Western-Licensed Shmups?

[dsheinem]

I can't seem to recall playing very many (any?) licensed shmups for popular sci-fi series. This baffles me, so maybe I've just missed out. Most of these series have shooters, but they are tactical and/or 3D based games...

Where are the traditional hori/vert shmups for:

Star Wars
Star Trek
Battlestar Galactica
Firefly/Serenity
Alien
Predator
Stargate
Matrix
Transformers

etc. etc.

I realize that most shmups are made in Japan and many are based off of anime, but where are my Western-entertainment based shooters?

[(-_-)]

A battlestar shmup would be amazing. A fight in that show is the equivalent of any vertical shmup. Except every bullet is a nuclear bomb.

[noiseredux]

[Hobie-wan]

Empire: http://www.mobygames.com/game/star-wars ... ikes-back_

Last Starfighter (though its really just a tarted up port of Uridium): http://www.mobygames.com/game/nes/last-starfighter_

But yeah all I can think of right now. Definitely lacking.

[Ivo]

Many of those licenses were used in games, but not in Shmups - as you mentioned yourself.

I remember an old Transformer game which was perhaps on Spectrum and was sort of platformy (and I think, not very good).

Alien III was put into a decent platformer that is probably sufficiently well known. Predator IIRC had a crappy licensed game tie-in for home computers. Alien vs Predator had arcade games and later the FPS.

Star Wars, before Lucasarts dedicated themselves entirely to the franchise, had space "sims" of the X-Wing and Tie Fighter series, arcade games, the Rebel Assault series with different kinds of play experience inside one game, and FPS starting with Dark Forces.

Star Trek I remember some games with the license but I can't recall exactly what they were, but they weren't shmups proper.

To be honest I'm not sure many of the licenses you suggest are that appropriate for making shmups.

Ivo.

[dsheinem]

Many of those licenses were used in games, but not in Shmups - as you mentioned yourself.

I remember an old Transformer game which was perhaps on Spectrum and was sort of platformy (and I think, not very good).

Alien III was put into a decent platformer that is probably sufficiently well known. Predator IIRC had a crappy licensed game tie-in for home computers. Alien vs Predator had arcade games and later the FPS.

Star Wars, before Lucasarts dedicated themselves entirely to the franchise, had space "sims" of the X-Wing and Tie Fighter series, arcade games, the Rebel Assault series with different kinds of play experience inside one game, and FPS starting with Dark Forces.

Star Trek I remember some games with the license but I can't recall exactly what they were, but they weren't shmups proper.

Yes, I know most of these games quite well - there's many more associated with all these franchises also!

To be honest I'm not sure many of the licenses you suggest are that appropriate for making shmups.

Why not? Are they any less "appropriate" than the anime that many shmups are built around? Sure, the Alien franchise might not include shooting spaceships and Star Trek action might be more tactical, but there's no reason that a shmup using these characters, monsters, etc. wouldn't still work. It's not like the games in this genre are about story!

For example, I'd love to play a vert Star Trek shmup where you get to choose your starship from any across the whole Star Trek universe, blast tribbles on the first stage, fight Romulan, Cardassian, Vulcan, and Klingon ships throughout, and maybe take down a borg cube as the end boss. Canonically inconsistent? Certainly. Awesome? Undeniably.

[Ivo]

To be honest I'm not sure many of the licenses you suggest are that appropriate for making shmups.

Why not? Are they any less "appropriate" than the anime that many shmups are built around? Sure, the Alien franchise might not include shooting spaceships and Star Trek action might be more tactical, but there's no reason that a shmup using these characters, monsters, etc. wouldn't still work. It's not like the games in this genre are about story!

I think I don't know the anime based ones you are mentioning

If we are not thinking so much of "classical" (hori or verti) shmups I can tell you the Alien franchise would make a terrific free-scrolling, omni-directional vertical shmup - because that is what the classic Alien Breed is, minus the actual licensing and it is a good game. There is also the "run n gun" already licensed.

[Hobie-wan]

If we are not thinking so much of "classical" (hori or verti) shmups I can tell you the Alien franchise would make a terrific free-scrolling, omni-directional vertical shmup - because that is what the classic Alien Breed is, minus the actual licensing and it is a good game. There is also the "run n gun" already licensed.

Obviously it wasn't licensed, but Sega already made that game.

http://www.mobygames.com/game/alien-syndrome

I think I don't know the anime based ones you are mentioning

The first one that comes to mind is UN Squadron, which is more properly known as Area 88.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_88

[Ivo]

Obviously it wasn't licensed, but Sega already made that game.

http://www.mobygames.com/game/alien-syndrome

I think I don't know the anime based ones you are mentioning

The first one that comes to mind is UN Squadron, which is more properly known as Area 88.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_88

Never played Syndrome, but Alien Breed is good. I'll try to get time to play Syndrome one of these days.

I played UN Squadron, but I didn't know it was originally based on an anime (explains the hair styles).

Ivo.

[dire51]

Would Thunderbirds count as a Western-licensed shmup?