Best Shoot Em Ups for Beginners

i knew it it wasn't my son you're the one that's been downloading all those euro shmups to my steam i'm tired of all your hard games that keep kicking my ass these are much better honestly though what do you see in these games look the pretty colors and it's easy i'm having fun and when i finish the level it'll let me upgrade my ship and add stickers fine fine but please don't buy any more until you finish the one you're playing okay yes i'm gonna add a new fancy wing on the back too look i want to make this clear there's nothing wrong with playing these flashy euro style shmups if that's what you're into games aren't just a sport they're entertainment we all have different tastes and are entertained by different things i regularly get comments from people who like my content but don't like the silly and dumb things that i do or timmy did you see that it got kicked right in the balls i love this movie and in the case of timmy's choice of game the euro style shmup there's plenty of examples of some really terrible games but there's also some really good ones that transcend their stereotype for some of you watching these types of games may have been your first exposure to shmups in general and a gateway to explore them further and that's always a good thing you want to enjoy the very best of what the genre has to offer but you're not ready for battle garego or dodonpachi they all seem so difficult and you don't know where to get started and all that damn junkie keeps talking about are the hardest games for every system yep hard as balls so this video is for you to help you get started on the path of enjoying these games more with good suggestions not just easy starter games but ones that will still teach you good fundamentals while providing you lots of opportunity to fail and still have fun and that's really important grinding away or working at a game isn't fun for most people who wants to do that no wonder this genre is so niche you have experienced players telling others it's all about playing the same thing over and over again for a dozen hours before you can even get good how does that sound fun it's not not for beginners anyway and i'm here to tell you that's not the case since a young age i've been doing nothing but playing these games for fun not to score not even to 1cc just because they're fun and as a beginner the number one thing that you should look for is a game that you find fun and addicting only then will you want to keep playing it and maybe even want to spend those dozens of hours to clear it on a credit so i've compiled a list of games that are perfect for entry level players a variety of styles from old school 90s shooters to bullet health vertical and horizontal and more they're all considered great games in their own right and you're sure to at least find one or two here that look fun this video will be different than my usual deep dives where i go into great detail on each game instead i just want to wet your appetite you'll get to see just a couple minutes of each game and why i think it's great for beginners and learning along with what makes it unique but i won't show too much footage and ruin it for you pick the ones that look cool to you and try them out use them to learn and enjoy you might like them you might not i've included as many as i could but there are so many more so i've also compiled a list and included it in the video description so without further ado let's get started with a game that i think is one of the easiest and most fun games that you can play on the pc engine it's also on the pc engine mini if a game like blazing lasers is still a bit too difficult for you this is a wonderful alternative for that 90s style caravan shooting game the parodius of the soldier games star parodies star parodie is the perfect entry-level game for complete rookies looking to play an old-school 90s style caravan shooter it does what the parodia series failed to do for grotties which is not only make a cute parody game but also one for the younger crowd and beginners to enjoy perrotius is wonderful and looks inviting but it'll kick your butt as good as any gradius game those games are not easy star parodie is the opposite are games like blazing lasers or soldier blade still a bit too tough for you this game is the answer in an effort to bring in more kids and younger players into the caravan events hudson wanted to make a soldier game that was a gateway into the series and star parodia is the result it feels and plays like a soldier game only easier the graphics are an eiffel funny and well done the music is incredibly infectious and will have you humming the tunes for the rest of the day and it's just fun to play from start to finish from the controls to the stage designs and bosses honestly the only people i know don't like this game are experienced players who find it too easy that it's boring to them and need more challenge even on the hardest mode for everyone else it's as charming as it gets and being a caravan style game it has the usual short sport attack modes to play with too it has instant respawns when you die like newer games in the genre so you aren't dealing with checkpoints and you can choose between three ships including bomberman and a giant pc engine it has multiple endings for the different difficulty levels and the harder modes are perfect to try once you've completed it on normal star parodie is one of the games on the pc engine mini so you can also use safe states if playing that way it can also be played easily via emulation or on a mister with the excellent pc engine core keep in mind it's a cd game so using just a basic flash cart won't play it but as a fun easy and perfect entry-level game that almost anybody can play for fun star parodia fits the bill and once you feel it's gotten too easy for you then go back and give blazing lasers another shot did you know it has all sorts of hidden easter eggs to make the game more manageable first take note of these changing power ups if you keep shooting them instead of picking them up or let them float to the bottom of the screen they'll turn into a glowing ball pick it up and it'll give you a golden life that means when you die you'll respond instead of going back to a checkpoint and they stack so collect as many as you can in the early levels better still on the stage one boss practice a little and figure out a way to dodge its attacks and not kill it don't shoot it either after a couple minutes it'll just go away and it'll reward you with a ton of golden lives and bombs now you're all set to try and power your way through the rest of the game it's the perfect way to finish blazing lasers on your early attempts and get the hang of things and move on to some harder games from there like the other soldier games and nexr a difficult but really amazing game that i did a video on a while back alright what if you're more of a mega drive cat or you want to play some horizontal shooters instead i've got a couple good ones for you and not just because they're easy when i think back to what got me into the genre it wasn't whether a game was easy or hard or whether it was good to learn or practice skills it was simply because it was really cool or fun and that's what these next two games are steel empire and battle mania 2. one not very well known and the other never made it out of japan but both are great examples of games on the mega drive perfect for beginners [Applause] [Music] steel empire is as straightforward as it gets with an extra button that also lets you fire behind you you can choose between a faster plane and a larger slower blimp with more hit points and you can select your choice at the start of each level not just the start of the game both ships have a generous health bar so you can take quite a few hits before dying and when you do you still respond right where you died there are health power-ups throughout the levels so you can increase your health quite a bit to take even more damage and there are good amounts of bombs to go around the steampunk levels and enemy designs are creative and the music is well done i wouldn't call it an oh my god amazing game but it's a solid one that's worth playing if you're looking for a game on the easier side and it does get a good bit more challenging in some areas and towards the end so it's not a total pushover and will take some practice but with the health and response it's about as surmountable as 16-bit shooters get while also being fun conversely battle mania 2 is just a rocking good game literally one of the coolest on the mega drive that everyone should try it's gorgeous to look at with some of the best graphics on the system the music is also fantastic and the creativity of the levels is almost unmatched when it comes to presentation it has it all even a funny story with a sense of humor and plenty of cutscenes and despite still being on the easy side it's incredibly fun this game will also let you practice getting used to new types of control systems as it takes some getting used to you can now fire in up to eight directions if you hold down fire you can continue firing one way but once you let go you can change to any other it actually works better and faster than a similar game like forgotten worlds where you have to use buttons to rotate here just face the direction you want and fire and if you're having a hard time with it the options actually let you select only a one-way or two-way firing mode simplifying the controls for beginners so you can only fire forward and back or just forward and what's cool is you can still play it that way and do well without using the 8-way shot and you have a special weapon to choose at the start of each level that auto recharges on its own much like steel empire you have a health meter so you can take a few hits before you die and health can be found on certain stages as well it's a bit harder in that you only get one life to clear a stage but you do get a few credits to continue as well battle mania 2 is one of those games you want to play and keep playing because it's just so cool and fun whether you're able to complete it or not it's easy enough to make some serious progress and have a fun time doing it so not only is it a relatively easy game it's just one of the coolest mega drive shooters that almost nobody knows about and is highly recommended [Music] what if you're looking for an old-school shooting game but you don't have older consoles or the games you just want something modern that you can easily download and play like on your computer on steam i can't think of a more perfect entry-level 90s style shooter than raging blasters [Music] [Music] a game that i covered and did a review for not long ago it places substance over style and is incredibly fun to play along with phenomenal music but what really sets it apart is how easy it is to get into and play on its normal difficulty what makes it great is that visually it's clean without anything unnecessary on the screen no swarms of bullets no graphically overwhelming explosions or distractions it's 100 focused on tight gameplay and once you start playing it it's hard to stop the mechanics are simple with a normal fire and a spreadshot each with their own button and a speed setting you can normally set and forget at least until the more advanced levels no bombs to worry about and no special weapon button as your main shot fires everything simple controls that let you focus on playing and the incoming enemies raging blasters on normal is about as easy as a shoot em up gets literally anyone can pick it up and just play it it's that straightforward the power-ups are constant and you respawn where you die the game even has a hidden stage select mode so you can directly practice different levels it also has a two-player co-op mode that makes the game even easier to play with a friend but don't write it off as just an easy game as the scoring system has some nice depth and playing it on hard and then expert difficulty can present a fair challenge to complete once you've finished it on normal and it's actually meant to be played on hard or expert for most players it also has a fun chaining system which comes into its own in the game's dedicated caravan score attack mode on my discord we did a competition for this mode a while back with over 40 people that played and just about everyone had a really good time with it this mode is incredibly deep and scoring high takes a lot of practice and determination as far as entry-level games that you can easily play right now on steam it's hard to beat raging blasters highly recommended not only for the difficulty factor but just plain fun let's say you're looking for something a bit more next-gen graphically something around the 32-bit saturn era but the problem is many of those games were extremely difficult catering more to experts and you're not interested in going full bullet hell well one often overlooked originally arcade exclusive eventually also made its way to the sega saturn batsu gun special version by toa plan now the original batsu gun not for beginners but the special version is a bit different check it out [Music] batsu gun is known as the prototypical early bullet hell special version is unique in that unlike the original it was designed to be looped many times getting progressively harder and the very first loop was designed to be quite easy by comparison to the original game when played for survival first your hitbox is very very small smaller than the original game so it's very forgiving and you can really get away with mistakes second you get a shield and you're able to take an extra hit that returns after every time you power up your weapon your bombs are also much more powerful clearing the screen completely the idea is that subsequent loops become much harder and are really fun for advanced players but the initial loop is about as easy as early bullet hell gets and while there may be better games to practice actual bullet health skills which i'll talk about later i wanted to cover boxygun special for one main reason fun the game is just a good time and one of the best of its era and as i mentioned simply having a fun game to replay that you really enjoy is the key to improving because you want to keep playing batsu god has very short stages and the entire first loop can be cleared in under 20 minutes beautiful graphics excellent music and several characters with different weapons that you can choose from on top of that it's known for a great scoring system so once you get a hang of the game you can continue to play and improve really boxy gun special is even better than botsega with the extra loops and scoring potential if you play it on the saturn instead of emulating note that the port is missing some slow down from the arcade so it may be a bit harder you may want to choose to play it using an emulator like retro arc that will replicate the arcade slowdown but either way just make sure you get the special version and give it a go it's a heck of a fun game and one of toro plans best so i touched on games for the old school crowd and even the early 90s with games like botsu gun not full bullet hell but prototype so what if you're looking for full bullet hell it seems impossibly daunting right i mean what bullet hell game could possibly be good for beginners well you might be surprised to learn that these next cave games not only have great and very easy novice modes but those modes are even easier than any game that i've shown so far in fact they're so easy that you're gonna be wanting to crank it up a notch pretty quickly once you get the hang of it they're easy enough for young kids to play looking to get their feet wet and gain some confidence and the way to play these modes is on the xbox 360 via the m2 ports [Music] death smiles is considered the easiest game cave has made on any level and it's actually the game that got me into bullet hell i didn't play them myself for the longest time as it all just seemed like too much and i can't even remember why i tried it originally maybe it was the cool fantasy and halloween vibe that i'm a sucker for whatever the case i instantly enjoyed how much fun it was to play and i was playing it on the great 360 port by m2 so i could adjust things in practice to my heart's content which at the time was kind of unheard of in the genre playing death smiles on rank 1 is truly easy you get a ton of health so dying isn't that easy you almost have to try to the other thing that i like is that you can choose your difficulty for each level so if the early levels are too easy on rank one you can turn it up but if the final stages are too much you can turn it back down and play on the lowest setting i'm not kidding when i say it's easy almost to a fault but for the completely uninitiated it's perfect because it's also such a cool ride and exposes people to what the game can be like once they improve in it i mean look you get to fight a giant cow named mary god rest her soul it has to be good and if you want to get into bullet health and cave and you're decent at shmups playing it on rank 2 will feel about right as the easiest cave game i can recommend it another awesome yet much more difficult game is mushi himasama futari one of the games i covered in my top five hardest games on the xbox 360. so what is it doing here yeah it also has a great novice mode and it's not quite the same push over as death smiles yet it's still pretty easy and lets you play a fantastic game with gorgeous graphics and great music it's possibly my favorite cave game of them all and another bonus is the great arrange mode here which introduces bullet shields that let you gather incoming shots and shoot them back along with slowing down time it makes you quite powerful to the point where you'll likely be able to play the game easily even on normal mode and beyond both the novice and the range modes in futari are worth checking out for beginners as it's one fine game that you might just fall in love with and these two modes could help you do it to wrap up my trio of recommendations you have possibly the most thorough port job of them all with espaluda 2 with so many ways that you can play it's almost overwhelming on normal arcade mode this is one tough game with some complex mechanics like an energy bar that's used to power various special functions like a shield or a special attack that can slow down bullets and do serious damage with an ultra powerful shot there's a lot of nuance to mastering all the ways that you can take advantage of your attacks in this game it's not a simple game which makes the novice mode that much more useful it makes it much easier to play with your arsenal and see how it all works and get the hang of using them all without much risk of death while you experiment but the other reason i'm recommending it is it's a beautiful game the sprite work and design is eye series and the music is done by the legendary manabu namiki and is a joy to hear while playing which is another reason i chose this game along with the other two in addition to the easy modes they're just really well made games that you should experience now made accessible with these novice modes that you can enjoy and grow with slowly transitioning to harder modes once you outgrow them and needless to mention all three games also have detailed practice modes that let you select any stage power levels difficulty and a host of other game specific features practice any level you want how you want that level of flexibility is pretty much unequaled with any other set of games on this list and you can thank m2's wonderful port work for that that being said the novice modes aren't perfect while they can be overly easy stepping back up to a higher level is often a big jump and one you may not be ready for it doesn't scale as well as it could have it can go from very easy to quite challenging but that's also where those great practice modes come in and it will help a ton when you want to get serious one final reason that i wanted to mention these novice modes is i have quite a lot of subs to my channel that have younger kids many of which actually watch my show with their parents and are looking for games that they can play to get into the genre if you have some real youngins i can't stress enough that these novice modes are almost easy to a fault but your preschooler or first grader can play these novice modes and enjoy them just let them experience what it's like and get comfortable with how the games work they're impressive visually and orally and maybe an experience that gets them wanting to play more as they get older almost every other game that i've shown here while considered easy for shmup standards is still way too much for the youngest of shmuppers but these novice modes are not and can be tackled by almost anyone they feel like trainers so give them a go and you'll see what i mean as much as i like these cave games and as easy as the novice modes are they're almost too easy for experienced players you want something to actually learn some skills but not full arcade mode that'll just cream you something in between the answer lies in games that you can download right now on any computer absolutely free and not emulated these next two games have an easy mode considered pretty easy for bullet hell but not overly easy after the first few stages they'll really start testing your skills and absolutely teaching you some new ones they're known for it and it's a series of games that multiple people have been telling me to try but i've never played in my life until this week touhou tohu they say that right [Applause] i'm the last person on youtube that should be talking about touhou given i never played them before so i'm far from an expert so i'm taking this opportunity to give you my outsider perspective as a first time player there are a ton of games in the series but numbers 7 and 8 were recommended to me as the best for beginners i tried them both and have to admit they're not at all what i expected first and foremost the easy modes are excellent and as effective as i can imagine at teaching to recognize and avoid patterns these modes are not a pushover and after the first few levels we'll test any rookie the bullet patterns are all extremely creative and clearly done by someone who understands the genre and they all move slow enough on easy to not feel overwhelming the screen will be full with bullets to where you're wondering how is this easy and yeah they move so slowly and the openings and waste through are so recognizable that when you do die you'll feel like it was a lack of practice on your part or making a mistake versus just not knowing what you should have done because there was no way out it's true these are independent games so the visuals aren't in the same league as cave but they're innocent and charming in their own way and the music at least in part seven and eight that i played was really quite good and honestly better than many other shmups that i've played all very well done there's a lot of care and attention to detail put into the games and it shows i was victim to many of the touhou stereotypes that are out there and i'm sure some of them are true since i didn't bother getting into the fan side of things i can only tell you that as a game both parts seven and eight shown here are about as good a beginner's trainer for bullet hell that i can think of there are a few players on my discord that got into shmups because of touhou and now play all sorts of games many of them are great players and quickly grabbing one cc's of most games that they pick up to play and i'm sure that a big part of that is they started with touhou so it must be on to something it's got the fundamentals down path if you're looking to practice bullet hell really practice without the flash these are actually better than the overly easy novice modes of the cave games i was pleasantly surprised during my short time with them and you might be too [Music] [Applause] okay completely switching gears are you looking for a really fun multiplayer shmup that you can play with your kids your wife friends just easy to jump into and play well look no further than jamestown on the ps4 and steam what makes it really unique is that when playing with a friend you can revive each other as you die so as long as somebody is still alive the game continues making it for really cool manic co-op fun [Music] don't let the difficulty names fool you normal is actually very easy difficult is easy and legendary is normal you can play the first three levels on the easiest setting and you get an additional two credits to get through the stage enough for almost anyone as you progress the game won't unlock the later stages until you go back and finish them on at least the normal difficulty level so it gives incentive to go back and improve jamestown also has a shop where you can buy new ships upgrade your weapons and more as you play and collect and each ship plays very differently from the others they aren't just re-skins with similar controls so it has longevity and unlocking and trying them out but more than anything jamestown is an ideal multiplayer shmoop experience it's easy at first but gets harder later as it doesn't let you play on very easy past stage three but as the game does get harder hopefully you have friends to fall back on so you can rescue each other in the heat of battle and continue playing making it a good time add on the really fun space western aesthetic and inspired epic music and you have a game that a lot of people recommended to me as one they play with their kids and wife and have fun with so if you're looking for easy to get into fun multiplayer romp jamestown might be the ticket the one game that i very recently reviewed that i absolutely could not leave off this list as i personally feel that it teaches such important fundamentals in the most natural way possible natsuki chronicles it's not for outright beginners but for those who have been playing shmups on and off and just feel like they're not getting very good so you want something to hone your skills that's fun to practice and has a lot of content to spend your time with i can't think of a better game to do it at least for horizontal shooters than not ski [Music] every stage in natsuki chronicles is based around different types of game design and mechanics some are slow paced where memorizing enemy patterns and the stage layouts is important so you get to practice memory type gameplay used in classics like r-type other stages are fast and have lots of incoming enemies similar to games like thunder force and border down so you can practice speed killing enemies and dodging more aggressive attacks while others require some careful planning choosing the right weapon that will make the stage easier so you'll play it a few times before you find the right weapon upgrade that makes it easier to complete you'll learn to use many different types of weapons for a range of scenarios as you progress through the game natsuki has so much content with upgrading your ship weapons and shield that it automatically keeps you playing and wanting to unlock more it's the perfect example of a game that many would derogatorily call a euro shmup where you grind collect and upgrade and replay levels to improve and yet it's a japanese shmup in every sense including the developer q it plays like a dream and controls beautifully everything is meticulously designed and is a shining example of how to design stages and enemy patterns then it adds in all the fun collecting and upgrading elements of games like r-type final 2 and others it's not using these elements to replace poor gameplay and design it literally has it all natsuki is not an easy game especially toward the later half but it will always feel like you can get good enough to finish each stage as you upgrade your ship it hands out extra shield levels as you play every stage more and more so if you keep at it you'll eventually have enough extra hits to get through and once you feel easy isn't much of a challenge anymore you can start playing on normal which is a perfect difficulty curve for most players and how i played it when i did so the progression is there from easy to normal it's really a great game in almost every way including improving at shmups and learning and i can't recommend it highly enough for this list so now that we've come full circle what about the kind of games that timmy's been playing the kind you can find all over steam like skyforce jets and guns and more they're incredibly popular and very well reviewed now does that make them better games not at all but ask yourself if they're so popular and well reviewed does that make them important in my opinion absolutely many players get into playing shmups through cheap or free games some the more productive way through games like touhou which are well designed and teach great fundamentals so they become better players much faster as they started with a game that had solid mechanics but many others who never thought of playing a shmup stumbled across steam games that just looked fun and flashy and not having any expectations had a surprisingly fun time with them regardless of whether the game's mechanics have a lot to be desired it was just a first taste of dodging bullets and blowing things up along with collecting and upgrading and they had fun with it and many will leave it at that and not play more while others looked for more like it and continued to try new games some of those players including ones i know eventually came across better design games more traditional shmups that focus on gameplay over flash and upgrades and slowly progressed to better games but it was their gateway and first experience and for many in the younger crowd they will often be their first experience too i've always liked to say that you can't change someone's mind by insulting them so the worst thing we can do as a community is snub our nose at these types of games oh god that's a euro shmup you play that crap in some cases the games are quite good just not what you're into in other cases they are complete crap but so what i keep using the car example as i used to do auto racing as a hobby taking my cars to road courses and running time trials and go-karting with friends and the auto enthusiast community is full of people who spend most of their time tricking out their cars for fun but can't actually drive for anything and just like with shmups the majority of serious drivers look down on them like the worst kind of filth that make them look bad and because of that elitist attitude they never converted a single one of them all they did was push them away who wants to listen to or be part of a community of a bunch of pricks regardless if what they do is cool or not and by taking a different approach saying hey come out with us next month to the track event and lo and behold once they got a taste of that true go fast crack pipe and the technical nature of driving and car control they began to understand and spend more time actually enjoying racing and less time upgrading their car with components that actually made it worse they got it and it's absolutely the same with shmups stop shaming people for what they play or how they play it that doesn't mean give a pass to crap games don't play them but don't demean others for their choice and instead try to broaden their horizons at least they aren't endangering lives doing it at worst simply endangering the limits of good taste those who want our community to grow need to start by being open and accepting to those that may have started on a different path one you find unpalatable just show them what else is out there and how cool some of these truly great shmoops are whether old school or bullet hell or modern indie games and let them discover it and not everyone will care some will take longer but be the kind of helpful mentor that you want to see in the community and you may be surprised by how many new players we can recruit and open their eyes to the amazing aspect of shmups playing for fun sure but also the technicality of the games shmups and auto racing are actually very similar maybe why i like them so much it takes less than a minute to make a loop of a race track and it's something you do over and over again improving tiny details shaving fractions of a second from your times taking the line just a bit differently breaking just a bit later getting one or two seconds faster that's what becoming serious with shmups is all about and it's not for everyone and it's the appreciation of that aspect that makes the most rabbit of shmup fans and players what they are and it all has to start somewhere whether with a random euro style shmup that you may have found on steam or one of the games that i just showed in this video give them a shot let me know what you think sound off in the comments and give me your suggestions how about you timmy i guess some are just a lost cause

Channel: Shmup Junkie

Views: 89,233

Keywords: Best Shoot Em Ups for Beginners, shoot em up, shmup, shooter, shmup junkie, pc engine, pc engine mini, mega drive, sega saturn, ps4, playstation, xbox 360, nec, games for beginners on steam, games for beginners ps4, best shmups, best shoot em ups, star parodier, batsugun, bullet hell, toaplan, cave, deathsmiles, espgaluda 2, steam games, best shoot em ups for begginers

Id: tZKk9Zmy0UM

Length: 43min 7sec (2587 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 11 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/BritishCO]

I played an old SNES game again, named UN Squadron.

Then I liked it so much that I decided to look into Shmups and holy hell, I didn't know that this was an entire scene with so many games!

I've been on a binge since and bought several ones:

-Crimzon Clover on Switch (absolutely insane and fun)

-Raiden V (don't like it at all, graphics are irritating and the weapons are weird)

-Danmaku Unlimted (really fun to play)

-Jamestown (really fun as well)

-Ikaruga (haven't started it yet)

[u/ShmupJunkie]

I've had a lot of requests for a video like this, so for anyone lurking that is looking for good starter games I hope this video helps. It's been great learning the different games this week from others that were their first 1CC.

[u/O-D-C]

Raiden Trad was my first schmup - feel like that's a nice starting place but that might be nostalgia talking.

[u/Jackelwatt]

Raiden Fighters Aces (360) - This game is always my first suggestion for new players, due to how customizable it is. You can individually adjust multiple settings such as bullet density, bullet speed, etc. Start low and increase one of those options one small notch at a time, until you find something that works. Increasing a difficulty notch is meaningful but not overwhelming, so it doesn't feel like a total kick in the nuts when you bump one thing up. Also this game has an absurd amount of scoring depth, from the crazy medal system, to the huge variety of bonuses, to grazing, to secrets; it has something to offer for all experience levels.

Armed Seven - The default difficulty is very manageable on defaults and give plenty of hits. You play a flying mech, and I always overrate games with flying mechs. :)

XOP series (by Toastsoft) - It might be hard to find the sequels these days (I honestly have no idea where to get Black or Ultra) but the original has been freeware for a while now. It has lots of game modes and difficulties to start easy and learn in smaller difficulty jumps.

Some other freeware stuff to check out: ChoRenSha 68k as a classic-style shmup with a not-so-brutal first loop. Blue Wish Resurrection or Eden's Aegis (X.X developer games) as these have a very Cave-like aesthetic that many people like.

[u/jerellsworth]

I really appreciated the message of being accepting of people who like different things, even if the things they like are bad shmups. Thank you for spending time on that.