RF Generation Message Board

As some of you might remember, there was some talk on the Playthrough Suggestion thread about having a month dedicated to shmups. Thank you EngineerMike for the excellent suggestion! The Playthrough Group discussed this idea and we feel that December would be a great month to host this competition.....Yes, COMPETITION!!! Last December, we had great success with a beat 'em competition involving the Streets of Rage series and we thought it might be really cool to do something similar this year. As you know, the holidays are a busy time for everyone, so what better way to unwind than to spend a session blowing things up!

We are asking that all of you share your recommendations for games that we play and I will keep track of them in this initial post. Similar to our Streets of Rage Challenge, we will be playing 4 games during the month (1 per week) and concluding with another Royal Rumble where all games can be played for a few days. We are going to mix it up a bit (again suggested by EngineerMike) and play one game on the NES, one on the Genesis, one on the SNES, and one on the PSX. These seem to be the most common systems that members own and hopefully this will increase participation. Please remember that we are playing 4 games this month (not to mention the game(s) on the modern side), so please make sure that all of your suggestions are affordable.

Once we have complied a list, I will set up the polls so that we can vote on a game for each system. Thanks for the suggestions we already got from the other thread, I will post them below:


FINAL RESULTS
Gradius (NES)
U.N. Squadron (SNES)
Lightening Force (Genesis)
Raycrisis (PSX)

NES
Zanac
Gradius
Dragon Spirit
Gun.Smoke
Stinger
Guardian Legend
Star Soldier

SNES
Gradius III
Darius Twin
Super R-Type
U.N. Squadron
Super Nova
Phalanx
Raiden Trad
Thunder Spirits

Genesis
Truxton
Phelios
Wings of Wor
Steel Empire
Thunder Force II
Thunder Force III
Lightening Force
Hellfire
Sol-Deace

PSX
G Darius
Raycrisis
Gekioh
R-Types
Mobile Light Force
Raiden Project

Racketboy has this big list of PS1 shooters. Not all of them had international releases.

http://www.racketboy.com/retro/phenominal-playstation-ps1-2d-shooters-shmups-library

I know of a few decent ones, just letting others chime in. ;)

G Darius is one i've played a bit of and it seemed pretty good, it's a PS1 game.

I strongly recommend U.N. Squadron for SNES and Thunder Force III for Genesis. Glad to see Thunder Force II up there. That game never gets enough love. Easily my favorite shmup.

I know SMS isn't an option, but Transbot is pretty good.

EDIT - I know a lot of people dislike it, but I think Silver Surfer is a pretty good shmup. It's not as hard as everyone thinks it is. It's one of those games that if you're fully powered up and you know what to expect, it's kinda easy to stay alive.

We're trying to keep people liking us JerryGreenwood.

Hey the music kicks ass!

Awesome! Well done singlebanana! I see I am going to have to try and track down some shmups before December. Especially, the Genesis ones. As soon as the poll results are up, I guess a guy will know what he needs.

My brother played Silver surfer like crazy growing up, never could beat that game. I stink at Shmups and never could get past the first few levels on that game, much less any other. Galactic attack on the Saturn was the only one I could get halfway decent at.

Were there any major changes to Gradius III on ports? I own Gradius III & IV (PS2) and am wondering if the scoring and such is the same.

it'll be narrowed down to 4 by the end of the poll vote, one for each week :)

Blazing Lazers on the Turbo Grax and Lords of Thunder on the Turbo CD are a couple of my favorites, but just because of the platforms might be harder to get participation.

Some more accessible ones I'd play through with you guys would be:

NES:
Zanac
Gun Smoke

SNES:
UN Squadron
Super R-Type
Darius Twin

Genesis:
Lightening Force

PS:
Raystorm
Thunderforce

NES
Stinger
Guardian Legend
Life Force
Star Soldier

Genesis
Sol-Deace (Sol-Feace for SEGA CD is the same)
Hellfire

SNES
Super Nova

PlayStation
Einhander

Looks like its that time again. This guy came from a dumpster.

[img width=700 height=525]http://i.imgur.com/rLgD9XO.jpg[/img]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, but please keep in mind the cost. Einhander is typically a $50+ title.

Magical Chase!!

Ain't no one got time for that.

You sir, are a Bully.

If Magical Chase is on the table then why not Keio Flying Squadron?

Or Thunderbolt II for the Genesis? ;)

Btw, I'm totally up for this.

I went through and added some other noted shmups on these systems. I also removed some of the pricier titles as a means of increasing participation. Voting will start for the NES in the next few days, so get your suggestions in if you have them.

Just bought 1/2 of the SNES games on the list, from eBay. I want to guarantee I get to play!

Just a thought here and wanted to throw it out to the community for feedback:

I've been looking over the PSX shmups suggested for December and it seems that a few of them could be pricey (as most are on this system). My main goal for the playthrough is to max out participation and in doing so, try to keep it affordable for most of our members. I like having a PSX title in the mix to add variety, but I fear it may deter some members from playing all of the games during the month. My thought is that after the Genesis voting, I might pull the runner's up and second runner's up from each category (NES, SNES, Genesis) and we can vote on those 6 games as our 4th title for the month.  Does this sound better, or would you rather stick with playing a PSX title as the 4th game? Please let me know on this thread of send me a PM. I'm good for doing whatever the community decides. Thanks

Can I suggest adding Mobile Light Force to the PSX voting? It's Gunbird, and it is very affordable, though I still have not been able to find one.

Although, I think you might be right that people won't play the PS1 game anyway.

Yeah, I'll add it for sure. Looks like a cool title. Can't believe I don't have this on my watch list.

Geki-Oh Shooting King isn't too bad money wise either.

Most of them are not really bad in terms of price, but I figure with 8 total games for the month, it might add up heavily for some. It's good that we are announcing games now so that people can go ahead and locate them if needed.

I'd like some more feedback on this if anyone has anything to add. Thanks

even not paying attention to price, we have a lot of games being played that month and i don't expect everyone to play all of them. if we have a handful of slightly more expensive titles i don't think it'll be a huge problem, especially if they're ones that at least a few people already own.

that being said, with the sheer number of PS games i would be surprised if there aren't more cheap shmups

Our retro shmup playthrough list has been finalized for December. Thanks to all who voted.

Gradius (NES)
U.N. Squadron (SNES)
Lightening Force (Genesis)
Raycrisis (PSX)