Good shmups for beginner

[CavZee]

Hi, new to posting on the forum (though I've been lurking for a while). Just wanted to get some suggestions on shmups that would be good for "easing" me into the genre.

Requirements:
*16-32 bit era
*not insanely difficult (challenge is welcome though)
*awesome music

Price isn't really an issue as I'll be emulating. Sorry purists...

[AppleQueso]

DoDonPachi!

[Hatta]

He said "not insanely difficult", so Cave games are out. I found playing Touhou games to be great practice. They look insane, but the bullets move slowly enough that you can react. I think Imperishable Night is generally considered one of the easier ones.

I also think Radiant Silvergun is a good start. You can crank the lives all the way up to 50 something. This way you're not restarting every two minutes, but you're also not credit feeding indefinitely. Even with 50 lives you won't get far to start, but practice pays off immediately.

Both of these games have awesome music.

[CavZee]

He said "not insanely difficult", so Cave games are out. I found playing Touhou games to be great practice. They look insane, but the bullets move slowly enough that you can react. I think Imperishable Night is generally considered one of the easier ones.

I also think Radiant Silvergun is a good start. You can crank the lives all the way up to 50 something. This way you're not restarting every two minutes, but you're also not credit feeding indefinitely. Even with 50 lives you won't get far to start, but practice pays off immediately.

Both of these games have awesome music.

Thanks. Definitely wanted to play Radiant Silvergun, just didn't know if it'd be a good place to start. Never heard of the other one, I'll give it a look.

[Ghegs]

Thunder Force V hits pretty much every requirement, especially the last one. It was my very first 1CC way back in the day. Ah, the memories.

[ninjainspandex]

the Parodius series is what I recommend to anyone new to shmups and its available on the snes and saturn, also thunderforce 3 and 4 on the megadrive arn't too punishing.

[WrathOskvro]

+1 for Thunderforce 3 and 5. I haven't played it in ages but I don't remember GigaWing to be too hard either. Sol Divide's a fun one too.

[lisalover1]

I am terrible at shmups, but I got through Deathsmiles without much difficulty.

[CavZee]

Appreciate the fast responses guys. The Thunder Force games have my eye for sure. Anything that fits the bill on PC Engine/Turbo would be great too as I'd love to dive into that library more.

[Ghegs]

For PCE the equivalents would be Lords of Thunder and Gate of Thunder.