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Topic: Best Switch Shmups

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bluedogrulez

I love a good shmup to keep the old hand-eye coordination sharp, and the Switch has a bevy of 'em. I have enjoyed many, many, many deaths in Neo-Geo's Last Resort. The music, the ambiance, the graphics and gameplay are all aces in my book. I've also played Rive and Sine More Ex, which have not grabbed me as much; it's definitely their stop-start gameplay that cools my interest. But these are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Shmups on the Switch. Blasing Star, Pulstar, Zero Gunner 2, Zed Blade, the pricey RXN Raijin, and more are available, and wondering which are most enjoyed by folks here. Recommendations?

Edited on by bluedogrulez

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OorWullie

@bluedogrulez I own every Neo Geo and Psikyo shoot-em-up released so far as well as the Namco Museum and Graceful Explosion Machine. I've not bothered with any of the other modern ones.,RXN Raijin looks alright but as you say,it's pricey . I've got the Next Penelope but I haven't played it yet,I think it's more half shooter/half racer.

I'd rate them in this order.

Strikers 1945
Aero Fighters 2
Gunbird
Pulstar
Blazing Star
Last Resort
Alpha Mission 2
Zed Blade

The top 3 are really tight, not much between them. Strikers comes on top though, the look, the music, the bosses in TATE mode, love it..Gunbird feels and plays the same as Strikers but with a different theme and slightly shorter stages. I really like that about it actually. Aero Fighters 2 is superb though. I could play that for a good hour or 2 at a time. The way scoring works is perfect for the highscore mode too. Great game. I haven't played enough of Pulstar yet but I'd have that slightly above Blazing Star,although that's great too. Last Resort I enjoyed too, I can't say I loved it though. It's different from the others though and I liked that about it. I will definitely go back to it. Alpha Mission 2 and Zed Blade are not great. AM is alright but has an annoying power up system, it's old though so it gets a pass. Zed Blade though I think is pretty crap. Something doesn't feel right about it, the way the spaceship moves and how it feels and it feels like there's a disconnect with your bullets hitting enemy ships. Just doesn't feel right. The slowdown is pretty bad too and fairly consistent.

Edited on by OorWullie

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bluedogrulez

Thanks OorWillie, that is a great list and review!

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JasmineDragon

@OorWullie Very useful breakdown, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I've wondered about this subject, too. Shmups are not my favorite genre, but I do like them for short periods when I want a break from my main games.

So far on Switch I only have GEM and Alpha Mission 2, and I agree with OorWullie, AM2 is not a great game because of the powerups. GEM is a very nice, smooth game that I've been chilling with a half hour at a time. It can't compare to things like Ikaruga or R-Type but it's very solid and fun.

I would love a few more shmups, so I might give one of OorWullie's top three a shot. If anyone else has suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

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OorWullie

Glad to be of some assistance. I've been a big fan of shoot-em-ups ever since playing Space Invaders on the Atari 2600.R-type on the Master System was when I fell in love with them though. Hellfire on the Megadrive was a big favourite of mine for years. There was another on the Saturn or Dreamcast that I loves but to this day the name escapes me. I've looked for it online but can't find it for some reason. I've never actually been that good at them though haha. I'm alright and can get pretty far but I could never do a 1 credit finish or even a 3 credit finish in some of the tougher ones. The choice of shooters available on Switch makes me really happy. I went many years without playing any. The last new one I played was Geometry Wars 2 on Wii, which I loved. Graceful Explosion Machine kind of scratches that GW2 itch for now but I'd love a new one.

I just bought Zero Gunner 2 there so I'm going to go play that just now. I'll be buying Strikers 1945 II as well as soon as it's available. I'll give my early thoughts on them tomorrow. I might buy Space Dave too, Choice Provisions are a pretty good developer and a modern retro Space Invaders type shooter should be quite fun. Next week we have SkyForce Reloaded. I played a SkyForce game on Android and for a mobile shooter it was rather good. The developer seems to understand what makes a good shoot-em-up so I'm confident it will pretty good. The graphics are really nice too and it's only $10.

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Bart_T

Enter the Gungeon's been eating my free time like fried chicken lately. It's structured as a roguelike, what with it basically being a dungeon crawler where you delve deeper and deeper into the dungeon untill you inevitably get torn to shreds.

But the second to second gameplay is an arcadey shoot-'m-up with tons of guns and some really neat mechanics like dodging and using the environment for cover.

€15 well spent, if you ask me.

Bart_T

CroRock

Did you guys ever played Cave games like Dodonpachi, Espgaluda, Bug Princess etc?

After playing these games all other shooters looks ridiculous, really. I got them all on my iPhone but can’t play them because they are not upgraded for iOS 11! I’m so pissed at Cave and wrote them few hours ago about that and porting their games gor Switch. I’m still waiting for reply. When/if I got my answer I’ll let you know because every shumps fan NEED to play that games. They are also available on Steam (not all of them) but after playing them on touch screen, I can’t imagine myself playing them on PC.
But really, you should check them.

On topic (kinda): is zero gunner 2 good? Does it have online leaderboards?
Sine Mora is dull, I didn’t like Blazing Star on iPhone, other shumps doesn’t look good to me and I’m so desperate to play good shump/bullet hell on Switch.
I like Enter the Gungeon tho..

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bluedogrulez

Being a Nintendo guy, Recca (NES), Axelay (SNES) and the criminally under-rated Star Soldier 64 are my personal gold standards. Futuristic space theme, great music, non-stop action. Interested in those Cave games for sure.

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SuperWeird

I really hope Cave brings their library of SHMUPS to the Switch, starting with Deathsmiles. Nothing beats a Cave shooter. Would buy them all.

Also hoping Robotron 2084 makes its way over eventually.

As for the Switch's current library, I'd say Strikers 1945, Aero Fighters 2, and Blazing Star are the best.

SuperWeird

bluedogrulez

Sky force reloaded is coming out on 2/1. Looks promising, full screen too. $10.

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Lroy

I also own plenty of the retro shoot-em-ups on the Switch. I won't repeat what's already been said as folks have already gone over a lot of the vertical scrolling orientated games. Indeed, there are plentiful gems in that regard AERO FIGHTERS 2, STRIKERS 1945, GUNBIRD et. al. Hell, I even quite like the dated and rather obtuse ALPHA MISSION 2. The music on the first level boss is truly awesome. Like Tangerine Dream scored the game off the back of William Friedkin's SORCERER, lol!

However, I'd like to add my two-pence, if I may, in terms of horizontal shooters currently on Switch. Just got round to buying and playing PULSTAR: it is far and away the best current choice for a horizontal shooter on Switch in my opinion. I find BLAZING STAR fun but its forebear is just on another level. I'd really not expected PULSTAR to be authentically worthy of mentioning in the same breath as IREM's classic R-TYPE but the game really is a spiritual sibling of that masterpiece.

Don't be put off by tales of the high difficulty. If you've ever spent any time with R-TYPE, you'll be right at home here. Phenomenal horizontal arcade shooter, like a puzzle, maze style rather than the Cave bullet hell. Although I enjoy those too and would love to see some of those come over to Switch.

Edited on by Lroy

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OorWullie

I bought Strikers 1945 II, Zero Gunner 2 and Space Dave and all 3 are fantastic additions to the Switch shoot-em-up library.

Strikers 1945 II is just like I expected it to be, more Strikers and that makes me happy. If ever there was a 'one more go' game this is it. Just like the other Psikyo shooters and Gunbarich, the first 4 or 5 stages are presented in a random order. This works a treat in keeping it from feeling repetitive. It does seem to be slightly harder than the original though with a lot more bullets and things to dodge by the 2nd boss or maybe it's just I'm a bit rusty.

Zero Gunner is as good as I hoped it would be but I've still not really got my head around how it controls. I'll get there though. There is one issue I've noticed though and it's pretty major. That guy on Twitter who said he was getting killed by invisible bullets,yep the same is happening to me. It's only on one stage that I've noticed, the one at sea with the oil rigs.There is a certain section I'm losing several life's in a matter of seconds and I've no idea why. It's game breaking basically. I'm not sure how @Damo never picked up on that when reviewing it as it happens to me every single time on that stage. Not only NL missed it though, I've seen no mention of it in other reviews either. It's a real shame as I want to spend some quality time with it, it's clearly an amazing shoot-em-up but as soon as that stage appears and I get taken out boom, boom, boom by thin air I quit. Until this is patched and I'm sure it will be, I'll be only playing it sporadically.

Space Dave I'm really glad I bought. It's just a really good fun and addictive retro Space Invader type shooter with a twist. Great game for a quick 5 minutes here or an hour there. Perfect for high score chasing. The music is great too and really adds to the experience, especially when the beat kicks in after taking down the 2nd wave of enemies . it's pretty challenging from the get go but it wouldn't be as fun if it wasn't. Love it.

Edited on by OorWullie

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Lroy

Thanks for the info on STRIKERS 1945 II. Will grab that further down the line. I'll need to check out some gameplay videos of SPACE DAVE. That one passed me by. I also recently bought and have been having some fun with ZERO GUNNER 2 -. Clearly there are some flaws with this version as has been well documented in the comments section of the NL review. However, I am still happy with my purchase. I of course hope for improvements via a patch but I've found enough works in this version to offer a fresh and alternative style of shooter on Switch. The unique control system definitely seems hard to get your head around at first but I'm warming to it on each play through. Shame about the invisible bullet problem. Definitely needs to be patched if possible and quick.

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Lroy

Actually, looking at SPACE DAVE. I played the original game WOAH DAVE or something it was called via PS PLUS on PS Vita a couple years back. Think I'll pass for now as even being free I didn't put much time into the first game and worry the sequel would go similarly under-played by me. Glad you're really enjoying it though.

Edited on by Lroy

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Lroy

When's R-TYPE coming? Really want that for my Switch shooters library.

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wasilewski

@Lroy not sure when R-Type is due for release, but it should be very soon, maybe in the next batch of ACA releases.

As far as shmups go, my favourites are Gunbird, Strikers 1945 II, and Blazing Star.

Blazing Star is my all time favourite horizontal shmup, I'd strongly recommend it.

wasilewski

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bluedogrulez

Woah, Strikers II just got a 9/10 from NL. You guys are dead on!

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