Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Rank these 16-bit platforms in order of shmup goodness

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Rank these 16-bit platforms in order of shmup goodness

    PC Engine (including PCE CD)
    MegaDrive (including MCD)
    SNES
    Neo Geo

    First place gets 4pts, second 3pts etc.

    I’ve purposely excluded the Amiga as we can pretty much guarantee it will sit bottom of the pile. Sorry Amiga fans (and I am one of them).

    I’ll start the ball rolling:

    1. MD - Gleylancer, Musha, Thunderforce III/IV... do I need to go on? Loads of honourable mentions like Eliminate Down, Slapfight and Steel Empire as well. Then you even have some decent CD shooters including Lords of Thunder, Keio, Aleste and Silpheed. Top, top system for shmups.

    2. PCE - almost takes first place for me just for the Soldier series, never mind Spriggan 2, Sapphire, Gradius 2, Gate/Lords of Thunder, Parodius, and of course the daddy of them all, R-Type.

    3. Neo Geo - although a fair way behind the top two, just about pips the SNES for me due to its technical prowess with games like Blazing Star, Pulstar and Fast Striker, and also has a couple of leftfield shmups in Twinkle Star Sprites and Viewpoint.

    4. SNES - by no means a shameful last place what with amazing shmups like Axelay, Gradius 3, R-Type 3, Area 88 and the Parodius series. I guess it just goes to show what a great period of time the 16-bit generation was for this genre.

    #2
    As I mention in the SNES shmup thread, Racket Boy always has some nice suggestions to the best in genre.

    MD
    presented by Brickiemart, Adam Sarson, BulletMagnet, and Racketboy Be sure to check out similar guides in our Genre Guide Collection Even though I have been a Sega Genesis fan from the beginning, I didn’t quite realize how many Shooters the console had in its library until I saw this guide taking shape.   I always …


    PC Engine, exclusives and arcade.
    Presented by Marurun, Racketboy, and BulletMagnet While the TurboGrafx-16 struggled to find its place in the American video game market, its Japanese counterpart, the PC Engine, managed some solid success battling Nintendo and Sega. Despite a modest lineup of exclusive successes in other genres, the PC Engine / TG16 is one of the very best …

    Presented by Marurun, Racketboy, BulletMagnet, and hashiriya1 Following up on Part 1 of our epic guide to the scrolling shoot-em-ups found on the TurboGrafx-16 and PC Engine family of consoles, we now have Part 2 ready to go.  This second installment focuses on arcade shmups that were ported over to the consoles.  While it may …

    Comment


      #3
      1. Mega Drive- Has loads of good to great shoot 'em ups. Most of them still look good with memorable music. You really can't go wrong with the Mega Drive when it comes to shooters. Still love MUSHA, Thunderforce III & IV, Bio-Hazard Battle, Keio Flying Squadron, Elemental Master etc.. etc...

      2. Super Nintendo - Super Aleste, Area 88, Parodius(all three games), Pop'n Twinbee, Macross:Scrambled Valkyrie, Super R-Type, R-Type III, Gradius III(now faster ) and the tremendous Axelay. The SNES only has a small amount of top quality shooters, but I always enjoy going back to them.

      3. PC Engine - Maybe it should be in 2nd place, but I've definitely spent more time with SNES shooters overall. I love Air Zonk, the Soldier series is excellent, Star Parodier is really nice, and other games like Magical Chase, Side Arms, Aero Blasters, Cyber Core are good. Gate and Lords of Thunder are also really fun CD games. Obviously a great machine for shoot 'em up fans.

      4. Neo Geo - Pulstar and Blazing Star stand out as my favourites for the machine. Last Resort and Viewpoint are also games I go back to quite regularly. The Aero Fighters series is also pretty fun. There just aren't enough Neo Geo shoot 'em ups that stand out as something special, so it quite rightly sits in 4th place behind machines with more to offer in the genre.



      5. Amiga - Battle Squadron rocks!
      Last edited by Leon Retro; 02-08-2019, 22:08.

      Comment


        #4
        PC Engine, its what the system does. The rest are dust.

        Comment


          #5
          Mega Drive

          Neo Geo

          SNES

          PC Eng

          Comment


            #6
            1. Megadrive - loads of great shooters both arcade ports and originals. TFIII & IV are probably the best horizontal shmups of the era.

            2. PC Engine - VERY close to the MD but it’s generally lower resolution does hurt some games. Compile made some true greats for the 8-bit wonder. Rayxanber III could easily pass for a Neo-Geo game.

            3. Neo-Geo - I’m placing this in third thanks to the efforts of NGDevTeam. They’ve made the aged hardware pull off proper danmaku games which compliment the older games in the library perfectly.

            4. SFC - no disgrace coming last here. Still some shooting gems in its library but just not enough.

            Comment


              #7
              The Super Famicom has some cracking shmups like Macross, Area 88 and one of my favourite games of all time, Pop n’ Twinbee, but it really doesn’t compare to the other systems.

              There’s a huge amount of PC Engine shooters (about 120, I think), but very few held my attention. Gate of Thunder, Winds of Thunder, Star Soildier series and most of the Cute ‘em Ups are all absolute quality.

              Second place goes to the NEO•GEO... there isn’t a huge amount of shooting games, but they’re all generally very good and worth playing, other than Ghost Pilots and Zed Blade. And yeah, NG: Dev Team have certainly added to the quality titles.

              The Megadrive plus Mega CD gets my winning vote though, plenty of fantastic shmups for the console.

              Comment


                #8
                After seeing the thread on SNES shooters I had a feeling this sort of thing might pop up.

                For me it would be:

                1. Mega Drive-Undisputed for me, TF IV is class, III a close second and there are so many others. Gley Lancer and Elimiante Down demonstarte great graphics and sound. I love MUSHA for the challange and the overall feel, the MCD version is also great. So many others Slapfight, VV, Steel Empire, Hellfire, Elemantal Master, Truxton, Twinkle Tale, etc, etc

                2. Neo Geo-Not as many as some other systems but pure quality, Blazing Star and Pulstar just have an air of quality, they blew me away back in the day and play both through often. I think it's because they were so far ahead of the competiiton back in the day, in reality I don't think they play as well as some of the PC-Engine games but hey! I am also a massive fan of Twinkle Star Sprites, I have lost so many Friday nights with it! It was also good to see indie devs

                3. PC-Engine-For me Gates of Thunder was the peak, the game play and sound track just blew me away. Many of the others seemed generic, although you can't take away the varied depth and number in its library. I must explore th Spriggen series a litte more.

                4. SNES-I think this has probably been covered in the other thread, for me Area 88 stood out and I really did enjoy R-Type III (although I am pants at it). The small library puts it in last place, although it's no disaster.
                Last edited by dyer60; 03-08-2019, 08:23.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by dyer60 View Post

                  4. SNES-I think this has probably been covered in the other thread, for me Area 88 stood out and I really did enjoy R-Type III (although I am pants at it). The small library puts it in last place, although it's no disaster.
                  It's definitely a shame that, despite having good examples of the genre, the SNES didn't receive many shoot 'em ups. You have a few that are really good, then all the rest are very lackluster.

                  My fondness for Axelay helps, because I always come back for more and more. But when people who don't like Axelay take it out of the equation, the amount of truly special SNES shooters is tiny.

                  I've always looked at how well made Macross:Scrambled Valkyrie is and thought it really highlights how the SNES can deliver a fast, smooth shooter full of nice graphics and effects. The developer obviously took the time to understand and get the most out of the hardware.

                  Not getting a sequel to the popular Super Aleste was also sad.
                  Last edited by Leon Retro; 03-08-2019, 15:26.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    1 - PC-Engine. No surprise there really. There’s just something about the shooters on the wee white wonder that just really connected with me. It was all probably founded out of my undying love for the original R-Type. Then there was just hit after hit for me. Soldier Blade was an utter, utter obsession, but the list of shmups on the system I love is massive.

                    2 - Neo-Geo - Not a huge library, but some utter class. Viewpoint, Last Resort, Pulstar and Blazing Star being the standouts.

                    3 - Mega Drive - Gynoug and Hellfire are my go to games in the MD but some other great titles to get through. I’m probably alone in my love for Phelios mind you.

                    4 - Super Famicom - Parodius games are the stars here. Can I claim KIki Kai Kai as a shmup of sorts? Awesome game.

                    If I’m being honest though, the PCE is my go to shooter system and the others just happen to have a few games each I love.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Shame that the Megadrive didn’t get a port of Pop n’ Twinbee, or a totally new Mega Twinbee game.

                      And if you add in Master System backwards compatibility, that boosts the library even further with a few good shooters.
                      Last edited by _SD_; 03-08-2019, 22:39.

                      Comment

                      Working...
                      X