Tag Archives: shmup

With quaint aesthetics and a poetic but passive plotline, The Adventures of Ten and Till isn’t just another STG chasing aiming to dethrone CAVE’s prodigious projectile dodging. If the recent renaissance of shooters has taught ...

Every Great Shooter Needs a Hook Nearly all revered shoot ‘em ups have at least one signature mechanic. Defender’s bi-directionally scrolling battlefield brought area management to the genre, while Bangai-O’s incorporation of gravity and dual ...

Psikyo=Colorful Art Kyoto Across the company’s thirteen-year lifespan, Psikyo cultivated a rich legacy. Although the Kyoto-based developer dabbled with erotic mahjong games and even a sequel to Lode Runner, it was their arcade shooters that ...

History Class on Mild Hallucinogens Chances are, you might have heard of Sir Walter Raleigh’s attempts to colonize America. After getting caught secretly marrying one of Queen Elizabeth’s ladies-in-waiting, Raleigh hoped to make amends with ...

Ghost Blade was originally released for the Dreamcast in 2015, more than a decade after SEGA’s console had departed from store shelves. Despite the belated appearance, the title wastes no time making an impression. After ...

Consistently, new shoot ‘em ups arrive with marketing conspicuously mentioning inspiration drawn from yesteryear’s classic shooters. While titles like R-Type, Gradius, Axelay are frequently cited, the results are often far removed from these retro gems. ...

With ports of Deathsmiles, DoDonPachi Resurrection, and Mushihimesama, PC owners are privy to a number of excellent danmaku (often referred to a ‘bullet hell’ games). With the recent release of Azure Reflections on Steam, there might be reason to rejoice. Bombarding ...

In the shoot-‘em-up pantheon, every prodigious title has a distinguishing play mechanic. R-Type is built around a fascinating risk/reward where players can augment their offensive output by abstaining from fire, accumulating energy in their wave cannon. Players ...

Any respectable shoot ‘em up needs at least one distinctive characteristic to succeed. Gratifyingly, the release of Manufacture 43’s Pawarumi has several. The first is the inclusion of a mechanic called Trinity. Recalling Ikaruga, the ...

Let’s face it, we’re probably not going to see a new shoot ‘em up from CAVE Interactive. During the early 2000s the studio hit a stride, with titles like DoDonPachi, Mushihimesama, and Deathsmiles not only ...