Shmups! (Ikaruga, Galaga, Gradius...)

[zjd]

Well I'm bored at work and after seeing the Ikaruga thread like a week ago I thought I should do a write up about my favorite genre of video games: shoot 'em ups or shmups.

Overview
Shmups are one of the oldest genre of video games and utilize a very simple concept: one ship vs an onslaught of enemies. Generally you get 3 ships for 1 credit and if you get hit by a bullet or an enemy you lose your current ship instantly. Most everyone has probably played the old-style shooters such as Space Invaders, Defender, and Galaga. While modern shmups look quite a bit different from those old games, they still utilize the same simple concepts.


Appeal
The reason I enjoy shmups is because they are one of the ultimate challenges in video games. These are the games the companies make to be "credit feeders" in the arcade, that is games that will require you to dump endless amounts of money for continues. Being able to 1CC (1 credit complete) a shmup is an achievement that requires lots of practice and nimble hands. For the few shmups that I have 1CC'ed I have spent at least as much time as it takes to beat your typical console RPG, which is pretty ridiculous when you realize that to run through a shmup takes about 20-30 minutes max.

If 1CC'ing a shooter wasn't hard enough, going for high score is even more challenging. Most shooter implement complex scoring systems, often chaining systems where the longer you can hold a chain in all of the chaos the higher your score will be. Achieving a ridiculous high score is the absolute pinnacle because it requires way way above average skill and precision. Many popular game companies produce superplay DVDs with the best players of a certain game. The Ikaruga: Appreciate DVD is really amazing and if you can ever find a copy I urge you to buy it. On youtube you can sometimes find really skillful videos, the Ikaragua double-play video is pretty good. Search shmups on youtube and I'm sure you'll find lots of good stuff.

The genre is somewhat dead in North America unfortunately, most likely due to the decline in arcades. However shmups are still alive and well in France, parts of Sweden, and obviously Japan.


Shmups Today
Many modern shmups are called manic shooters because of the amount of bullets and enemies they throw at you. DoDonPachi wasn't the first manic shooter but was the first modern manic shooter:

DoDonPachi is one of my favorite shmups and one of the hardest. Being able to master the bullet patterns in that game is a feat and one I hope to complete soon. In fact this is the game I use to practice for other games. A good practice method is to not shoot at all the entire game and just try to dodge everything.

Shmups have always been arcade first games, very few of them are made for a console first. However many are/have been ported to consoles. The most famous shmups in North America are 2 made by Treasure: Radiant Silvergun (Arcade/Saturn) and Ikaruga (Arcade/Gamecube)

Radiant Silvergun is often regarded as the king of shmups. It has a complex weapon system, wonderful bullet patterns, and even a melee weapon (sword) which was previously unheard of in a shmup. For anyone who has enjoyed either of these games you'll be pleased to hear that Treasure has announced they are making a new shooter for the XBox360 and while they're not calling Radiant Silvergun 3 (just like they didn't call Ikarugua RS2) we can be assured it will be a similar fashion.

Learning More and Playing
If you want to learn more about shmups definitely check out Shmups.com. They have reviews of nearly all the shooters out there. The Shmup entry on Wikipedia is also quiter informative.

If you want to play shmups, well thats a bit harder. As I said most of these games are made only for arcades in Japan. So unless you're willing to drop between $500-$1k to import the arcade PCB then we'll have to find some other options. This guy is hardcore.

Most of the popular ones are ported to a console, most recently to the PS2.

Ibara


Mushihimesama

However to play these Japan only games you would need either a Japanese PS2, a modded NA PS2, or some sort of swap magic device. For games made since 2001 you will have to choose between the arcade PCB or purchasing a PS2 setup.

MAME
For older shmups (and older arcade games in general) you should download MAME, an arcade emulator. MAME supports something like 6000 arcade games, everything from Golden Axe to NBA Jam to DoDonPachi to Street Fighter. It's supports basically every arcade game from any region of the world. I can't tell you where to get the ROMs because I believe thats against 2p2's TOS but they're not hard to find if you search around.

Lastly if you're going to seriously play shmups (and fighting games for that matter) you really need a joystick. Gamepads are ok but to get the most precision and the real arcade feel you need a stick. You can start off by just getting a PS2 Street Fighter stick or something and buy a $15 PS2->USB adapter and use it w/ MAME. However these sticks dont always use the best parts. If you're good w/ soldering and are a bit of a craftsman the best thing to do is order Japanese arcade parts (Sanwa or Seimetsu), gut a PS2 controller, throw it all in a chassis and solder it up. Byrdo makes THE best sticks out there if you just want to buy one.


Well I hope this interests some of you to try out shmups. You should check out MAME even if you're not into shooters, it has so many enjoyable games for free. Hope you enjoyed my rant!