Amazing SHOOT EM UPS of the 80s and 90s

what makes shmups so amazing why do we love them well what made the late 80s and early 90s so amazing why does just hearing this magical track by zach vortex suddenly conjure memories of your best days as a kid your favorite games your favorite movies your favorite moments shmups are shooters in fact for the rest of the video let's only call them that because during those early days shmups didn't exist there was no such thing only shooters and boy were they a thing far from the niche they are today shooters were part of the very fabric of gaming everywhere you looked the biggest developers from konami to capcom to legends like hudson compile and toaplan made some of the most incredible shooting game experiences of our time they weren't for the elite they weren't for experts only they weren't just for contests they were for everyone it didn't matter if you were great or if you sucked you played them anyway and you loved it shooters weren't just part of that era they were that era watching big trouble in little china on my living room floor on vhs then popping in life force on the nes and playing it into the night that was the 80s shooters were part of the culture of the era the peak of their popularity intertwined with our most cherished memories of a time we'll never forget there is no separating gradius from ghostbusters thunder force from thundercats soldier blade from spawn it was all one experience when ripley yelled get away from her you we laughed and cheered when optimus prime gave his life we cried heck i still do hogan versus andre the giant macho man vs ric flair what a time to be alive the best wrestling rivalries the weirdest sitcoms the greatest cartoons and anime legendary comic arcs dungeons and dragons in the corner of every schoolyard and yes a golden generation of gaming we were there for the very first super mario zelda and metroid the first castlevania contra and of course ninja gaiden the first gradius r-type and thunder force we were there when the first cd-based console the turbo cd arrived and blew our minds with the intro from ease we were there it's why we collect or at least it's why i do every game is a memory every console a diary of stories my games are my history my shooters my childhood and while it's not the only genre i love somehow my fondness for it has persisted to this day so what is it about shooters or what are now known as shmups that despite their fade into near obscurity in popular gaming today made them such a massive success during the 80s and 90s [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] arcades shooters were the perfect adrenaline-fueled quarter-munching visual and oral tortoise force that made you feel like a badass plowing through endless enemy waves with a mountain of firepower they created an epic feel of your lone ship against the enemy hordes and to see how long you'll survive often brutally difficult yet addicting to try over and over you always wanted to survive just a bit longer and see what the next stage or the next boss had in store it wasn't just about the scoring or clearing the game on a single credit but the pageantry of the experience the best shooters were made as an epic journey with creative set pieces that pulled you into the battle and made you feel like part of something bigger it wasn't just about killing enemies on the screen but the pomp and circumstance of the moment huge fleets of mother ships at war in the background as you pilot your fighter in a monumental battle maneuvering past wormholes as they suck in enemies and bullets in your wake high battles through asteroid fields of a destroyed planet bombing runs of a massive space cruiser taking them out section by section before facing a stage boss that emerges from the wreckage shooters were a shot of adrenaline directly into the bloodstream and once you've been hooked you kept coming back for more developers went out of their way to combine gorgeous graphics and effects and some of the best soundtracks in gaming to create addicting experiences you wanted to play time and again who could forget the iconic first level boss of r-type the almighty dobb terratox or the giant mothership that was an entire level in itself the atmosphere dense and foreboding only outshined by its sheer difficulty to progress and yep that's me playing on an original cabinet back in the day right alongside our type for classic status was the gradius series by konami with its fast and precise gameplay and unique option system some of the most classic chiptunes in gaming and a series that found its way to the nes super nes and pc engine in the 8 bit days nintendo was all in with a huge library of near 100 shooters gracing the console from classics like life force gun neck star soldier abidox xanax section z and gradius and proteus to hudson soft hosted caravan competitions in japan with special versions of star force star soldier and hector 87 hudson capcom konami iron compile namco title the 8-bit days were a revolution in shooting heaven the sega master system lagged behind with few shooters to call its own although the amazing allesta series by compile is a big highlight and was exclusive to the console that all changed with the release of the sega genesis where they went all in on the genre signing on their own top tier developers to create dozens of shooting masterpieces at the forefront was technosoft and it's thunderforce series still revered to this day as some of the best shooting games ever made one of the best looking and sounding of the era its popularity has seen it revived throughout future console generations up to and including the nintendo switch the genesis aka mega drive was a beast when it came to shooters with one of the most exceptional libraries classics like lucia guyar's glay lancer troxton grindstormer and dozens more in all over 60 shooters graced the console they were determined to outdo nintendo with their 16-bit console and they didn't disappoint on the other hand the super nintendo was not an ideal platform for the genre its focus on graphics and effects created some of the most gorgeous pixel art to this day but it lacked the processing power to really do many shooter ports justice its early port of super r-type while beautiful to behold was plagued with slow down even konami famous for their hoarding prowess released a phenomenal yet slow down plate gradius 3 still a wonderful game but it was clear the snaz wasn't initially an ideal platform but where there's a will there's a way and with the still high demand for shooters to play developers slowly learned to leverage the hardware and eventually released some quality titles konami returned with an amazing port of parodious dock that still revered as one of the best to this day they even created a completely unique game with axela exclusive to the system and still considered one of the best shooters on the super nintendo irem righted their wrong with the killer r-type 3 also system exclusive and one of the best in the series un squadron was an ever popular arcade revision adding rpg-like elements and making a unique entry all its own super alesta aka space megaforce by compile showed that shooters can be done right on the super nintendo and still play fast while the total number barely approached half of the mighty mega drive it was a matter of quality over quantity despite a shaky start even the snes became a platform with a great selection of must-own exclusive shooters and of course we can't talk about massive shooter libraries without bringing up the pc engine even the turbo graphics 16 and duo which had limited release and success outside of japan put out banger after banger of some of the best shooters of the era blazing lasers captivated myself and any other who first played it showing what the next gen of shooters would be like although the pc engine released prior to all the 16-bit consoles and during the nes lifecycle it was one of the most brilliant console designs in history with a hybrid 8-bit processor and a 16-bit gpu its color gamut was on par with the super nintendo and its processing power on par with the mega drive allowing it to compete with the big boys and it delivered with the largest library of shooters of any console in history over 120 of them it was known for the fastest paced shooters you could find on any console if you wanted an adrenaline rush of an experience few games could match the all-out speed of superstar soldier or soldier blade the huecard library was immense with every type and style you could imagine classic ports like tatsujin twinbee salamander and dragon spirit were the order of the day r-type was the first nearest arcade perfect port released on a home console and it was a launch title console exclusives were never ending with phenomenal releases like magical chase download coreyu hana takadaka and cybercore even silly and unusual games like honey in the sky choeniki and the ridiculous toilet kids where projectile dookie and flying wieners were the order of the day the pc engine brought a japanese flare to the genre and busted it wide open with an anything and everything goes approach for every type of fan this was the time of the hudson caravans and the naxsat summer carnival series a huge seasonal shooting competition in japan where everyone would gather to put their skills to the test commercials featuring the famous master takahashi and how he could inexplicably press the fire button a mind blowing 16 times per second shooters were on everyone's mind and we couldn't get enough but hudson was just getting started as the real avalanche began with the release of the cd attachments and upgrades working with a souped-up version of the original pc engine with more ram and cd storage even more developers jumped in with classics that helped define the genre gate of thunder was an ombud to the famous thunder 4 series and one of the best on the console with killer music tracks to match later came lords of thunder not only a visual but an audible tour de force with metal tracks never before heard in a console game even tony hawk got in on the action making a garage style hype video for you konami followed up with a near arcade perfect port of gradius 2 that showed what the format was capable of exclusive cd games like spriggan mexico star parodia and the late sapphire that took the expanded arcade card format and blew our minds with what was possible on the current hardware think about all this the nes pc engine mega drive super nintendo all releasing shooter after shooter during this era and how spectacular that was can you imagine that happening now with the big three sony microsoft and nintendo doing the same that's what it was like during those days and it was heaven and that's not to mention all the arcade shooters that eclipsed the whole consoles in performance going to the arcade was like going to the movies an experience that couldn't be replicated yet at home rayforce and botzegan showed us what the future of shooters would be like before the saturn could create arcade perfect ports the neo-geo cabinets gave us aero fighters pole star and blazing star for the vast majority that could never afford something so expensive at home shooters were anywhere and everywhere in the arcades on every console in popular movies and culture and it's why the genre persists as a niche to this day due to those incredible memories we grew up with and want to continue to enjoy so why did shooters suddenly lose popularity during the later 90s and 2000s becoming a small competitive move and a shell of their former selves why did an amazing developer like cave creator of the greatest bullet health shmups of all time have to slowly cater more and more to a shrinking niche market of elite players and competitors round one fight the rise of fighting games was a blow without question when street fighter 2 hit the scene we all couldn't wait to line up quarters on glass ready for our turn against the winner myself included every time my friends and i went to the golden apple a well-known comic store in los angeles the day was never complete without a stop at the 7-eleven and some rounds on the champion edition cabinet street fighter caused an explosion in the industry making fighting games the hot trend for over a decade forward with every developer getting in on the action they were even better for competitive play allowing head-to-head battles and creating exciting events and while shooters continued their popularity for the next few years they now had a serious competitor for the arcade crown another major factor was the release of more powerful consoles that could duplicate the arcade experience at home the sega saturn was another shooter powerhouse of the late 90s in the 32-bit era and its arcade perfect ports of both shooters and fighting games alike began the downward trend for arcades slowly fading in popularity along with sony's playstation you could now play games like battle dorega dodonpachi and race storm in the comfort of your home and although fighting games maintained their popularity due to the thriving competitive scene shooters began to take a backseat to other popular genres with the 32-bit era also came the era of 3d it was new and exciting and developers were falling over themselves to take advantage fighting games transitioned well into three dimensions with the tekken series being one of my personal favorites the era also came with first person shooting games once the domain of pc gaming only making your transition to home consoles like fighting games they blew up in popularity and began a thriving competitive scene even stealing thunder from fighters themselves but the one aspect unique to them was they were not born of the arcade fps games were longer involved affairs and didn't fit the mold of a good arcade experience so once again the trend moved from arcades to home gaming by the early 2000s fps games went from being called first person shooters to simply shooters for short even if they had nothing in common with the shooters of old and were a completely different experience it was then that the term shmup popularized short for shoot em up as a way for those of us talking about our favorite shooting games to not be confused with an fps and that's why to this day at least when talking about games from the late 80s and early 90s i still refer to them as shooters not shmups to me it's part of the preservation of the history of the games colleen gradius and shmup is simply a modern term for something that wasn't part of the vocabulary at the time it was a shooter or an stg or a shooting game it's part of the history of the genre and shouldn't be forgotten so what can we do to bring shooters back we're already doing it right now i'm doing it by creating nostalgia videos for games we all knew and love you're doing it right now by watching this video and maybe having some of your younger friends or your kids watch it too so they can see what these games were all about together we're generating excitement again not just for the old games that were but new games releasing 2020 has been a renaissance in the genre with more releases on modern consoles and steam than have been in a decade from old school throwbacks like super six crisis wing and wings of blue star to re-releases of classics like the tour plan cotton and molesta collections it's never been a better time for us fans even modern releases like crimson clover now ported and expanded on the switch is showing how hungry and large the fan base really is fps games have grown stale and personally i've long since checked out the popular fighting genres are recycling the same old ideas with fresh coats of paint sure we all still play them because the formulas work but if shmups are really to make a comeback the same old won't do not a fresh coat of paint but a new approach maybe that means redesigning them as an ideal platform for big gaming events where players can go head to head in new and exciting ways that shmups have never quite done before or maybe that means a new generation of vr where you can literally be in the cockpit and even re-experience the classics from a new perspective can you imagine playing r-type recreated in virtual reality coming up on the dopp carrot tops towering over you i think i peed myself just thinking about it and i have a feeling that could happen in our lifetime both the r-type vr and me peeing myself people love grand space battles just look at star wars to this day not just us old fogies but kids and all ages alike are enthralled by it fighting games don't do that fps games don't do that maybe space flight sims but that's what they are flight sims and they play like one no what we need is a shooter with the speed controls and adrenaline fueled gameplay that made them so popular only taken to the next level whether in vr a head-to-head competitive format or any number of ideas i haven't even thought of imagine the possibilities keep supporting the great developers still making them but most important spread the love of shooters get other people who never played them before to try them out many will love them and join the cause keep growing our community and someday maybe sooner than we think that killer app will happen that genre shooter that reinvents the formula and starts a new wave of hysteria for that to happen first there needs to be a love of the genre and maybe the great shooter era of the 80s and 90s the one many of us remember so fondly will have a second renaissance it won't be identical it never is you can't recreate the past only spend your life remembering its best memories but at some point it's time to push forward and create a new and exciting world of shmups or maybe again shooters or yet another unknown or unnamed genre but we know what we want and we'll know it when we see it so let's all be a part of making that happen and continue to enjoy the classics that made us fall in love with them in the first place so who's with me

Channel: Shmup Junkie

Views: 37,828

Keywords: amazing shoot em ups of the 80s and 90s, shmup, shmups, shoot em up, shooter, 80s, 90s, nostalgia, retro gaming, pc engine, pc engine mini, sega, nintendo, mega drive, nes, famicom, gradius, rtype, sega saturn, nec, turbografx, turbografx16, super nintendo, cave, bullet hell, xbox 360, xbox, sony playstation, dodonpachi, pc engine mini review, sega saturn emulator, super nintendo classic, turbografx mini review, retro gaming console, arcade, crimson clover, STG, shmup junkie, atari

Id: cw8RZkqjXKI

Length: 22min 27sec (1347 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 29 2020