Recently I’ve been looking into expanding the number of shmups in my library.
Which games should I prioritise getting? Any that I should avoid?
Well that depends what you have.
Ikaruga for starters
This is at the top of my list, so it will come sooner or later!
I don’t have anything substantial except fond memories or R-Type and Raiden, and a copy of Raiden IV that I tend to play on loop when I have days off.
I don’t have any recommendations, but have seen a community for these types of games that may be relevant:
Do you have any examples of shumups that you like and any you dislike? That might help give a better idea of what you like.
I mean, if you just want “good shmups”, it’s easy to go to Steam, search for games with the “Shoot 'em Up” tag, and sort by user reviews.
But if you’re looking for something in particular, a list like that might help.
I don’t have much to go on, it has been more than 30 years since my arcade days. I’ve been making a list and am trying to prioritise purchases. I think Ikaruga will come first as soon as it is on sale again (which isn’t very often).
I don’t have a Steam account, but I’ll try your method anyway to see how it compares to what is already on my list.
Thanks.
Which system(s) are you playing on?
Crimzon Clover, any version’s good but World EXplosion is the most recent. It’s a fairly difficult and chaotic bullet hell, but the novice mode should be reasonably approachable as long as you’re willing to learn, and the design is superb.
Similarly, the whole CAVE backlog. Not all of them have novice modes or the like, and there’s quite a few games not really available outside of MAME. The original DoDonPachi is/was considered the best starter bullet hell for a long, long time and still holds up pretty well, but is more difficult than a lot of modern games on their respective novice modes.
On the indie side of things: Star of Providence (formerly Monolith) is an indie roguelite bullet hell twin-stick-ish shmup with a pretty good amount of depth. ZeroRanger is a much more story-based game that I really enjoyed.
