Shmup preference, Vertical or Horizontal?

[icemanxp300]

Vert: you don't die when you touch the sides

 

LOL, that seems true.

[Eltigro]

I don't know... there are plenty of vertical shooters with levels that are like canyons or whatever where touching the sides is definitely not recommended.

Edited April 5, 2017 by Eltigro

[keepdreamin]

vertical, simply because everything is easier to track.

 

Same reason most rhythm games (guitar hero, rock band, DDR etc..) run vertically as well.

[Tanooki]

Damn I hadn't thought of that, I do so so hate that a majority of horizontal games blow you up if you touch the 'ground' on the top or bottom. I get why it does since it exist unlike in the vertical games and since most of those style have them while vertical don't, they both do follow that same rule in general.

[Cynicaster]

I like both, but if I look at all of the ones I like the most, they're overwhelmingly vertical.

 

I was just playing DoDonPachi last night... wow, I had forgotten how outstanding that game is. The most satisfying explosions I've ever heard/seen in a shooter, hands down.

[Gabriel]

Very mild preference for Vertical.

 

However, i don't like vertical displays. I'd prefer a vertically playing shooter with a horizontal play area. Pretty much like you get with some adaptations of vertically scrolling shooters to home systems where they use the full screen.

[BillyHW]

I'm surprised the vote is so close. Almost everyone responding in the comments is saying vertical.

[Eltigro]

I'm surprised the vote is so close. Almost everyone responding in the comments is saying vertical.

 

You only see the vertical ones when you scroll up and down the page. To see the horizontal comments you have to scroll to the right...

[Cobra Kai]

Like an idiot, I voted wrong on my own poll. It should be 15 vertical, and 10 horizontal.

[Stewart_Pidd]

What about circular like Gyruss and Tempest?

[icemanxp300]

What about circular like Gyruss and Tempest?

 

In my opinion those do not count as Shmups

[Cobra Kai]

What about circular like Gyruss and Tempest?

What about them? This was a pretty general poll for the two most general perspective of shmups. For instance, most people drive Cars, Trucks or SUVs. In that poll, are we supposed to consider tracked vehicles and amphibious one-of-a-kind stuff that some weirdo might prefer? NO.

[Nebulon]

I really like 'em both.

 

But vertical edges horizontal shooters out.

 

I still love me some R-Type though.

[Stewart_Pidd]

 

In my opinion those do not count as Shmups

We all have opinions.

 

My choice was vertical, but I was merely making the observation that shooters come in lots of flavors. Not merely cars, trucks, and SUVs.

[BydoEmpire]

I voted horizontal, due to R-Type (my favorite shooter of all time), Life Force, Gradius, etc. If you include the early 80s bottom shooters like Space Invaders, Galaxian, etc I may switch my vote.

 

It's not so much a horizontal and vertical preference as it is game design. If the game is designed with an ending, I really only enjoy shooters that are humanly possible. Games you can go pretty far on with one life (after you've practiced the level). "Bullet Hell" shooters aren't much fun for me. Fans of the sub-genre would disagree, but to me the design is all about how many quarters can you suck out of a player via endless continues, to the degree it doesn't really matter what you do in the game, just keep popping quarters in and you can keep going. I'd rather have a game that's humanly possible. I also enjoy shmups that focus more on the aiming of shots than moving your ship to avoid getting hit. Obviously shooters all have some of both, but bullet hell shooter focus way more of the latter. Different strokes for different folks.

[Austin]

Games you can go pretty far on with one life (after you've practiced the level). "Bullet Hell" shooters aren't much fun for me. Fans of the sub-genre would disagree, but to me the design is all about how many quarters can you suck out of a player via endless continues, to the degree it doesn't really matter what you do in the game, just keep popping quarters in and you can keep going. I'd rather have a game that's humanly possible. I also enjoy shmups that focus more on the aiming of shots than moving your ship to avoid getting hit. Obviously shooters all have some of both, but bullet hell shooter focus way more of the latter. Different strokes for different folks.

 

This logic can be applied to any shooter that doesn't utilize a checkpoint system and just throws the player back where they died upon continuing. If a player chooses to push towards the end of the game by constantly continuing, it is called credit feeding and is not something strictly relegated to shooters.

 

I probably won't be able to get you to think otherwise about bullet hells, but to anyone else curious about the sub-genre that may be apprehensive about the bullet count, I'd suggest checking out some of the earlier ones by Cave. DoDonPachi and E.S.P.rade are good examples of bullet hells that feel more oldschool in nature in the beginning stages, before becoming crazier in later stages. They are more focused in their art, sound and stage designs, but still feature the more intricate side of scoring that the later games in the genre are primarily known for in the shmup community.

[zetastrike]

I prefer horizontal because games like Darius, Gradius, TF, etc tend to have more fleshed out level design rather than simply scrolling up while avoiding enemies and missiles. Terrain changes, more obstacles get put in your way. Maybe it's just me.

[icemanxp300]

Mushihimesama Futari and DoDonPachi DaiFukkatsu must be different games right?

 

I almost want a 360 just so I can play them. Is there any other system they can be played on somehow?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHqN_fH2S7k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xmw2eeLooyI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nscP9QpXoFM

 

 

Are these all different games? How many are there?

[Gabriel]

I voted horizontal, due to R-Type (my favorite shooter of all time), Life Force, Gradius, etc. If you include the early 80s bottom shooters like Space Invaders, Galaxian, etc I may switch my vote.

 

It's not so much a horizontal and vertical preference as it is game design. If the game is designed with an ending, I really only enjoy shooters that are humanly possible. Games you can go pretty far on with one life (after you've practiced the level). "Bullet Hell" shooters aren't much fun for me. Fans of the sub-genre would disagree, but to me the design is all about how many quarters can you suck out of a player via endless continues, to the degree it doesn't really matter what you do in the game, just keep popping quarters in and you can keep going. I'd rather have a game that's humanly possible. I also enjoy shmups that focus more on the aiming of shots than moving your ship to avoid getting hit. Obviously shooters all have some of both, but bullet hell shooter focus way more of the latter. Different strokes for different folks.

 

I agree with your opinion on bullet hell shmups. I don't think they're fun. Beyond the initial shock of "lookit all dem bullitss!" I find nothing compelling about them.

 

However, the ones I've seen are much the same as the pattern recognition games which dominated the NES library. They're also freakishly and disturbingly focused on optimization of play to the point where they simply aren't fun for anyone who isn't deeply hardcore into shmups.

 

That said, watching someone who has practiced and knows how to play this games is freakin art. I've seen people no hit complete bullet hell games which look flatly impossible.

 

Me, I'm not big into shooting accuracy. I prefer holding down the fire button and watching the energy beams fly when I'm playing shmups. I'm more of a scenic shmup fan. I want to enjoy the look of the enemies and environment while blowing crap up. That's probably another contributor why I don't like bullet hell games. A decent percentage of them abdicate any interesting backgrounds in favor of hypnotic bullet patterns.

 

But my preference for scenic shmups is probably why Lightening Force and Raystorm are my favorite games of the genre.

[Tanooki]

Your post up there, especially the first two parts, is 100% why I don't play or bother with shooters anymore. They're overly technical, overly loaded with too much crap on the screen, and they're turned into fly flawless or die memorization game with such critical timing it would make a Dragon's Lair arcade fan blush. I hate that crap. I like to have a little variance in how I approach a stage and enjoy going around it, hard or easy. I've been digging the Neo Geo shooters because they're not stupid like that and to show I'm not into just easy games or memorization, I have Ghost Pilots on the way early/mid next week. It's tough, but it's fair.

[Kaicer]

I like both, but I have some feeling for horizontal shooters specially for the macross games. I never liked bullet hell games. But there are a lot of vertical not bullet hell games that are great.

[HoshiChiri]

Your post up there, especially the first two parts, is 100% why I don't play or bother with shooters anymore. They're overly technical, overly loaded with too much crap on the screen, and they're turned into fly flawless or die memorization game with such critical timing it would make a Dragon's Lair arcade fan blush. I hate that crap. I like to have a little variance in how I approach a stage and enjoy going around it, hard or easy. I've been digging the Neo Geo shooters because they're not stupid like that and to show I'm not into just easy games or memorization, I have Ghost Pilots on the way early/mid next week. It's tough, but it's fair.

 

I agree- I personally don't see them as the same genre. The way one goes about a shmup is much different then a bullet hell title. One is about defense, memorization, and timing. The other is more offensive and strategic, encouraging different approaches to find victory. Personally, I love a good shmup, but I only really watch bullet hell games online. Far too technical for my tastes.

[KeeperofLindblum]

I'm not the largest fan of SHMUPs. (Mostly just not very good...)

 

I'd say one of my favorites is Tyrian 2000, and it's a vertical shooter.

 

So I voted as thus!

[Tanooki]

 

I agree- I personally don't see them as the same genre. The way one goes about a shmup is much different then a bullet hell title. One is about defense, memorization, and timing. The other is more offensive and strategic, encouraging different approaches to find victory. Personally, I love a good shmup, but I only really watch bullet hell games online. Far too technical for my tastes.

Good way to put that, they're not the same genre. Yes you both shoot, yes they both usually go vertical, but they kind of greatly diverge from there. You've got a situation where it's a total memorization of every single pattern in every piece of the stage or die setup (like Dragon's Lair sort of), and then your actual shooter where you can be offensive, defensive, tactical really but you don't need to memorize every instance of the stage to survive it.