HORIZONTAL SHOOTERS

[Anonymous No.4726228]

Let's talk about them. Bullet hells need not apply.

Are we ever going to get a new Gradius sequel that isn't a quick Game Maker-esque fangame eShop/PSN cash-in? I might like to see a revival of R-Type for that matter.

[Anonymous No.4726232]

Are Gradius and Life Force supposed to be the same setting or what?

I'd never played Gradius games before, but having seen a few now, they even use music and enemies from the series.

[Anonymous No.4726249]

>>4726232

It's part of the same series. Salamander slightly deviates in its mechanics by using a different powerup system. The games are otherwise canonically related.

[Anonymous No.4726258]

>>4726228
>Bullet hells need not apply.
But Gradius is bullet hell

[Anonymous No.4726276]

>>4726258
Not really, but OP is a faggot that can't name an actual /vr/ horizontal bullet hell because there are none.

[Anonymous No.4726283]

>>4726276
Akai Katana, Deathsmiles, etc

[Anonymous No.4726290]

I just got through playing Gradius ReBirth. It's not retro, but its soundtrack certainly is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zenDiWpP_s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hT37Y4KAEok
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q-um3CZ8J4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bebyTg40GxQ

The MSX remixes in this game are amazing.

[Anonymous No.4726305]

>>4726228
I think Taito made all of my favorites (Metal Black, Darius series). I'm also partial to the Thunder Force series and Hyper Duel.
>Bullet hells need not apply
Bro, I don't know if you're new of if you know you're baiting people when you post like this, but horizontal and bullet hell is not mutually exclusive. There are even some good ones. I like Progear. The bosses are fun and have some good spritework and lots of moving parts. The waifu system was interesting in concept, but they didn't do a lot with it. Scoring is a pain, especially with how much you get punished for using a bomb, but it's still enjoyable.

[Anonymous No.4726309]

>>4726283
>Akai Katana
2011
>Deathsmiles
2007
>>4726305
>Progear
2001

See? You can't name a /vr/ title.

[Anonymous No.4726324]

>>4726276
You're missing the point. No one said anything about horizontal bullet hells. I mean don't hijack the thread with shit like Don Don Pachi when the thread is markedly about horizontal shooters. Most of the time when anyone brings up shooters the thread becomes a Touhou, Cave or Treasure circlejerk. We never get to talk about Gradius, R-Type, Darius, Thunder Force, or anything else that isn't a bullet hell.

[Anonymous No.4726359]

U.S. Navy was the last one I was trying to beat on 3 credits. It's an unusual game in the sense that you have a life bar. One hit doesn't mean death.

[Anonymous No.4726372]

>>4726290

ReBirth does have a nice soundtrack. Too bad the stage designs are mostly rehashes with higher-res graphics. Might as well go back and replay the MSX games.

[Anonymous No.4726381]

Blazing Star is the best horizontal shooter. Fight me.

[Anonymous No.4726415]

Who here /thunderforce/?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCbxtRBHglE

[Anonymous No.4726416]

>>4726276

BioMetal.

[Anonymous No.4726419]

Favorite horizontal shmup series is Darius. In original widescreen, of course.

[Anonymous No.4726428]

>>4726415

The Gen/MD games a pretty solid. It's hard to get used to the pacing though. So much shit rushing you at all times, and those hyper-speed scrolling backgrounds make it really hard to distinguish enemies from background objects.

[Anonymous No.4726429]

>>4726415
I love Thunder Force 3. 4 also, but 3 is much better. It's one of my favorite series, next to R-Type.

I also love Lords of Thunder and Einhander!

[Anonymous No.4726430]

>>4726428

That's the limited number of on-screen colors allowed on Genesis biting you in the ass.

[Anonymous No.4726441]

>>4726372
ReBirth has definitely made me want to revisit the MSX games. I don't think I ever 1cc'd any of them. I'm pretty sure I didn't even play the MSX Salamander, thinking it was just a port of the arcade game.

[Anonymous No.4726447]

The best.

[Anonymous No.4726593]

>>4726232
>>4726249
Also, Gradius has checkpoints, while Salamander/Life Force lets you respawn on the spot.

[Anonymous No.4726659]

Anybody played X Multiply?

[Anonymous No.4726662]

>>4726659
I was actually going to mention this one in a previous post. I love this game. It's R-Type but way fucking creepier. I love the soundtrack.

[Anonymous No.4726706]

Been playing some Darius Twin. I like the game but what is up with this music? Sure, the Genesis gets a bad reputation for ear rape, but this is that. The highs nearly actually hurt. Who came up with this sound font? The tunes are actually good and would be super catchy with better instruments.

[Anonymous No.4727519]

>>4726659

I just realized this was ported to the PS1 along with Image Fight. Awesome.

[Anonymous No.4727589]

>>4726706
You think so? It sounds fine to me.

[Anonymous No.4727790]

>>4726228

>Are we ever going to get a new Gradius sequel that isn't a quick Game Maker-esque fangame eShop/PSN cash-in?

Probably never seeing as the last real sequel came out 14 years ago and Konami has all but given up on games.

>I might like to see a revival of R-Type for that matter.

All that happen with Irem properties now are emulation cash-ins or the recent cartridge compilation of the old SNES R-Types. Deader than Gradius.

[Anonymous No.4727817]

>>4726359

I picked up Phalanx at a flea market and it is the same way. The music is excellent in this game, too.

[Anonymous No.4727824]

>>4727790
>All that happen with Irem properties now are emulation cash-ins

There were a couple of semi-recent strategy games set in the R-Type universe. I have no idea how those play out, but I assume it would be something similar to Konami's Cosmic Wars for FC.

Compilations aren't necessarily bad. If it's clear there's still sufficient interest in the series, Irem may use some of their earnings to produce a proper sequel in the future.

[Anonymous No.4727827]

>>4727519
Yeah, I played it on Saturn.
X Multiply is fine, but Image Fight has some wonky resolution to fit the 4:3 ratio, although it has a tate mode.

[Anonymous No.4727909]

Not retro, but I genuinely think Gradius V is the peak of the genre. Tons of variety in its stage design, option style selection drastically changes how you play the game giving it tons of replayability. Great soundtrack, great bosses, and a cool little twist at the end

R-Type Final was kind of disappointing in comparison

[Anonymous No.4727919]

>>4727909
>R-Type Final was kind of disappointing in comparison
Why? It had a lot more content than Gradius V. Some people complained about the level design not being as inspired as previous games, but as far as unlockable content and replay value go, R-Type Final takes the cake. Granted, it gets pretty redundant trying to unlock 101 different ships, some of which require you to clock hundreds of hours of playtime.

[Anonymous No.4727985]

Love horizontal shooters.

My favorite is probably Thunderforce III. Great graphics and music and very replayable. Easy, yes, but thats not a knock on it for me.

R-Type is probably my favorite arcade shooter. If it just wasn't so difficult. Great series overall.

The Gradius series is great but difficult as well. Can't go wrong with most of them.

Darius games are easy enough for me to beat most of the time and I don't think I've come across a bad one.

Other great horizontal shooters are U.N. Squadron, Pulstar, Whip Rush, Gaiares, Lords of Thunder, Air Zonk, and Einhander.

<--- Some of the collection. Yes, I put some mixed-mode horizontal/vertical shooters in here as they're horizontal enough for me.

[Anonymous No.4727993]

>>4727985
>Gradius, R-Type
>difficult

I had a lot more difficulty getting into the Thunder Force series, especially III. I can 1CC some Gradius and R-Type games, but I suck at anything TF.

[Anonymous No.4727994]

>>4726228
You shitting on Rebirth?

[Anonymous No.4728032]

>>4727985
Nice collection and selection, and I agree TF III might be my favorite hori, maybe it's nostalgia but I genuinely enjoy replaying it, as you said. It's a classic, I like it more than IV too, which is the favorite of most people.

[Anonymous No.4728056]

>>4727985
What a great picture. Why do I love horizontal shooters so much more than vertical?

[Anonymous No.4728067]

>>4726232
>>4726249
>>4726290
How good is the Salamander OVA?

[Anonymous No.4728068]

>>4726276
silkworm

[Anonymous No.4728119]

>https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/45/EliminateDownBoxShotGenesis.jpg

[Anonymous No.4728201]

>>4728067

I enjoyed it, although there's a lot of exposition before any action occurs. The first episode is practically nothing but exposition.

You can easily find all three episodes subbed on YouTube. Just go watch it for yourself.

[Anonymous No.4728394]

>>4726276
>can't name an actual /vr/ horizontal bullet hell because there are none

Psyche Metal.

also Progear.

[Anonymous No.4728440]

>>4727919
This. I FINALLY unlocked everything but it never felt like a slog.
A lot of people dislike how slow it appatently was but I liked it. Lots of atmosphere and level interaction.

[Anonymous No.4728484]

>>4728440

I liked the pacing. Much more comfortable than being incessantly blitzed by warp-speed enemies in Thunder Force. Yet the game still manages to be challenging due to cheap bosses like Fine Motion.

[Anonymous No.4728537]

>>4727994
Rebirth is mediocre

[Anonymous No.4728721]

>>4727817
The SNES port is trash though.

[Anonymous No.4728759]

>>4727589
The samples are really, really unpleasant. It is a really pity because the tunes are actually really catchy. Compare to Sagaia on the Genesis, which has a boring as hell soundtrack. But one that doesn't rape the ears. Pick your poison.

[Anonymous No.4728768]

>>4727817
Why is there an old guy with a banjo on that box?

[Anonymous No.4728780]

>Darius and R-Type got proper send
offs in Chronicle Saviours and Final respectively
>nothing for Gradius

It’s not fair bros. When will it be the Vic Viper’s turn?

[Anonymous No.4728815]

>>4726228
Zero Wing is a pretty decent shooter with great music, AYBABTU meme aside.

[Anonymous No.4728851]

>>4728780
Konami's still making money off the Gradius IP via pachinko, so never.

[Anonymous No.4729040]

My favorite shoot em up right now. Playing the PS1 version as I can't get the Saturn version to emulate properly.

[Anonymous No.4729397]

I was thinking of writing a FAQ to document the numerous secrets found in the Gradius games. There's quite a few, but not all of them have been detailed in any walkthroughs or fan sites that I've seen.

e.g. Flying your ship into certain areas grants score bonuses or 1-ups, or teleport you to bonus stages, or warp you ahead to a later stage. I didn't notice until recently, but some games also have 'safe zones' during boss fights that you can camp out in while you wait for the boss to self-destruct. Yes, the bosses just self-destruct for no apparent reason. Just recently, I found a hidden route to bypass the first half of stage 9 in Galaxies by simply flying over the ceiling.

Has anyone else attempted to document these findings?

[Anonymous No.4729408]

>>4729040
>I can't get the Saturn version to emulate properly.

Try Mednafen

[Anonymous No.4729427]

>>4729040
The PS1 version is fine. But if you need to emulate Saturn, SSF or Yabause is the way to go. Avoid multi-system emulators as they're overbloated junk.

[Anonymous No.4729489]

>>4728067
was pretty bad. good music though, it's pretty much a demo version of the game's music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRUUU_ehr7s

[Anonymous No.4729553]

>>4729397
>Just recently, I found a hidden route to bypass the first half of stage 9 in Galaxies by simply flying over the ceiling.
I think this is actually shown to you on the second loop's hint mode.

Anyway, I don't know of any comprehensive guides to Gradius secrets. Usually you'll just find a guide or youtube/nico channel focused on one game's quirks.

[Anonymous No.4729569]

>>4729553

I've checked out a few of the hints, but didn't notice that one. Do they spell out any other secrets, like the score bonus tiles? I actually didn't realize there were per-loop hints for that matter. My menu screen only shows a 'Normal' hint tab so far.

[Anonymous No.4729593]

>>4729569
If I remember right, the second/third loop hints are unlocked through the challenge mode, which is exclusive to the Japanese version.
I don't recall what all they show you. I know there's some boss safespots shown off.

[Anonymous No.4729616]

>>4729593
>which is exclusive to the Japanese version

I'm playing Generation, so this is something to look forward to. I have yet to unlock the challenge modes though. I'm about halfway through normal difficulty.

[Anonymous No.4730397]

>>4726415
>That Broken Thunder Album
Truly a wasted one out there. I love the game's ship designs. Although some of the designs was used for VI, the game itself is a bad case of reusing previous games bosses and stages.
I hope the composer of Broken Thunder comes back for another hori shooter.

[Anonymous No.4730427]

>>4726309
there are no /vr/ bullet hells though, if you mean games like mushihimesame, deathsmiles etc

[Anonymous No.4731278]

Any Fantasy Zone players around? Sega released a pretty massive compilation for PS2 awhile back that included a remake of FZII in the form of an arcade ROM. There's also a hidden de-make of classic Fantasy Zone done in the style of Sunsoft's FC port.

[Anonymous No.4731284]

>>4731278
I've been playing the Saturn one, but I'm not very good. I can only make it up to stage 4 on one credit with a miracle.

It's got a super play you can watch in the options screen with a really funny vocal version of the 1st stage theme that plays.

[Anonymous No.4731330]

>>4726228
>Konami
pachinko
>Irem
also pachinko
So that's no to both.

[Anonymous No.4731493]

>>4731278

You can play that remade Fantasy Zone II on 3DS in the US if you don't want to import. Its also got some nice 3D effects too if you want to play it that way.

[Anonymous No.4731595]

>>4726228
What's the best R-type game and why is it X-Multiply?

[Anonymous No.4731626]

>>4731595
Fuck that last level though

[Anonymous No.4731627]

>>4726659
Beat me to it.

Fucking love the soundtrack in this one. Anyone know who composed it?

[Anonymous No.4731664]

>>4729040

Why not emulate the arcade version?

[Anonymous No.4731673]

>>4731626
Right? Especially that first section that's way too hard to get by if you die and can't recover

[Anonymous No.4731798]

>>4726276
*cough*

[Anonymous No.4731816]

>>4731673
My problem with that level is that the very beginning of it is a joke, maybe one of the easiest parts of the game, but around the middle is when the devs just plain out flip the bird to the player and throw these invincible bombs, which spam like crazy. You can make them stop from spawning by killing the base where they come from, but good luck even moving around with the bombs. Also you to be poweredup properly. And in order to kill the bases you need to be quick as fuck, or else too many bombs will spawn, so you need to be glued to the right side of the screen as it scrolls so you can kill them right away, exposing yourself to stuff you can't see. Of course, bombs have erratic, random movements you can't really predict or memorize.
And then that fucking final boss. Actually the final boss wasn't as painful as the bomb corridor hell, but its 6 ball form can also go fuck itself.
Love the game.

[Anonymous No.4731829]

>>4731798
The only /vr/-tier danmaku posted so far is Final Psyche Metal, but that's just some indie-esque title produced with Dezaemon 2 for Saturn. The image posted was of Psyche Metal: The Bleeding which was from 2003. (dev currently goes by Astro Port)

I have no idea what Soopah E.D.F. has to do with bullet hell. You're probably just saying that cause you suck at it.

[Anonymous No.4731958]

>>4728815
>Spaceship with teeth
That doesn't look right, unless that ship happens to look like a giant mechanical fish

[Anonymous No.4732038]

I always wanted a thing called Tuna Sashimi.

[Anonymous No.4732124]

>>4731816
Yeah, those invincible green spheres can go fuck themselves. Those blue blobs that spawn a ton of bullets don't help either.

I love this game too, otherwise. It's so much fun just to control your ship's tentacles, they're arguably more intuitive than R-type's Force pod

[Anonymous No.4732134]

Don't forget alternating-mode shooters. Actually, the Salamander games are the only ones I can think of.

[Anonymous No.4732203]

>>4732038

I know the two-screen version of Darius II/Sagaia was more common, but the three-screen version gives you tones more room to maneuver.

[Anonymous No.4732210]

>>4732203
what sucks though is that powerups float upwards in the three screen version. results in a lot of missed powerups.

[Anonymous No.4732221]

Stargunner
Its a western shump.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0q9vWh1XHqs

[Anonymous No.4732231]

>>4732134

There's some others. Forgotten Worlds and Philosoma on the PS1 to name two.

[Anonymous No.4732450]

>>4732134
>>4732231
Thunder Force 2 also

[Anonymous No.4733558]

Over Horizon
game is meh, but great music for a NES game
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nis92w09Fd0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McOxZGhOeAU

[Anonymous No.4733647]

>>4733558
I was starting to think I was the only one who played this. It's like a much more polished iteration of what NES Gradius should have been.

Too bad it was never ported.

[Anonymous No.4733653]

>nobody talking about dodonpachi

what a shame.

[Anonymous No.4733654]

>>4733653
>horizontal shooters
oh my god, am i that retarded? my bad.

[Anonymous No.4733664]

Hyper Duel is really underrated. I rarely see anybody talk about it, even here

[Anonymous No.4733743]

Thoughts on Metal Black?
Now that doesn't get much attention