What happened to old school shooters?

[vee4473]

I decided to launch my real one arcade to see if there was anything worth wasting my time on...

I came across a game called Platypus. It is a very very basic side scroll shooter in the Defender/Gradius type of way...

But, as I was playing, I realized how much fun I was having and I tought "How come I don't see these types of games (albeit in a more refined form) on PS2 etc...?

I realize that 3D has taken over, but I think these 2D side scrollers have a very VERY fun place in the world of modern gaming.

I love all the new 3D games out there. From third person shooters to story driven RPG's, (I am enjoying Snake Eater at the moment), but these games need to be ressurected.

Some of my most pleasant gaming memories are of Defender and Lifeforce and Castlevania and Ghosts and Goblins and you know what I mean!!

Are there any real contenders to throne out there? Have I been missing less advertised games of this type?

Or is this genre dead?

Playing this free web game woke me up.

[General Ludd]

Try Torus Trooper or Warning Forever

[Dis]

for major releases- yes they are dead. But I'll assume those links provided by general are of new games. So perhaps smaller independant companies might still release these types of games.

[vee4473]

oh and Thunderforce was good too.

[BustaMike]

There are still new shooters on consoles. I thought R-Type Final on the PS2 was lots of fun. I believe that Metal Slug was released recently on the Xbox, also.

[Maquiladora]

Metal Slug 3 on XBox is good, but you have to be really suited to the controls youre playing on with these type of games, and XBox original controller isnt really suited to Shmups.

2D shooters are still released but they dont get as much publicity as the latest 3D thing it seems.

http://www.classicgaming.com/shmups/xenocidefiles.html is pretty good for a list of all "shmups" released on all formats and a short review of each.

My favourite shmups of all time are probably:

R-Type - Arcade and mostly Spectrum

Radiant Silvergun - Saturn

Battle Squadron - Amiga

Strikers 1945 I and II - Saturn

You can play pretty much all shmups released in the arcades before 1998 on MAME (you must own the PCB of the original machine for it to be legal i think ) and more modern ones if you have a reasonably good puter, RS hasnt been emulated well enough yet AFAIK and would probably cost £80+ alone for the game now.

[lord of the mark]

No one ever got shot at MY old school

OTOH, when i went to school I suppose on occasion I did play "shooters" Im thinking the old fashioned electro-mechanical shooting games. Anyone else remember those? I barely do. The highlight of a trip to Coney Island.

[Bkeela]

I bought a brilliant scrolling shooter game earlier in the year for the Gamecube called Ikaruga. The genre isn't quite dead.

http://www.gamespot.com/gamecube/action/ikaruga/index.html?q=Ikaruga

[:) Smiley]

Don't forget about the infamous Zero Wing.

[Maquiladora]

[DrSpike]

Yup, old school shooters were (and potentially still are) great fun. I suppose most developers for the PC aren't willing to take the risk on a game that wont attract that much attention. It's hard to admit but this is an area consoles have performed better at in recent years.

[Maquiladora]

The West is obsessed with the latest and greatest 3D games, old school shooters have always been popular in Japan and PC's arent anywhere near as popular for gaming as consoles are in Japan. I assume thats why the XBox doesnt do very well there, its seen as a PC and probably because M$ is an American company, while Sega (although it was founded by an American), Nintendo and Sony are Japanese. This could be why, in the home of old school shooters, they dont develop or port to PC.

And also the original XBox controller is massive compared to PS1/2, Japanese have tiny hands.

[Jamski]

X-Out, Z-Out, R-Type... ah the joys of the sideways scrolling, crazy powerup fun...

What was that excellent Team 17 scrolling shooter? It had a choice of 3 ships, and a variety of powerup strategies (guns, plasma, sideshot, missiles, speedup, buildup, magma, laser and cloak, IIRC)

Xenon II... wow what a game...

/me unpacks the Amiga again*

-Jam

[DrSpike]

Project X.

[Barinthus]

Contra!