Topic: "Just Another Shmup..."

As a long time gamer and part time developer spanning PC & console with a diverse taste in games, I cringe when I hear or read "That's just another shmup, right?".

Back in the eighties I was a pinball kid. The design and complexity of the tables fascinated me and was laid bare upon raising the lid for a service. By comparison the arcade machines cost five times more to play and lasted only a few minutes. I was of the opinion that the rows of seemingly identical shmups were churned out en masse with very little effort other than making them outrageously difficult in order to maximise revenue.

Then I met a videogame developer who educated me on the complexity of game design across many genres and I fell in love with games immediately.

What I hadn't realised is that while the majority of arcade shmups I had seen were indeed a bit naff, there were a few that followed a passionate and nuanced design philosophy. The experience of playing one of these 'special' shmups over and over was akin to deciphering a dynamic and chaotic code in real time, which made gameplay in almost all other genres seem sedentary in comparison.

I gained some experience in game design throughout the early to late nineties, before commercial game engines and 3D acceleration were common, which broadened my gaming tastes even further and gave me an appreciation of the details of videogame design.

The general model of the videogames industry isn't all that different to the arcades of yesteryear - masses of fairly mediocre games with revenue placed first by the publishers keeping the medium alive, with a minority of boundary pushing, gameplay-focused solid titles keeping the medium interesting and artistically relevant.

To say, "That's just another shmup, right?", is to say about any game in any genre, "It's just another videogame, right?". I'm very careful not to harm my own experience by dismissing a game based on genre unless it's a genre I don't enjoy at all, in which case my opinion is somewhat worthless.

The Switch has become a shmupper's dream console, a lot of arcade-only titles have been released from purgatory and I'm delighted that a whole new generation of gamers now have access to these amazingly diverse and rewarding games.

The industry has a tendency to follow trends. When Doom arrived on the scene back in '93 how many "Doom-clones" followed shortly after? It causes the gaming community to form a bit of apathy towards the trending genres as they become popular and a dime a dozen in regards to frequency of release. How many games are "soulslike" or "battle royale" nowadays.

My point is it becomes difficult to sift the gems from the trash. For every classic like Blazing Star, Ikaruga, or Velocity 2X, there are 10 other shmups that probably aren't worth your time. Although that doesn't stop a shmup fan like myself from burning their eShop gold coins on a random shmup if the discount is deep enough. Anywho, that's enough of my rambling.

I'll just quickly add that folks who love the shmup genre should keep an eye on Yurukill from NIS America later this year. Looks like an interesting mashup of the adventure and shmup genres.

@Magician
Thanks for the recommendation, I'll check that out.

Very true about saturation causing apathy and diminishing interest, it's the origin of 'hidden gems' as good titles are mixed in with the rest and only after the hype for the genre has moved on are they rediscovered.

An issue with raising the popularity of shmups is the high barrier to entry, there's lots of jargon used when even trying to explain the systems of games. This is compounded by the general high difficulty and lack of a front-end which can be obtuse and unappealing at first.

Euro-shmups have been historically ridiculed for their simplicity in comparison to Japanese titles, depite this I would highly recommend Sky Force Reloaded as an entry to the genre. CAVE's games are my personal favourite although they can be overwhelming for newcomers, even with their well-intentioned 'novice' modes.

I'm waiting for Tatsujin on Switch, also I want M2's 'gadget' in all games, regardless of genre! I love all that impossible-to-glance-at real-time data, it speaks to the nerd in me.