I'm not sure what it was that got me into shooters, all I know is I eventually started playing Gradius, Geometry wars, Nanostray, Galaga, Star Soldier R, and others. My favorites, though, are absolutely everything made by Kenta Cho, that man is a genius! I've never seen anyone create such innovative games in a genre that's become so stale, let alone doing it in there spare time!

@The WiiRocks

Thanks for showing that video. When I go to buy a Dreamcast, I'm going to have to get it modded so it can play import games, so I can play Zero Gunners 2 and Ikaruga(If the Dreamcast is region locked). Sure, I could play Ikaruga on my Gamecube or Wii, and there's an updated port on Xbox Live for when I gat an Xbox, but nothing would beat the sheer joy of playing Ikaruga on the Dreamcast.

I might as well get my PS2 modded while I'm at it, maybe even my PSP and DS, too. Is the Dreamcast backwards compatible? Can it be modded to be if it isn't? I'm just asking because I was thinking about getting Radiant Silvergun too.

By Mickeymac

Yah, by now Nanostray doesn't seem so tough anymore, especially considering the fact that the challenge would never actually increase in the higher difficulty levels and only limited the amount of lives that were available to you. Though, considering the fact that not only was it pretty much my first shooter, but also THE game that taught me to appreciate a challenge and not give up when things get tough(until then, I always stuck to easy-peasy games and always had to have my little brother bail me out whenever things got remotely difficult), it was certainly impessive.

Also, I've lately seen videos of Ikaruga and it looks amazing! No wonder so many shooter fans seem to hail that game as the King of Shm'ups. It reminds me a bit of Kenta Cho's rRootage while playing IKA mode, and if that experience has taught me anything, it's that I am going to die a lot going after the matching colored bullets, as I seem to suffer some sort of Eager Beaver Syndrome.

Oh, and Could anyone tell me where I could buy Ikaruga, at least for some sort of budget price? I would hate to have to get a 360 just to get that game at a reasonable price, considering the fact that i have 2 Gamecubes(3 if you count the Wii).

By mr.niceguy

By ZIMlord

By Jockolantern

By Terranigma

By Manicfatty

Contrast that with Ikaruga where the powerups are practically delivered by the boss himself. (That black/white system is pure genius.) Oh, and I really need to get a copy of Super Aleste sometime. (aka Space Megaforce) Nearly anything by Compile has "win" written all over it. Sort of like how people view Treasure these days. ;)

By __thewiirocks

By Corbie

Protothea seems like a walk in an empty room, too easy and not fun.

By mr.niceguy

By Terranigma

By Corbie

Edit: I take that back. I haven't played Mars Matrix. I think I was confusing it with another game. I'll have to obtain a copy at some point. None the less, my point still holds. Bullet hell style games do not appeal to the common player. The gold list I posted above is a list of games that can easily make your average person fall in love with the idea of sh'mups. :)

By __thewiirocks

I have heard a rumour that this will be released in Europe with either Family Table Tennis or Pirates: Key of Dreams next week or no Protothea and the other two games instead

By Terranigma

By Quimby

By Terranigma

By Corbie

By __thewiirocks

By Kevin

By TRON

That being said, it's nowhere near as hard as the Star Soldier series. Power-ups practically rain from the heavens, allowing you to create a nearly invincible super-ship in no time flat. All it takes is a little bit of practice and you'll fall in love with sh'mups forever.

Here's my personal gold list of shoot'em ups that you might want to try:

1. Ikaruga (Goes without saying ;))
2. Zero Gunner 2
3. Blazing Lazers
4. Titan Attacks

If you try any of those, you can never go wrong. Ikaruga can be purchased on XBox Live! or for the GameCube (expensive!) or imported for the Dreamcast. Zero Gunner 2 can only be imported for the Dreamcast. Blazing Lazers can be found on the Virtual Console or purchased for an old Turbografx-16. (Dreamcast games have a short-cut for importing that I will not discuss here. Go look it up if you're interested.) Titan Attacks is linked to above. It's for all computers.

I know that list is kind of small, but it's the shooters you simply CANNOT go wrong playing. I doubt you'll find anyone who disagrees.

@j0mb13 - Thanks for the input. You've restored my slowly waning faith in this title. I imagine that - like many sh'mups - it takes a small investment of time to get to the meat in the middle. I'm downloading the PC version to see what I think of that.

By __thewiirocks