Arcade

 if you're really serious about your shooting habit then eventually you'll succumb to the wonders of the arcade world. this platform has a million times more shooters available than all the home platforms put together and, of course, 90% of console shooters are arcade conversions anyway so why not have the original and play it as it was meant to be played? downsides are space (arcade cabinets are big and very heavy and pcbs take up a fair bit of room) and cost (games can range from thirty to several thousand pounds). if you don't have room for a cabinet (or the missus won't let you) you could plump for a supergun (basically an arcade box that you plug into your telly), however to really experience all that arcade shmupping has to offer you really need a full arcade cab and preferably a dark, smoke filled room with a sticky carpet.

 
ARMED POLICE BATRIDER (JAMMA)/. an absolutely superb vertical shooter from Raizing. shed loads of different ship combinations let you build your own 'tag team' (although you only swap ships when you die) with very different ship speeds and powers. huge power ups, shed loads of enemies and a superb soundtrack make this one of Raizing's most enjoyable shooters.

 

  

 

 BLAZING STAR (MVS)/. sequel to Pulstar, coded by ex-irem staff and boy does it show. a fantastic shooter with some stunning 2d graphics and great music, this really is a fantastic game.
 		CARRIER AIRWING (JAMMA - CPS)/. sequel to U.N. Squadron this is a no nonsense horizontal blaster with 3 planes to choose from and a shop of weapon upgrades between each level. it's getting on a bit now but still looks and plays great.

 
   
CYVERN (KANEKO SUPER KANEKO SYSTEM)/. a little known shooter from Kaneko running on their own hardware. this is a great vertical shooter where you select from one of 3 different dragons. not a million miles away from Psikyo's Dragon Blaze but set in a future space type scenario. great visuals and great gameplay with a nice scoring system based on collecting medals of increasing score value, much like Batrider and Raiden. top game but not easy to come by these days unfortunately.

 

   DO DONPACHI (JAMMA)/. you've probably already read about this in the Saturn and PS1 sections. this is an absolutely ground breaking game and the arcade version is ,as always, the best version. an absolute must have.   DO DONPACHI II - BEE STORM (IGS PGM)/. the 3rd in the Donpachi series and undoubtedly the weakest. this was not programmed by Cave but by IGS. it's basically a new game but with a lot of sprites ripped from Do Donpachi and re-coloured. the game is a lot easier than all of the Cave iterations and although not even approaching their greatness is still a lot of fun. don't be put off by the negative comments you may have read about this game, it is actually pretty good, especially if you ramp up the difficulty to Very Hard.
   
DO DONPACHI DAI OU JOU(JAMMA)/. again, you've probably already read about this in the PS2 section. yet another amazing game from Cave. stupendously difficult but mesmerisingly addictive. an amazingly balanced game of immense destructive proportions. sell everything you own to buy it.

 

   METAL SLUG 2 (MVS)/. 2nd in the long running series and, to my mind, the best. graphics and animation are absolutely incredible (probably the best 2d visuals I have ever seen) and the game offers a significant challenge. excessively violent and funny as hell - everyone should own this.   PROGEAR NO ARASHI (JAMMA - CPS2)/. words cannot express just how great this game is. yet another jewel in Caves glittering crown. loads of enemies, ridiculous waves of bullets, fantastic graphics and gameplay to die for. has a great scoring system and the difficulty level seems slightly more fair than some of Caves other outings. utterly brilliant.
   
RAIDEN DX (JAMMA)/. a re-worked version of Raiden 2 (see PS1 section). a great disturbingly difficult, game. the purple laser is enormous fun.

 

   RAIDEN FIGHTERS (SPI)/. 1st in the series and immensely enjoyable. not as good as the following 2 games but an extremely good vertical shooter nonetheless.   RAIDEN FIGHTERS 2 (SPI)/. an absolutely incredible game. loads of ships to choose from each with different weapons that can all be nicely powered up (including the ships from Raiden and Raiden 2). fantastic graphics, slightly dodgy techno soundtrack, loads of enemies, loads of bullets and rock hard gameplay. this is unmissable if you have a jamma cab. choose the Raiden 2 ship and power up the laser to full, then sit back and smile!

 
   
RAYSTORM (TAITO FX-1)/. a brave attempt to take the shooter into proper 3d didn't quite work but the results are enjoyable nonetheless. see Saturn and PS1 sections.

 

   R-TYPE (JAMMA)/. if you've never heard of this game, where the hell have you been living?? completely and utterly brilliant, the template for how all horizontal shooters should be made. it's getting on a bit now but it still looks and plays as fantastically as it did when I used to go to the cafe round the corner from my house after school every day and get my ass handed to me on a plate by the evil bydo empire!

 

   SIDEARMS HYPER DYNE (JAMMA)/. a great horizontally scrolling shooter from Capcom where you control a mech that can shoot ahead and backwards. lots of power-ups and a cool feature that lets you join together with another mech that effectively doubles the size of your player. very hard but very rewarding. also see the PC Engine section.
       
VASARA (JAMMA)/. a great vertical shooter from Visco set in a weird version of feudal Japan. your player sprite is rather large but that doesn't take long to get used to. the game has a nice featuure in that you can collide with enemies and just bounce of them, only contact with bullets will kill you.

 

        
home