Shmups: Horizontal or Vertical?

Here you go!! :D







As for me...

Forever vertical

This is just one reason (among many) as to why...

http://imagehost.auctionwatch.com/pr...Shoryuken1.gif

I miss 16-bit style horizontal shooters. :.(

Horizontal, although I don't play shooters much. Einhander was the only one I got *really* into, and compared to that, all verts seem really similar.

Between games like thunderforce and einhander, I find that side-scrolling shooters tend to have a tendency for putting more into play like the area your flying in so you have to make certain you don't crash into everything. It adds a good element to the gameplay so I'm gonna call for this one. As for vertical, I see most of the effort is placed on avoiding what looks like a projectile storm while breaking everything that's coming from the top of the screen. Rarely do I ever see the level itself come into play so I'm not gonna vote for this one.

I do wish however, that the 3D style came into being becuase after we had our time with starfox and galaxy force, I figured there could be more on the way but I guess I was wrong. (as to seeing a certain starfox clone on DC was cancelled... bastards!!)

By virtue of R-Type, I choose horizontal. I also dig Darius Gaiden mucho moxie primolivifish. :D

Horizontal. Most horizontal shmups atleast have alls and the like to add strategy to them. Shmups like the Raiden series have virtually no strategy to them at all.

Quote:

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Originally posted by rama
horizontal 'cause i can't live without gradius.

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Ditto, vert is ok but I'll always end up going back to Gradius.

vertical, although there are a few horiz's that will always be very dear to me.

Guwange, and it doesn't fit into either.

I don;t really like strategic shooters. Because once you get better and know the level and boss patterns the replayability goes down and the feel of going through levels gets boring.

With vertical shooters you can replay the game like an action game and not worry too much where you go. I guess I'm more of an action man.

There was one horizontal shooter that got me interested called silkworm though. I think the co-op aspects to that were handled great.
I also liked aero fighters for the speed, (that game was pretty manic for a horizontal shooter) and I liked games like defender or choplifter where you've got an objective. Shmups that are on-rails with mazes to negotiate and obstacles to avoid tend to lose thier appeal once you've been through the level to death. Especially for arcade shooters where there are only a few levels andyou'll be doing it over and over again.

Does anyone here remember a game on the lynx called Gates of Zendacon? Man I loved that! So much variety and new scenary, it felt almost like an adventure shooter. These days all we get are arcade shooters with a few levels rather than one with 50 odd levels to go through and "explore". I reckon a company should try to make a shooting game that spans many levels and has a "mario world"-like scope to it. That would be awesome. The graphics don't have to be the greatest thing on earth, but make it original and long and I'm in. It would reinforce a kind of emergent gameplay in shooters which is missing.

But for the most part, avoiding hazards and obstacles and stuff just doesn't suit my style of play though. Ships should be flying at fast speeds not cramped in small areas where you need to be pixel perfect and in the right spot to progress. Once you know patterns it's hard to go back and enjoy it. (a bit like megaman games where you've found out the perfect method to kill the boss and level and no longer have any incentive to do things a different way)

I know this doesn't count since it is neither horizontally or verticaly scrolling but Smash tv has got to be the most addictive type of shooter there is. (better than robotron but I suppose that started it all) You dodge, you shoot, AND you aim all at once.
But not only that, bosses were slowly destructble (parts would have independant piecs that gradually got damaged) so there was the fun in mindless desturction that you don't quite get in forced-scrolling shoot em ups where the scenary is mostly indestructible. I'm a fan of mindless destrction. Games like rampage, (not a shooter I know) smash tv, even assault suits valken, or diehard on ps1 (which isn't even 2d) to a lesser extent, just add to the shoot em up realism imo. I want to wreck the place as much as the enemies in them.

In the old days shooters required skill in aiming the gun, these days we have these super duper powerful smart laser that hog the whole screen, home in on all the enemies, and kill things even before they have a chance to appear. This has a tendancy to make the game button masher happy rather than accurate and in a panic to hit something without missing. I loved the old style of shooting like galaga where firing the button just meant a small missile would fly out of the ship rather than an ultra destructive beam of death (which comes out of nowhere and is unlimited) that fucks up the entire screen.