| 10) Fantasy Zone | |
| Sega's side-scrolling shooter debuted in the arcades before eventually coming home to the Master System. The game's day-glo graphics might put off more than a few hardcore gamers, but under its sunny sheen is a shooter with an excellent difficulty curve, inventive weapons, and great bosses. Fantasy Zone rewards daring moves with big coin pay-outs and revelation of clever weak spots on those bosses. Be sure to check out Fantasy Zone II for the SMS as well as Super Fantasy Zone, an import-only sequel for the Genesis. | |
| 9) Axelay | |
| Axelay combines top-down and side-scrolling shooting stages into a masterful SNES shooter that really has fun with the console's Mode 7 techniques. The ship rising out of the scrolling ocean, the cityscape rolling through the background... awesome stuff. And the soundtrack? Outstanding. So, apparently Axelay tanked in 1992 and that's why we never saw a sequel to this exquisite SNES shooter. Ahem. This is on your hands, buyers of RoboCop 3. Fortunately, the game is now on the Virtual Console, so atone for your sins there. | |
| 8) Space Invaders | |
| There is no way you can leave out this seminal arcade classic -- the game that caused a Yen coin shortage in Japan and helped launch the arcade phenomenon here in America. The game may seem quaint now, especially when stacked up against shooters like Ikaruga, but Space Invaders is anything but. The dread-inducing sound effects, the speeding aliens, the pace of your cannon... Space Invaders is tough-as-nails and always worth a quarter whenever it's spotted in an arcade. | |
| 7) Star Wars: The Arcade Game | |
| This classic arcade game perfectly captured the thrill of piloting an X-Wing into the heart of the Empire. Picking off TIEs in the Death Star's orbit soon lead to a strafing run over the battle station's turret-laden surface. Finally, you dipped into the trench run, dodging beams while blasting away at cannons. The vector graphics against the black screen were awesome. The bright lines made the expertly recreated TIEs pop off the monitor and the guns of your X-Wing in the corners of the screen were a cool touch. This arcade classic never grows old. Just like Space Invaders, you owe it to yourself to pop a quarter in it every time you stumble across the cabinet -- which is criminally rare. | |
| 6) R-Type | |
| Irem's R-Type, released in 1987, was a shoo-in for this list. Many sequels followed, such as a number of SNES sequels and the superlative R-Type Delta for the PSone, but the original remains a high-water mark. From the excellent enemy patterns to the clever weapons, R-Type is a consistently challenging game -- but it is never evil. Each boss can be mastered. Each stage can be brought to submission. Perfecting a run at R-Type, such as taking down every gun and armor plate on the battleship stage or finding the pixel-perfect spot to take down the stage two boss, results in nothing short of twitch satisfaction. | |
| 5) M.U.S.H.A. | |
| Published in America by Seismic, M.U.S.H.A. is Compile's greatest shooter -- and that's saying something for the developer responsible for the Aleste series of shooters. You pilot a mech through several stages of intense, fast-paced assaults collecting P-chips that change the properties of your robot. The game requires lightning reflexes and good pattern memorization, especially when you confront the game's numerous screen-sized bosses. One of the best shooters on the Genesis, a system that had more than it's fair share, such as Truxton and the Thunder Force series. | |
| 4) Lightening Force | |
| Lightening Force, also known as Thunder Force IV, is Technosoft's best shooter. This Genesis blaster let you choose the order in which you attacked the missions. While you press through wave after wave of incoming ships and giant aliens, you pick up weapons that can be taken to other missions, adding an element of strategy to the twitch proceedings. Featuring awesome bosses, great backdrops, and pitch-perfect pacing, Lightening Force is the pinnacle of Genesis shooters and should be in any shmup fan's library. | |
| 3) DoDonPachi | |
| The sequel to DonPachi is easily one of the best shooters you've likely never played. Released in Japanese arcades in 1997, DoDonPachi is a manic bullet-fest for which only the hardest of the hardcore need apply. As well as providing a nice challenge, it's also easy on the eyes, boasts great bosses, and features one of the greatest examples of Engrish ever in a game: the message at startup warns that anyone caught playing the arcade unit outside of Japan would be prosecuted "to the full extent of the jam." (from Daemon Hatfield) | |
| 2) River Raid | |
| Activision's top-down shooter for the Atari 2600, released in 1982 and designed by Carol Shaw, remains one of the best games for that console. You swerve left and right, shooting down choppers, balloons, and tankers. Your fuel supply requires constant attention, forcing you to choose sometimes between easy kills and zooming to a fueling station. River Raid's pacing is spot-on and thanks to some very clever algorithms, the game generates miles upon miles of non-repeating river, choked with enemies. This game never grew boring in 1982. And it retains its fresh, frantic feeling in 2008. | |
| 1) Radiant Silvergun | |
| Oh, you knew this one had to come in at numero uno. Treasure's Radiant Silvergun remains the developer's crown jewel and it's a shame that game has yet to see a proper release outside of Japan. This 1998 shooter features brilliant pacing, smart controls, and some outrageous graphics. When Radiant Silvergun arrived on the Saturn from the arcade, Treasure hired GONZO to insert animated cutscenes to flesh out its intriguing storyline. RS goes for a pretty penny on eBay to this day, but if you are a hardcore shmup fan, you know it's worth the price of admission until the day Treasure can release it for American gamers. The release of Ikaruga on XBLA gives us new hope. | |
