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[torncanvas]

It'd be great to hear everyone's favorite moments while playing shmups.  Do you have a favorite level in a particular game or favorite boss?  Or just any sort of favorite experience with shmups would be great.

I need some inspiration...

P.S.  Those that don't like shmups can chime in with shmup stereotypes or something.

[AdamAtomic]

Ikaruga Level 3, the wall/chase section: these walls shoot out from the sides of the level, making these tiny passages you have to fly through - memorization only gets you so far too, they move so fast that you still need a lot of reflexes to it.  I was yelling by the time I finished that segment the first time I played it.

Sin & Punishment, level I think 5 and 6: you are standing on a piece of rubble that is soaring through the sky, while you engage helicopters, boats, mecha, and aircraft carriers from your platform, and upon defeating a squadron of fighter jets proceed to take on an entire um basically armed space station...SO epic!

Ikaruga, Level 1 Boss, 2 players: you can do this in other sections as well, but one player can shield the other if you move completely in tandem, and you can do INSANE damage, god its good!

That's all that comes to mind, i'm eager to see everyone else's!

EDIT - Almost forgot, Corneria (level 1) in both StarFox and StarFox 64.  Just love the whole level - especially in 64 when you come out of the city over sea, and you are barrel rolling  through those little archways, so cool!

AND Silpheed: Lost Planet, which is a mostly mediocre shmup, has this great level that starts with almost a full minute of ZERO combat - as the story goes, you were going to defend this city, but as you come down through the clouds, there is nothign but destroyed buildings, fire, and rubble.  And that first minute of the level is nothing but radio chatter between the other pilots and your officers trying to figure out what happened...when you come up on the remnants of the alien invaders.  Great stuff!!  I'd like to see more pacing and atmosphere like that in shmups.

Oh and the first level of R-Type III has some really great parts pretty much throughout - the space trash, the spinning sections, the robot who smashes into the structure, i love basically that whole segment.

[torncanvas]

...especially in 64 when you come out of the city over sea, and you are barrel rolling  through those little archways, so cool!

Do a barrel roll!

[moi]

R-type level 3
Steel empire (for megadrive) the huge air battle at the end and then going to the moon
Gynoug the whole game

[Alevice]

Gokujō Parodius - The whole fucking game. Same for Sexy Parodius

[Xion]

Starfox and Starfox 64: Getting through all the warp gates. I dunno but, to me, that is like, hard to near impossible. Maybe I'm just unskilled, though.

[siiseli]

the moment I got trough korea for the first time in clean asia

[shinygerbil]

the moment I got trough korea for the first time in clean asia

Seconded! It's just a shame I've never been able to repeat that (to me) incredible feat.

[CosMind]

rocking through the massive space battle in earth's orbit - layer section on yon sega saturn (aka galactic attack or rayforce, depending on your region).

the game is actually one of the most overlooked shmupping gems i can think of.

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~bevhome/rayforcerev.htm

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every single moment of radiant silvergun

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oh, man, the crystal stage of gradius gaiden with the laser shot rocking (refraction! holy moses!).  not to mention the entirety of the rest of the game.  tis my vote for greatest gradius in the entire series.

[Anthony Flack]

Yeah, I got my copy of Layer Section for equiv. $1.

As for my favourite shmup moments - many, many parts of Radiant Silvergun. Which was considerably more expensive than Layer Section... but it really does have a remarkably large number of great moments.

Also, the asteroid level in Gradius V. First time I played that, I just couldn't believe it. Rock hell.

[Albert Lai]

I loved the moments in Ikaruga where you're sort of chilling along, and then lasers start shooting out from the unlikeliest places. Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 boss fights come to mind. Damn...rings!

I also liked the Raiden series, and always waste a couple bucks whenever I see one - there is something viscerally appealing about the plethora of power-ups that those games throw at you - probably one of the reasons I liked Excellent Bifurcation.

[Shinji16]

Re: Rayforce...

the game is actually one of the most overlooked shmupping gems i can think of.

Amen to that. That game has great moments.

How about in Donpachi (or any shmup with laps) when the game loops, and you realize "Oh God, that final boss, though being the real final boss, isn't the end?!"

Or in Espgaluda when you see the boss recharge his health off your super for the first time?

Also, the first level of Einheinder sticks out in my memory. That game had good presentation.

[fish]

when there's a lot of bullets.
and you have to avoid them!

[CosMind]

...Einheinder sticks out in my memory. That game had good presentation.

mmmmm, for surely.  and one heck of a soundtrack, too  ( <--- they make one of those with hearts for ears?)

[sergiocornaga]

The transformation of the boss of the nose picking boss battle in WarioWare: Twisted into its final form.

Does that even count as a shmup? Probably not...

[the2bears]

R-type level 3

Amen   I'm a big fan of the 3rd Level is a Battleship theme.  Trizeal and Mushihimesama are other, recent examples.

Bill

[Shabadage]

G-Type has a pretty damned good clone of that level as well.

[Blueskied]

I like to use the windscreen wiper of fire (extra weapon) in Gemini Wing.
Beginning at 1:10



It's a great game, lots of variation in the levels and fine music.

[ithamore]

Zanac for the NES converted me to shmups. But, in a way, it is an anti-shmup: the deployment of enemies became more aggressive in response to my aggressive behavior. Fast-paced, real-time strategy was required to advance through the levels. I had to choose which ships I would have to dodge and which I would have to destroy to keep the levels from becoming too insanely difficult. Not only did it encourage refraining against unnecessary killing, but it also proved a more unique dodging challenge than today's "bullet hell" games, since it required not only avoiding the various fire types and patterns of different craft but also their full flight patterns (both predetermined and suicidal/semi-homing).

Guardian Legend for the NES is part shmup and part action-RPG (overhead shooting action). It is like combining peanut butter with chocolate or combining the Legend of Zelda with Blazing Lazers. Additionally, unlike many shmups, GL required a management of one's firepower, since most of the ship's special firepowers had a limited amount of ammo. Best of all, GL's main character was a woman who transformed into a spaceship.

Combining the right genres is awesome. If I could have played the battles in Master of Orion as a scrolling shmup, I wouldn't have had to have resulted to using fleets of cheap, small ships with neutron pellet guns or death rays to take over the galaxy when one customized, powered up, self-controlled fighter could have done the job.

[Derek]

Anyone heard of Recca?



Haven't played it myself, but the idea of a NES bullet hell shmup sounds intriguing.    I'll have to find a rom...