I love shmups but feel like I haven’t played a lot of the all-time greats nor put in anywhere as much time as committed fans of the genre. That being said, my favorites:
Zanac
I had this as one of my honorable mentions in 10 Games that defined YOUR childhood. I could play this for days and no playthrough was completely the same as the one before.
The game is known for its intense and fast-paced gameplay, level of difficulty, and music which seems to match the pace of the game. It has been praised for its unique adaptive artificial intelligence, in which the game automatically adjusts the difficulty level according to the player’s skill level, rate of fire and the ship’s current defensive status/capability.
Final Soldier and Super Star Soldier
Same as Bozo, also gotta include these. I have Soldier Blade on the Wii VC but haven’t really spent much time with it to appreciate it. These are fun, look great and really do have the right amount of difficulty.
Blazing Lazers
Belongs right at home with the above. Fun, challenging… actually haven’t beaten yet as I always get wiped out somewhere in the boss gauntlet of the last stage. Maybe I’ll try again for the Fall Completion challenge!
Star Parodier
This has really nice graphics and cute visual humor… and pretty low difficulty for when you just want a stress-free shmup gameplay session on a lazy afternoon.
19XX: The War Against Destiny
I think this is one of the first games I fired up on discovering MAME. I got a kick out of the antagonizing nemesis that appears throughout the game, right from the start with the attack on your flying carrier (nice 1943 throwback and the attack on your naval carrier kicking off the game). Honorable mentions to 1943 and 1944: The Loop Master.
