What game got you into shmups?

[SwooshBear]

My first shmups were Space invaders and Galaga, but I really didn't get "into them" until I first played Ikaruga and Super R-Type.

[Bradtemple87]

Interesting question. I believe it was Life Force for me.

That was another title that came to mind for me

[Hobie-wan]

The first arcade shmups I remember begging quarters for when I was little were Asteroids and Eagle (Moon Cresta). I loved the docking and firepower boost mechanic in Eagle. First shmup I was obsessed enough with to play for hours on end was Fort Apocalypse which was one of the first games I had for my C64.

[wip3outguy7]

What game got me into shmups? Hard to say. Every 3rd game on the NES was a shmup back in the day. The first one I spent serious time with was probably Tiger Heli, but that isn't to say that it got me in to the genre. I avoided shmups for the most part through the 16 and 32 bit eras. Back then it was nothing but FPSs and fighting games for me.

It wasn't until I sat down with Zero Gunner 2 on the Dreamcast in 2002 that I took the genre seriously. I was living next door to Hobie at the time and he was the king of shmups. I remember feeding off his library for awhile. Even today we have kind of a weird vert VS hori thing going on.

[noiseredux]

when I was younger, I mostly thought shmups were pretty much throw-aways games. Kind of a simple time-killer genre. I think I just thought of the gameplay as really repetitive, and I was never great at them. Ones I can think of from when I was younger:

Space Invaders (2600) - I had it. And played it. But didn't enjoy it much.

The Guardian Legend (NES) - I vividly remember that the TV commercial for this game said something along the lines of "first there was the Legend of Zelda, then there was Adventure of Link, and NOW there's Guardian Legend!" so I totally thought this was Zelda 3. True story. I HAD to have it. Bugged my parents and got it as soon as it came out. ...it wasn't Zelda 3. And I had no idea WTF to make of it. I traded it to a friend pretty quickly, but I remember ultimately getting it back from him in another trade after he had kind of showed me it was pretty fun.

Lifeforce (NES) - I remember getting this from a friend via trade back then. It was probably some situation where I had a game that was newer, so he traded me something I wanted that was older plus threw this in to sweeten the deal. I remember thinking the graphics were cool, but never spending much time with it.

Wings of Wor (Gen) - I got this game for the simple reason that it had been discounted and was the only Genesis game I could afford at the toy store the particular day my parents had brought me. It wasn't too bad. But like I said earlier, it just made me think of simple gameplay that I'd get bored with in 15 mins.

Sol Feace (SCD) - This was actually one of the only shmups I remember really enjoying back in the day. Funny looking back, because it's nothing special. But man it blew me away. The anime cutscenes added to the Sega CD version were mind-blowing to me. And the gimmick of adjusting the direction of your guns was so novel (at least to me) at the time.

***

Now, really I wouldn't say I was into shmups back then. At all. And instead I'd say that playing Galaga for Together Retro was what really opened me up to the idea that shmups were cool. But I'd say that my infatuation really began shortly after that with my discovery of three specific GameCube games:

Ikaruga & Chaos Field - I bought based solely on members here and on RFGen raving about them. And I wasn't dissappointed. But enjoying these two led me to pick up Castle Shikigami 2... and THAT was for me the game that made me obsessed with shmups.

tl; dr: Castle Shikigami 2.

[ZenErik]

Hard to say. Burning a bunch of Dreamcast shmups did it for me. I later bought most of them. Twinkle Star Sprites helped because I love games like Puyo Puyo. Triggerheart Exelica was nice because it was fun and on the easier side, at least for me. Mars Matrix has helped me get more into scoring.

And Rez is one of the greatest games I have ever played although its more of a rail shooter.

[Segatari2002]

The local Pizza Hut had a cabinet with 1942 on it so that was my first schmup but I really didn't get heavy into them until I started playing Ikaruga. Now it's easily in my top three of favorite genres.

[puke_face]

[noiseredux]

Run-n-Gun vs Shmup argument in 3... 2...

[nightrnr]

Run-n-Gun is considered a sub-genre of Shmup right?
In any case, I keep them separate.


Good topic though.

I think it was Dragon Spirit on NES that I first identified with. It was easier (especially after dying and getting the gold dragon) and had a much more interesting theme to my adolescent self (dude, the guy turns into a freakin' Dragon in the opening scene).
Plus, I just sucked at shooters until I grew up. I used to hate that I would play a game for 10 seconds and then abruptly die. The life bar in Dragon Spirit was a godsend.

There were also a couple other NES games I liked, like 1943 (with it's awesome level 1 music) and Silk Worm, which goes down as my 1st co-op shooter.

It's hard to say what caused my complete conversion to the genre. I eventually introduced myself to a few Genesis shooters (Thunder Force III, Robo Aleste-CD) was schooled in PS1 shmups by a friend (G-Darius, Einhander, Raystorm), and got myself a Saturn for (fighters actually, and THEN) the ultimate game Radiant Silvergun (7 weapons accessible at all times blew my mind).

And the rest is history I guess.
There are so many games that have influenced me in some way (small or Big), that I can't accurately trace how they made me into the gamer I am now.