Other SHMUPS I Like

I like SHMUPS. These are some other ones I like that are listed in no particular order. However, do keep in mind that I have not beat any of these games; I just like playing them and talking about them. This is all this is. Here they are:

• The Raiden Project (PS1): I got this one only recently, but it's fun. I have played Raiden I more than II. I like the very simplistic menu, and I think the graphics are fine. The music is good.

• Thunder Force IV (Mega Drive): The people who both wrote and programmed the music in are true masters. One day, after watching some video or reading something I think, I realized that the opening electric guitar is just the synthesizer, and not an actual electric guitar. But it sounds sooooo accurate. The gameplay is fun, and the graphics are good. I only really got to the 5th level and no further, but it's fun. The voice samples, however, are terrible. That's probably the biggest flaw with the game. But I am not saying that this is a bad game. NOOOOOO. It's amazing.

• Thunder Force III (Genesis): I got this one before IV, and I don't know, I really don't consider this one of my favorites. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate it; I think it's fine, but it just doesn't feel like anything special. When I first got it, I did like it quite a bit, though. Once I got IV, then I think I much preferred that one than III. The music is good, and so are the graphics and gameplay. The voice samples are still bad. This is a good game, but I just think there are plenty of other games out there that are better. Maybe my opinion is because the cartridge I have for it is not in the best of condition.

• R-Type (Master System): Let's get the negatives out first: This game has slowdown, and the sprites flicker. This is a good game, though. I got my Master System when I saw that a store had one for a fair price. I did not get any games with it. That was on a Saturday if I remember right. I knew that another location of the same company had R-Type for this. I remember it sitting there for maybe years. On Monday, I went to buy it, and I immediately knew the Master System has some great stuff on it. I have 10 games including this one, but this is the one I leave in the console by default. The music is alright, though. I also have the European copy of Aerial Assault on the Master System as well. This one is maybe not a favorite, but I wanted to include it under a Master System entry just because those are the only two SHMUPS I have on there. Obviously, I want to get Sagaia, but I will have to buy it from Europe. (This is Floppy from 2021: I think it might actually be the Canadian version, not the European version. I read that sometimes, Canada would essentially get the European artwork and barcode, etc. This makes more sense of me finding it in a thrift store in America if it is the Canadian version. I mean, it could be the European version, but it makes more sense for it to be the Canadian version [because then the game would not have had to cross an ocean])

• Super R-Type (SNES): This was my first R-Type game. It has some slowdown, but it's fine. I like the graphics.

• R-Type DX (GameBoy [Color]): This is a cool game.

• Danmaku Unlimited III (Switch): Oh boy this one is amazing. This was my second Switch game (The first was Raiden V, which I like too). The music is great, the gameplay is a masterpiece, and overall, the visuals are too. The only complaint I have is that I think that some of the 3D models are a bit generic in maybe their texturing or colors. It doesn't matter too much since all you will see are bullets (no really), and if that is the one thing you are paying attention to when you play this game, unless you are an absolute master of this style of games, you will die. I am most certainly the kind of person who wants physical releases whenever it is possible, and this is the version I have. Luckily my local game store had a copy. I remember seeing it sit on the shelf for a while before I had my Switch, and I knew that there was Japanese writing on the cover, but dang the font made it impossible for me to figure out what it was for a long time. Anyway, if all you can get is a digital copy, do it. It is absolutely worth it.

• Nemesis (GameBoy): I like this one but dang it's frustrating. I did eventually beat it by only starting at the level I was last on (I can't do it without at least 100 game overs). I remember watching Jeremy Parrish on his YouTube channel talk about it, and all I remember from that is that the gameplay looked choppy. I think this is because of the Super GameBoy, though. I finally got it for like $6, and I was impressed by how not choppy it was. I think there was some slowdown, but the game is most certainly playable.

• Raiden V (Switch): This was my first Switch game. I bought it while my Switch was still being shipped (I bought it when it was impossible to find them in stores. I was able to go on Walmart's website at a good time and find one for the correct price). I do like this one. They tried to put a story into this one that partly goes on while you are playing. I really wasn't able to pay attention, but I at least appreciate the idea. I just don't think there is an easy way to implement this. The gameplay is great, though, and this is what truly matters. The music and visuals are good too. And I really appreciate the little extras that are included. You get a mini CD sampler (it's only a sampler, but it's better than the nothing you get with most Switch games), and a little concept art book (that is about the size of the CD). Apparently, it is only one manufacturing run for the physical version, but I still see it sometimes in the stores. I think it's worth your time. Also, this was my first Raiden game.

• Tenjin Kaisen (GameBoy): This is also known as Mercenary Force. Again, I remember seeing it on Jeremy Parrish's YouTube channel. Then one day I stopped a game store while we were on a road trip and they had a small import section. This game was in there, but I had no idea what it was. It was complete, it was Japanese, and it was $20. It was even a game! I asked the guy if he knew what it was. He didn't know, but there were 2 screenshots on the back of the box. The first one was just the title screen, and the second one, well it looked like an RPG, and this is what we agreed it might have been. I bought it, and I put it in my GameBoy several minutes later, and I knew I recognized it. I didn't remember the game, but I knew I saw it somewhere. Later I would go back to Jeremy Parrish's YouTube channel and find it. The reason that second screenshot is important is because other than the title screen, the only other screenshot was the character select screen (you can select several characters in this game. Yes, it is a SHMUP kind of). It looked a bit like a forward-facing battle from an RPG, so this is why we thought that way. Again, they didn't put a screenshot of the gameplay, they put a screenshot of the character select screen, not the gameplay. Anyway, I am happy I own this game.

• Taito Legends 2 (PS2): Along with several other SHMUPS, as well as other arcade games (Cameltry is awesome!), G-Darius and Darius Gaiden are included. Go see "My Love for Darius" if you have not done so already so you can see why this is important. It is a very short read (the page is not completely done yet; I don't think it will ever be, but there is a little bit of stuff there now that you can check out).

These are some other games that I don't personally consider full SHMUPS (for me they are either horizontal or vertical), but I will talk about a number of them. These are not necessarily my favorites.

• Link's Crossbow Training (Wii): I only played like 3 minutes of it, and I will play more once I get the little plastic shell/case/whatever to put the Wiimote and the Nunchuck into, but it features Link. That should be enough. I would buy a Zelda themed puzzle game, and I don't really like puzzle games all that much.

• Panzer Dragoon (Saturn): While it's not my favorite game, I do like it. I really like its visuals. I am using composite now for my Saturn, but I want to upgrade to at least S-Video. If I could get those fancy component cables, that would be the best, but I would also get the adapters for the Genesis Model 1 (So I could naturally use that console, as well as the Mega Drive and the Master System), and maybe the PS1.

• Final Fantasy III (SNES) [It's technically VI]: Everybody knows this is the best SHMUP that was ever created after any Darius game of course. The music is simply fantastic. The visuals are fantastic as well. The only problem is that I don't see any sort of ship other than the airships, and there are no bullets. Honestly, they made this SHMUP feel more like a JRPG than a SHMUP. Like Darius, I get to fight some sea life every now and then.

• StarFox (SNES): Now this is the best JRPG I ever played :). There's talking animals! But this is a page about SHMUPS, not JRPGS, so StarFox does not need to be discussed. In all reality, I think it's a fine game, but it's not a favorite of mine. I do like the early attempt of 3D. I think the graphics ultimately came out fine; I don't find the low polygon count disgusting.

Oh wait I should probably talk about Xevious. I remember, before I had my DS Lite, I did not play video games (apparently I already had a distinction between console and computer games, and we considered console games as video games. I played this game called Marble Blast literally for like probably tens of thousands of hours, but it was on the computer. There were also a few other ones I played.), but I had this Plug-and-Play game system that we got from Walmart. I don't remember which one it was, but I kind of know now it had to be a Namco one; I think there was PacMan and I know there was Pole Position, but there was also one I could not pronounce because both the font and the spelling made it impossible for me. That one was Xevious. I really liked that one. I think the thing stopped working after some time. I didn't remember the name, but I knew it was something spelled weird and hard to pronounce. Anyway, a couple of years ago, when I finally got back into gaming and big time, I was talking with a friend about it, and apparently he also had a plug-and-play with that game on it. We couldn't remember the name of it, but we were talking about the same game. We remembered that you fly scrolling up and shooting at things, and we remembered that the enemy ships were like little circle things. Eventually I found out the name, and I saw that there was an NES port. I already had an NES, so I was looking for it at the game stores whenever I got it. Then I found it one day. My friend came over eventually and we played it. So I guess technically I was maybe a SHMUP fan for a long time, but I just didn't know it, or that there was even a term to describe that style of game. I like the NES port simply because that is still the only one I have. You know what, after I update this site and publish what I have just written, I am going to look up where else it was released, and I will see if I can find another port of it.

Hopefully soon, I will buy XDR on the Mega Drive, and then I can talk about it. I already saw a playthrough on YouTube, and I have some pre-playing thoughts on it.

-----January 15, 2021-----

I finally got Thunder Force II today, as well as a complete copy of the Canadian release of Strider on the Genesis! I only played a tiny bit of both of them so far, but here I will give my thoughts about Thunder Force II. Every time I saw a multi-directional shooting game, I did not like what I saw. I knew that Thunder Force II had both multi-directional parts and horizontal parts. But now that I have played it, the multi-directional parts I think play quite good, but they are kind of hard but also kind of easy in a few ways. I actually like it though. Also, a few week(s) ago, I got Whip Rush on the Mega Drive. I think it's a pretty good game. But other than that, I do have coming in (I was hoping it would be delivered today, but possibly maybe tomorrow, but at least it should be here by Monday), and I will have some good stuff to add to the website, but probably not this page yet. Maybe you should check the other SHMUP-related page I have pretty soon (you know the one), oh and also the page where I talk about D-Pads...

I still did not forget about XDR. I may get that soon as well.

-----January 21, 2021-----

I forgot to talk about another shmup I got a few weeks ago. It is Whip Rush...Wait no...As I am typing this, I see that I already mentioned it. Well, anyway, I like that one too. One day I will talk about it more. I am assuming that you saw the other pages, so you know what I was talking about on January 15?

-----November 26, 2021-----

I am going to talk a little bit about Whip Rush, or at least the 2.something (almost 3 full) levels I can get through in it. The third level is tough.

I read several reviews that basically say that it is an average game, and I have to agree. However, it is not a bad game, which is what the reviews said as well. The ship is kind of short and fat, which I honestly don't care that much for, but it really doesn't bother me even a little bit. The music is alright. Actually, I was listening to the music through the options menu for a few minutes, and it really is not all that bad. I would say that it is better than alright, but it is not like Darius Gaiden or something from Final Fantasy VI. It is still quite good, however. The graphics are alright, too. The controls, as you might guess, are also alright, but I do have a complaint about the ship speed adjustment. Unlike Thunder Force III or IV, pressing the button to adjust the ship's speed when it is at the maximum speed does NOT cycle back to the slowest speed. Instead, it starts decreasing in speed each time you press the button until you eventually go to the lowest speed, and then it starts going back up again. I really think that this causes me to waste a bit of time trying to adjust my speed to exactly where I want it, especially since I want the adjustment to always INCREASE when I press the button, which means I have to cycle all the way back down, and then go back up again. Thunder Force III and IV just go back to zero and then increase, so therefore, I can basically keep on cycling through until I find the speed I want quickly. This is probably my biggest complaint of Whip Rush, and my second biggest complaint is the hard Level 3. I don't think I have ever gotten past that. The level itself is sort of brutal, and I only ever got to the boss a few times, and I don't remember ever defeating it. This is just me, though, so maybe (or probably) you are better than me at this, so it is not that difficult for you. But, again, it is not a bad game at all.

I honestly still want to get XDR. I forgot about it until I came here to write about Whip Rush. I saw its name as I was scrolling down here. I think I am going to look into getting that possibly.

(Barely) December 7, 2021

As you all know, I got XDR. I have not beat it yet, but I did put up a page for it. Yes, it is not good, but I still like it. After all, I did want to get it, so that means I do like it, even if I like it because it is not that good, and also the box art is actually cool.