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[Stahlkaiser]

I had the idea of including trophy hunting in my shmup and thought of pictures of weapons, magic crystals, images of spirits and the like to be collected either through beating certain challenges or by hunting down the same type of enemy until it drops from it(in a shmup yeah i lol'd too...).

I want them not to be used in the actual gameplay because it is to much work to balance all the weapons.

Would it be any satisfying to play a game over and over again to get all the trophy-images of said items?

Kind of like Phantasy Star Online (though you can use all items in-game)

Do you know any game(not only shmups) where my idea was done and delivered satisfying replay-value?

I know that CoD:Black Ops had the 42 intel-items to collect and you recieved images that further explain the story.

[eiyukabe]

I don't know if the shmup grinding would be fun to me. In the last shmup I worked on, we had medals that were obviously shown to the player but tricky to get, such as being in narrow corridors or behind moving walls. You could do that if you want; I feel like it added replay value for us.

[s0]

I'd say that in shmups highscores already fulfill that purpose, and better too.

[forwardresent]

The high score is pretty much the only reason to replay a shmup, unless you're mad about shmups.

The Touhou games had this feature called 'grazing' where almost getting hit by enemy bullets built up a combo score, you could do something along the lines of 'Graze 100 bullets at Boss/Enemy X and get Y'

Ikaruga had the interesting shield mechanic, 'Absorb X bullets and get Y?'

Jamestown had a good idea where players got gold for killing enemies, and then bought things in a store, this didn't get in the way of gameplay as gathering gold served a second purpose of powering up the special meter anyway.

[baconman]

Totally Tiny Arcade has a terrific example of this kind of thing.

[iffi]

I'd say that in shmups highscores already fulfill that purpose, and better too.

This. Shmups have generally required self-motivation from their players, and personally I think it's better if they don't add a bunch of artificial longevity to their games through collectibles or achievements that don't enhance the core experience. You could, however, incorporate these things into the game by hiding them in hard-to-reach places and giving bonuses (to score, lives, etc.) to those who find them.

In short, if it doesn't improve the gameplay experience itself, it probably isn't worth adding.

[Xeeko]

One way it could enhance the experience is if the medals (or similar) unlocked new levels. I remember playing Rouge Squadron II on gamecube that did this. If you scored enough medals you could unlock new levels. This added a tremendous amount of replay vaule beyond just finishin the main story.

[XRA]

Dimahoo would be a good reference.. it has 108 items and they are hard to collect, from what I remember collecting them depends on type of enemies, charge levels when destroying the enemy, if you've caught other items without dropping the highest valued item on the screen, etc..   The items don't have to be the focus though to enjoy the game, but they add a great challenge for people who seek it.