Comments for Top 10 Nintendo Switch Shoot 'em Ups (First 2 Years)

Germain: Thank you for this article ! It's awesome ! I love Blazing Star. Catchy digitized voices, punchy sounds and high octane graphics are making it a blast to play ! Azure reflexions is although a really nice game with a lot of content and some interesting cute boss fights. About Astrebreed, Sine Mora and Ikaruga, even if they are critically acclaimed, I have mixed feelings about them and I'm not comming back so often. I find Astrebreed confusing and the action is hard to read. About Ikaruga, maybe I just had too much exceptations after reading all the good reviews online. About Sine Mora, I hate loosing my power-up after a single hit, just to loose a second life trying to catch them back. The more you suck, the more difficult the game become ! That's strange ! I although hate the story and characters, even if it's just a shmup. Moreover, some levels are not so fun to play, like the huge rotating world or the sewers... I know that the game is beautiful and that some bosses/stages are good, but these negative elements are acting like a cold shower. I never tried R-Type, but the 3D design looks odd to me. Every time that I'm on the edge of buying it, I see a screen shot and feel buyer's remorse. If this list had more entries, maybe we could add some more oldies (Strikers 1945 II, gunbird II...) and Angerforce reloaded. I love AngerForce reloaded. Gameplay is thigh. Graphics are nice. Bosses are memorable. Player's ships feels different and interesting. Unlocking stages and difficulty little by little in story mode feels nice and the difficulty is progressive. And I really like to upgrade my ship in a interesting way without the need to greed ! That was my two cents. :) Now I want to play Twinkle Star Sprites, Steredenn and Stardust Galaxy Warriors. I can't wait to play thoses games thanks to you !

A.J. Maciejewski (crazyaejay): Thanks for checking out the list! I wanted to include AngerForce: Reloaded but it released past the cutoff date by a few weeks. Sine Mora and Ikaruga are definitely challenging and I like your cold shower analogy, haha. That's exactly what it feels like when you just can't progress no matter how hard you try. Oh, and in R-Type Dimensions EX, you can actually switch between the 2D and 3D graphics so you don't have to play it in 3D. Let me know what you think of those 3 games when you get a chance to play them!

Germain: By the way, is Stardust Galaxy Warriors worth it for the single player campaign only ? It's hard to find someone to play shmups along with me, unless it's possible to make player 2 immortal.

A.J. Maciejewski (crazyaejay): I had fun playing it solo but it is better with co-op partners.

scott_b: Glad I mentioned Twinkle Star Sprites to you months ago. I had no idea you'd later give it a #1 ranking. Just played it some more this weekend; still enjoy it lots. Another old favorite that I still enjoy much older actually is Time Pilot. I have a very long history with that game, dating back to its original arcade release and ColecoVision port. Getting close to 40 years, if you can believe it! Recently, Time Pilot was released on the Switch as part of Hamster's Arcade Classic series. Still holds up as well as ever, at least for me. From your list above, Blazing Star is another old favorite that's fun to play on the Switch. Hey poor player! Get it more!

A.J. Maciejewski (crazyaejay): I'm glad you mentioned it, too! It's one of the best and most unique shmups that I've ever played. Time Pilot is a classic for sure. I wish Konami put it in their 50th Anniversary collection. Maybe it'll have DLC at some point?

scott_b: Based on what I've read, Konami is planning to release at least two more 8-game collections, one of them Castlevania-themed. I think I read they might continue releasing additional game compilations beyond that. As others have pointed out, the Konami arcade compilation on DS has a broader selection than the recent release. It's true. Haven't played that one in a while, but I believe Pooyan is on it. Another early arcade title that never gets old.

A.J. Maciejewski (crazyaejay): The other one will feature various Contra games. I have that DS compilation, too, and love Pooyan. Just in case anyone's curious, these are all the games in the DS collection (AKA Konami Classics Series: Arcade Hits): Scramble Tutankham Pooyan Time Pilot Track and Field Roc 'N Rope Super Basketball Circus Charlie Road Fighter TwinBee Yie Ar Kung-Fu Shao-Lin's Road Gradius Rush'n Attack Contra

scott_b: Tutankham is another one I recall playing in its original arcade form. Fun game, shooting bolts of lightning left and right but it always was so frustrating not being able to shoot up or down. Yet I kept coming back to try again. The story of my gaming life, right? Another Konami classic, seldom seen on these compilations, is Gyruss. Memorable for its eclectro-stomp version of Bach's Toccata and Fugue, and its tunnel-perspective take on Galaga. Always drew attention in the arcades, circa the early 80s. Fun fact: Yoshiki Okamoto developed Time Pilot and Gyruss for Konami, before having a long and productive career at Capcom. His list of works is too numerous to summarize, but includes Son Son, 1942, and a producer role on Street Fighter 2.

scott_b: Astebreed does require some effort. It's more complex than most other shooters, especially in terms of its controls. And the occasionally shift in perspective is unusual. I did enjoy the game and probably will go back to it, but it's not as accessible as it might appear. Ikaruga is another odd case. I love most Treasure titles, and I can appreciate what they've done here with the unique mechanics. Occasionally I can get into it, but it's another title that (IMO) requires a bit more focus than others to enjoy. It does feel a bit like a certain kind of puzzle, in that one has to carefully memorize and plan out specific sequences in order to get optimal results. Some shooters have this, but not in such a specific way. Games like Blazing Star might be a bit simpler mechanically, but are easy to pick up and play, without any mental preparation. I often favor this type of game myself. You might also enjoy Jamestown if you haven't tried it. Great game, available on PC and PS4. I haven't heard that it is coming to the Switch, but it would be a fantastic fit,

A.J. Maciejewski (crazyaejay): I didn't remember Tutankham but just played it a bit now and it's a lot like The Tower of Druaga. Very cool!

scott_b: Tower of Druaga is a game I didn't play in arcades, but briefly tried on one of the early Namco arcade compilations for the original PlayStation. I was very eager to get those Namco compilations back then. Might have been before I discovered emulation. I even imported a number of the Namco PS compilations from Japan, I was so eager to play them. This would have been the mid to late 90s. IIRC, the games on the Namco discs varied slightly between the Japanese and Western releases. And I think Japan got a 6th disc that the West did not.

A.J. Maciejewski (crazyaejay): Nice. I love those PS1 Namco Museum games and even reviewed all 5 of them a few years back: https://videochums.com/cate... And you're right; the Japanese got Namco Museum Encore as well which features King & Balloon, Motos, Sky Kid, Rolling Thunder, Wonder Momo, Rompers, and Dragon Saber. Wouldn't mind playing a port of that!

Germain: Jamestown looks great with an interesting setting ! Waiting for it on switch :)

pmcollectorboy: I follow a Youtube channel dedicated to nothing but shmups called Studio Mudprints, and I'm almost certain he'd disagree with the placement of Stardust Galaxy Warriors. I don't think he was too keen on it. LOL. But he likes most of the ones on this list. I think I'll bring it up next time he streams. His favorite shmup from recent releases is Rolling Gunner, but I don't believe it has a western release on Switch yet. Also, even though it doesn't have a release on Switch to my knowledge, I think you'd get a kick out of Crimzon Clover: World Ignition. It's really intense but streamlined. It's probably one of my favorite shmups, along with Ikaruga and Deathsmiles, and the aforementioned Game Tengoku is rapidly growing on me. I've also played a quick session of Twinkle Star Sprites on GOG, but it seems to be a bit of a dodgy emulation. Perhaps the Switch version is truer to the origin? I like it well enough, though. I also have Starr Mazer DSP, but I haven't downloaded it and given it a spin, yet.

A.J. Maciejewski (crazyaejay): Yeah, Stardust Galaxy Warriors isn't the best solo but its co-op gameplay is what makes it great. If you can get a few friends together, blasting away cooperatively is a ton of fun. I haven't heard of Rolling Gunner or Crimzon Clover: World Ignition but I'll definitely keep my eye out for them. There are way too many shoot 'em ups to keep up with nowadays. I'm still discovering many retro ones that slipped past my radar for whatever reason.