What are the Top 10 shoot 'em ups for 8/16-bit consoles?

[brickiemart]

Your list does a good job of covering a lot of area, mainly because you avoided letting the list consist of multi fracnchise entries like Thunder Froce 2-4, Gradius 1-3, etc. Any additions would be nit-pitching. but two titles I'd like to throw out for special mention are Keio Flying Squandrian for the Sega CD (maybe my favorite cute 'em up) and Truxton. Also, one of my secret video game shames is that I love shooters, but don't care for Musha.

[Matthew Doucette]

Lifeforce came out on TG-16, too?! How was it?!

[Majors]

Sapphire? Really? It is a technical achivement, but not much else.

I'd replace it Blazing Lasers/Gunhed. You have Soldier Blade, so that covers the soldier series. Parodier is good, but Parodius is tops. Everything else is on mark, Crisis Force is indeed a mind blowing for NES.

[timewarpgamer]

I find that while Lords of Thunder has more "flashy" appeal than Gate of Thunder, I think Gate is the better shooter of the two. I tend to be out-voted, though ; )

There's definitely a worthy debate here. Gate was the first game that got me hooked on the TG-16. I think the level designs are a little better, and I like the deeper gameplay in terms of weapon selection (switching between the three on the fly, like in Thunder Force III and IV), and being able to shoot backwards. I think the music in Lords of Thunder is a bit better along with the graphics, and being able to tackle stages in any order is pretty sweet, too. While I miss being able to switch weapons (or rather, armor) during levels, I love the addition of the sword attack. It's really a pretty close call, but Lords pulls ahead ever so slightly. I also have to give it big props for abandoning the blueprint of Gate of Thunder so much, yet still delivering. One of the best non-sequely sequels ever.

[timewarpgamer]

Sapphire? Really? It is a technical achivement, but not much else.

I'd replace it Blazing Lasers/Gunhed. You have Soldier Blade, so that covers the soldier series. Parodier is good, but Parodius is tops. Everything else is on mark, Crisis Force is indeed a mind blowing for NES.

I just put in some more time with Sapphire, and you were definitely right. So annoying how the ships move at such a sluggish pace. It's dropped in the ranks, and I've made a few other changes as well. Check out the latest list here:

http://timewarpgamer.com/top10s/shoot_em_ups.html

[fast]

I agree with all enough not to make any points, but I still think any list like this needs to mention Recca 92 for the NES. Sure it was not released outside of Japan and it has no story, but its technical achievements are simply amazing.

[Matthew Doucette]

re: Recca 92



Just looking at it now. I have seen it before. Wow. It emulates rotating sprites. It has morphing backgrounds. Fast as hell. Time and score attack modes!!! Wow.

[Ack]

Is that actually how fast Recca moves? I kept thinking the entire time that he must be fast forwarding the video.

Dear God.

[fast]

Like I said, might not be the best, but really impressive technically.

[Flak Beard]

Looks like I need to dust off the old TG16 (aka Magic Engine). I got some more SHMUPs I need to hit up.