shooters that change direction...

[Hatta]

And then there are gravity shooters like Thrust, Gravitar, Solar Jetman, & Sub-Terrania.

Elemental Master for the Genesis allowed you to turn around and fire behind you, but you still keep travelling up. I've been playing this one a lot recently, it's not as hard as a lot of shmups, and really fun.

[shallowgamer]

GATE(S) OF THUNDER!

The water level scrolls diagonally as well as right.

You can also shoot backwards with your slave ships any time.


Lords of thunder also scrolls up and down on the last level.

[GSZX1337]

No one's mentioned Thunder Force 3 or R-Type 3?

[crux]

DeathSmiles allows the player to shoot both left and right, and is one of the best shmups ever created to boot! There's also Zero Gunner 2, which allows you to shoot in any damn direction you please (and is also a fine, fine game).

Oh, DeathSmiles also scrolls both vertically and horizontally (often within the same stage), though shooting is always relegated to left and right. Zero Gunner 2 scrolls in pretty much every direction.

[jalvarez82]

Salamander 2 is the one that pops into my head immediately. You can play it on the Deluxe Pack for the Saturn and/or PSX. Really great shmup.

[Limewater]

It's been a long time, so I could be mistaken, but I think you can change direction in U.N. Squadron. Or perhaps if you fly far enough it changes direction for you automatically so you can fly back over the area you just passed through.

Also, as I recall, the old Robotech Famicom game allowed you to change into three forms as you flew. One of those forms could shoot in every direction, though the screen always scrolled in one direction.

And I think things like Sinistar should probably count (though it's also very old), since Defender isn't exactly a by-the-books shmup.

[cubingmelons]

The first one that came to mind for is Stinger on NES. It is actually Twinbee 2, or Moero! TwinBee: Cinamon Hakasei wo Sukue, whatever you want to call it.

It was actually released in the US as Stinger, and it is kind of weird that its the only Twinbee game to actually come out here. It changes things up by alternating between the standard vertical style Twinbee stages and horizontal style stages. The horizontal stages feel kind of weird since they maintain the bell power-up system. It just feels a little off to me.