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We used to have a thread like this but it got shot in the face, so I'll start another one and rip it off of Apollyon's one over on ZeuxWorld.

So, space shooters! Y'know, the ones where it's your little spaceship and optional add-ons versus waves and waves of brain-sucking, mandibled aliens who want to obliterate humanity. They are awesome and I love them despite their inherent lack of depth. Whether it be the sleek, polished feel of Thunderforce IV, the revolting yet oddly compelling slimy, organic feel of R-Type, Phalanx's dirty urban atmosphere or the epic vistas of Axelay, these games are host to some of my favourite graphical designs and sounds in video games (my favourite combination of the two being the Orb Demon boss at the end of Strite in TF4; an excellent feeling of speed makes it a winner).

I've deliberately not mentioned a lot of shooters, so feel free to discuss the quality of stuff like Gradius or Xenon 2 or Gaiares or whatever.

Games that are scrolling shooters but not necessarily set in space (eg. Elemental Master, Space Harrier, Panorama Cotton) are also part of the genre, so feel free to use them too.

I just beat Gradius Galaxies today. Is it just me, or in every Gradius game, there's a guy you think is the final boss (mostly because he takes up an entire third of the screen) and you kill him, and there's still more stage? And at the end of that stage, the REAL final boss doesn't even shoot at you?

Galaga rocks.

Also the jet in Raptor is pretty kick ass even if the game is on the easy side.

Zero Wing. Not just because of "all your base are belong to us" but because it was a pretty damn nice game, actually.

The game was difficult as hell, but I still liked it.

Just got around to playing Gleylancer.

WHY it took so long, I don't know, and I feel stupid because of it!

ZANAC


ZANAC

Raiden is fucking awesome, except for the ending. Some friends and I pooled our forces (and quarters) to finally beat the damn thing... and all we got was 1 million points, a "Mission Accomplished" message, and a free trip back to the beginning of the game. It suffers from the same thing as Gradius; the boss in the second to last stage is far more impressive and difficult than the final boss, even if it CAN rebuild itself. Feh.

Also, Galaga and Raptor are spiffy.

Just wondering, has anybody played Overkill? Despite its rather short length and ease, it's a neat old game* (and done by Epic Megagames!).

And the ending's pretty much the same as Raiden's ending- get tons o' points, a "Well done, but we've regrouped" message, and a one-way trip back to Stage 1.

*If you asked me. =(

voting vic viper purely because it has a sexy cameo in Zone of the Enders 2.

Yes! Overkill! I used to have the shareware version of that years ago (incidentally, from the same package I found ZZT in). I remember you could upgrade to bigger ships until you had one that filled up half the screen if you so desired.

zamros please elaborate, what is zanac and which system, it sounds awesome just on account of the name and the fact that you like it

I've got the full version of Overkill if you want it, Nadir.

Also, Zanac's for the NES. It's pretty much another space shooter, but you've got a main and secondary weapon. Happy fun.

i wouldn't decline that offer!

if it's under 1mb zipped, zip it and send it to my usual email address or something

if not, upload it somewhere because hotmail is a bitch

Tyrian. Tyrian was the best space shooter ever. I can't remember the name of the ship, though.

I tried to play overkill a while ago, but it moved really slowly and I couldn't figure out why, so I just deleted it.

tyrian is rockin