Sega Shmups
The genre's roots can be traced back to earlier shooting games, including target shooting electro-mechanical games of the mid-20th-century and the early mainframe game Spacewar! The shoot 'em up genre was established by the hit arcade game Space Invaders, which popularised and set the general template for the genre in 1978, and spawned many clones. The genre was then further developed by arcade hits such as Asteroids and Galaxian in 1979.
Not quite like Sky Force, but it's a fun game that just a different kind of shooter. Gradius on Nintendo Switch Online, Darius Collection, now playing Raiden on Arcade Archives... Would love it if Axelay made it to the Super Nintendo Switch Online. Ther best shoot-em-up on switch is Radiant Silvergun and that's not even out yet. No Sky Force and no Super Hydorah and no Rival Megagun and no Stardust Galaxy?
For those of us in the retro gaming world, shooter fans or basically anyone who listens to Drunken Gamers Radioit also means Shmuppreciation month. It is all for the love of the shoot ’em up, these days called “shmups†for short. What’s distinct about the shmup is that aside from most other genres, it has been around as long as video games themselves – yes, the first video game was a shmup – and has remained relatively unchanged for more than 30 years. As an avid fan with probably more than $1,000 in shmups alone among almost every system – did I mention the shmup has some of the most expensive games in existence? 1985 saw the release of Konami's Gradius, which gave the player greater control over the choice of weaponry, thus introducing another element of strategy.
Many developers based their designs on the successful model of Space Invaders and then began to experiment with game play ideas. The period between 1978 and 1983 established the ground rules and principles for the Shmup genre. While Phoenix II’s gameplay may be old-school, its visuals definitely are not.
Following the success of Space Invaders, space shooters were the dominant subgenre during the late 1970s to early 1980s. These games can overlap with other subgenres as well as space combat games. Originally, Mobile game I was going to include SEGA AGES Fantasy Zone in this list. It’s a terrific game, and if you’re looking for an eleventh shoot-em-up to grab, it’s a good one. But I really dig Black Bird, the modern spin on Defender/Fantasy Zone created by the folks at Onion Games.
The sixth and final level of the game is where the player must bomb the enemy base, which is hidden in a crevice out of range of the player’s normal weapon. Once the player has completed the game it then returns to the beginning and repeats the process, albeit at a greater difficulty level. Scramble also introduced multiple weapon systems that accounted for the targeting of both ground and air targets with separate weapons . Bombs were utilized for the targeting of ground targets and, like Sky Raider, the player had to account for their velocity by triggering the bomb some time before they were directly above their target. A laser gun was used for sky targets; however, it could also be used on ground targets if the player were at the exact same horizontal level as the target.
There are already so many good shmups on Switch that this list should be top 20 easily. It becomes a little disappointing when you're forced to sit there and watch scripted walkthroughs of story moments. Going to the Pentagon is something that should be pretty exciting, but it's essentially a rail-shooter without the shooting. I believe that releases like Geometry Wars and Enter the Gungeon give a glimpse of a bright gaming future that includes tons of great new shmup titles. You may think that the shmup is a one-note genre, not destined for longevity.