I haven't spent much time with Ikaruga yet, but my nod still goes with Silvergun. With fewer boss fights, Ikaruga just doesn't seem as epic to me. It's still a hell of a ride, though.
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I haven't spent much time with Ikaruga yet, but my nod still goes with Silvergun. With fewer boss fights, Ikaruga just doesn't seem as epic to me. It's still a hell of a ride, though.
Darius Gaiden and Galactic Attack/Layer Section are both Saturn essentials. Thunder Force V is another good Saturn shmup that can be found cheaply. Soukyugurentai is fantastic, but some people get turned off by the difficulty AI: the game actually gets harder as you get better (same with Battle Garegga and many other Raizing shmups). DoDonPachi is also fantastic, even though it's never really grabbed me.
I don't know why you people are so down on Battle Garegga. If you dislike the invisibullets that much, there's an option to turn them into red balls. Just be thankful Stone isn't around to berate you all.
Radiant Silvergun is a game every shooter fan should play at least once in their lifetime. It may not be your cup of tea -- it's more of a methodical R-Type-ish shooter with manic bullet patterns -- but I guarantee there's no other shooter quite like it. It's sort of the "Citizen Kane" of shmups: it's praised so often that it's almost cliche to pick it as a favorite, but that doesn't mean that it isn't wildly innovative and meticulously designed.
As far as Dreamcast goes, I've liked every shooter I've played for it. Giga Wing 2, Mars Matrix, and Gunbird 2 are all worth getting.
Nothing to add that hasn't already been said, but it's good to see Ikaruga inspiring more enthusiasm and interest in the genre as a whole.
I hate Battle Garegga too. Enemy bullets aside I still think its not all that. I mean fountain pens for bullets? No ta. I would say avoid Kingdom Grandprix too, its awful.
Only get Radiant Silvergun if you don't mind boring slow ass games where you have to have a degree just to figure out how to power up the weapons. Not rewarding to play unless you've put some serious time into it thats if you can stand playing it at all. The hyper sword is one of the best shooter super bomb weapons ever. Alongside the fruit cocktail in HPark.
My favourite shooters on the Saturn are Layer Section and The Game Paradise.
Yeah , I dont understand why people like raizing shooters all that much.
sggg: try out sonic wings 3 its a nice shooter.
Well, I traded away Radiant Silvergun and I miss it every day. :(
Darius Gaiden and Galactic Attack for Saturn are awesome shmups, even more so because they can be bought for a song. I recommend getting them as fast as your little feet can take you to wherever they're being sold.
I just got the PSX rev of Don-Pachi and I'm loving every minute of it. Simple in design but intense as hell. I still can't pass level 4 without continuing and my score is around 2,800,000 but I find myself trying over and over again because it's just so damn much fun. Pacrappa hooked me up with this game (as well as a modded PSone) and I'm going to go back to him for the sequel. I had always wondered what everyone was talking about with the Don-Pachi games, and now I know. They're awesome.
I still haven't been able to give Ikaruga the playtime it deserves (just got it yesterday), but I've loved what I've played so far. Zero Gunner 2, Gunbird 2, both Giga Wings, and Mars Matrix should be in every DC owner's library, along with the soon-to-be-classic Ikaruga. Shame on you if you don't own these great shmups!
Just get the import of DoDonPachi for your Saturn. It will tide you over for as long as you want it to...
Kyuukyoku Tiger II Plus for Saturn is decent helicopter-based shmup. If you ever happen to get into arcade PCBs, get AJAX. :D
Believe no one else: Radiant Silvergun is the best shmup on both systems. :p I've only played about 2 hours of Ikaruga at this point, so I'll leave it out of this. It has been 2 very promising hours though...
instead for ranking every single shmup, I'll break them into groups and rank the groups, group 1 being the best. This is only games I own.
Group 1
Radiant Silvergun
Mars Matrix
Strikers 1945 II
Group 2
Strikers 1945
Gunbird
Gunbird2
Dodonpachi
Zero Gunner 2
Darius Gaiden
Group 3
Galactic Attack
Giga Wing
Souky
Salamander Deluxe Pack
The only shmups I've played (owned, actually) for Saturn: Radiant Silvergun, DonPachi, Galactic Attack, Darius Gaiden, Soukyugurentai (just sold it), and Guardian Force, which I also plan on selling if it continues to disinterest me.
I highly reccomend Radiant Silvergun if you are into the slow, methodical shooter type. If R-Type and Life Force are your cup of tea, then RS is a must-buy. Sure, it's expensive as fuck, but there's no other way to play it (unless you have an ST-V-equipped cab lying around) so it's worth it. You get what you pay for, in this case.
Souky... blegh. I just got rid of it, if that says anything. The ranking engine just rubs me the wrong way. Still, it's a very well-presented piece of software. This one is for hard-core shmuppers only.
DonPachi - great game, rather lousy Saturn port (lots of slowdown, muffled sound effects). I don't have the means to get my PSX modded for its superior version, so I'm keeping this on hand. Great fun, especially in TATE mode (as are all vert shooters).
Galactic Attack - excellent game. Amazing bang for your buck. It's super-cheap and super-fun. Also super-hard. Even with the extra credit cheat, I still can't beat the last boss. Practice makes perfect, I guess.
Darius Gaiden - I've given up on this one. It's so freakin' hard, especially when it possesses that great Gradius rule: once you die, might as well reset the game 'cause you're not getting any farther without those powerups you just lost. Great graphics and control, though. There was also a Windows version released which has virtually no slowdown, unlike the Saturn version.
Guardian Force - quite the innovative game, but the controls kill it. You play as a tank with a fully-rotatable turret. This is a game that should've been bundled with a special controller, for it's quite a chore to control both the movement of the tank and the rotation of the turret using the Saturn pad. Some super-neat weapons, excellent graphics and sound, and a collection-based powerup system (collect gems, get experience pts.) somewhat make up for the control issues, but then again, I've only played the game for a few hours so far...
As for the DC shooters - get them all. The first Giga Wing is definitely my favorite. No slowdown, amazing 2D graphics (without the "ouch! too bright!" factor in Mars Matrix), super-fast gameplay. The import version can be had for $30 at NCS.