What are some of your favorite obscure Run N Guns that you would add to this list? So many more I would have loved to include. Let me know in the comments so I can take notes and check them out for another future video! ► Join my Patreon! - www.patreon.com/shmupjunkiesl... ► Cool Shirts and Merch - my-store-b8bab2.creator-sprin... ► Twitter - twitter.com/ShmupJunkie ► Instagram - instagram.com/shmupjunkie/ ► Facebook - facebook.com/shmupjunkie/ ► Website - shmupjunkie.com/
Some of my favourites are: ESWAT Rolling Thunder 1 and 2 Sunset Riders Metal Slug X Metal Slug 3 Shock Troopers Turrican II Midnight Resistance Alien Breed Elevator Action Returns Xain'd Sleena Robocop Pocky and Rocky 1 and 2 Heavy Barrel Narc
@@brendanroberts1310 I really wanted to show Kraut Buster but it’s basically unobtainable and unplayable. So it’s like dangling a carrot you can’t have lol. Plus I can’t even play it myself. Would love to someday though.
I was thinking about a couple of suggestions (Dolphin Blue and Gunners Heaven)...when I saw them coming up in the last part of the video. I'll start with two recent ones: Blazing Chrome (out on basically every platform - ok it's not that obscure) and Hard Corps: Uprising, an overlooked PSN/XBLA exclusive from the PS3/360 era. Then, even if I'm not sure they're obscure, Cyber-Lip on the Neo Geo, Journey to Silius on NES and Ruff 'n' Tumble on Amiga. And a crazy, silly freeware one for Windows called Blip Blop, if it's still available around. And then some Commodore 64 obscurities: Another World (by x-ample software, NOT the same as Out of this World/Another World by Delphine), Rubicon and Zamzara.
run n guns recs on Steam: - Contra Anniversary Collection - Blazing Chrome (Contra Hard Corps spiritual sequel) - Super Cyborg (HardCorps/Shattered Soldier structure, Contra/Super Contra NES aesthetic) - Metal Slugs (although I'd recommend emulating or picking up the Windows store ACA releases) - Cuphead + DLC - Huntdown (has more in common with Elevator Action Returns than Contra/Metal Slug) - BroForce and Expendabros (not my cup of tea but people like them) - Spectacular Sparky (a Treasure-like, quite easy) - Bleed 1 + 2 - Tanuki Justice - Mighty Goose (easier version of Metal Slug) - Gel-Tank (Japanese run n gun based on Metal Slug) - Valfaris (run n gun n slasher by the guys who brought you Slain, based on many Contra 3 tropes) - Kero Blaster (by the guy who brought you CAVE Story) - Noitu Love 2 Evolution (Not really a run n gun particularly but has a similar flow. Underrated and weird game) - Iron Meat (add to wishlist, try the demo) - Super Time Force - Exit the Dungeon - Mercenary Kings (by the same guys that recently brought you TMNT, think Monster Hunter + Metal Slug) - My Friend Pedro - Bot Vice (Gallery Shooter) - Gunhound Ex (Cybernator styled game) - Rocketon (interesting doujin game) - Gigantic Army (Cybernator styled game) - Biolab Wars (NES Contra style) - Clash Force (reminiscent of Bucky o Hare on NES aesthetically, plays a bit different) - Alien Splatter Redux (NES inspired run n gun) - Gun Crazy (VERY Gunstar Heroes, quite short though)
When I see an unknown game , I have same feeling: How in the hell hadn't known this game before!? 😄 Thank you for bringing more Run n' Gun hidden gems 👍👌💗🕹
Some of them are new to me too, there are plenty I missed. And I love discovering them. So making these videos has been super fun and a discovery for me as well.
I haven't been able to play it with anyone yet, but I know it'll be good. Get to leave them behind on the vertical stages like on NES Contra and the waterfall lol.
It's insane how inexpensive the game was when it launched on Switch. I only paid $1.95 for it on launch day! Considering how good the game is, it felt like I was stealing it!
All good stuff here. I was lucky enough to live near a movie theater that had Mystic Warriors for some time in the mid '90s. Hadn't seen it in the wild in years, so stumbling across a cab with it recently at a con was a pleasant surprise.
That’s some luck! I’ve yet to ever see this game in the wild. Would’ve been all over it back in the day. Instead had to discover it online not all that long ago. The music is what first struck me as it was on a level above their more popular arcade games at the time. More than just background fodder.
I can't believe Mystic Warriors is SO overlooked, I absolutely love it. It's significantly harder than Sunset Riders too, but it's a wonderful time. Thanks for the video, as always, I love to discover new games with these :)
You're welcome and agreed. We see overlooked games by more obscure devs all the time, but it's surprising how this style of game by a big dev like Konami just didn't take off. Maybe it just released at the wrong time or too late. I'm just glad I eventually found it.
That's because these older games are just so replayable and designed that way. I enjoy newer games too, but once I finish them, I rarely feel like I want to come back and play them over so many times. It's the arcade style classics that keep bringing me back.
lmao, I can't say that hasn't happened to me before. You saw it cheap and figured why not. If you played the hell out of SuperC like I did then Super Cyborg (see what they did there) will fit like a glove. Ok, a coarser glove with spikes on the fingertips, but it'll be very familiar.
@@ShmupJunkie Hell yeah, I need to check it out. I also have Balacera Brothers in my Steam library, unplayed, which I've heard good things about as a Contra-lover. Speaking of, surprised for your Data East pick you went with Desert Assault instead of Bay Route. One for next time, I suppose.
You're really hitting your stride with your videos, SJ! Loved the games you highlighted and the gameplay. Also enjoyed sparkling video editing and presentation (stellar). Always appreciate your review portions because it's clear you're excited and enjoy these games for different reasons, but you also don't go into a giant hyperbole bomb and sugarcoat the flaws and jank. Thanks again for the fantastic work!
I admit it's not easy making the scripts. Trying to keep it at 2-3min per game, sometimes a bit more, but not getting overly lengthy. There is a lot I end up cutting out to keep it flowing even if I can't delve into every tiny detail. I was hoping to cover even more games here but ran out of time to add the 3-5 more I had planned. Really glad you are enjoying these. I like making them and the first one did so well I wasn't going to stop. There's a ton of really great action platformers out there too I've been wanting to show and talk about, so maybe that'll be the next one in line. As I'm a huge fan of great platforming games like Cannon Dancer, which is finally getting a physical release next year.
@@wizkaqueefa9003 With how well the video is doing so far and having many more to show you can almost count on it. Whether it’s a part two or similar where I can show them.
@@ShmupJunkie yo huge retro game fan here. I vote for a part 2 as well. Your presentation is like the enthusiasm us ol Gs have for these retro style games so we dig ittt 😎 thanks for the review friend!
Thank you. It's one of the reasons I'm having such a good time making videos... knowing it's helping the genre grow and getting people excited about them again.
@@ShmupJunkie Was baffled that i'd never heard of an old game that looked so good lol, going to be getting into this, dyna gears and cyvern thanks to your good self, and can't wait to get stuck into the Konami vid, amazing work
It was great to see Gun Force get some love in this video - I use to play the first one in the arcades back in the early 90s, but never had chance to play the second outside of MAME. I'll also throw Gunner's Heaven onto the list from my PSX days :-)
Shinrei Jusatsushi Taromaru reminds me so much of my dearly beloved Alien Soldier, even more so than it does Gunstar Heroes. I went on to emulate it immediately after finishing your video.
I remember back in the day when I first got my hands on the Gun Force 2 PCB ,that was in the 90's,and connected it to my arcade cabinet..I was just blown away ! All my friends as well,nobody ever heard of that back then. We did not have much of emulation,and our city arcade did not carry it as well. I didn't know what I was getting into,they guy i bought it from just said its something like Rolling Thunder and since I was always looking for more games in that reign I bought it and send it to me ! One of the all time greatest imho ! Glad you give it some well deserved time in the light !
This genre is so attractive, these days I was flipping through some unknown games of nes library and found one in the same vein (don't even know if can be considered run n' gun) called Kabuki: Quantum fighter and Vice: Project Doom. Absolutely loved them.
It's a fine line, at worst they are action platformers or similar. Both great games by the way. I group with an NES it was pretty much my first real console, so I've played a ton of them and have huge nostalgia for a lot of those 8bit gems. I personally feel the 8bit generation was the best of all time for platformers and still come back to so many of them often.
I myself don't consider Kabuki Quantum Fighter a run n' gun. It is an incredible action platformer with music so good I wouldn't question it coming out of a Sega Genesis or Snes.
This channel honestly had some of the best retro games for me. I'm a Megadrive guy, I've seen so many videos of retro console games. But yo my friend, never fail to show me something I want to play that I've never seen before.
Thank you. That’s the whole idea behind some of these videos and series. I’m discovering some new games myself in the process too. So I’m really glad they are popular as I enjoy making them.
Thanks for the vid. Definitely adding mystic warriors and demon front to my playlist. Always love anything in the metal slug style. Guess there’s always hope for mystic warriors to come to modern platforms through arcade archives given how much obscure stuff appears from them with no notice and we did get sunset riders that way.
There's definitely hope since it's Konami and they have been reviving old games. Demon Front probably a long shot since it's a much smaller long defunct developer. So getting the rights may be tough. At least there's good emulation in the meantime. If you love the Slug games you'll definitely be all over it. It's much more jump oriented whereas jumping much in Metal Slug is usually a recipe for death.
Should check out the Fanmade improved Sunset Riders coming out for Sega Genesis ... looks graphical better.. yeah suprise if those games aren't already on PSN or Xbox Store ...
I had mystic warrior at my arcade and i played it quite a lot. I was mesmerized by it's awesomeness ! There was nothing quite like it. And the soundtrack was absolutely fabulous. A fond memory of mine.
Shortly after watching this great obscure run-n-gun game compilation, I looked up Super Cyborg and was pleasantly surprised to find it's avaiable for digital download on the PS4 and IMMEDIATELY BOUGHT ON SALE with no regrets!! Heck YEAH!!
Yeah it's available on every platform and super cheap! Way too cheap honestly. I have had a lot of comments about it and think this video helped sell quite a few. Which I'm really happy about!
Surprising too given IREM's pedigree, but their relationship with Nazca was gold. In the Hunt was killer and when I learned of Gunforce 2 I had no doubt once I knew who was behind it.
I look forward to these mornings too tbh. To finally get it up for everyone to enjoy and interact with everyone for a while. And then take a much needed break haha.
I always look forward to your videos. Always TOP content, and you always DIG DEEP !! Just when I think I've seen them all, you go and put out a new video, by the Grace of God !!
Thanks man, and really glad you are enjoying them. I do try hard and include some games that not all, but at least most will find new and exciting. There were so many more I still wanted to include. So there's plenty more content out there waiting to be made.
These are fun. I have a 4 player Desert Assault PCB that I swap into my Sunset Riders cabinet from time to time. The game is absolutely tremendous with 4 players going. It's just chaos, especially when vehicles get involved.
I'd love to play it one day with 2-3 others for sure, you can tell it was meant to be. Although I don't think I could play it well with all the extra mayhem on screen. That must be a very rare PCB to own.
Wow! as a kid born in 1978 I was really into these kinds of game. It blows me away that I never heard of any of these games once before in my life. Thanks for the great video, i'm now a subscriber and I look forward to more of these wonderful nostalgic trips to the past!
Welcome to the channel! You're not alone as most of these games I never saw or new growing up either. They were obscure for the most part. It's been great discovering them through various channels and sometimes even while researching for videos. I've made a lot of really good discovery oriented and nostalgic videos, so I hope you enjoy some of my other stuff. This series has proven really popular so far so I definitely plan to do more. Was considering action platformers next as there are a ton of obscure ones there that I'd love to show.
One funny thing about Mystic Warriors is the hit sound from Yuri which years later has been used on Roblox and became that UH meme when you die. Excellent video as always. I took note of some of those games to try them. Is crazy how many fun games exist that we never heard before.
I didn't know that about the sound effect! That's cool tidbits I'm gonna remember. My boy used to play roblox like a fiend when he was much younger, so I almost want to play that sound bite back for him and see if he recognizes it.
@@ShmupJunkie yea Im sure he will recognize it haha. My daughter played it like crazy, and at first I thought it was an original sound from Roblox but then later I was playing Mystic Warrior using Yuri and recognized that sound right away. Cant remember if was when you just get hit or die with her but yes it was the same exact sound haha.
Wow! What a great list! I wasn’t aware of most of these. I usually know most games in videos like this, so it’s super refreshing to see so many I hadn’t heard of. Shinrei Jusatsushi Tarōmaru is one of my favorite Saturn games. So cool to see more people talk about it! Run and guns are great for co-op, and you definitely gave me a lot to add to my list.
Awesome, really glad it was helpful. I expect most people who watch to recognize some or most of the games, but if I can find even a couple that are new for most it was worth the effort. The best part for me is discovering them for myself too, as a couple here I had never played before either and only found during the process of researching.
On the note of the music for Biomechanical Toy. It was actually composed and performed by the companies in-house guitarist. The moment they were able to use digitized samples and tracks he just went fucking ham. Great video man I always look forward to your deep dives on obscure shooters like this.
Oh yeah? To be fair the music was well done, it just seemed like it was someone ripping or homaging so many well known riffs and tunes. They got away with a lot back then and nobody cared so I don't blame them. I like the music in the game but man the sound effects are just so weird. Like they just took every generic sound bit they could steal and found a place for it haha.
@@ShmupJunkie afaik the game was never released in the arcades. Some decades ago I worked with the guy who made some of the bg graphics for the game. I think the same crew worked on Risky Woods for the Amiga
I really wanna be able to play these arcade games , I don't know where to start. I crave these early 90s classics. Wish there was an easy way to get them.
It’s not very hard using a computer or laptop. Retroarch and the MAME cores are free for the arcade games. And the roms are easy to google search and download. It’s the only way to play many of them yes.
It's awesome you mentioned the music in mystic warriors, I've adored Junya nakano's work ever since I heard the dew prism soundtrack. I loved his contributions to that game.
Konami made so many banger soundtracks during that time, so for Mystic Warriors to stand out says a lot about his work. It was pretty unusual for an arcade game at the time and really added a lot of the right personality to the game. I never played Dew Prism but now I'll have to go check out that soundtrack.
Opening this video randomly, I expected the run of the mill "paste a bunch game footage after one another without anything else" kinda deal, but seeing you giving commentary, pointers, info on the games, yea, instant like and subscribe. I can see the work put into this, rather than just throwing footage together in a mid-tier video editor.
Welcome! Glad you found the video and my channel. I honestly don’t understand the purpose of those pasted footage only videos. I’m making these for hobby and to share with others. So if I couldn’t make it personal end fun I really don’t see the point. People want to watch my stuff for the personal insight and editing. So I put a ton of tile into making them the best they can be. Really appreciate the feedback and hope you enjoy my other stuff like this one.
Mystic Warriors is pretty much the standard for me in video game music in general. I was kind of spoiled since I pretty much had that and the rest of the Mystic Warriors based hardware games early on in my collecting. They all had crazy amazing music.
I'm glad you saw it then. It's under the radar enough to where it was worth showing off, even if it's made some rounds on youtube over the years. There's still a lot of folks who have never seen it. I don't doubt you'll enjoy it as it's quite good. My only complaint of it really is the music isn't very memorable or special.
Man Man Man ... This was an epic rockin ride..... This is another truly awesome video. 🤘 All games I never heard of, I was at the edge of my seat there while way through. Thank You Junkie..! You are truly skilled in story telling and I love you for it brother! 🤘🤘🤘❤️
Thanks dude! Always good to see you here and on Twitter enjoying the vids. These are not only fun to make but I discover some new games in the process as well. The hardest part is finding the time to play them all 😅
@@ShmupJunkie Ahh there was one I was trying to remember the name of, and I just found it. It's called TH strikes back. I remember it being pretty great and weird.
@@mistertagomago7974 Yes! I now have that one on my list for a future video. Galeco made some really neat and unusual games. Alligator Hunt by them was fun too and cracks me up.
I dropped what I was doing (watching this video) when I saw there's a legit follow-up to Sunset Riders (one of my favorite arcade games) and played through it. Amazing game and surprisingly good ending for the time. Thanks for making me aware of Mystic Warriors, gonna play it again sometime for sure!
Glad I could help! Just remember to come back and finish the video after haha! More good games to discover. It's crazy Mystic Warriors is so unknown. Even their other Sunset Riders like game, Moo Mesa is more well known. Wasn't the music in Mystic Warriors just so good though?
Love it! Only a few of them I'd heard of or played, oddly enough they were the less known ones! Some of the ones you've said were the best known I'd never heard of and look awesome. Nice work
You never know! I'm sure it's not easy for them to hunt down some of these rights to old games. At least Super Cyborg is modern and out on every console. And cheap too.
Wow! you just not only showed the games, you also gave a full technical review of each one of them! Very Impressive!! also Desert Assault is a very serious competitor of shock troopers! Shmup Junkie never misses the good stuff!
Thanks. It's not easy condensing it into a few minutes per game and takes a lot of time to make it concise and fun. I still don't think I'd choose Dessert Assault over shock troopers for the gameplay, but it's definitely cheesier with the best one liners while playing. I wanted to include Caliber50 also but ran out of time, that's another cool one but a real ass kicker. So I saved it for a future episode.
Excellent video. You really spoil us Shmup Junkie. BioMechanical Toy is the only one I've heard of before from an Evercade list and I thought it was pretty fun so I'm really looking forward to trying the others.
Thanks. And yes, Biomechanical isn't terrible just a bit PC DOS type janky feel to it. Still worth playing I thought. But you'll love some of these others so I'm glad you discovered some new ones here.
Oh man, you don't know how close I came to including it. I even briefly showed it at the end in the montage. Just ran out of time and it is both weird and good. I've got it ready for a sequel video someday if and when it happens.
Great collection, will defintiely check some of these out! also i love your comment "Someone was rockin' the good stuff when they came up with this one" 😂
Awesome list SJ! Never played Mystic Warriors - gonna fire up the MAME cab later today and give it a whirl - also, Blue Dolphin might be deserving to go on your next vid - criminally underrated and under exposed imo!
Dolphin Blue almost made it in! Just wasn’t quite obscure enough and I ran out of time. I showed it quickly toward the end in the last chapter. So it’s definitely on the list to get a highlight in the future. It’s cool we can play it on Dreamcast now.
@@ShmupJunkie I got three non-arcade ones for you: Assault Retribution, One and Expendable. First two are for PS1, Expendable was Dreamcast and PC I believe. Also, check out ABUSE - obscure PC game from the mid 90s - I loved it, unique controls and good graphics.
@@ShmupJunkie That previous video was really fun! I wish konami did released tons of their shooting games on SEGA Master System, SEGA Genesis and SEGA Dreamcast!
@@ShmupJunkie I was wondering why konami didn't released "Gradius 3 and 4" on SEGA Dreamcast? I'm sure SEGA Dreamcast can handle graphics about these 2 games!!
It's likely gonna happen someday, as there were several games on my list I wanted to include but ran out of time and had to cut. So there's plenty of material for a part 2.
Would love a list in the description, maybe next to the time stamps in parenthesis. Makes it easier to take real note of the games, as I do wanna check some out. I'm a Shmups n00b since I didn't have arcades back in the 90s, living in the Midwest, so I'm always up for new to me recommendations! Great vid regardless!
If it helps, here is a quick list of the games. Mystic Warriors, Dyna Gear, Super Cyborg, Demon Front, JJ Squawkers, Biomechanical Toy, Psychic Killer Taromaru, Dessert Assault, Gundhara, Gunforce 2. I hope that helps!
Nice selection of games. I especially like the Super Cyborg got a mention. That game needs a lot more eyes on it. And it's often on sale on stream for a couple of bucks. regarding Demon Front it also has some extra spice in the form of alternate routes, secret areas and a key and lantern looking thing you have to find in each stage for extra points.
I can't believe the game is only $3, it's so good. I think upon release it got a lot of people reviewing it with complaints it was too hard, so it never got much traction. It's honestly quite fair on the initial easy mode with some practice, at least until the very last stage. I would love to see it get more attention. Judging from the comments this video helped them sell a handful of copies so far. But it'll take a lot more at that bargain price.
Super Cyborg is tough as hell but fun, I still haven't been able to get past the 3rd stage 😂 definitely need to check out Mystic Warriors, it's got those 90s arcade hype vibes I miss so much!
You're welcome my dude! Play some Mystic Warriors with the family and infinite credits, enjoy the cheese. Then grab Super Cyborg for the ridiculous $3 and play alone with the expectation of getting a beat down lol. But you've got this. It's not any harder than running through Ninja Gaiden. It'll just take some blood, sweat and tears. At least you get unlimited continues.
This is a great selection. I will admit, I only knew a handful, so I can't wait to actually play these, great video, can't wait to see what else I haven't played!! Rock on!!
One Run and Gun from the SNES that gets always overlooked is Jurassic Park 2, the music, the atmosphere, everything feels great and the multiplayer is awesome too
Count me as one of them too. I rarely or ever saw most of these growing up and learned of them much later. I really enjoy discovering these games so I knew it would make for a great video series.
Another banger of a video. Demon Front is essentially a love letter to Metal Slug. You can tell the devs were fans of the series. It’s a crime it was never ported, and it’s worth picking up a PGM board just to play.
Couldn't agree more. I love that it's simultaneously so similar, yet also it's own game and doesn't feel like a carbon copy. I'd be surprised if someone ever found the rights to rerelease it again, but it would be great to see.
Haha, well I tried! If I can get at least a couple games in there that even the most schooled players somehow missed it’s a win. It’s much easier with arcade games especially as there’s some seriously obscure stuff out there. Finding ones that are really good and worth playing too is the trick.
Wow, finally had some time to get into some of these new games and what a great list. Dyna Gear and Mystic Warriors are absolutely new favorites. Demon Front also seems pretty fun though I need to put some more time in to get the hang of it and not just blow through credits. Great video!
Thanks! And so glad you got to discover a couple of good ones through it. Yeah Demon Front is very much like Metal Slug in that it will kick your ass until you memo each area. But unlike Slug it doesn't punish you for jumping nearly as severely. Slug will just wipe you out if you jump whenever it's not necessary.
Welcome! This series has been really popular so far and really grown the channel. So I’m glad you found me through it and enjoyed. Got more like it from various genres I’m working on.
Great video with many new games I didn't know to try! I'm definitely going to buy Super Cyborg. I played Biomechanical Toy and Gunforce II in the arcades many years ago and Demon Force when the PGM emulator was published, but I didn't have heard of any of the others. I still can't undertstand how Mystic Warriors went under the radar when Sunset Riders was so popular.
I try! Many of my subs are so knowledgeable that just getting one or two in there most don't know I consider an accomplishment. So I have to work hard for the good stuff. But I couldn't do it without the community and some awesome suggestions I get from my discord. I always consider these videos a team effort.
Tree Humpin' Squawkers looks amazing. Thanks for covering these. Wish they were available on PSN. Well, Super Cobra is! Great game, glad to see real appreciation for it here :) Oops, I mean Super Cyborg. It's the only Contra-like game I know of (including the 16-bit sequels and arcade games) that really feel like my favorites, the NES games. I think it's the smaller size of the character sprites and how much more space they have to jump and maneuver around bullets.
You may already know this but in my latest video I covered an upcoming game called Iron Meat right at the start. If you love Super Cyborg you’ll love it too. It looks closer to the 16bit games but plays pretty identical to the NES games with some enhancements like SuperC. I loved it and can’t wait for everyone else to be able to play the entire game.
@@ShmupJunkie It looks cool. Thanks for the videos. There was one just uploaded to the Playstation account on TH-cam called Wild Dogs which looks like a Gameboy Color Contra: th-cam.com/video/3kP0FcfTczA/w-d-xo.html and some other games
Super Cyborg looks great! Sadly it isn't on GOG but I will pick it up right away on Steam. Thanks for recommendation, this one completely flew under my radar. Kudos.
Demon Front & Mystic Warriors are 2 games that I had the chance to talk about with Metal Jesus in the “10 More Arcade Games” video on his channel back in 2017. So happy that more gamers are now being introduced to those great titles. You always do such a great job on listing of fun games and the presentation is always amazing. Keep up the great work!
Thanks! I appreciate that. I also don’t think I ever saw that video as I was barely on TH-cam back then. I’m a noob here compared to the old guard. So now that you mention it I’m going to look that up tonight. Metal Jesus was really cool to comment and tweet about my older Shmups for Beginners video at the time. Up until that point I figured he didn’t know my channel exists.
Good video! I’ve been playing a modern run and gun called Huntdown recently and I feel like it definitely took inspiration from some of the classics shown here.
Huntdown is really good and almost made this video actually along with a few others. But since I ran out of time I saved it for a future vid. I would definitely like to cover it someday.
What are some of your favorite obscure Run N Guns that you would add to this list? So many more I would have loved to include. Let me know in the comments so I can take notes and check them out for another future video!
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Some of my favourites are:
ESWAT
Rolling Thunder 1 and 2
Sunset Riders
Metal Slug X
Metal Slug 3
Shock Troopers
Turrican II
Midnight Resistance
Alien Breed
Elevator Action Returns
Xain'd Sleena
Robocop
Pocky and Rocky 1 and 2
Heavy Barrel
Narc
Kruat buster for neo geo aes/mvs
Dolphin Blue
I really like the colorful graphics and dolphins
@@brendanroberts1310 I really wanted to show Kraut Buster but it’s basically unobtainable and unplayable. So it’s like dangling a carrot you can’t have lol. Plus I can’t even play it myself. Would love to someday though.
I was thinking about a couple of suggestions (Dolphin Blue and Gunners Heaven)...when I saw them coming up in the last part of the video.
I'll start with two recent ones: Blazing Chrome (out on basically every platform - ok it's not that obscure) and Hard Corps: Uprising, an overlooked PSN/XBLA exclusive from the PS3/360 era.
Then, even if I'm not sure they're obscure, Cyber-Lip on the Neo Geo, Journey to Silius on NES and Ruff 'n' Tumble on Amiga.
And a crazy, silly freeware one for Windows called Blip Blop, if it's still available around.
And then some Commodore 64 obscurities: Another World (by x-ample software, NOT the same as Out of this World/Another World by Delphine), Rubicon and Zamzara.
run n guns recs on Steam:
- Contra Anniversary Collection
- Blazing Chrome (Contra Hard Corps spiritual sequel)
- Super Cyborg (HardCorps/Shattered Soldier structure, Contra/Super Contra NES aesthetic)
- Metal Slugs (although I'd recommend emulating or picking up the Windows store ACA releases)
- Cuphead + DLC
- Huntdown (has more in common with Elevator Action Returns than Contra/Metal Slug)
- BroForce and Expendabros (not my cup of tea but people like them)
- Spectacular Sparky (a Treasure-like, quite easy)
- Bleed 1 + 2
- Tanuki Justice
- Mighty Goose (easier version of Metal Slug)
- Gel-Tank (Japanese run n gun based on Metal Slug)
- Valfaris (run n gun n slasher by the guys who brought you Slain, based on many Contra 3 tropes)
- Kero Blaster (by the guy who brought you CAVE Story)
- Noitu Love 2 Evolution (Not really a run n gun particularly but has a similar flow. Underrated and weird game)
- Iron Meat (add to wishlist, try the demo)
- Super Time Force
- Exit the Dungeon
- Mercenary Kings (by the same guys that recently brought you TMNT, think Monster Hunter + Metal Slug)
- My Friend Pedro
- Bot Vice (Gallery Shooter)
- Gunhound Ex (Cybernator styled game)
- Rocketon (interesting doujin game)
- Gigantic Army (Cybernator styled game)
- Biolab Wars (NES Contra style)
- Clash Force (reminiscent of Bucky o Hare on NES aesthetically, plays a bit different)
- Alien Splatter Redux (NES inspired run n gun)
- Gun Crazy (VERY Gunstar Heroes, quite short though)
Thank you for the list, gel-tank is great!
You know ur stuff, good list 👌
thanks a lot.
yes, great list thank you! Unfortunately it looks like Armored Hunter GUNHOUND EX was pulled from steam.
When I see an unknown game , I have same feeling: How in the hell hadn't known this game before!? 😄 Thank you for bringing more Run n' Gun hidden gems 👍👌💗🕹
Some of them are new to me too, there are plenty I missed. And I love discovering them. So making these videos has been super fun and a discovery for me as well.
I just wanted to say that I love your contributions to this community. Your videos give me comfort. Thank you for that.
Your channel needs to be MANDATORY viewing for anyone who plays emulated games.
Super Cyborg is tons of challenging fun with a buddy. Absolutely worth the price; though don't pass it up on a sale!
I haven't been able to play it with anyone yet, but I know it'll be good. Get to leave them behind on the vertical stages like on NES Contra and the waterfall lol.
It's insane how inexpensive the game was when it launched on Switch. I only paid $1.95 for it on launch day! Considering how good the game is, it felt like I was stealing it!
Is .99 on psn December 2022. Criminally low price.
@@BentoBoxBobbyTVit was .30 cents on Nintendo Switch i was dumbfounded
All good stuff here. I was lucky enough to live near a movie theater that had Mystic Warriors for some time in the mid '90s. Hadn't seen it in the wild in years, so stumbling across a cab with it recently at a con was a pleasant surprise.
That’s some luck! I’ve yet to ever see this game in the wild. Would’ve been all over it back in the day. Instead had to discover it online not all that long ago. The music is what first struck me as it was on a level above their more popular arcade games at the time. More than just background fodder.
I can't believe Mystic Warriors is SO overlooked, I absolutely love it. It's significantly harder than Sunset Riders too, but it's a wonderful time. Thanks for the video, as always, I love to discover new games with these :)
You're welcome and agreed. We see overlooked games by more obscure devs all the time, but it's surprising how this style of game by a big dev like Konami just didn't take off. Maybe it just released at the wrong time or too late. I'm just glad I eventually found it.
That slide on mystic warriors is awesome and hilarious looking 😂
It's like the old Slip N Slide commercials! Why slide on your ass when you can slide on your belly like a seal haha.
Was just looking for inspiration of games to "play any way I can". This is just what I needed.
I hope you find at least a couple new ones that have you scrambling to check them out!
That 90’s high energy intro is totally appropriate here. 🔥
Run N Gun games are so awesome and nostalgic, indeed.
Straight from Mystic Warriors, such an awesome soundtrack.
Love seeing all the games I grew up with!! I’m 50 now and still prefer older games over new ones!!!
That's because these older games are just so replayable and designed that way. I enjoy newer games too, but once I finish them, I rarely feel like I want to come back and play them over so many times. It's the arcade style classics that keep bringing me back.
Me: That Super Cyborg game looks dope! I should Wishlist it on Steam!
Also Me: Has it already in my Steam library, unplayed.
lmao, I can't say that hasn't happened to me before. You saw it cheap and figured why not. If you played the hell out of SuperC like I did then Super Cyborg (see what they did there) will fit like a glove. Ok, a coarser glove with spikes on the fingertips, but it'll be very familiar.
@@ShmupJunkie Hell yeah, I need to check it out. I also have Balacera Brothers in my Steam library, unplayed, which I've heard good things about as a Contra-lover.
Speaking of, surprised for your Data East pick you went with Desert Assault instead of Bay Route. One for next time, I suppose.
Very satisfying video. I would say more satisfying than…CHOCOLATE 😊 I had to subscribe after watching this vid!
Welcome. That's quite a compliment. My work is even better than chocolate. I can live with that haha.
You're really hitting your stride with your videos, SJ! Loved the games you highlighted and the gameplay. Also enjoyed sparkling video editing and presentation (stellar). Always appreciate your review portions because it's clear you're excited and enjoy these games for different reasons, but you also don't go into a giant hyperbole bomb and sugarcoat the flaws and jank. Thanks again for the fantastic work!
I admit it's not easy making the scripts. Trying to keep it at 2-3min per game, sometimes a bit more, but not getting overly lengthy. There is a lot I end up cutting out to keep it flowing even if I can't delve into every tiny detail. I was hoping to cover even more games here but ran out of time to add the 3-5 more I had planned. Really glad you are enjoying these. I like making them and the first one did so well I wasn't going to stop. There's a ton of really great action platformers out there too I've been wanting to show and talk about, so maybe that'll be the next one in line. As I'm a huge fan of great platforming games like Cannon Dancer, which is finally getting a physical release next year.
@@ShmupJunkie We would ALL love a Part 2 to this video with the other 3-5 Games if you have time in the future! :)
@@wizkaqueefa9003 With how well the video is doing so far and having many more to show you can almost count on it. Whether it’s a part two or similar where I can show them.
@@ShmupJunkie Awesome! Keep up the Hard work, we appreciate all the editing/time that goes into your vids, especially the 1+ Hour vids.
@@ShmupJunkie yo huge retro game fan here. I vote for a part 2 as well. Your presentation is like the enthusiasm us ol Gs have for these retro style games so we dig ittt 😎 thanks for the review friend!
Midnight Resistance was a great game with killer Soundtrack.
I actually still have a PCB of it! Just doesn't feel right to play without the right controls compared to the arcade cabinet.
Love your channel. Your knowledge of shooters of all kinds has opened up my eyes to so much gaming joy 😊
Thank you. It's one of the reasons I'm having such a good time making videos... knowing it's helping the genre grow and getting people excited about them again.
@@ShmupJunkie Thank you :)
Just spent 10 min looking for mame rom of super cyborg, doh! great vid
Yeah don’t think that exists it’s a modern game for Switch and PS4 etc. At least far as I know. It’s super cheap! Like what two bucks maybe
@@ShmupJunkie Was baffled that i'd never heard of an old game that looked so good lol, going to be getting into this, dyna gears and cyvern thanks to your good self, and can't wait to get stuck into the Konami vid, amazing work
Another banger of a video! Loving these overlooked treasure videos. 👺
It was great to see Gun Force get some love in this video - I use to play the first one in the arcades back in the early 90s, but never had chance to play the second outside of MAME. I'll also throw Gunner's Heaven onto the list from my PSX days :-)
Shinrei Jusatsushi Taromaru reminds me so much of my dearly beloved Alien Soldier, even more so than it does Gunstar Heroes. I went on to emulate it immediately after finishing your video.
I remember back in the day when I first got my hands on the Gun Force 2 PCB ,that was in the 90's,and connected it to my arcade cabinet..I was just blown away !
All my friends as well,nobody ever heard of that back then. We did not have much of emulation,and our city arcade did not carry it as well.
I didn't know what I was getting into,they guy i bought it from just said its something like Rolling Thunder and since I was always looking for more games in that reign I bought it and send it to me ! One of the all time greatest imho ! Glad you give it some well deserved time in the light !
This genre is so attractive, these days I was flipping through some unknown games of nes library and found one in the same vein (don't even know if can be considered run n' gun) called Kabuki: Quantum fighter and Vice: Project Doom. Absolutely loved them.
It's a fine line, at worst they are action platformers or similar. Both great games by the way. I group with an NES it was pretty much my first real console, so I've played a ton of them and have huge nostalgia for a lot of those 8bit gems. I personally feel the 8bit generation was the best of all time for platformers and still come back to so many of them often.
I myself don't consider Kabuki Quantum Fighter a run n' gun. It is an incredible action platformer with music so good I wouldn't question it coming out of a Sega Genesis or Snes.
This channel honestly had some of the best retro games for me. I'm a Megadrive guy, I've seen so many videos of retro console games. But yo my friend, never fail to show me something I want to play that I've never seen before.
Thank you. That’s the whole idea behind some of these videos and series. I’m discovering some new games myself in the process too. So I’m really glad they are popular as I enjoy making them.
@@ShmupJunkie top channel mate. Thank you
DynaGear looks like the child of Strider and Ghouls and Ghosts, raised by Joe n' Mac!
Thanks for the vid. Definitely adding mystic warriors and demon front to my playlist. Always love anything in the metal slug style. Guess there’s always hope for mystic warriors to come to modern platforms through arcade archives given how much obscure stuff appears from them with no notice and we did get sunset riders that way.
There's definitely hope since it's Konami and they have been reviving old games. Demon Front probably a long shot since it's a much smaller long defunct developer. So getting the rights may be tough. At least there's good emulation in the meantime. If you love the Slug games you'll definitely be all over it. It's much more jump oriented whereas jumping much in Metal Slug is usually a recipe for death.
Should check out the Fanmade improved Sunset Riders coming out for Sega Genesis ... looks graphical better.. yeah suprise if those games aren't already on PSN or Xbox Store ...
I had mystic warrior at my arcade and i played it quite a lot. I was mesmerized by it's awesomeness ! There was nothing quite like it. And the soundtrack was absolutely fabulous. A fond memory of mine.
Shortly after watching this great obscure run-n-gun game compilation, I looked up Super Cyborg and was pleasantly surprised to find it's avaiable for digital download on the PS4 and IMMEDIATELY BOUGHT ON SALE with no regrets!! Heck YEAH!!
Yeah it's available on every platform and super cheap! Way too cheap honestly. I have had a lot of comments about it and think this video helped sell quite a few. Which I'm really happy about!
I'm not sure who decided that the utterly average and unmemorable GunForce needed a sequel, but bless that person. We owe that mad man so much!
Surprising too given IREM's pedigree, but their relationship with Nazca was gold. In the Hunt was killer and when I learned of Gunforce 2 I had no doubt once I knew who was behind it.
great video i love this type of games i play metal slug and contra a lot when i was young that s blast from the past thanks shmup junky
Another epic video! Not since GamePro's show in the early weekend mornings have I looked forward to a show 👍🏽😎👍🏽
I look forward to these mornings too tbh. To finally get it up for everyone to enjoy and interact with everyone for a while. And then take a much needed break haha.
Love it! High quality at it's finest! Thank you!!!
I always look forward to your videos. Always TOP content, and you always DIG DEEP !! Just when I think I've seen them all, you go and put out a new video, by the Grace of God !!
Thanks man, and really glad you are enjoying them. I do try hard and include some games that not all, but at least most will find new and exciting. There were so many more I still wanted to include. So there's plenty more content out there waiting to be made.
These are fun. I have a 4 player Desert Assault PCB that I swap into my Sunset Riders cabinet from time to time. The game is absolutely tremendous with 4 players going. It's just chaos, especially when vehicles get involved.
I'd love to play it one day with 2-3 others for sure, you can tell it was meant to be. Although I don't think I could play it well with all the extra mayhem on screen. That must be a very rare PCB to own.
Hell yeah! I needed this. Kickass collection ya managed here.
Wow! as a kid born in 1978 I was really into these kinds of game. It blows me away that I never heard of any of these games once before in my life. Thanks for the great video, i'm now a subscriber and I look forward to more of these wonderful nostalgic trips to the past!
Welcome to the channel! You're not alone as most of these games I never saw or new growing up either. They were obscure for the most part. It's been great discovering them through various channels and sometimes even while researching for videos. I've made a lot of really good discovery oriented and nostalgic videos, so I hope you enjoy some of my other stuff. This series has proven really popular so far so I definitely plan to do more. Was considering action platformers next as there are a ton of obscure ones there that I'd love to show.
This video is simply great. Even the brightness of the clips reminds me of neo Geo. I just love it
One funny thing about Mystic Warriors is the hit sound from Yuri which years later has been used on Roblox and became that UH meme when you die. Excellent video as always. I took note of some of those games to try them. Is crazy how many fun games exist that we never heard before.
I didn't know that about the sound effect! That's cool tidbits I'm gonna remember. My boy used to play roblox like a fiend when he was much younger, so I almost want to play that sound bite back for him and see if he recognizes it.
@@ShmupJunkie yea Im sure he will recognize it haha. My daughter played it like crazy, and at first I thought it was an original sound from Roblox but then later I was playing Mystic Warrior using Yuri and recognized that sound right away. Cant remember if was when you just get hit or die with her but yes it was the same exact sound haha.
Wow! What a great list! I wasn’t aware of most of these. I usually know most games in videos like this, so it’s super refreshing to see so many I hadn’t heard of. Shinrei Jusatsushi Tarōmaru is one of my favorite Saturn games. So cool to see more people talk about it! Run and guns are great for co-op, and you definitely gave me a lot to add to my list.
Awesome, really glad it was helpful. I expect most people who watch to recognize some or most of the games, but if I can find even a couple that are new for most it was worth the effort. The best part for me is discovering them for myself too, as a couple here I had never played before either and only found during the process of researching.
On the note of the music for Biomechanical Toy. It was actually composed and performed by the companies in-house guitarist. The moment they were able to use digitized samples and tracks he just went fucking ham. Great video man I always look forward to your deep dives on obscure shooters like this.
Oh yeah? To be fair the music was well done, it just seemed like it was someone ripping or homaging so many well known riffs and tunes. They got away with a lot back then and nobody cared so I don't blame them. I like the music in the game but man the sound effects are just so weird. Like they just took every generic sound bit they could steal and found a place for it haha.
@@ShmupJunkie afaik the game was never released in the arcades. Some decades ago I worked with the guy who made some of the bg graphics for the game. I think the same crew worked on Risky Woods for the Amiga
I really wanna be able to play these arcade games , I don't know where to start. I crave these early 90s classics. Wish there was an easy way to get them.
It’s not very hard using a computer or laptop. Retroarch and the MAME cores are free for the arcade games. And the roms are easy to google search and download. It’s the only way to play many of them yes.
@@ShmupJunkie I could never figure out how to get them to work properly 🫤
Just added dyna gear and super cyborg to my favs list🥰
Thanks for the info👍🏾
Mystic Warriors is a total blast, it’s my favorite obscure run n gun.
The 90s Hardcore Rave intro track is legit 👍
Man I love the soundtrack from Mystic Warriors which is where I took that from. That game is legit all around.
Some of them I didn't knew they existed at all! I ran to my candy cabinet to fav them asap. Huge thanks!
Whoa! I definitely need more Dyna Gear in my life, great video as always my friend! Cheers and rock on!
It's awesome you mentioned the music in mystic warriors, I've adored Junya nakano's work ever since I heard the dew prism soundtrack. I loved his contributions to that game.
Konami made so many banger soundtracks during that time, so for Mystic Warriors to stand out says a lot about his work. It was pretty unusual for an arcade game at the time and really added a lot of the right personality to the game. I never played Dew Prism but now I'll have to go check out that soundtrack.
Opening this video randomly, I expected the run of the mill "paste a bunch game footage after one another without anything else" kinda deal, but seeing you giving commentary, pointers, info on the games, yea, instant like and subscribe. I can see the work put into this, rather than just throwing footage together in a mid-tier video editor.
Welcome! Glad you found the video and my channel. I honestly don’t understand the purpose of those pasted footage only videos. I’m making these for hobby and to share with others. So if I couldn’t make it personal end fun I really don’t see the point. People want to watch my stuff for the personal insight and editing. So I put a ton of tile into making them the best they can be. Really appreciate the feedback and hope you enjoy my other stuff like this one.
Awesome video, just added many to my to-play list!! Super Cyborg and Gundara are a must for me now 👍 👍
Super Cyborg is crazy cheap too! Wish it had a physical
Mystic Warriors is pretty much the standard for me in video game music in general. I was kind of spoiled since I pretty much had that and the rest of the Mystic Warriors based hardware games early on in my collecting. They all had crazy amazing music.
I had never heard of Demon Front before, even though I adore the Metal Slug series - thanks for showing that game off, I'm gonna give it a shot asap!
I'm glad you saw it then. It's under the radar enough to where it was worth showing off, even if it's made some rounds on youtube over the years. There's still a lot of folks who have never seen it. I don't doubt you'll enjoy it as it's quite good. My only complaint of it really is the music isn't very memorable or special.
Man Man Man ... This was an epic rockin ride..... This is another truly awesome video. 🤘 All games I never heard of, I was at the edge of my seat there while way through. Thank You Junkie..! You are truly skilled in story telling and I love you for it brother! 🤘🤘🤘❤️
Thanks dude! Always good to see you here and on Twitter enjoying the vids. These are not only fun to make but I discover some new games in the process as well. The hardest part is finding the time to play them all 😅
I forgot about super cyborg! looks like they nailed the 8-bit contra aesthetic. definitely going to pick that one up ASAP.
They nailed it all very well. And it's only 2-3 bucks!
Happy to actually see stuff I didnt know about as well as games that deserve more exposure.
I definitely do my best to find some really obscure good ones so I’m glad you did.
@@ShmupJunkie Ahh there was one I was trying to remember the name of, and I just found it. It's called TH strikes back. I remember it being pretty great and weird.
@@mistertagomago7974 Yes! I now have that one on my list for a future video. Galeco made some really neat and unusual games. Alligator Hunt by them was fun too and cracks me up.
@@ShmupJunkie glad I was able to remember :D
Glad you mentioned demon front, stumbled across it on my Pandoras box and loved it
Lots of games I never heard about indeed (apart from Gunforce 2, or Demon Front I didn't try out). Looking forward to giving them a go! Thank you!
I dropped what I was doing (watching this video) when I saw there's a legit follow-up to Sunset Riders (one of my favorite arcade games) and played through it. Amazing game and surprisingly good ending for the time. Thanks for making me aware of Mystic Warriors, gonna play it again sometime for sure!
Glad I could help! Just remember to come back and finish the video after haha! More good games to discover. It's crazy Mystic Warriors is so unknown. Even their other Sunset Riders like game, Moo Mesa is more well known. Wasn't the music in Mystic Warriors just so good though?
@@ShmupJunkie the music really was! Konami run-and-gun collection when?
Shock Troopers on the Neo Geo is also a great Run N Gun. I play it on the SNK Arcade Collection for the PS2.
Love it! Only a few of them I'd heard of or played, oddly enough they were the less known ones! Some of the ones you've said were the best known I'd never heard of and look awesome. Nice work
And that's why I included them! You never know. So I'm glad I did and you found some to check out. No doubt you'll enjoy them.
Would love to see a few of these make it to Switch or Xbox, especially Demon Front and GunForce II. Great video!
You never know! I'm sure it's not easy for them to hunt down some of these rights to old games. At least Super Cyborg is modern and out on every console. And cheap too.
Wow! you just not only showed the games, you also gave a full technical review of each one of them! Very Impressive!! also Desert Assault is a very serious competitor of shock troopers! Shmup Junkie never misses the good stuff!
Thanks. It's not easy condensing it into a few minutes per game and takes a lot of time to make it concise and fun. I still don't think I'd choose Dessert Assault over shock troopers for the gameplay, but it's definitely cheesier with the best one liners while playing. I wanted to include Caliber50 also but ran out of time, that's another cool one but a real ass kicker. So I saved it for a future episode.
Excellent video. You really spoil us Shmup Junkie. BioMechanical Toy is the only one I've heard of before from an Evercade list and I thought it was pretty fun so I'm really looking forward to trying the others.
Thanks. And yes, Biomechanical isn't terrible just a bit PC DOS type janky feel to it. Still worth playing I thought. But you'll love some of these others so I'm glad you discovered some new ones here.
Some great games there I wish they would be ported to newer consoles. Nice video!
Thanks. Super Cyborg is at least new and modern, out on nearly every system.
Just in time for my Sunday night ironing 🤘😂
Looking forward to watching this later tonight!
lol, that's new. I already had one bloke watching this while making a bath. Now we have ironing. Waiting for the next shoe to drop. Enjoy it man.
@@ShmupJunkie Haha i always watch TH-cam when I’m ironing my daughters’ school uniforms for the week.
Great Video. Another obscure one i havent seen mentioned yet is Charlie Ninja.
Oh man, you don't know how close I came to including it. I even briefly showed it at the end in the montage. Just ran out of time and it is both weird and good. I've got it ready for a sequel video someday if and when it happens.
23:00 Reminds me of the time a truck carrying chickens toppled on the highway, it took me 5 hours to get to work that day 😭
Dude! Poor chickens 😮
Hot DAMN!! So many of these games I’ve truly never seen. Once again you’ve managed to show me so many new things!!! Hail Shmup Junkie!!!
And always glad to do it man. The hard part is finding the time to play them.
Great collection, will defintiely check some of these out! also i love your comment "Someone was rockin' the good stuff when they came up with this one" 😂
Ha, well I am a junkie after all even if the shmup variety. 😁
Awesome list SJ! Never played Mystic Warriors - gonna fire up the MAME cab later today and give it a whirl - also, Blue Dolphin might be deserving to go on your next vid - criminally underrated and under exposed imo!
Dolphin Blue almost made it in! Just wasn’t quite obscure enough and I ran out of time. I showed it quickly toward the end in the last chapter. So it’s definitely on the list to get a highlight in the future. It’s cool we can play it on Dreamcast now.
@@ShmupJunkie I got three non-arcade ones for you: Assault Retribution, One and Expendable. First two are for PS1, Expendable was Dreamcast and PC I believe. Also, check out ABUSE - obscure PC game from the mid 90s - I loved it, unique controls and good graphics.
Contra, Metal Slug and Gunstar Heroes was always my favorite! The running gun genre was half shoot'em up!
That it is! At least some of them, especially something like Metal Slug.
@@ShmupJunkie That previous video was really fun! I wish konami did released tons of their shooting games on SEGA Master System, SEGA Genesis and SEGA Dreamcast!
@@ShmupJunkie I was wondering why konami didn't released "Gradius 3 and 4" on SEGA Dreamcast? I'm sure SEGA Dreamcast can handle graphics about these 2 games!!
This video was so awesome! I would absolutely love a sequel ✌️
It's likely gonna happen someday, as there were several games on my list I wanted to include but ran out of time and had to cut. So there's plenty of material for a part 2.
@@ShmupJunkie can’t wait! Thanks for the great videos
Thank you so much for this video!! Wonderful line up of games to spend the Christmas season with! Eggnog and run ‘n guns anyone??
My eggnog days are behind me haha, but it wouldn't be a holiday without some shmups and action games on the CRT.
Would love a list in the description, maybe next to the time stamps in parenthesis. Makes it easier to take real note of the games, as I do wanna check some out. I'm a Shmups n00b since I didn't have arcades back in the 90s, living in the Midwest, so I'm always up for new to me recommendations! Great vid regardless!
If it helps, here is a quick list of the games. Mystic Warriors, Dyna Gear, Super Cyborg, Demon Front, JJ Squawkers, Biomechanical Toy, Psychic Killer Taromaru, Dessert Assault, Gundhara, Gunforce 2. I hope that helps!
Nice selection of games. I especially like the Super Cyborg got a mention. That game needs a lot more eyes on it. And it's often on sale on stream for a couple of bucks.
regarding Demon Front it also has some extra spice in the form of alternate routes, secret areas and a key and lantern looking thing you have to find in each stage for extra points.
I can't believe the game is only $3, it's so good. I think upon release it got a lot of people reviewing it with complaints it was too hard, so it never got much traction. It's honestly quite fair on the initial easy mode with some practice, at least until the very last stage. I would love to see it get more attention. Judging from the comments this video helped them sell a handful of copies so far. But it'll take a lot more at that bargain price.
Super Cyborg is tough as hell but fun, I still haven't been able to get past the 3rd stage 😂 definitely need to check out Mystic Warriors, it's got those 90s arcade hype vibes I miss so much!
Dude thank you 🥲 Mystic Warriors and Super Cyborg shall be played shortly 😅 Another great video as usual 👏🏻 Give us more gems 🙏🏼😂
You're welcome my dude! Play some Mystic Warriors with the family and infinite credits, enjoy the cheese. Then grab Super Cyborg for the ridiculous $3 and play alone with the expectation of getting a beat down lol. But you've got this. It's not any harder than running through Ninja Gaiden. It'll just take some blood, sweat and tears. At least you get unlimited continues.
@@ShmupJunkie I just saw the price 😳 Definitely a must buy. I'm so glad it's unlimited continued too 😂 You da man 😉
This is a great selection. I will admit, I only knew a handful, so I can't wait to actually play these, great video, can't wait to see what else I haven't played!! Rock on!!
One Run and Gun from the SNES that gets always overlooked is Jurassic Park 2, the music, the atmosphere, everything feels great and the multiplayer is awesome too
Would you believe I know it but have yet to ever play it? I've been meaning to as I did hear it was good.
man i'm a 80/90s kid and I never seen most of these! thanks for the video
Count me as one of them too. I rarely or ever saw most of these growing up and learned of them much later. I really enjoy discovering these games so I knew it would make for a great video series.
I really enjoyed watching this video...thank you for uploading this‼️👍🏼😎🤘🏼‼️
You’re welcome! I enjoyed making it.
Fantastic lineup now I have to hunt them all down. Thank you!
The hardest part isn’t finding them but finding time to play them all!
Another banger of a video. Demon Front is essentially a love letter to Metal Slug. You can tell the devs were fans of the series. It’s a crime it was never ported, and it’s worth picking up a PGM board just to play.
Couldn't agree more. I love that it's simultaneously so similar, yet also it's own game and doesn't feel like a carbon copy. I'd be surprised if someone ever found the rights to rerelease it again, but it would be great to see.
MAME works pretty fine in my experience. No need for actual ports.
Run N Guns I've never played? Yeah, no chance... **watches video** ..Well, I've been schooled. And happily so. Absolute gem of a video.
Haha, well I tried! If I can get at least a couple games in there that even the most schooled players somehow missed it’s a win. It’s much easier with arcade games especially as there’s some seriously obscure stuff out there. Finding ones that are really good and worth playing too is the trick.
Wow, finally had some time to get into some of these new games and what a great list. Dyna Gear and Mystic Warriors are absolutely new favorites. Demon Front also seems pretty fun though I need to put some more time in to get the hang of it and not just blow through credits. Great video!
Thanks! And so glad you got to discover a couple of good ones through it. Yeah Demon Front is very much like Metal Slug in that it will kick your ass until you memo each area. But unlike Slug it doesn't punish you for jumping nearly as severely. Slug will just wipe you out if you jump whenever it's not necessary.
You earned a sub. Beautiful list. I only know Demon Front and Mystic Warriors. So many hidden gems.
Welcome! This series has been really popular so far and really grown the channel. So I’m glad you found me through it and enjoyed. Got more like it from various genres I’m working on.
Great video with many new games I didn't know to try! I'm definitely going to buy Super Cyborg. I played Biomechanical Toy and Gunforce II in the arcades many years ago and Demon Force when the PGM emulator was published, but I didn't have heard of any of the others. I still can't undertstand how Mystic Warriors went under the radar when Sunset Riders was so popular.
I love this series! Thank you for all these recommendations
Thanks!! Great video, manu goods games, i think JJ Swquakers is one that i been looking, or at least its similar.
Super Cyborg is really great! one of the best contra clones out there. and it's very cheap:) btw, great vid bro:)
crazy cheap! Someone just told me it's .99 on PS4 online. That's ridiculous.
Great video bro I love all of these games and still play them👌
Amazing video one of the only retro TH-camrs who when they say obscure they mean it.
I try! Many of my subs are so knowledgeable that just getting one or two in there most don't know I consider an accomplishment. So I have to work hard for the good stuff. But I couldn't do it without the community and some awesome suggestions I get from my discord. I always consider these videos a team effort.
Tree Humpin' Squawkers looks amazing. Thanks for covering these. Wish they were available on PSN. Well, Super Cobra is! Great game, glad to see real appreciation for it here :) Oops, I mean Super Cyborg. It's the only Contra-like game I know of (including the 16-bit sequels and arcade games) that really feel like my favorites, the NES games. I think it's the smaller size of the character sprites and how much more space they have to jump and maneuver around bullets.
You may already know this but in my latest video I covered an upcoming game called Iron Meat right at the start. If you love Super Cyborg you’ll love it too. It looks closer to the 16bit games but plays pretty identical to the NES games with some enhancements like SuperC. I loved it and can’t wait for everyone else to be able to play the entire game.
@@ShmupJunkie I will have to watch it! Tomorrow... thanks :)
@@ShmupJunkie It looks cool. Thanks for the videos. There was one just uploaded to the Playstation account on TH-cam called Wild Dogs which looks like a Gameboy Color Contra: th-cam.com/video/3kP0FcfTczA/w-d-xo.html
and some other games
Amazing video as always. Now I know what I'll be doing until the end of February. Thanks SJ!
You're welcome. I think I'm making these discover videos faster than people can play the games.
Love run and gun games.. Great video !
Thanks! There were several I wanted to include but couldn't, so there's plenty of material left for a follow up one day.
Oh man! Been excited & waiting for this one.
🍿 Popcorn please!
I just watched this video, it was insanely good haha
Keep going! Thanks for creating this
Thanks! I’ve really enjoyed making these and definitely plan to make more discovery videos like it.
Played most of these but I had my pen out and wrote a few down that I'll deffo be checking out! Cheers!
You're welcome, if you found one or two new to check out, I'll call it mission accomplished.
I didn't know of Demon Front, it looks pretty great... And I've no idea how Mystic Warriors passed me by as I love everything about 90s Konami!
Super Cyborg looks great!
Sadly it isn't on GOG but I will pick it up right away on Steam.
Thanks for recommendation, this one completely flew under my radar.
Kudos.
And only 3 bucks to boot! It flew under a lot of radars. Shame really, but I think a lot more folks saw it from this video and are picking it up.
Wow Psychic Killer, have not heard any mention of that game in decades! The ultimate forgotten game...
Even I forgot it for a long time! Then someone on my discord brought it up and the light bulb went off.
Demon Front & Mystic Warriors are 2 games that I had the chance to talk about with Metal Jesus in the “10 More Arcade Games” video on his channel back in 2017. So happy that more gamers are now being introduced to those great titles. You always do such a great job on listing of fun games and the presentation is always amazing. Keep up the great work!
Thanks! I appreciate that. I also don’t think I ever saw that video as I was barely on TH-cam back then. I’m a noob here compared to the old guard. So now that you mention it I’m going to look that up tonight. Metal Jesus was really cool to comment and tweet about my older Shmups for Beginners video at the time. Up until that point I figured he didn’t know my channel exists.
@@ShmupJunkie Your
videos are A+. Continue to make content like this and eventually it will get seen by everyone who matters the most. 😄
Good video! I’ve been playing a modern run and gun called Huntdown recently and I feel like it definitely took inspiration from some of the classics shown here.
Huntdown is really good and almost made this video actually along with a few others. But since I ran out of time I saved it for a future vid. I would definitely like to cover it someday.