Acrobat Mission

An early, less polished version of XII Stag (wiggle side shot for bonus points -- useless in practice here). Weak firepower or highly durable enemies. Guide your ship to its doom after you get hit by the bullets from enemies you can barely destroy. Less enjoyable than its SFC port.

-Rob

After Burner

Space Harrier with jet fighters and the speed jacked up to 11. At its best, the whole game serves you the same five-six seconds of utterly chaotic, frenetic action over and over again, with you frantically dodging incoming missiles while trying to keep enemy planes in your sights through obscuring smoke trails and explosions, all the while the scenery is rocketing by at a dizzying pace. Shallowness is its strength but also its limitation, and lack of variety in enemies and stages hurts it. Best enjoyed when played sparingly and in short bursts.

-icycalm

After Burner II

Best thing about this slight revision is the servo-actuated, sit-down cabinet version which resembles a cockpit and moves according to the motion of your plane. Apart from some new enemies and three new stages, the only major difference is the addition of a throttle control which lets you adjust your speed. Enemy planes occasionally pop up on your tail, and using the throttle you can either accelerate and leave them behind, or slow down causing them to overshoot you so you can blow them up to kingdom come. It's also noticeably easier since it gives you more missiles.

-icycalm

Akumajou Dracula

-citcelaid

Aliens

I like this game. It's basically an entertaining cross between a run & gun and a beat 'em up, with nice graphics, big explosions, and a moody soundtrack. After a while though it becomes obvious why few games like this were ever made: the perspective makes picking targets and avoiding fire imprecise, so the more hectic the action becomes the more frustrating it gets. It's also somewhat lacking variety due to the Alien licence. Make sure to avoid localized versions; they have many differences to the Japanese version, including two crappy first-person shooting stages.

-icycalm

Arcana Heart

A lot of people look down on this game because of its flagrant moe pandering, but give it a few years and it will be remembered as one of the best 2D fighters ever -- especially if it doesn't get many sequels (highly unlikely). Where to begin... The arcana system is genius; homing and guard cancels keep the action fluid; the playing field is humongous; the dashing is so evolved it almost becomes flying -- in the hands of expert players matches look like 2D manifestations of some of the coolest anime fights you've ever seen.

-icycalm

Arcana Heart 2 (Coming Soon)

The Company Formerly Known As Yuki is rushing out a sequel to their excellent loli fighter, presumably to help maintain the interest of players at a healthy level. Due out this winter, Arcana Heart 2 will add one new character (a Swedish Gunslinger Girl -- time to tick off another lolicon checkbox!), a brand-new arcana to go with her (looks like a Unicorn), and an extra button (something which can only mean serious system changes). Seems like they are redrawing sprites as well! Needless to say, I'm already sold.

-icycalm

Armed Police Batrider

-FrederikJurk

Armed Police Unit Gallop

I'll give this game some credit for originality, but that's about it. Basically a memorizer where you speed up the screen as you venture into the right half. It encourages you to race through and finish as quickly as possible, but I ignored that for the sake of surviving through one play. I can almost see how this would be an interesting challenge for the right type of person. Gave up by: fourth or fifth boss. The one that forces you into a space the size of your hitbox, with quickly regenerating gunpods coating the interior. (Missing something obvious there? Seems like bullshit to me.)

-Rob

Bakutotsu Kijyuutei: Baraduke II

Baraduke

Batsugun

Battle Garegga

Bakuretsu Breaker

Raiden/Toaplan/Gradius/Star Soldier/etc. heaping slop of a shooter. Not even made from the best elements of those games. Gigantic (ugly) helicopters and stealth bombers and aircraft carriers appearing in the middle of space. A secondary weapon that looks like fireworks. Level theme that wouldn't sound out of place in a Super Mario Bros. I'm not trying to make the game sound appealing or anything; these were just the only three things worth noting.

-Rob

Black Heart

A dark, but semi-cute fantasy shooter. I was enjoying it, but then by stage four or so you keep getting the same enemies over and over again, the same cute music while skulls are piled up in the background... the same bouncing or dropping platforms with swords embedded in them. Over and over. Your dragon acts as a shield for the bullet clutter happening below, but this is one of those games where you'll be losing lives to clunky enemy sprites and the general mess regardless. Not helping is the only non-shooting command (dragon fire) obstructing the view.

-Rob

Blazeon

Epically slow-paced horizontal shooter of the type I associate most with 16-bit consoles, though lacking that total disregard for playability. What's good about it? "Capturing" a variety of enemy robots and at least one smaller ship. Each of them have unique abilities (bombs, movable options, temporary invincibility, etc.) and various other attributes to consider, and are often located where you need them within a stage.

-Rob

Blue Hawk

This is Dooyong's first shooter and it seems they forgot the challenge. If you're looking for a game to 1CC on your first credit this may be it -- I survived well past my usual first credit average (stage 2). I think they were relying on manual rapid-fire to provide the challenge. I don't think Dooyong's games are bad as much as they are mediocre, generic and (for the most part) easy. Also, bullets spontaneously appearing out of background rubble FTW.

-Rob

Boogie Wings

A game entirely about how detailed and clever the 2D graphics are. Lots of small items for your gimmicky plane's hook to grab and (attempt to) throw to often very little effect. This is one of those games where rapid-fire is cheating, since having the delay set in the low single digits will create a huge radius of near-invincibility. Even without that special attack the stages have very long stretches of nothing to do except look at the graphics. That's obviously the only thing the developers had in mind. If you do crash your plane the game turns into a hard (and crappy) run & gun.

-Rob

Bubble Bobble

-icycalm

Chase H.Q.

The most original and inventive of all OutRun ripoffs, Taito's Chase H.Q. is still basically a battle against the clock, only this time there's the added challenge of catching up to fleeing criminals and ramming them off the road. Interestingly, you get more points for hitting the sides of the car rather than the back, and occasionally you have to watch out for pedestrians. Lengthwise it's just as short as OutRun, and only a little less enjoyable. Starring a black Porsche 928 and a pair of Crockett and Tubbs impersonators.

-icycalm

Chuka Taisen

Crack Down

Cybattler

Flashy scrolling arena-style shooter. Move in eight directions and hold the fire button to lock in place, or slash up close with the second button. I prefer the hectic action of the stages to the lifebar-draining, clunky and pattern-heavy bosses. Feels a little too imprecise, or just cheap.

-Rob

Cyber Police Eswat

-icycalm

Daioh

I think this is the game that came before Shienryu. It plays a lot like it and some of the scenes are reused, like the giant red robot smashing through walls in the background of the second stage. It's got the same sub-Raiden/Toaplan style in everything -- fast aimed shots and simple patterns. Die and get sent back to the beginning of the stage or a section that isn't interesting to replay (i.e. all of them). One thing it has over Raiden is being able to switch between weapons by switching buttons.

-Rob

Dangerous Seed

Dark Edge

Dark Seal

Darwin 4078

Dead Connection

Death Brade: Mutant Fighters

Deathsmiles (Coming Soon)

Mihara describes this as a mix of Side Arms and "Cotton 480%", but I'd describe it as the most drop-dead gorgeous 2D game I've ever seen. It's nuts how much Cave keeps squeezing their SH-3 board; just when you thought it couldn't go any further (see Mushihime-sama Futari), well... it does. What's far more interesting than anything else though is that Joker Jun is directing and Takashi Ichimura, who has worked as second programmer in most previous Cave shooters, is now given the main programming job. Chances of awesomeness? Pretty damn high.

-icycalm

DJ Boy

Do Donpachi: Daifukkatsu

Dogyuun

Some of the best looking graphics I've seen in a shooter. In Dogyuun it's easy to get right back in the game after one power-up since that is as much as a weapon powers up... while I want back in less than in some other Toaplan games. It's very similar to Tatsujin Oh, except the attacks are clunkier. I think the attacks in this game lean more towards what action-platform fans are accustomed to. Tatsujin Oh is more about bullets, while Dogyuun often kills by comedy bird talon attack, boomerangs or bosses taking up the bottom quarter of the screen.

-Rob

Double Dragon

-icycalm

Dragon Breed

E.D.F. Earth Defense Force

Basic side-scrolling shooter where you select one of four weapons before each stage and level them up by destroying enemies. No power-ups, no weapon switching during a stage. You can cycle through an increasing number of option formations as you level up though. A few of these weapons seem like handicaps (like the laser with its pulsing lapses in fire), and even at higher levels some of them seem too weak. The stage 3 dungeon theme is great. Hit detection is a little questionable. I prefer the SFC port to this version's shame.

-Rob

Eight Forces

Not bad. It plays like a less polished early Psikyo or... just a Sonic Wings game with some Raizing medal drops. Playable, but not for that long.

-Rob

Espgaluda II

-icycalm

F/A

Here's a game that will outdance the US release of Bio Metal. Other than the jamming soundtrack it has a pleasing Strikers 1999 feel. No power-ups, simple, hectic by stage 6. If only the hitboxes on the ships were as small as the ships look. It seems like their widest edges are constantly being grazed by bullets.

-Rob

Final Star Force

SFC-style update with lots of slowdown and a lot less challenge. Remember some of these backgrounds? That's all it has in common with the original since they drained it of its simple charms. Generic 16-bit console-exclusive-style vertical.

-Rob

Fire Barrel

Some serious emulation troubles but still playable, and through the slat in the center of the screen I can tell that the graphics are pretty nice as well! The "music" was, I think, the sound of a credit being inserted over and over like in a malfunctioning machine. I still enjoyed the game = sign of quality. A competent Raiden imitation with a killer anti-sniper weapon choice.

-Rob

Flying Tiger

Best Dooyong game yet (ever)! Just look at its graphics! Worst color choices possible. Aside from that, the game takes the technically sound base of Pollux (except scores that never reset and all that) and ups the difficulty to arcade level, with a slight increase in variety. The tiger icon in the top left corner of the screen bears a striking resemblance to Gulf Storm guy. Also, Alf cameo.

-Rob

Galmedes

Simple, generic, tough little space shooter with weapon switching.

-Rob

Gulf Storm

Another shooter from Dooyong. At first it seems like it's going to be as easy as Blue Hawk, but the bike section in the latter half gets pretty tough. Simple, kind of fun.

-Rob

Gunblade NY: Special Air Assault Force

-icycalm

Gunhouki

Magical Night Bio Metal. Not as cool as Bio Metal, but it came first and has nearly the same shielding mechanism. Shoot a large circular attack in eight directions to clear bullets and deal damage. You can't do as much with it and there is no charge bar to restrict its use. Collect red gems for power ups and bonus points, with plenty hidden or within enemies and treasure chests stretched across multiple screens.

-Rob

Gunnail

Seems as much like a proto-Donpachi as any Toaplan game of the time, if not more so (P.S. I don't like Donpachi). Some of it is really cool, like the road crumbling under the boss as it moves along in screen two. Also, some enemy multiplier for people who want to play NMK games for score.

-Rob

Hacha-Mecha Fighter

No-name brand Parodius with the cutest player sprite ever. The sprites are big, the bullets are big, the bombs are called "big". Overly simplistic and uninteresting, clunky obstacles. It's also extremely hard.

-Rob

Hyper Duel

Strong contender for "worst scoring system in a shooter" award: your score constantly rises as you don't move. I've joked about seeing how few movements it took to clear Cerberus in Thunder Force III. Technosoft raised that challenge for this game. It is a scoring system which, if they actually designed the game around it, would make the game a complete failure. A game where you barely have to move? Pass. Luckily it turns out that this idea was just bizarre, lazy and stupid, with only a few sections truly embracing the pro-motionless scoring system (center screen: stage 2 boss with its 100% destructible bullets, point-and-shoot). While not quite at a typical arcade level the game gets about as challenging as Technosoft's best console shooter, Thunder Force IV, later in the game. Switching between ship and robot is similar to switching weapons in TF (with less filler), the game as a whole feeling little different from their early 90s prime.

-Rob

Ibara

-icycalm

Insector X

-icycalm

Koutetsu Yousai Strahl

Pretty good side-scrolling shooter where you can select your weapons before a stage. Brings to mind games like Strike Gunner except you can select the good weapon(s) every level. Some weapons nullify bullets upon collision. Sadly and perhaps embarrassingly I never figured out how to use the bombs. There is no button for bomb use. Hitting both buttons, still nothing. Bullets are about as small as they can get and light-colored. Not the best choice for visibility. Spot them hiding in the buildings. Could also use more variety in boss attacks. Button B's direction switching for the secondary weapon could be faster, too.

-Rob

Mad Shark

A shameless and successful (as in doesn't feel like a cheap imitation) ripoff of Raiden, even down to the little car speeding along an overpass. The power-ups are the same, the power-up carriers are the same. It is almost interchangeable, and I do enjoy Raiden. Maybe a little easier. Adds bonus items with rapidly alternating values (max 10,000 pts.).

-Rob

Mazinger Z

This game is seriously broken. The difficulty level is already low and your secondary attack wipes out any bullets in front of you. You can use this as often as you want.

-Rob

Muchi Muchi Pork!

-icycalm

Mushihime Tama

-icycalm

Narc

-icycalm

Nostradamus

First off, best title screen. A significant improvement over Sand Scorpion, Face's previous vertical shooter. While that game was a weak stab at a successful formula this one has a little bit of its own style. Dare I say some of the graphics are even inspired. Alien craft shaped like crop circles... explains everything! The one gimmick this game has is a charge attack that doubles as a risky shield before it is released (covers about twice the width of your ship and can be swung front to back -- this is needed for specific areas). Hitbox could be a little smaller.

-Rob

OutRun

-icycalm

Out Zone

-icycalm

Pink Sweets ~Ibara Sore Kara~

-icycalm

Play Girls 2

Porn-themed single-screen shooter by Hot-B. Stage 3 needs an animated gif like you wouldn't believe.

-Rob

Pollux

The action is smooth and a bonus point for the strange bullet-sucking vortexes that appear every now and then. Kind of reminds me of some other game. That is an interesting idea, but it's lost in a generic space shooter with a difficulty set at PC Engine level. Sound effects: emulation problem, I hope.

-Rob

R-Shark

Look at a Dooyong shooter and you'll typically see some abhorrent graphics. By 1995 they have nearly caught up to what Toaplan was doing two-three years prior. Right off the graphics seem really nice, but stage after stage is practically the same. Meanwhile they are falling way behind in bullet patterns, scoring system, etc. The game offers little more than adequate generic 16-bit console-style shooting. There is also bullet wobbling and sketchy ship hit detection for non-bullet obstacles like lasers.

-Rob

R-Type

-icycalm

R-Type II

-icycalm

R-Type Leo

-citcelaid

Rabio Lepus

-icycalm

Rastan Saga

-icycalm

Rastan Saga II

-icycalm

Rezon

An R-Type- and X Multiply-style shooter with rotating side pods. They were not messing around with the memorization aspect. This game takes a lot of trial and error, yet doesn't feel as slow and plodding as an R-Type. The stage 4 boss is one of the most frustrating things I've ever played and I just had to stop by the stage 5 boss. It broke me.

-Rob

RoboCop

-icycalm

RoboCop 2

-icycalm

Ryu Jin

One of the most colorful shooters I have ever seen. So colorful it's hard to tell what's happening at times. This game would almost squeak into respectable territory but there is that problem coupled with the bizarre "big" power up item. I do love these for the sheer ridiculousness, but they kept appearing before a number of bosses which destroyed them before I had to dodge any attack.

-Rob

Sand Scorpion

A game buckling under the weight of its highly mediocre Raiden imitation gfx. So much slowdown. Just chugging along at the simplest patterns.

-Rob

SD Gundam Neo Battling

I was expecting something nearly unplayable like the other two Gundam shooters I've encountered. This game does not try very hard at all. At all. It has one button and not like Mars Matrix. You shoot. Stages are broken up into very small chunks. After a few stages it gets challenging and not in a way that requires any memorization whatsoever. Not too bad.

-Rob

Senjou no Oukami

Sky Alert

Attempts the same thing like dozens of other mediocre vertical shooters of the early 90s only with extra slowdown and repetition. By the 30th minute can I please see some new enemies?

-Rob

Strike Gunner S.T.G.

Much better than the SFC port in that it doesn't take 5 to 10 minutes to change scenery or enemy attack routines. The problem of selecting one of 8 or 10 potentially useless weapons remains. If you pick a crappy sub weapon it's going to be a boring stage and you'll have to pick those to save the good stuff for later. A major annoyance are the fluctuating speeds of the boss patterns. Video System Co./Psikyo producer Shin Nakamura is listed here and I guess I could see a little of Sonic Wings, but I could say the same for many shooters in this time period.

-Rob

Super-X

With a name like that I was not expecting much, but here is a solid late-Toaplan style game. Except no annoyances like large hitboxes, checkpoints or weapon power issues. It generously gives you a "super" power-up after you die, which makes getting back into the game as easy as it should be. The downside: more bullet wobbling.

-Rob

Tatsujin Oh

Another great looking late Toaplan game. Maybe you catch a single bullet near the end of stage 3 -- now experience a heavy dose of rank in reverse. Make a mistake and watch the difficulty climb 1000%. Toaplan was too retarded to give you more than one item carrier in many locations. What comes out of the item carrier? Random. Could be a very much-needed speed increase, but then left at "can barely destroy shit" power level. Thanks. Keep your finger ready on the (panic) bomb button, you'll need those to make it to the next item carrier. It's already annoying enough to have to clear every boss on one life. Screen 1: the beauty of Tatsujin-Oh checkpoints.

-Rob

Thunder Cross II

The origin of Gradius V's type 3 options. Not the cool ones you can lock in place, or the ones that allow you to shoot in a full circle, or the ones that circle you (OK, type 4 is the most boring). The ones that are positioned at the top and bottom of your ship. Special ability: you can spread them out. Not so exciting and you can't even do the best thing about type 3, which is aligning them all horizontally with your ship. You wouldn't need that extra power anyways as the bosses are all pretty pitiful. Losing all options in some sections makes me kind of wish for Gradius checkpoints, though. That is not good, but this is a Konami side-scrolling shooter so it's not bad.

-Rob

Thunder Blaster: Lethal Thunder

Carpal tunnel challenge or a game broken by autofire technology. Firepower varies by six levels. Watch the level increase from one to six in a few seconds and stay there for the entire stage. You'll be blazing lasers to an easy finish and a huge score (oh yeah, it has a scoring system which gives you extra points for using autofire).

-Rob

Thunder Dragon

As in Gyrodine and Under Defeat you have a helicopter that can be tilted about 15 degrees in either direction, though here it is nearly impossible to dodge anything. The best strategy during boss patterns is to not move. If a pattern looks like you can slide through it, you can't. In the later stages new bombs will be available every thirty seconds to make up for the lack of solid game design.

-Rob

Thunder Dragon 2

This is the biggest improvement in any shooter sequel I have ever played. They fixed the main problem with that game, which was the inability to dodge anything without knowing or lucking upon a safe spot. My one complaint is bullet visibility, the dark blue to white flashing an extremely poor choice with an outline of little benefit. The ship is smaller and faster, perfect. Lots of hidden bonus items to hunt around for while dodging. You can even destroy the stage intro for extra points (and an extra bomb if you can get every last letter). Awesome announcer, I only wish I could understand. I can almost see the reason for Macaw's NMK fandom.

-Rob

Turbo Force

Some environment obstacles and projectiles shaped like something other than orange circles. Huh? Who is this? I never would've imagined this would be any better than Sonic Wings. I loathe Sonic Wings as much as I love Psikyo. SW is everything that is bad about early Psikyo games with none of what I find appealing. So how can I enjoy Turbo Force so much? No pretend ship "variety" -- you get a flying car. There is no bomb button, no way to panic out of a boss pattern. You have to dodge it or you die. There are special bomb-like items that can be grabbed on a stage, but there are none to lose unless you let them time out. After playing this I can kind of relate to the guy who doesn't like later Psikyo games for not being pure enough. This is the (pre-)Psikyo spirit at its most pure.

-Rob

Twin Eagle II: The Rescue Mission

I was ready to start trashing this and then they ended it by thanking "everyone who was dedicated to the project", and even posed for a group photo, all smiling and proudly giving a thumbs up. I HATE THAT. Now I can't shit on it with a clear conscience. This is the most disastrously ugly shooter of its era, with a gigantic hitbox and some sort of scoring system involving a multiplier, usually triggered by razing ground targets like parking lots (Parking lots? Fuck 'em!). Occasionally you will be able to rotate with your target(s), choppier than the worst stop motion animation.

-Rob

Ultra Keibitai

Psikyo Jr. during the levels and Compile during the bosses. The graphics are very ugly.

-Rob

U.N. Defense Force: Earth Joker

I can't believe I almost made 30 games without invoking whack a mole. See defenseless missiles in screen two. The bullet eliminating charge shot makes most of the game Mazinger Z boring and there probably isn't even a scoring system I wouldn't even consider wasting my time on. Some bosses have really easy routines to abuse with the charge shot. The final stage is nice since finally there is enough action to where you can't be charging half of the time. The final boss is a nasty mess of slowdown like the boss explosions are the worst explosions in all of shooting games.

-Rob

Uo Poko

-icycalm

Varia Metal

Morph between two types of ship/attacks. The most boring vertical scrolling shooter of the era that isn't just a clone of something else.

-Rob

Vimana

My dream game! Something I can endlessly loop on my first play. I'm only somewhat joking after playing games like Dogyuun and P-47 Aces. The game is that easy, but it is relaxing in a way. The graphics aren't yet to the quality of the next few Toaplan shooters, but they are still nice and the levels all string together like I imagine Truxton would if I did not die at the first sign of challenge. +no checkpoints.

-Rob

Wangan Sensou

This has one too many things in common with D-Force, and that is switching between planes... to save (sometimes burning) people after you blow up their trucks. Or dodging repetitive obstacles like gigantic pipes placed at the height of your helicopter. Saving soldiers serves the secondary purpose of refueling your helicopter. Refueling your helicopter. :( The stages are linear but you have to scroll manually, so the huge hitbox is often too far into the top of the screen. The shooting element is just one step above D-Force's exploration mode, but you don't get to shoot any exotic birds. :(

-Rob

War of Aero: Project MEIOU

The memorization hell of Rezon meets its match in vertical form. Apparently this is to Image Fight as Rezon is to R-Type. Speeding through diagonal tunnels with crisscrossing lasers, dodging series of moving blocks, squeezing through narrow corridors while dodging bullets from multiple locations, and more! Had to give up by stage 6. That is with savestates, which make the checkpoint distances less repetitive.

-Rob

Warrior Blade: Rastan Saga Episode III

-icycalm

Xexex

-citcelaid

X Multiply

-icycalm

Zing Zing Zip

The screenshots make it look simple and boring like most of the other Toaplan-Seibu followers. Wait, it mostly is, but it pushes out a quarter to twice as many bullets. Mostly by increasing the speed. It's almost as if Allumer knew where the genre was heading, though it still has many outdated attributes like sweeping back and forth from single aimed shots, dead space between sections, and obstacles left over from War of Aero. The black-and-white stage is a cool novelty, especially since you can see the bullets! But the #1 nuisance are the seasick wobbling patterns and power ups actively distancing themselves from you. Also has a zany atmosphere with frequent sound effects that would be more at home in something like Toejam & Earl. And how about sticking to a bullet size above whatever that is in the third screen.

-Rob

Zunzunkyou no Yabou

Move in any direction as in an arena shooter except you can only fire upwards, so it feels more like a single-screen shooter. Even for the subgenre it seems overly random and cluttered, and the hitbox is simply too huge to enjoy this much. After a few stages of swarming enemies and random debris you face extremely simplistic bosses. This was only worth suffering through for its take on Captain America.

-Rob