Racketboy

Yeah, the graphical issues with Sooukyugurentai (Souky) have been well documented. The effect only shows up when the game is played on a non Japanese region Saturn.

Some of the glitches can be avoided. After choosing your ship at the start of the game, allow the intro to play (where the ships launch into the skyline) and do not press any buttons to skip. The glitches should be gone for the most part. Boss intro text glitching will still be present but nothing serious enough to effect game play.

Raizing re-released the game later with some extras. This version supposedly doesn't suffer from the graphical glitching.

edit: read more into the glitches and corrected some mistakes above

Picked up Silpheed last night but it has a really weird glitch on my PS2... It acts as if someone is constantly holding up/left on the control pad. We tried different controllers, no controllers, no memory card and powering cycling the PS2 (it's a 39001 model). Works fine on my nephew's system and it appears to be the only game that has a problem playing on my system.

So I let him borrow it for awhile and picked up R Type Final. I'm really enjoying it. I normally don't like horizontal shmups, either. I thought the customizable ships option was going to be too gimmicky but I actually like it.

R-types came today. I'm pleasantly surprised how they're almost the perfect aspect on a 16:9 TV. They look great playing on a PS2 with component hookup too.

Just got my 24" CRT HP monitor a month ago and it has been Raiden Project, specifically Raiden II, all the time!!!

I only have two SHMUPs (haven't opened Bangai-O Spirits yet) and I'm playing Pop'n TwinBee for the Super Famicom. I'm playing it on my SNES and having a good time with it. I never liked this genre all that much but something changed as of late and I've been looking to build my collection. The bad part is that most of the good ones cost a lot of money.

Anyone know some games I can start on and not spend a fortune? I have a SNES/N64/Wii/PS2/Dreamcast/Xbox/DS

PS2 ones aren't bad: R-Type Final, Gradius III and IV, Gradius V, Radien III, Castle Shikigami 2, Mobile Light Force 2, Slipheed, etc. - most of these except maybe Gradius V can be found in the $10-20 range

Wii has the Ultimate Shooter Collection for around $20, which while not reviewed well has 3 great shmups on it.

Super R-Type on SNES is cheap, can't say much about others on that ssystem as it is not my strong point. The Genesis is much better for 16-bit shmups if you have one of those. You can also find some PS1 shmups cheap.

N64 has next to nothing.

Most Dreamcast shmups are over $20 (and waaay beyond) so avoid those if you're trying to stay cheap.

I've been playing Ikaruga on my Gamecube recently (mostly to test out my GC's ability to play backups) and it's really fun - and really hard... I don't think I've managed to get past anything after stage one! I also played through some of Pop 'n Twinbee on the GC SNES emulator (I'm also on the lookout for the SFC cart of it, and will get it once I have money... )

I play that on XBLA, and it is really hard! I think I've got to the third boss, and I really can't remember if I ever beat him. I should start playing it more often, it's really a great game.

Thanks for the advice. I'll have to look for some of those PS2 games in the wild and I can certainly find the Wii game. I though Super R-Type wasn't very good though? Am I incorrect. I know the N64 has Bangai-O but it's Japan only and very expensive. I'm also looking to find the Paradious games for the SNES (Super Famicom) since I can play them.

No, I don't have a Genesis. That's why I keep trading you the games I have.

Has anyone put together a list for these like there is with the Horror Survival games on the front page?

Get Ikaruga on whatever system you can. Gamecube will likely run you the cheapest, as you don't own a 360 it seems.

As for lists, there are multiple shooter topics (mostly for PlayStation and Saturn, though I believe Dreamcast has one as well) right here on Racketboy. There's also a topic around this forum with a link to the top 16-bit or older shooters.