Meatiest weapons in 2D shoot em ups?

[hudson]

[EDIT] Title was 'Starting' weapons, but I'm settling for any meaty weapon.

I just wondered after dying many times in Darius, which 2D shmups (and this also goes for run and gun shooters like Contra/Turrican etc) have the meatiest (strongest) starting weapons?

I'm pretty sure I played one recently which was so satisfying from the off. May have been a PC Engine game... could be MD

Anyway, please let me know Thanks

[Asura]

Turrican's laser (the one where you hold the button and can rotate it around the character) is pretty meaty.

[hudson]

Turrican's laser (the one where you hold the button and can rotate it around the character) is pretty meaty.

Is this the weapon you start the game with?

[QuantumLeap]

Radiantsilvergun .....thread closed

opps you said 2d thread open again lol

[hudson]

No, I will accept games running on a 2D plane. Thread closed?

[Asura]

Is this the weapon you start the game with?

Yep, you start off with it. You just hold the fire button down.

[QualityChimp]

I'd say Sky Force until you first die, but you're being 2D-strict, so how about Gradius and...

[hudson]

Nah Gradius has the opposite of a meaty starting weapon. You build your ship up to lasers, options and shield etc and then you go back to pew pew when you die. Sad feels.

[QualityChimp]

Doesn't that kinda take the fun out if you're overpowered from the start?

[hudson]

I see your point but what if you needed meaty firepower from the off? Of course, you can get even beefier with power-ups. I just wondered if there are games that feel satisfyingly fun from the off.

[QualityChimp]

I'm very much a fan of easy shooters. Bullet Hell does nothing for me.



How about these instead?

In Extremis

https://store.steampowered.com/app/532470/In_Extremis/

Here the developer talks about his motivations and what makes it fun (and what doesn't) to play a shmup:

https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/LeonardoFerreira/20151104/258440/Breaking_The_Shmup_Dogma.php

Personally, I love Shoot 1-Up.
You don't start off superpowered, but you don't get extra lives banked for later, you get them immediately, so you can have ten ships flying around simultaneously. Sweet.

[Dogg Thang]

Bullet Hell

Any genre gets named for something as negative as 'hell' and I can safely say it's probably not for me.

[wakka]

I find bullet hells strangely relaxing. It's more like a big, moving maze than anything else. I'm really bad at them, mind. I die all the time and just credit feed. But there's something soothingly mesmerising about the whole experience.

My favourite shooter is Radiant Silvergun. It's already been mentioned but you deffo start off with a chunky weapon in that.

Maybe Triggerheart Exelica too? You can swing stuff round and chuck it right from the start, that feels pretty powerful.

[dataDave]

Quick taps of the fire button on Mars Matrix gives you a powerful close-range shotgun-type blast. Useful throughout the entire game.

That's my vote.

[Leon Retro]

Super Aleste starts with a reasonably powerful weapon -- and then you can upgrade it really quickly to create devastating firepower.