast

Ah I haven't heard of these japanese shooters you are mentioning NoMaD! Yeah why don't they release them outside Japan?? How rude! Well as I said before, outside japan I don't think there's much of a market for these games. Everyones still obsessing over 'superb graphics' instead of wanting some hardcore intensive action!
I really hope that we get another scrolling shooter as revolutionary as Ikaruga again sometime soon, so people might start paying more attention to the genre!
I'll mention a few more classic shooters now just for the hell of it! -

Axelay (SNES) - brilliant graphics, music and gameplay! It was cool because the player had all the weapons at the start of the stage, so there were no powerups. You just had to hang on to your weapons! It featured horizontal AND vertical scrolling levels. Loads of fun!!

Gynoug (Megadrive) - I'm not sure if this is a well known one or not. You take on the role of an angel guy, who shot the crap out of reeeally strange enemies. Some of the bosses were VERY disturbing! I'd like to see this game with a graphical update, it would be truely scary I think! Yeah, well, cool style, but the gameplay is kind of mediocre.

Zero Wing (megadrive) - Hah, well this game is pretty dam mediocre! Fun for the first level, then it just gets sooo boring! But it's just legendary because of the 'engrish' on the intro screen, I'm pretty sure I don't need to explain what I'm talking about!

Xenon 2 (megadrive) - This one is probably below average I think! First of all, it featured one pretty lame music track that repeated over and over, which was incredibly annoying. Secondly, the rate at which you fire is just, horribly slow, you end up missing half the enemys. It was just a pretty dull game! But...there were some cool powerups, you could get bullets and lasers firing everywhere!

Bio-Hazard Battle (megadrive) - This is an AWESOME horizontal shooter! You play as bio-ships (look like bugs), that shoot at organic things, including bees, eyeballs, big worms, bats, and err plenty of bugs really! Graphically its stunning for a megadrive game! Plus, you have these reeeally cool charge up shots. Did I mention it's simultaneous 2-player too?

Speaking of Japanese games, is there any place where I can find a list of great (or good) Japanese PC games that never made it to the U.S.? I'm rather curious to see if the far east does PC games better than we do.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Where's the Turbo-Grafx 16 love?!

R-type, Ordyne, Blazing Lasers.. that would some good shit.

I think I'll go play those right now.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Ah I don't have a Turbo-Grafx 16! Although I know how great the original R-type is! : D I understand that the commodore 64 had a whole load of excellent scrolling shooters! I've never got to play on one of those!

Does anyone know of some really obscure shooters that are really good???

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Pietak

The game that really got me in to shooters would be The Guardian Legend. Fun game really, and I don't think many actually know about it. I haven't played any others as of yet, because I just found the game a few days ago really. It really sparked my interest in shooters now. I definetly have to check out Ikaruga. That's gotta be next on my list...

THANK YOU.

Guardian Legend is one of the best games on NES. It combines vertical shooters with top-down adventure games, and it works really well. I love this game to death. It still holds up to this day.

Ikaruga is definitely the best shooter as of late... I can't find a game that is as fun to play as it is hard. Its simplicity is its beauty.

How ya doing, buddy?

Asking me what my top 5 shooting games are, is like asking somebody if they're human. Shikigami no Shiro II, Imperishable Night, Mushihimesama, ESP Galuda.

I prefer vertical over horizontal, but if I had to play a horizontal one I'd choose Pro Gear, by Capcom. It's beautifully created and had it not of been horizontal it'd definitely be in my top 5. I've been forcing myself to pump up the color in my tv just to see smaller bullets in these games.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Ah yes Fantasy Zone! I forgot about that! That's an odd one, because you can travel left AND right. Yeah I've only played the Megadrive version 'Super Fantasy Zone', its really good! Cute characters and really nice super happy colourful environments

Hey nice link, wow I didn't know there were so many Fantasy Zone games! I shall have to play them!! Those Space Harrier type ones look interesting. Lol at the NES box art. Was there no communication between the box artist and the rest of the team?? I think I'll start a 'crap box art thread'!

FELIPE NO

So it's not entirely accurate (you bomb the buildings instead of ramming into them)(yes there WERE 2 buildings there)

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

My god! These games can magically predict terrible futures! Either that, or there was a terrorist on the development team.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by sprouticus

THANK YOU.

Guardian Legend is one of the best games on NES. It combines vertical shooters with top-down adventure games, and it works really well. I love this game to death. It still holds up to this day.

Ikaruga is definitely the best shooter as of late... I can't find a game that is as fun to play as it is hard. Its simplicity is its beauty.

Glad to see more know of this game than just me!

And since were on a posting of screens, here are a few screens of the game in question.
Combining both top-down adventure:

With fast paced shooting:


There's nowhere I can't reach.

Hey that game looks really interesting! Its a nice idea to combine different genres together.
I remember Rocket Knight adeventures on the megadrive had a few side scrolling shooter sections! (for the rest of the game is a 2d platformer)





This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Destroy the C -WTF THAT THING HAS LEGS-

Great game.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Lol and this level here reminds me of Parodius, with the flying heads!



And at the end of this level, you had to fight this pretty difficult Pig spaceship thingy!!



Oh yeah, and on the Snes version of Sparkster, there was a vertical scrolling shooter level, which was fun!



And it ended with a battle against that evil Rocket Knight. Both of you took control of big robots and punched the crap out of each other!

I was speaking idiomatically.

Sparkster was a great, great game. Nice to see it getting some love for once.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Okay lets discuss immensly difficult shooters!
We all know that shoot'em ups are generally very challenging, but some are just ridiculous! So which of these games have been so hard for you that it's frustrated you to death??
I can think of 2 off the top of my head.

Gunbird 2

Just too many bullets, how on earth do you avoid it all???



Gradius 3



This game is just so hard! If you die once, it's pretty much game over because you lose all of your powerups and it becomes impossible! The part of the game shown in the image is just....mental. Trying to avoid these jerky legs is extremely hard. Plus, if you don't destroy these walker robots quickly enough, they just squish you into the corner! How unfair!

FELIPE NO

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.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

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.

Jam it back in, in the dark.