PS2 shooter recommendations?

[Combination]

I wish to expand my NTSC-J PS2 collection and thought there may be a few good shooters I might have overlooked.

Currently I only have the essential Gradius V and R-Type Final. But I'm fond of the vertical flavour as well, so anything goes.

Thank you

[Destrukticor]

Espgaluda

One of the easier cave shoot em ups (according to many experts of which i am not one)
Lots of bullets the ability to slow them down and turn them into coins
deep scoring system
vertical
a great game
most cave stuff on PS2 is tops

[Geoff D]

Psyvariar is a must, & Raiden3 turned out to be pretty spiffy as well.

[Combination]

Ta, I'll make note of Cave related, Psyvariar and Raiden 3 then.

[Geoff D]

Remember, there are some awesome PS1 shooters that you could play too - Einhander, Donpachi, Dodonpachi for example

[eretsua]

Mushihimesama, a lovely, lovely cave shooters. quite a bit more difficult than ESPgaluda (which also highly recommended) but not unfair at all. Mushi looks absolutely beautiful in TATE-mode.

XII Stag. a retro-looking vertical / TATE-mode shooter with some nice tacticle playing. I really, really love this game. It's control & combo/multiplier scheme is a bit odd, I think but I am totally in love with this title. The biggest flaw of this game for me is that the "bullet sound" is so extremely bassy while the music has hardly any bass. But still it's way cool.

DoDonPachi Dai-Ou-Jou. Another Cave shooter but unlike Mushi & ESPgaluda DDPDOJ's theme is based around tanks and other more conventional military stuff which for me is kind of a downer to the game because it plays so nicely! Quite hard, though. Again playing it in TATE-mode is absolutely necessary.

[JazzFunk]

Mobile Light Force 2 is worth a punt - I've forgotten its true Japanese name but it can usually be picked up dirt cheap in GAME and other places. It's got a totally unrelated Charlies Angels-style cover. My preowned cost me ?1.97. No 60HZ mode, but a nice blast.

[Generic_Chaos]

Mobile Light Force 2 is worth a punt - I've forgotten its true Japanese name

It's called Shikigami No Shiro in Japan and can be picked up cheap if you don't mind buying re-issues.