I get that recommended a lot actually and it's going to happen. Maybe not per console, but where I can pick several across various systems, with a good representation of each and talk about them in the same way. I have been thinking of doing that for a long while now. Good games that are also great for anyone to pick up and play.
The alpha beam counter in G-Darius might be the coolest thing i've ever seen in an STG. The beams going back and forth like DBZ was just too cool. That was an amazing recovery with the capture ball too, btw. Great vid, Bro.
How could anyone see that and not think DBZ. Clearly the devs were going for that and it’s a cool idea. It was harder in the arcade as without auto fire you are pounding away at the button and it’s a struggle. On console you just hold down the button and win. But this game is hard enough even without that extra level. I gotta day G Darius is insane with recovery. Some later stages you die in the wrong spot and lose your power ups may as well start over. The amount of bullets becomes impossible. Trust me k got reeeal lucky on that one part lol. But it made for fun footage.
Border Down (from G Rev that had former Taito staff which makes sense) has the beam duel mechanic even greater realized some might argue. Both incredible games to be sure.
It was so dang impressive at the time I played it a lot too. And I don't remember it being this hard, but I imagine I didn't mind running through some credits to clear it. I'm curious to try it now in HD either on the Xbox or upscaled with an emulator to see how nice the later stages look.
I'm the oddball, at the time I only had a Playstation and I had a blast playing Gradius Gaiden, Einhander, Raystorm, Raycrisis, Darius Gaiden, Gokujou/Sexy Parodius and many others. Yes, nowadays I'm having good surprises playing/discovering the Saturn library, but I fee like while there were great exclusive shmups to the Saturn, we still had enough on the Playstation in case you could have only one console back then (which was very common and normal). Great video, as usual!
Yep you're totally right. I pretty much used my Saturn for only import shmups as I wasn't too into fighters, but the Playstation was chock full of awesome games that no way I would have wanted to miss. You didn't make the wrong choice as the PS1 was superior all around, the game library was so much more varied and you could enjoy tons of genres. I played the heck out of my PS1, every genre imaginable while the Saturn was mainly the shmup machine.
One thing I realized watching your videos is how fast you manage to master a new game. You must be incredibly efficient with your time if, in two weeks, you can master all these games, play some more (so you can find out if they're difficult or not), produce this video, and go on with your life! Hats off to you! And, by the way, I loved this video, made me interested in a console I never looked at for STGs.
Well I would say it's 50/50. It's true I am good at figuring out a game quickly for survival, as I used to do it a lot renting games for a weekend as a kid. So I didn't have much time to beat them. But the other part is I don't think I am truly mastering them that fast, it would be impossible (at least for me). I understand them quickly and how I need to play to do well and survive, but I don't get good enough to 1CC the game. Many times I used save states at the beginning of each level to practice over and over again and figure it out. So yes I am being efficient but also using lots of convenience features to learn it faster. Normally I wouldn't play it that way. But to make a video, I need to record certain things many times to show something, or play the level a certain way and experiment. I think if I had to play each of them fair, no saves, and start over every time, it would take much longer. Also, many of the games I know and have played before and finished, so that makes a big difference. Starting from scratch is tough. I think the editing and video takes the longest amount of time, but it's fun so I don't mind doing it.
😂 Man I love me some R-Type Delta... I'd rather play it any day of the week vs suffering those kicks in the nuts from R-Type II here. I had always heard it was hard but the arcade port was just wow. That final stage will haunt my dreams for a while.
I couldn't really put my finger on what made your videos so good but I got it now. Your scripts are really great: clearly written by someone who's not inexperienced with writing.
I have no writing background but just try to make something entertaining and have fun with it. I spend a good bit of time editing too the timing is important. But that's part of the fun, making something that also makes you laugh and look forward to others seeing it. I appreciate the feedback and feel like I am slowly improving. My big weakness is my voice, as it gets tired/hoarse quick so I start to sound strained. Maybe I need to hire a voice coach 😅
@@ShmupJunkie I did not notice anything. Do like the singers, use your stomach to alleviate the work in the throat. BTW now I'll spread the word a bit more regarding your channel
Thank you. I’ve been unsure when to use scanlines for videos because TH-cam often compresses it and doesn’t look good, but I think for many PS1 games it helps a lot. So I try to do them when it works. I have fun making this series.
Bravo! This one gave me nostalgia overload as PS1 was the system I really cut my teeth on. I distinctly remember renting Raiden II and In the Hunt when I was a kid only to be destroyed in minutes!! But those memories stuck with me all these years later and kept me coming back for more. Also props for catching one of the coolest moments in the whole Darius series at 22:05 with Great Thing illuminated in the storm...it's just perfect. I also want to say thanks for spotlighting Raystorm, everyone knows about it but no one seems to actually play it which is a shame. It's basically treated as a footnote to the likes of other 3D STGs like Einhander. While it may not be the spectacle of games like that, other than a couple questionable sections you can tell it's crafted by a team of hardcore shmup veterans and definitely deserves a place among the best, at least in my opinion. Of course that may just be the PTSD from clearing it talking LOL.
I love that bit of foreshadowing in G Darius, including that level, where you catch glimpses of the boss you will face later. And dude is a beast too ugh. Most of the finals are. It's just a really hard game in every way. I'm with you on Raystorm. I always liked it and when you did your 1CC I knew I wanted to include it. I may have missed it otherwise as I just credit fed it myself when I was younger and figured it was no sweat that way. As it should be with 5-6 continues lol. At least this time I could manage with just one and I can live with that. I'm glad the timing worked out perfect with your 1CC to use it, and I learned some things I didn't know about it.
Great list! The G-Darius beta-beam counter is one of the most satisfying shooter experiences I've ever had. That tension between frantic dodging and looking for the perfect opportunity to unleash...delightful.
Thanks! I always had a much harder time pulling of the counter in the later Dariusburst they made it much trickier. In G it’s just about surviving and saving it for the right moment. I agree it was a genius gameplay mechanic and really added to the game.
Welcome! And thank you. I have a blast making these and always look forward to it. I made several of these in the series so I hope you enjoy them all 🙏
All systems? Good luck! Shmups are probably the most expensive genre to collect for. I'm glad the videos will be helpful to you. The Neo Geo and PC Engine shmups are especially expensive, and the Saturn is up there too.
Usually when someone on youtube tries to critique a beloved shoot 'em up from my childhood, it's basic opinion posed as fact. "The ship is big so it's hit box is big, and it's a vertical shooter, so it's bad." With you I can't even be mad, because your descriptions are so accurate and detailed. You sound like you're complaining about a wife you've been married to for 30 years, and I can't not respect that. New subber and already a big fan. Cool cadence too, there are several stock youtube gamer accents and you have none, you have your own voice. Great stuff dude :)
Many of these games have been kicking my ass longer than my wife has been so that’s a pretty apt comparison. Really glad you found me and enjoyed what I’ve done so far. It hasn’t even been a year since I started making videos so I’m not on the up and up of TH-cam and everyone else. I started my channel just to make some good pc engine mini videos as I wasn’t happy with what was out there and it kind of took off from there so I kept with it. But if spending 40hrs to make a video that nets less than half a day working fast food then I guess that makes me a TH-camr 😅. In all seriousness thx for the great feedback and comment and I hope you enjoy more of my stuff. I’m having a ball making them and stoked so many are enjoying it and the channel is growing fast. So I’m sticking with it for the fun and curiosity of how far it can go.
Your introduction reminded me so many memories 🤣 my first PlayStation I had to put it upside down so that it could read the games! 😅 Thank you for having a good time and again bravo for the energy and the enormous work that you put into your videos! 👍😊
I was wondering how many people will get the PS1 reference in the beginning, of constantly trying to adjust the angle so it would read the discs. Funny it would work upside down but not regular haha. But kudos to Sony for making a CD console that even works upside down!
Some of these are out of anyone's reaction time. It's memorize or die with something like G Darius especially. Raiden is just too hard for almost anybody lol
I remember arcade raiden when played with 2 players, you can combine your firepower wc can be significantly more powerful and hits in all directions. This was our key to finish this brutal game. Good video my man!
Once you know that Nazca was made of former Irem staff, it's easy to see the link between Metal Slug and previous Irem games like GunForce II and In the Hunt. But if you look closely you can see how earlier games like R-Type II and Cosmic Cop had already elements of that signature grungy art style.
That's a good point, I never thought about RType at all and any similarities. I can see it a bit in RType II and the way it's detailed for sure. I don't know how much of that original staff went to Nazca, but it seems there was a turning point where they already had this great art style worked out with In the Hunt, as it literally looks identical to a Metal Slug game.
I have the Einhander soundtrack hanging on my wall inside a shadow box. Amazing music by Kenichiro Fukui! He also played keyboards in Nobuo Uematsu's band, The Black Mages.
The music in that game is awesome and helps make it what it is. One of my favorite games period on the PS1. It almost made the list too as it’s a tough game. But it may be good I can save it to feature in a best exclusives video instead and focus more on what makes it so good. That’s cool info by the way I made a note so I could mention that when I do show the game.
Once again my friend you make a bestquality vid for our favorite shmups 🙃🙃😉🤘 I LOVE SO MUCH the shmups on ps1 specialy einhander and r type delta maybe the best of their génération. Einhander give me some headhach for finish the game but like say, r type 2 kill my entire body......never finish him. Thx for the vid😉😁🤘🤘👊
Yes man you got some good picks. Delta and Einhander are in my top 5 favorite shmups on the PS1. They are so good. I would love to see HD remakes for them too like G Darius is getting
I've always been fascinated by shoot em up games, and my first exposure were Bullet Hell type of games (like Bullet Heaven 2 and probably some Touhou video i watch in 2010). Growing up in a country where basically there were no interests in these sorts of games, I'm happy that i found this community where i can learn more about Shmups.
Raystorm!! This is a game a really want to dig into more soon, love the graphical style and the difficulty intrigues me. Rayforce (the previous in the series) is incredibly influential
Rayforce was always my favorite and a beautiful game. I'm a sucker for the 2D sprites and it had great music. When you play Raystorm you'll see what I mean. You won't find it super hard compared to what you play, but because it's so stingy with any extends and finds one way or another to cheap death you here and there, it's hard to get through without a continue. The US version is harder, but you get 5 lives. Japan is easier but you only get 3. So it's kind of pick your poison haha. As it's not one of those games you can play really well and collect a bunch of extra lives. Each time you get nailed just being at the wrong place at the wrong time it stings, and the randomness of some enemy spawns and boss patterns doesn't help.
I remember raystorm. In the arcade i could get to the last stage on one credit.. played the shit out of that game. I eventually got it on the playstation & was dissapointed. I mean it looked identical to the arcade, but something was off. Dont know if you ever noticed, but the arcade was timed with the music.as some events happened, there would be a Corresponding change in the Tune. The way the music was almost part of the gameplay was amazing. The playstation version however didnt have this.. the music just played like a cd in the background & did not blend with the action. As a result, it felt detached for me.
I found the best strategy on the missile section is to get above one shoot your bombs down and shoot forward. While you slow the one below you with your bombs the next missile can be sped up with your forward shot giving you the clearance to pass.
Interesting and noted thank you. I’ll play with that strategy next time. I knew they’d not put a way in to clear it properly but never could find a strat that worked for me.
Thank you too, glad you enjoyed it. In the Hunt was definitely my fav I just don't tire of that one easily. Some of the others I don't look forward to having to play again.
It was a labor of love and a barrel of pain haha, it's not easy making these the games are some real ass kickers. But I do enjoy it nonetheless. Thank you
Thanks! If you liked this one I did a few others just like it for other systems too. It's only been several months so I don't have a ton of videos, maybe 30 or so I think.
People say turn it upside down, but in my case that didn't always work. It was always an art form messing with it and getting it just right. Wasn't always the same angle on different days haha. I blame myself, the constant region bypass tricks I was doing so I could play imports was no good for the laser. Patience and waiting for a US release was not one of my virtues 😅
21:28 the game thats playing on the tv is a game I consider to be "the best graphics I have ever seen" when I was a kid. I still do think Raystorm have a beautiful graphics.
I love the original Raiden on my PC Engine the most... playing this one for the first time was a wake up call on how insanely difficult (unfair) it became with future iterations.
Thanks! Some of these games are incredibly frustrating but it’s part of the fun if you don’t take them too seriously. I enjoy making these hardest series
Absolutely, as they come out I will slowly work on them. The PS2 would be next in line and there's some real beasts on that system that will kick my ass I already know it haha. I may need some help with Ibarra lol
I was poppin' by to see this video cuz I got G Darius HD and this video was what kinda helped me gain interest in the game at first, seeing the whole Omicron challenge thing. The HD preview video was what piqued my interest with DuckStation, too, heh.
Good video!!!! Btw you and electric underground are my 2 fav yt on shooters aka shumups 😎 oh in the future would u ever consider doing a NES shooter list?? Got gun nac Lifeforce S.c.a.t. Zanac Gradius etc.
I would do an every shooter on NES reviewed video at some point yeah, I love the NES. It would be a massive video though, the Famicom had over 100 of them, pretty insane. But I would enjoy it someday. Mark is the man I really enjoy his videos too and a great dude.
Great episode!! I like the mix of opinion/review of the games with curiosities and bits of humor. The PS1 has some awesome shmups. Looking forward to your top games episode!!
Thanks! Yes I try to do something different and entertaining vs just parroting a wiki. Kind of channel what it was like playing or trying to complete it and what it meant to me. The PS1 has some of my favorite exclusives so I’ll really enjoy making that one. Delta, Einhander, Gradius Gaiden and some more obscure ones too.
@@ShmupJunkie It's a great show: entertaining and informative!! And yes, there are some other great shumps on the PS1 like the ones you mentioned or Harmful Park, Gaiaseed and Zanac x Zanac. There is also the Japanese version of X2 No Relief which I read it's easier and more playable than the USA version but haven't played yet. Looking forward to some obscure and top games episodes!!
Thanks! Some of these PS1 games were up there as the hardest I've ever had to play. The later the generations get the harder they seemed to become in terms of shmups. The Dreamcast one is going to end up killing me haha
It was the number one thing I could talk about with Raiden. It's so cool in it's presentation, yet so frustrating any time you get going. Even those who love it, I imagine must also occasionally hate it.
Coitus Interruptus. Beautifully put. I've been stacking the original PCBs including the Raiden Fighters titles. Raiden DX is on my list. Such a rough series of shmups.
It's awesome you have room for those, I've yet to put a single candy cab together so I don't have any just yet. But my dream has been to have an Egret one day I can swap PCBs into. I can't say Raiden is going to be on my list though that game is evil, but then again so is Tatsujin (first on my list) so who am I to talk 😂
Another great video! I'm really looking forward to the new version of G-Darius. Aside from Gaiden I hadn't really played the Darius arcade games until the Cosmic Collection. As you said, that huge cabinet meant it was quite rare to see it in an arcade. I'm now converted to Darius 1+2 and I'm ready for more! (Gaiden was always great, but I've also really enjoyed revisiting it). I have to say I'm with the tin hat guy on the angled consoles though. My original Dreamcast barely loads a game in the usual position, yet works great upside down!
Tinfoil Timmy was me as well on my PS1, it was an art form to keep it working and reading as it got older. I had a feeling many would recognize having to screw with it back in the day. I'm working on a Darius special next for the Revelations release! If you like Gaiden you'd like G Darius, they are both great and most people's two favorite in the series.
That one just kind of came out of nowhere. I was reading the script and it just popped into my mind... whatever that may or not say about what's on my mind. 😅
@@paxhumana2015 Totally, but I love how they expanded it in G to either bomb or turn into a beam for big boss kills. You know they were thinking DBZ when they came up with that lol
Man if Super gives you flashbacks then this arcade port will give you full ptsd 😅 Although I have been wanting to try that new Super RType SA1 hack. I would imagine that's going to crank things up to a different level, and not in a good way, although I'll be glad to see it without slowdown
@@ShmupJunkie Yeah, I think a large portion of what Super R-Type suffers is from Irem's at the time, "unfamiliarity" with the console causing that terrible stutter lag that can stiff arm you on the frame delay from a sloppy dodge that combos with utter lack of stage checkpoints. At least they learned from this because I still think that R-Type III is the best of the series.
@@TornadoADV Slowdowns are norm for many games on the SNES unfortunately. Not only its rather low end CPU uses 8-bit bus, but also most games ran at lower speed (2.68 instead of 3.58) because this makes cartridges cheaper. Quite possible this decision was sometimes forced from above by bean counters from management in the last moment.
Great video as always. I knew there had to be something to Darius that I wasn’t getting because I was just pounding away and using credits to beat those bosses. I will need to practice that shot mechanic. But In The Hunt is the crown jewel. I only recently learned of it from the Evercade Irem cart and holy cow what an awesome game!
Yeah, you HAVE to use the beam properly for big damage on bosses in G Darius, it's completely designed around it. And makes it more fun too. In the Hunt can't not be good, it's basically Metal Slug submarine. I've enjoyed that game ever since I first eyed it in arcades.
You're welcome. I honestly hate when it takes two weeks as you all miss out and youtube kills my engagement too, but sometimes it's just too much to get done that quickly. But I'm glad when it turns out fun in the end.
Let me tell you something awesome. I chanced upon your channel (subbed BTW) and I had all these memories of these shmups from the eras you covered. I knew I had a faint memory of seeing a game with the name DX in its title (this was when another DX was famous... Wrestling lol) ..... And I was searching high and low and found the game on this video! Thank you for your content. I am not the best shmup player but these are my memories too. Much love from India 🇮🇳, though most of my gaming memories are from Oman 🇴🇲. Love your content.
In the hunt never heard about it but Jesus Christ so damn awesome been playing it all damn day! I gotta say so far in the hunt has to be one of my top 5 fave shmups so far! Man I love your channel! Got me playing a bunch new shmups just finding out games I missed as a kid! And also irem made another submarine shmup called sqoon for the nes if you never played it!
Heck yeah In the Hunt is freakin' amazing. Really glad I helped you discover it and get to play it. Basically Metal Slug Submarine, which is actually what they called the bootleg in Brazil haha.
Wow lol that's awesome! I use to burn some quarters on metal slug back in the day! I bought the collection for 5 bucks on ps4 worth it! Ya man I'm so glad to be playing in the hunt so amazing!
Thanks for the recommendations. I’ve never played any PS1 shmups and just got my PS1 soft modded so a whole new word opened up for me. Was blown away by Gradius Gaiden last night. In the Hunt looks incredible and I must play this. Darius is the Persian emperor who was defeated by the Athenians at Marathon. I’m pretty sure my history teacher didn’t even pronounce his name correctly.
Awesome vid as always man! Now i wanna fire up my emulator just to play these games. Specially raystorm. It reminds me of eschatos but in a more traditional playstyle :o
Awesome video mate and awesome games all. Thoroughly enjoyed it. I definitely had the Raystorm series games back in the day, great fun and pretty tough, I don’t think I ever finished em. Love R-Type II but didn’t get much further than the 3rd level and that took ages. In The Hunt is gorgeous and also my favourite out of these here being a big Metal Slug fan but I’ll be honest I thought it was a Metal Slug game too for the longest time. The Darius game is very familiar as well and definitely something I’ve played back in the day. Ultimately I want them all 😂 😂 😂
Don't we all want them all haha. I honestly don't own all of these. Some I would after playing them while others not so much as I can't see playing them too often. In the Hunt is a must and Raystorm is excellent too as you're well acquainted. The others are so dang hard that whether really good or not, your mileage may vary. I am doing a video on the upcoming Darius collection next which are new M2 ports for Darius. So at the least, it will have great training modes like their other work, as G Darius is an exceptionally difficult game.
😂😂😂pop goes the weesel (forgive my english i am from Mexico) love your videos & commentary also later today when i make some quality time for myself i will check out your shooter mega drive special (every shooter review) Thanks for taking the time to make your videos (also love😂the intros)
I’m almost done with my Cozmic Revelation preview video it’s up next. Got one preordered as well. In the Hunt for $8 on the eshop is a steal. Just learned the other day apparently the arcade pcb has slowdown too, so it could be the Saturn is closer to it. Though I admit I like it just fine the way it is.
" Don't fear the giant tuna " Wasn't that one of those Blue Oyster Cult songs that needed more cowbell? Loved the video, definitely did not need more cow bell.
You just mixed Police Academy with SNL so you get the comment of the day award 😂 I'm saving my cowbell jokes for a future pc engine video. But now I am picturing Will Ferrel smashing that thing haha
@@ShmupJunkie Thank you for the compliment Sir and thank you for the great shmup videos. I just purchased " In The Hunt " on the PS4, thank you for mentioning that in the video, I would have never known otherwise.
@@ShmupJunkie It was $7.99, not a bad deal at all. It has both the Japanese and US versions. Thank you for mentioning it in the video, I would have probably never know it was available on the PS4.
I recently discovered your channel and I love it, I used to love shmups as a kid but later I realized how much I sucked at it and it sucked the fun out of it, but I want to get into it again. I see that you didn't make a video on ps2 shmups, are there any on that system that are worth my time?
Really glad you found me! Yes, the PS2 has some good exclusive shmups though not a ton compared to some other consoles. Gradius V is the obvious one though it's quite difficult, it's also one of the best and made by Treasure. If you're looking for more bullet hell, Cave had some good releases on it like the original Mushihimesama (thought it's overpriced to buy the physical now and you can get it on Steam for much less). The original R-Type Final is also on PS2 if you like the series, though I always found Delta on PS1 to be a much better game and one of my favs. There's a ton of content I've made that'll definitely help you with some suggestions for various consoles. The most brutal shmups on a console aren't always the best place to start haha. So I made some good Beginner Shmups videos as well that have some useful suggestions for fun games that won't make you feel like a scrub.
Hey man, really love your videos and how you covered the hardest shmups on most platforms. I'm not sure if you know of it, but there was a Japanese exclusive ps1 shmup call kyuin. It's got a whole storybook aesthetic going on throughout the whole game and looks to be quite difficult if that's something you wish to check out as a recommendation. Not sure if it compares to the 5 hardest shmups in this video, but it looks both whimsical and hard as nails.
It was a time when consoles became powerful enough to produce the most gorgeous 2D graphics but still in their infancy in terms of polygonal gaming. And G Darius was by far one of the better ones out there. I went into that gen kicking and screaming. The gameplay 3D opened up in other genres was awesome but it was forced onto every developer even for games that didn’t need it. Either that or making a 2D game was often a sentence to obscurity. That being said it looks really nice now upscaled to HD! But nothing can replace that beautiful 2D art.
@@ShmupJunkie I was right there with you man, I remember when legacy of Cain (first one) had the audacity to be a 2d game during the 3D boom it was ripped on so hard for having “old” throwback graphics in every review it bombed. When they made the better known sequel they caved to the peer pressure and made a hideous to my eyes 3D sequel. That whole generation was like that, I ended up getting a Saturn late in the generation cycle to play Guardian heroes and ended up finding all the beautiful 2d imports for the system.
@@Vaxovillion Man I really enjoyed the original Legacy of Kain too and still remember my time with it. Soul Reaver wasn’t bad but too many block puzzles for me. Didn’t have the gloriously evil vibe or debauchery that made the original so cool 🤣
Did you ever end up beating that one? It feels doable now that I know the trick on the boss, I just don't look forward to it. Although I just learned there is a mode on this port to turn the arcade slowdown on, so I may do that next time I play to make it feel at least reasonable.
@@mazstg8844 yeah I noticed that. You just sneak in long as you are powered up. I thought that instakill missile was total BS! 🤣 You really have no choice but to use the proper method to kill it.
I discover your channel and as a shmup fan since the early 80's, I can't not subscribe ! :) Btw, if you want to play Darius in HD, you already can by using DuckStation, a fantastic ps1 emulator (you will have to set the scaler as high as possible)
I was just doing that this week! With G Darius I mean and it's beautiful. I am working on a Darius Revelations episode and I am using the HD Duckstation for it. It turns out that's what I have been doing this week haha.
For In The Hunt's infamous missile section one of the tricks is using your burst missiles (the green weapon pick-up) to shoot the missiles as they're coming up from the ground to create a bigger gap since they're pushed down/stalled when you hit them; I learned this from watching IcarusFW's 1cc on his channel. That and being patient and waiting for the right alignment between the gaps, of course. It's still really annoying though!
Thanks! I will try that out next time I play. I knew that any weapon speeds up their movement, but not that certain weapons did it better than others. I'll see if I can find that video!
Yeah sometimes it looks great. It always looks great on my end. It depends on the TH-cam stream, your signal etc. I’ve seen it look great or poor it’s a toss up. So I never know what experience most people will have on their end.
Yeah I put it up there with Mega Drive Twin Cobra as one of the most maddening grinds I’ve ever suffered through in terms of STGs. If it weren’t so awesome it would be hard to stick with.
Great video. Harmful park is the most unique on the PS1. I also enjoy Bokan Desuyo from Time Bokan Series: Though neither is difficult as any of what you showcased here. Bokan Desuyo has wonderful spite animation executed in both smooth, simplistic, but effective mechanics. Between PS1 and PS2 AS FAR AS Sony goes they have the best in terms of volume and distictiveness in their respective libraries. These 5 however are mostt certainly the most difficult. Ace video . kUDOS CROWN PRINCE!
but yes this video makes me realize im not out of my mind for being afraid of R-Type II. Its just so brutal. Stage 6? No. I've never even got to that boss. Just NO
Haha yeah RType II is for the few and the proud. It'll be a while before I brave it again. Glad you found me on here. Been making these for several months now. That's why I am on IG so much less now, this just takes up almost all of my time. But I still have lots of friends there and people I like to follow and chat with, so I will always go back as much as I can.
Another superb video and man those are some brutal shmups indeed!! Special thanks for sharing In the Hunt, now on my radar, looks amazing! PS: tell Timmy to contact me, I know the trick to and it is not sideways 😆 Great quality video!!
I know I know, put it upside down. But you know what, when I used to fix mine, that wouldn't always work. I often had to try different angles it was weird haha. Yeah man these games were the brutalest... if that's a word. But you must try In the Hunt dude you won't regret it. $8 on the PS4 store if you want it quick and dirty lol and it's a perfect arcade port far as I know.
@@ShmupJunkie i went with In the Hunt. Axiom Verge and Iron Crypticle. Ive got a thing for SHMHPS, Rougelikes and Metrovanias. Im definetly a glutton for punishment.
@@theinnermostsanctum Axiom Verge is one that always looked really cool to me and others have recommended. It’s on a short list to play one day during some relaxing evenings. You just reminded me of that one.
Man i have to be totally honest: i dont like most of your jokes but, your enthusiasm and love about shooters and your reviews and data are so awesome that i dont care if i dont like your jokes. Keep up the great work 👍
The ultimate back handed compliment! 😂 I know not everyone will, but I am what I am I guess, so I'm glad the rest is so good you can stomach through my humor. Honestly if I wasn't doing it, I wouldn't be having as much fun.
@@ShmupJunkie "im what im". That and your love about shooters and data, are the reasons i support you my friend. Once again, keep up the awesome work and please, never change 💪💪💪
Lol, I was never able to even 1loop Raiden without dying, the first couple games are vicious. Way beyond my paygrade. But I did used to be able to do really well by the skin of my teeth and now am too old as well. 😣
Shmup Junkie therein lies the appeal of raiden. Getting through a stage by the skin of your teeth. Defeating the brutal AI. Staying ahead of the enemies by killing them before they spray you with their fast bullets. Seat of the pants stuff. I'll take a raiden game over a psykio game all day every day.
in Raiden DX, the blue ship (player 2) moves faster than the red ship horizontally. great video btw, G Darius is the only one missing for me to beat. I should start playing it soon
I'm not a huge Raiden expert so I'll keep that in mind for next time thanks. I never did try player 2. Really slow ships drive me nuts so I think that would help me a lot. G Darius is pretty rough but if you can do the full DX you can likely finish just about anything.
In The Hunt was the game that turned me away from shmups as a kid. I thought to myself 'well, I dont have enough skill for this' and didn't look back for years
To be fair most arcade shmups may have done similar. They’re nearly all super hard. What a beautiful game it was though it kept me coming back whenever I did see it. But yeah it’s much easier to jump on metal slug and credit feed it like many did versus In the Hunt.
In the Hunt is an awesome shooter, my favorite of the 32-bit era on consoles. Challenging but with the responsive controls and fair difficulty curve, it can be mastered.
Exactly. It’s fair and never feels like it’s cheating you. Except I never figured out that missile section right before the final boss. There is a trick I haven’t found nor a video by anyone that doesn’t look like they are getting pretty lucky too.
I remember having to angle mine just right to read properly. If it wasn’t at a perfect angle it just wouldn’t work 🤣. I admit though partially my fault as I often did the open swap trick to play imports I bought or rented. Wasn’t good for the laser I’m sure.
Raiden was my jam back in the early 90s, playing it on arcade machines as a little kid, or at least _trying_ to. It's one of those games I've treasured all these years, being the very first shmup I ever played, but it's still one I have a major love/hate relationship with. I want so bad to be able to beat Raiden 2 on MAME, but I get unfairly pot-shot time and time again, even on the easiest difficulty setting
Yeah the original games are absolutely brutal. Most who love them still never made it past the first few stages at most. And the Raiden cabinets were probably the most common of any shooter out there. They were everywhere that I remember. We all lost plenty of quarters into the blasted machine for years 😂 and I think I had a better chance at beating RType before this one.
G Darius and Raystorm were also released on the Taito PS2 collections. The versions on those differ from the PS1 versions a bit, but still can be had for much cheaper than buying the actual PS1 copies. Also, look up the contents of what's on the Taito collections before trying to find/buy them, if I recall, G-Darius and Raystorm were not listed on the back of the case with the rest of the titles so it made it confusing when I went looking for the one with Darius and Raystorm. The Taito PS2 collections are also a goldmine for other Taito arcade shoot em ups from 80's and 90's, I'm not sure about input lag or slowdown but at least they are cheap, easy to obtain and play on a PS2. I bought all the Taito/Capcom/Namco/Midway PS2 collection discs years ago when I bought the XArcade Tankstick and never had any regrets.
I'm actually going to get into the PS2 Taito collection in the very next video! At least for G Darius as it's about the upcoming collection. The PS2 version runs without slowdown, too fast actually vs the arcade, so some people prefer it. But it's missing the ps1 port options like beginner mode and the boss rush which is a very useful feature. So kind of a give and take. But at this point, with Revelations coming soon where you can get the actual version 2 arcade port, and in HD no less, it may end up being the way to go soon. I played the PS1 port the other day emulated and upscaled to 1080P and it looked sooo good.
I want to love In The Hunt so much, the graphics are beautiful. Definitely got the Metal Slug vibes on my own before I realized the connection. But it's SO DAMN HARD!!
I don’t think IREM knows how to make a game that isn’t so damn hard 🤣. Or in this case Nazca folks still at IREM. Metal Slugs are real quarter munchers too.
@@ShmupJunkie I recently decided on a whim to try out some neo geo stuff on an emulator. Immediately got drawn to the metal slug line. Played all five in a weekend and started researching the franchise more. Learned about In the Hunt. Researched that, and thats how I found your channel. :D I'm a newbie to schmups, I usually play RPGs actually! My favorites so far are probably Blazing Star on neo geo and Einhander on psx.
Great vid. I still love the early Raiden games though i've never finished one and probably never will. Kyūkyoku Tiger on PC Engine starts to give you the suddenly-appearing enemies in later levels. I call them "side bastards". Seibu Kaihatsu definitely took a lot of inspiration from Kyūkyoku Tiger for Raiden games, so much so I often wonder if Toaplan staff moonlighted for them. In The Hunt is another fave, what a stunning creative game, still relatively unknown for such a cool game.
Raiden on PC Engine I can still kind of manage, even if it too gets crazy later. And Tiger on PCE is an old favorite and much rather play it to Twin Cobra on MD, talking about side bastards 😂 it's like the PCE version only on hard mode. The PCE version is less frustrating by comparison. In the Hunt I just love, it's never frustrating, but supposedly the Arcade had slowdown too which I just learned. So technically the Saturn port with slowdown isn't as far off, although now that I am used to no slowdown on PS1 I prefer it, even if the screen scrolls up and down a bit.
Up to Raiden DX is all fun because it ends being a match of dodgeball when it hits max rank. Is great to have that scenario happening in Raiden 2 where you can get randomly sniped by a tank because yoloswag 360 hardscope. Also, there's a mod for Super R-Type on both original release and other... slightly illegal ways, that strips entirely the slowdowns on the game even on original hardware. Who's up to do a 1CC 2-All with the mod?
Oh yeah I know the SuperR mod, I have been wanting to do a video for it, but keep getting distracted for other stuff because February has so many new releases. Or maybe I will do an RType video and can include that in there. I have been wanting to play the hack and see how I can do. I never played it much before because of the slowdown
Great vid! But my curse of choosing hard games continued, raystorm was one of the first ps1 shmups i played!😂 (strikers 45 being another, also found that reasonably tricky....honorable mention? Tho originally a neo game i guess?)
Yeah Strikers was Arcade MVS/Neo Geo and a really tough one, all Psikyo games were really. Super fast bullets like in Raiden. Raystorm is just really hard to 1cc but if you just play it for fun it's not bad. I honestly never one credit cleared it as a kid and just finished it, so I didn't realize how hard it would be to try and do.
Those bullets on Raiden DX were almost indistinguishable from the spread weapon to the point where I would say they looked harder to pick out than the missile bullets in Battle Garegga.
Raiden having slow fighter speed is part of the core game. It all about memory position of where the enemy will spawn. Raiden doesn't ask you for forgiveness because it expects you to expect the unpredictable with no warnings. Enemy shooting pattern is also a memory game and once you have all of that figure out, the slow speed of your fighter no longer becomes an issue. It all about remembering where off screen enemies will spawn, where the position of your fighter is, and remembering firing spread of each enemy type.
Absolutely it’s the classic Toaplan formula of many of their early games that Raiden borrowed so heavily from. It’s just something that always drove me nuts in vertical shooters and why I preferred games like Tatsujin and Slap Fight. But I totally get it and you’re 100% correct. What’s funny is I didn’t mind it as much for horizontal shooters like Pulstar, because it seemed to match the pace of the game and slower bullets. But yeah Raiden was always and still is a tough one for me as it plays against my sensibilities as a player.
@@ShmupJunkie Raiden was my childhood game growing up in the 90s. I had a bootleg copy of it on my PS1 and I played it for days on end. Even now, I still play it on a hack psp that has PS1 games installed in it. I also grew up playing Gradius Gaiden and while I know Raiden and Gradius are two different types of shmups and play differently, I love them both because they're iconic and classics of their day. I didn't like playing View Point though even though I know it an arcade and PS1 classic, the 3d isometric view always fucked me over when trying to pass through opening walls. I notice you don't have a video about Bullet Hell genre or the Touhou series, and I'm curious if you do plan on making a dedicated video about them considering the popularity of the bullet hell genre and Touhou series.
@@WatcherMovie008 I did do a video top 5 hardest on Xbox360 which is of course all Cave games lol. So there’s that. And I bring up Touhou in various videos of mine especially the educational ones because some of them on easy mode are fantastic for learning danmaku. But the reason you don’t see too much is I’m not a huge danmaku player compared to the older style games. So it’s not my area of expertise. I defer to my friend Mark and his channel Electric Underground for that style of game as it’s 100% his favorite and he’s incredibly good at them. I even had him as a guest in my Xbox360 video. But that’s why you don’t see as much of it on my channel.
Big fan of the Darius games and yeah the bottom route is nails in all the games looking forward to the release on the 27th more burst cant be a bad thing and a updated G Darius should be good, i agree with you R-Type 2 is a very tricky game lol.
I’ve been playing G on an emulator scaled to 1080p this week and it’s gorgeous so I have an idea of what to expect with the new release. Looking forward to it too.
The games are insane, and I am insane for playing and trying to beat them. But I'm having too much fun with the rest. I'll be said when I run out of consoles to do these Top5 brutal videos for.
R-Type II on R-TYPES defaults to WAIT OFF. Go into the options menu for the game and turn WAIT ON in order to have the port simulate the PCB's slowdown. Irem stated that they were really proud of the work they did on R-TYPES so I guess they figured that showing off the games without any hardware restrictions (by default) was a way of demonstrating their porting prowess.
Now that would have been good to know BEFORE I killed myself on that mode 😂😂 I mean I like no slowdown modes but man that last stage is killer. Just a little help would have been appreciated. Now I know.
Both are awesome games, yeah. My favorites too. Einhander is weird where some parts are really tough and others not too bad, it can be memorized with some work. I always felt Delta was harder, but both were killer games. If I do a PS1 favorites one day guaranteed they'll both be on it.
It was weird, sometimes upside down worked, and other times I had to get it at just the right angle. Or when it was havin trouble reading, I would start to adjust the angle ever so slightly until it caught, and then set it down again lol. It was always an art form. Like blowing into cartridges only for the new CD generation.
I’ve never been able to get into the Raiden series of games, but I love In the Hunt!! Such a rad game. My favorite shooters tend to be ones where you go on an adventure like In the Hunt, or LifeForce, instead of just score chasing or weaving through geometric bullet storms.
In the Hunt is freakin awesome you really can't go wrong with it. I'm with you on the game part, I do like the older style where the atmosphere and journey was part of the experience. One reason I really enjoy the older games, though I can appreciate the newer style for what they bring. Raiden is just super hard and always has been.
That's exactly what it is. It's custom art by someone named Dan Mumford who makes some amazing work. It was limited print. Soon as I saw it I had to have it!
Just got a PS1 classic, hope to see some more playstation vids from you if you have time mate. G Darius is on the Japanese version of the classic PS by the way, as well as a Gradius game.
Never had Raiden DX but beat Raiden 2 on The Raiden Project. Best trick it to stay low on the screen and move gradually side to side, just firing and ignoring what you're firing at. With G Darius though, wouldn't say there was much difference in difficulty between the top and bottom routes. The later bosses are insane till you figure out the alpha beam counter timing though. Wasn't aware of RayStorm's region difference though. Bit like DMC3 on Ps2
It would be interesting to see a counterpart to this series with the most beginner-friendly quality shooters for a given platform.
I get that recommended a lot actually and it's going to happen. Maybe not per console, but where I can pick several across various systems, with a good representation of each and talk about them in the same way. I have been thinking of doing that for a long while now. Good games that are also great for anyone to pick up and play.
The alpha beam counter in G-Darius might be the coolest thing i've ever seen in an STG. The beams going back and forth like DBZ was just too cool. That was an amazing recovery with the capture ball too, btw. Great vid, Bro.
How could anyone see that and not think DBZ. Clearly the devs were going for that and it’s a cool idea. It was harder in the arcade as without auto fire you are pounding away at the button and it’s a struggle. On console you just hold down the button and win. But this game is hard enough even without that extra level. I gotta day G Darius is insane with recovery. Some later stages you die in the wrong spot and lose your power ups may as well start over. The amount of bullets becomes impossible. Trust me k got reeeal lucky on that one part lol. But it made for fun footage.
Border Down (from G Rev that had former Taito staff which makes sense) has the beam duel mechanic even greater realized some might argue. Both incredible games to be sure.
Ray Storm was the game that got me into shmups. The demo disc that came with my Playstation in had one of the space levels. I was hooked ever since.
It was so dang impressive at the time I played it a lot too. And I don't remember it being this hard, but I imagine I didn't mind running through some credits to clear it. I'm curious to try it now in HD either on the Xbox or upscaled with an emulator to see how nice the later stages look.
@@ShmupJunkieDuckstation emulator in 4k 😊
I'm the oddball, at the time I only had a Playstation and I had a blast playing Gradius Gaiden, Einhander, Raystorm, Raycrisis, Darius Gaiden, Gokujou/Sexy Parodius and many others. Yes, nowadays I'm having good surprises playing/discovering the Saturn library, but I fee like while there were great exclusive shmups to the Saturn, we still had enough on the Playstation in case you could have only one console back then (which was very common and normal). Great video, as usual!
Yep you're totally right. I pretty much used my Saturn for only import shmups as I wasn't too into fighters, but the Playstation was chock full of awesome games that no way I would have wanted to miss. You didn't make the wrong choice as the PS1 was superior all around, the game library was so much more varied and you could enjoy tons of genres. I played the heck out of my PS1, every genre imaginable while the Saturn was mainly the shmup machine.
@@ShmupJunkie Plus if you dig RPGs with mechs, then Xenogears was where it was at.
One thing I realized watching your videos is how fast you manage to master a new game. You must be incredibly efficient with your time if, in two weeks, you can master all these games, play some more (so you can find out if they're difficult or not), produce this video, and go on with your life! Hats off to you! And, by the way, I loved this video, made me interested in a console I never looked at for STGs.
Well I would say it's 50/50. It's true I am good at figuring out a game quickly for survival, as I used to do it a lot renting games for a weekend as a kid. So I didn't have much time to beat them. But the other part is I don't think I am truly mastering them that fast, it would be impossible (at least for me). I understand them quickly and how I need to play to do well and survive, but I don't get good enough to 1CC the game. Many times I used save states at the beginning of each level to practice over and over again and figure it out. So yes I am being efficient but also using lots of convenience features to learn it faster. Normally I wouldn't play it that way. But to make a video, I need to record certain things many times to show something, or play the level a certain way and experiment. I think if I had to play each of them fair, no saves, and start over every time, it would take much longer. Also, many of the games I know and have played before and finished, so that makes a big difference. Starting from scratch is tough. I think the editing and video takes the longest amount of time, but it's fun so I don't mind doing it.
R-Type Delta wants to have a word with you.
😂 Man I love me some R-Type Delta... I'd rather play it any day of the week vs suffering those kicks in the nuts from R-Type II here. I had always heard it was hard but the arcade port was just wow. That final stage will haunt my dreams for a while.
Lol I was thinking that! 😂
r type delta is brutal
😂
Speaking of Irem i just discovered two shmups on mame Lethal Thunder and Fire Barrel don't know if you heard of them?
I couldn't really put my finger on what made your videos so good but I got it now. Your scripts are really great: clearly written by someone who's not inexperienced with writing.
I have no writing background but just try to make something entertaining and have fun with it. I spend a good bit of time editing too the timing is important. But that's part of the fun, making something that also makes you laugh and look forward to others seeing it. I appreciate the feedback and feel like I am slowly improving. My big weakness is my voice, as it gets tired/hoarse quick so I start to sound strained. Maybe I need to hire a voice coach 😅
🤣🤣
@@ShmupJunkie I did not notice anything. Do like the singers, use your stomach to alleviate the work in the throat. BTW now I'll spread the word a bit more regarding your channel
Gorgeous scan-line footage, gorgeous documentary, gorgeous channel!
Thank you. I’ve been unsure when to use scanlines for videos because TH-cam often compresses it and doesn’t look good, but I think for many PS1 games it helps a lot. So I try to do them when it works. I have fun making this series.
Congratulations dude. You got me wanting a Play Station again, especially to play In the Hunt. Top notch production!!!
If you want to play In the Hunt, grab it for $8 on the PS4 or Switch store. Near perfect arcade port and good way to play it.
Play the PlayStation version
Bravo! This one gave me nostalgia overload as PS1 was the system I really cut my teeth on. I distinctly remember renting Raiden II and In the Hunt when I was a kid only to be destroyed in minutes!! But those memories stuck with me all these years later and kept me coming back for more. Also props for catching one of the coolest moments in the whole Darius series at 22:05 with Great Thing illuminated in the storm...it's just perfect.
I also want to say thanks for spotlighting Raystorm, everyone knows about it but no one seems to actually play it which is a shame. It's basically treated as a footnote to the likes of other 3D STGs like Einhander. While it may not be the spectacle of games like that, other than a couple questionable sections you can tell it's crafted by a team of hardcore shmup veterans and definitely deserves a place among the best, at least in my opinion. Of course that may just be the PTSD from clearing it talking LOL.
I love that bit of foreshadowing in G Darius, including that level, where you catch glimpses of the boss you will face later. And dude is a beast too ugh. Most of the finals are. It's just a really hard game in every way. I'm with you on Raystorm. I always liked it and when you did your 1CC I knew I wanted to include it. I may have missed it otherwise as I just credit fed it myself when I was younger and figured it was no sweat that way. As it should be with 5-6 continues lol. At least this time I could manage with just one and I can live with that. I'm glad the timing worked out perfect with your 1CC to use it, and I learned some things I didn't know about it.
Great list! The G-Darius beta-beam counter is one of the most satisfying shooter experiences I've ever had. That tension between frantic dodging and looking for the perfect opportunity to unleash...delightful.
Thanks! I always had a much harder time pulling of the counter in the later Dariusburst they made it much trickier. In G it’s just about surviving and saving it for the right moment. I agree it was a genius gameplay mechanic and really added to the game.
Just subbed! Love shmups! Your narration on these vids is off the charts!
Welcome! And thank you. I have a blast making these and always look forward to it. I made several of these in the series so I hope you enjoy them all 🙏
Great video. I am collecting all the shmups for all systems and your videos are exactly what I need
All systems? Good luck! Shmups are probably the most expensive genre to collect for. I'm glad the videos will be helpful to you. The Neo Geo and PC Engine shmups are especially expensive, and the Saturn is up there too.
@@ShmupJunkie definitely not buying every system. I have them all in a emulation PC using batocera.
Usually when someone on youtube tries to critique a beloved shoot 'em up from my childhood, it's basic opinion posed as fact. "The ship is big so it's hit box is big, and it's a vertical shooter, so it's bad." With you I can't even be mad, because your descriptions are so accurate and detailed. You sound like you're complaining about a wife you've been married to for 30 years, and I can't not respect that. New subber and already a big fan. Cool cadence too, there are several stock youtube gamer accents and you have none, you have your own voice. Great stuff dude :)
Many of these games have been kicking my ass longer than my wife has been so that’s a pretty apt comparison. Really glad you found me and enjoyed what I’ve done so far. It hasn’t even been a year since I started making videos so I’m not on the up and up of TH-cam and everyone else. I started my channel just to make some good pc engine mini videos as I wasn’t happy with what was out there and it kind of took off from there so I kept with it. But if spending 40hrs to make a video that nets less than half a day working fast food then I guess that makes me a TH-camr 😅. In all seriousness thx for the great feedback and comment and I hope you enjoy more of my stuff. I’m having a ball making them and stoked so many are enjoying it and the channel is growing fast. So I’m sticking with it for the fun and curiosity of how far it can go.
Your introduction reminded me so many memories 🤣 my first PlayStation I had to put it upside down so that it could read the games! 😅 Thank you for having a good time and again bravo for the energy and the enormous work that you put into your videos! 👍😊
I was wondering how many people will get the PS1 reference in the beginning, of constantly trying to adjust the angle so it would read the discs. Funny it would work upside down but not regular haha. But kudos to Sony for making a CD console that even works upside down!
@@ShmupJunkie 🤣🤣🤣
What a list! These look way out of my reaction time range haha, Great video as always mate.
Some of these are out of anyone's reaction time. It's memorize or die with something like G Darius especially. Raiden is just too hard for almost anybody lol
I remember arcade raiden when played with 2 players, you can combine your firepower wc can be significantly more powerful and hits in all directions. This was our key to finish this brutal game. Good video my man!
Ship speed is why I love Raiden Fighters on the 360 . All the raiden badassness with a fast ship . It is truly awesome 👌.
Once you know that Nazca was made of former Irem staff, it's easy to see the link between Metal Slug and previous Irem games like GunForce II and In the Hunt. But if you look closely you can see how earlier games like R-Type II and Cosmic Cop had already elements of that signature grungy art style.
That's a good point, I never thought about RType at all and any similarities. I can see it a bit in RType II and the way it's detailed for sure. I don't know how much of that original staff went to Nazca, but it seems there was a turning point where they already had this great art style worked out with In the Hunt, as it literally looks identical to a Metal Slug game.
That’s true
I have the Einhander soundtrack hanging on my wall inside a shadow box. Amazing music by Kenichiro Fukui! He also played keyboards in Nobuo Uematsu's band, The Black Mages.
The music in that game is awesome and helps make it what it is. One of my favorite games period on the PS1. It almost made the list too as it’s a tough game. But it may be good I can save it to feature in a best exclusives video instead and focus more on what makes it so good. That’s cool info by the way I made a note so I could mention that when I do show the game.
Great video !!!!🤘😝 And man ! Such a wicked collection you got there ) Especially TF3 and TF4 battle ships! 😍😍😍 My favourite Shmup series !
Thanks! Yeah I enjoy collecting some of the models from the games when I see them. Soon as they released those I grabbed a box.
Once again my friend you make a bestquality vid for our favorite shmups 🙃🙃😉🤘
I LOVE SO MUCH the shmups on ps1 specialy einhander and r type delta maybe the best of their génération.
Einhander give me some headhach for finish the game but like say, r type 2 kill my entire body......never finish him.
Thx for the vid😉😁🤘🤘👊
Yes man you got some good picks. Delta and Einhander are in my top 5 favorite shmups on the PS1. They are so good. I would love to see HD remakes for them too like G Darius is getting
I've always been fascinated by shoot em up games, and my first exposure were Bullet Hell type of games (like Bullet Heaven 2 and probably some Touhou video i watch in 2010). Growing up in a country where basically there were no interests in these sorts of games, I'm happy that i found this community where i can learn more about Shmups.
Raystorm!! This is a game a really want to dig into more soon, love the graphical style and the difficulty intrigues me. Rayforce (the previous in the series) is incredibly influential
Rayforce was always my favorite and a beautiful game. I'm a sucker for the 2D sprites and it had great music. When you play Raystorm you'll see what I mean. You won't find it super hard compared to what you play, but because it's so stingy with any extends and finds one way or another to cheap death you here and there, it's hard to get through without a continue. The US version is harder, but you get 5 lives. Japan is easier but you only get 3. So it's kind of pick your poison haha. As it's not one of those games you can play really well and collect a bunch of extra lives. Each time you get nailed just being at the wrong place at the wrong time it stings, and the randomness of some enemy spawns and boss patterns doesn't help.
I remember raystorm. In the arcade i could get to the last stage on one credit.. played the shit out of that game. I eventually got it on the playstation & was dissapointed. I mean it looked identical to the arcade, but something was off. Dont know if you ever noticed, but the arcade was timed with the music.as some events happened, there would be a Corresponding change in the Tune. The way the music was almost part of the gameplay was amazing. The playstation version however didnt have this.. the music just played like a cd in the background & did not blend with the action. As a result, it felt detached for me.
I found the best strategy on the missile section is to get above one shoot your bombs down and shoot forward. While you slow the one below you with your bombs the next missile can be sped up with your forward shot giving you the clearance to pass.
Interesting and noted thank you. I’ll play with that strategy next time. I knew they’d not put a way in to clear it properly but never could find a strat that worked for me.
What a great video!!! All these games bring back great memories especially in the hunt . Thanks 👍
Thank you too, glad you enjoyed it. In the Hunt was definitely my fav I just don't tire of that one easily. Some of the others I don't look forward to having to play again.
This episode is a pure labor of love, cheers man.
It was a labor of love and a barrel of pain haha, it's not easy making these the games are some real ass kickers. But I do enjoy it nonetheless. Thank you
Just found your channel and it has become one of my favorites already. Keep up the great work and I will be looking forward to any future videos.
Thanks! If you liked this one I did a few others just like it for other systems too. It's only been several months so I don't have a ton of videos, maybe 30 or so I think.
The PS1 just an insane library all around so figures there must be some tough shoot em ups on it
The intro... PS1 opitical reader fun. Some of my best and worst creativity until I could afford a new one! Great video sir!!!
People say turn it upside down, but in my case that didn't always work. It was always an art form messing with it and getting it just right. Wasn't always the same angle on different days haha. I blame myself, the constant region bypass tricks I was doing so I could play imports was no good for the laser. Patience and waiting for a US release was not one of my virtues 😅
@@ShmupJunkie I did upside down, vert, angled whatever allowed me to play! Every day was a new position! Oh the memories lol!
21:28 the game thats playing on the tv is a game I consider to be "the best graphics I have ever seen" when I was a kid. I still do think Raystorm have a beautiful graphics.
I always thought the original Rayforce / Layer Section was such a beautiful game, it was my favorite for a long while.
When I was a kid, I didn't go for the greatest graphics.
@@rxzero00 Nice to see you here.
@@soratheorangejuicemascot5809 Same.
Fantastic video, ive recently added all of these to my PS mini and Raiden is my fave shmup series
I love the original Raiden on my PC Engine the most... playing this one for the first time was a wake up call on how insanely difficult (unfair) it became with future iterations.
@ShmupJunkie thank you for another great video! your passion for shmups is infectious.
Thanks! Some of these games are incredibly frustrating but it’s part of the fun if you don’t take them too seriously. I enjoy making these hardest series
Good video once again thanks, hope to see more shmup reviews/tops on PS1, PS2, PS3!
Absolutely, as they come out I will slowly work on them. The PS2 would be next in line and there's some real beasts on that system that will kick my ass I already know it haha. I may need some help with Ibarra lol
I was poppin' by to see this video cuz I got G Darius HD and this video was what kinda helped me gain interest in the game at first, seeing the whole Omicron challenge thing. The HD preview video was what piqued my interest with DuckStation, too, heh.
Good video!!!! Btw you and electric underground are my 2 fav yt on shooters aka shumups 😎 oh in the future would u ever consider doing a NES shooter list??
Got gun nac
Lifeforce
S.c.a.t.
Zanac
Gradius etc.
I would do an every shooter on NES reviewed video at some point yeah, I love the NES. It would be a massive video though, the Famicom had over 100 of them, pretty insane. But I would enjoy it someday. Mark is the man I really enjoy his videos too and a great dude.
Great episode!! I like the mix of opinion/review of the games with curiosities and bits of humor. The PS1 has some awesome shmups. Looking forward to your top games episode!!
Thanks! Yes I try to do something different and entertaining vs just parroting a wiki. Kind of channel what it was like playing or trying to complete it and what it meant to me. The PS1 has some of my favorite exclusives so I’ll really enjoy making that one. Delta, Einhander, Gradius Gaiden and some more obscure ones too.
@@ShmupJunkie It's a great show: entertaining and informative!! And yes, there are some other great shumps on the PS1 like the ones you mentioned or Harmful Park, Gaiaseed and Zanac x Zanac. There is also the Japanese version of X2 No Relief which I read it's easier and more playable than the USA version but haven't played yet. Looking forward to some obscure and top games episodes!!
Amazing video and great analysis of these games.
Thanks! Some of these PS1 games were up there as the hardest I've ever had to play. The later the generations get the harder they seemed to become in terms of shmups. The Dreamcast one is going to end up killing me haha
As much as I love the Raiden series, I absolutely HATE it for how cheap it can be a lot of the time. Thank you so much for touching on it!
It was the number one thing I could talk about with Raiden. It's so cool in it's presentation, yet so frustrating any time you get going. Even those who love it, I imagine must also occasionally hate it.
Coitus Interruptus. Beautifully put. I've been stacking the original PCBs including the Raiden Fighters titles. Raiden DX is on my list. Such a rough series of shmups.
It's awesome you have room for those, I've yet to put a single candy cab together so I don't have any just yet. But my dream has been to have an Egret one day I can swap PCBs into. I can't say Raiden is going to be on my list though that game is evil, but then again so is Tatsujin (first on my list) so who am I to talk 😂
Another great video! I'm really looking forward to the new version of G-Darius. Aside from Gaiden I hadn't really played the Darius arcade games until the Cosmic Collection. As you said, that huge cabinet meant it was quite rare to see it in an arcade. I'm now converted to Darius 1+2 and I'm ready for more! (Gaiden was always great, but I've also really enjoyed revisiting it). I have to say I'm with the tin hat guy on the angled consoles though. My original Dreamcast barely loads a game in the usual position, yet works great upside down!
Tinfoil Timmy was me as well on my PS1, it was an art form to keep it working and reading as it got older. I had a feeling many would recognize having to screw with it back in the day. I'm working on a Darius special next for the Revelations release! If you like Gaiden you'd like G Darius, they are both great and most people's two favorite in the series.
"Don't expect a reach-around as an apology either" that was hilarious 🤣👍👌
That one just kind of came out of nowhere. I was reading the script and it just popped into my mind... whatever that may or not say about what's on my mind. 😅
@@ShmupJunkie , the enemy stealing mechanic was also present in Darius Gaiden.
@@paxhumana2015 Totally, but I love how they expanded it in G to either bomb or turn into a beam for big boss kills. You know they were thinking DBZ when they came up with that lol
You talking about R-Type II made me have Super R-Type flashbacks and I got the thousand yard stare for the rest of the day.
Man if Super gives you flashbacks then this arcade port will give you full ptsd 😅 Although I have been wanting to try that new Super RType SA1 hack. I would imagine that's going to crank things up to a different level, and not in a good way, although I'll be glad to see it without slowdown
@@ShmupJunkie Yeah, I think a large portion of what Super R-Type suffers is from Irem's at the time, "unfamiliarity" with the console causing that terrible stutter lag that can stiff arm you on the frame delay from a sloppy dodge that combos with utter lack of stage checkpoints. At least they learned from this because I still think that R-Type III is the best of the series.
@@TornadoADV Slowdowns are norm for many games on the SNES unfortunately. Not only its rather low end CPU uses 8-bit bus, but also most games ran at lower speed (2.68 instead of 3.58) because this makes cartridges cheaper.
Quite possible this decision was sometimes forced from above by bean counters from management in the last moment.
Great video as always. I knew there had to be something to Darius that I wasn’t getting because I was just pounding away and using credits to beat those bosses. I will need to practice that shot mechanic. But In The Hunt is the crown jewel. I only recently learned of it from the Evercade Irem cart and holy cow what an awesome game!
Yeah, you HAVE to use the beam properly for big damage on bosses in G Darius, it's completely designed around it. And makes it more fun too. In the Hunt can't not be good, it's basically Metal Slug submarine. I've enjoyed that game ever since I first eyed it in arcades.
My fave PS1 shooter was Einhander,would love a modern port
Agreed Einhander could use a modern release. Fantastic game!
Had to Jones for a week, but you brought the goods as usual. Awesome content can't thank you enough.
You're welcome. I honestly hate when it takes two weeks as you all miss out and youtube kills my engagement too, but sometimes it's just too much to get done that quickly. But I'm glad when it turns out fun in the end.
Let me tell you something awesome. I chanced upon your channel (subbed BTW) and I had all these memories of these shmups from the eras you covered. I knew I had a faint memory of seeing a game with the name DX in its title (this was when another DX was famous... Wrestling lol) ..... And I was searching high and low and found the game on this video! Thank you for your content. I am not the best shmup player but these are my memories too. Much love from India 🇮🇳, though most of my gaming memories are from Oman 🇴🇲. Love your content.
In the hunt never heard about it but Jesus Christ so damn awesome been playing it all damn day! I gotta say so far in the hunt has to be one of my top 5 fave shmups so far! Man I love your channel! Got me playing a bunch new shmups just finding out games I missed as a kid! And also irem made another submarine shmup called sqoon for the nes if you never played it!
Heck yeah In the Hunt is freakin' amazing. Really glad I helped you discover it and get to play it. Basically Metal Slug Submarine, which is actually what they called the bootleg in Brazil haha.
Wow lol that's awesome! I use to burn some quarters on metal slug back in the day! I bought the collection for 5 bucks on ps4 worth it! Ya man I'm so glad to be playing in the hunt so amazing!
Thanks for the recommendations. I’ve never played any PS1 shmups and just got my PS1 soft modded so a whole new word opened up for me. Was blown away by Gradius Gaiden last night. In the Hunt looks incredible and I must play this.
Darius is the Persian emperor who was defeated by the Athenians at Marathon. I’m pretty sure my history teacher didn’t even pronounce his name correctly.
Awesome vid as always man! Now i wanna fire up my emulator just to play these games. Specially raystorm. It reminds me of eschatos but in a more traditional playstyle :o
If you do, try turning on the 5x upscaling to 1080p and anti-aliasing. Just did that with G Darius yesterday and it’s gorgeous!
Awesome video mate and awesome games all. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
I definitely had the Raystorm series games back in the day, great fun and pretty tough, I don’t think I ever finished em. Love R-Type II but didn’t get much further than the 3rd level and that took ages. In The Hunt is gorgeous and also my favourite out of these here being a big Metal Slug fan but I’ll be honest I thought it was a Metal Slug game too for the longest time. The Darius game is very familiar as well and definitely something I’ve played back in the day. Ultimately I want them all 😂 😂 😂
Don't we all want them all haha. I honestly don't own all of these. Some I would after playing them while others not so much as I can't see playing them too often. In the Hunt is a must and Raystorm is excellent too as you're well acquainted. The others are so dang hard that whether really good or not, your mileage may vary. I am doing a video on the upcoming Darius collection next which are new M2 ports for Darius. So at the least, it will have great training modes like their other work, as G Darius is an exceptionally difficult game.
😂😂😂pop goes the weesel (forgive my english i am from Mexico) love your videos & commentary also later today when i make some quality time for myself i will check out your shooter mega drive special (every shooter review)
Thanks for taking the time to make your videos (also love😂the intros)
great video! gonna pick up In the Hunt and Cozmic Revalation for sure!
I’m almost done with my Cozmic Revelation preview video it’s up next. Got one preordered as well. In the Hunt for $8 on the eshop is a steal. Just learned the other day apparently the arcade pcb has slowdown too, so it could be the Saturn is closer to it. Though I admit I like it just fine the way it is.
" Don't fear the giant tuna " Wasn't that one of those Blue Oyster Cult songs that needed more cowbell? Loved the video, definitely did not need more cow bell.
You just mixed Police Academy with SNL so you get the comment of the day award 😂 I'm saving my cowbell jokes for a future pc engine video. But now I am picturing Will Ferrel smashing that thing haha
@@ShmupJunkie Thank you for the compliment Sir and thank you for the great shmup videos. I just purchased " In The Hunt " on the PS4, thank you for mentioning that in the video, I would have never known otherwise.
@@Spartan77 Sweet! You won’t regret it such a dope game. How much does it cost now on the store?
@@ShmupJunkie It was $7.99, not a bad deal at all. It has both the Japanese and US versions. Thank you for mentioning it in the video, I would have probably never know it was available on the PS4.
I recently discovered your channel and I love it, I used to love shmups as a kid but later I realized how much I sucked at it and it sucked the fun out of it, but I want to get into it again. I see that you didn't make a video on ps2 shmups, are there any on that system that are worth my time?
Really glad you found me! Yes, the PS2 has some good exclusive shmups though not a ton compared to some other consoles. Gradius V is the obvious one though it's quite difficult, it's also one of the best and made by Treasure. If you're looking for more bullet hell, Cave had some good releases on it like the original Mushihimesama (thought it's overpriced to buy the physical now and you can get it on Steam for much less). The original R-Type Final is also on PS2 if you like the series, though I always found Delta on PS1 to be a much better game and one of my favs. There's a ton of content I've made that'll definitely help you with some suggestions for various consoles. The most brutal shmups on a console aren't always the best place to start haha. So I made some good Beginner Shmups videos as well that have some useful suggestions for fun games that won't make you feel like a scrub.
You got me hooked on the pipe. Please upload more videos 😗🎮
Another hit coming up Sunday, same shmup time, same shmup channel 💨
Hey man, really love your videos and how you covered the hardest shmups on most platforms. I'm not sure if you know of it, but there was a Japanese exclusive ps1 shmup call kyuin. It's got a whole storybook aesthetic going on throughout the whole game and looks to be quite difficult if that's something you wish to check out as a recommendation. Not sure if it compares to the 5 hardest shmups in this video, but it looks both whimsical and hard as nails.
After seeing how beautiful the sprite work in, In The Hunt was, Darius looks absolutely hideous following directly after. The gameplay looks good tho.
It was a time when consoles became powerful enough to produce the most gorgeous 2D graphics but still in their infancy in terms of polygonal gaming. And G Darius was by far one of the better ones out there. I went into that gen kicking and screaming. The gameplay 3D opened up in other genres was awesome but it was forced onto every developer even for games that didn’t need it. Either that or making a 2D game was often a sentence to obscurity. That being said it looks really nice now upscaled to HD! But nothing can replace that beautiful 2D art.
@@ShmupJunkie I was right there with you man, I remember when legacy of Cain (first one) had the audacity to be a 2d game during the 3D boom it was ripped on so hard for having “old” throwback graphics in every review it bombed. When they made the better known sequel they caved to the peer pressure and made a hideous to my eyes 3D sequel. That whole generation was like that, I ended up getting a Saturn late in the generation cycle to play Guardian heroes and ended up finding all the beautiful 2d imports for the system.
@@Vaxovillion Man I really enjoyed the original Legacy of Kain too and still remember my time with it. Soul Reaver wasn’t bad but too many block puzzles for me. Didn’t have the gloriously evil vibe or debauchery that made the original so cool 🤣
My sunday is not complete without Junkie's vid! Also, watching R-Type 2 stage 6 brings back so many painful memories, I can feel the pain!
Did you ever end up beating that one? It feels doable now that I know the trick on the boss, I just don't look forward to it. Although I just learned there is a mode on this port to turn the arcade slowdown on, so I may do that next time I play to make it feel at least reasonable.
@@ShmupJunkie yep, 1CCed it two years ago. Once you know the trick, the final boss isn't a real problem... But the last two stages are pure hell!
@@mazstg8844 yeah I noticed that. You just sneak in long as you are powered up. I thought that instakill missile was total BS! 🤣 You really have no choice but to use the proper method to kill it.
I discover your channel and as a shmup fan since the early 80's, I can't not subscribe ! :)
Btw, if you want to play Darius in HD, you already can by using DuckStation, a fantastic ps1 emulator (you will have to set the scaler as high as possible)
I was just doing that this week! With G Darius I mean and it's beautiful. I am working on a Darius Revelations episode and I am using the HD Duckstation for it. It turns out that's what I have been doing this week haha.
For In The Hunt's infamous missile section one of the tricks is using your burst missiles (the green weapon pick-up) to shoot the missiles as they're coming up from the ground to create a bigger gap since they're pushed down/stalled when you hit them; I learned this from watching IcarusFW's 1cc on his channel. That and being patient and waiting for the right alignment between the gaps, of course. It's still really annoying though!
Thanks! I will try that out next time I play. I knew that any weapon speeds up their movement, but not that certain weapons did it better than others. I'll see if I can find that video!
In that Electric Underground video you mentioned you had to move away from scanlines and your OSSC, but they're looking spectacular here, imo.
Yeah sometimes it looks great. It always looks great on my end. It depends on the TH-cam stream, your signal etc. I’ve seen it look great or poor it’s a toss up. So I never know what experience most people will have on their end.
Dude, my bloodpressure is like 140/120 watching this Raiden DX footage. Congrats on surviving that hell.
Yeah I put it up there with Mega Drive Twin Cobra as one of the most maddening grinds I’ve ever suffered through in terms of STGs. If it weren’t so awesome it would be hard to stick with.
Awesome video man. Many thanks.
You're welcome, glad you enjoyed it. 👍
@@ShmupJunkie Tin foil Timmy funny AF. Like an extension of yourself. Also, great to see your fantastic skills. You walk the walk dude.
The worst thing in shmups are slow ships.... for sure.
Great video!!!💙💜
Ugh, they so are. Even the submarine for In the Hunt was faster lol
Great video. Harmful park is the most unique on the PS1. I also enjoy Bokan Desuyo from Time Bokan Series: Though neither is difficult as any of what you showcased here. Bokan Desuyo has wonderful spite animation executed in both smooth, simplistic, but effective mechanics. Between PS1 and PS2 AS FAR AS Sony goes they have the best in terms of volume and distictiveness in their respective libraries. These 5 however are mostt certainly the most difficult. Ace video . kUDOS CROWN PRINCE!
OH SNAP ITS YOU! from IG! You're a real G through and through. get those views!
but yes this video makes me realize im not out of my mind for being afraid of R-Type II. Its just so brutal. Stage 6? No. I've never even got to that boss. Just NO
Haha yeah RType II is for the few and the proud. It'll be a while before I brave it again. Glad you found me on here. Been making these for several months now. That's why I am on IG so much less now, this just takes up almost all of my time. But I still have lots of friends there and people I like to follow and chat with, so I will always go back as much as I can.
Another superb video and man those are some brutal shmups indeed!! Special thanks for sharing In the Hunt, now on my radar, looks amazing! PS: tell Timmy to contact me, I know the trick to and it is not sideways 😆 Great quality video!!
I know I know, put it upside down. But you know what, when I used to fix mine, that wouldn't always work. I often had to try different angles it was weird haha. Yeah man these games were the brutalest... if that's a word. But you must try In the Hunt dude you won't regret it. $8 on the PS4 store if you want it quick and dirty lol and it's a perfect arcade port far as I know.
@@ShmupJunkie LOL yes, that’s it and you’re right, doesn’t always work (I still use it haha). Will def check In the Hunt out, thx 👍🏻👍🏻
Hadn't heard of a few of these. Thanks...I'll be checking them out.
Good luck, I hope you pick the good ones instead of the painful ones!
@@ShmupJunkie i went with In the Hunt. Axiom Verge and Iron Crypticle. Ive got a thing for SHMHPS, Rougelikes and Metrovanias. Im definetly a glutton for punishment.
@@theinnermostsanctum Axiom Verge is one that always looked really cool to me and others have recommended. It’s on a short list to play one day during some relaxing evenings. You just reminded me of that one.
R type II it's just IMPOSSIBLE
If not impossible at least improbable haha. That last stage is murder!
Man i have to be totally honest: i dont like most of your jokes but, your enthusiasm and love about shooters and your reviews and data are so awesome that i dont care if i dont like your jokes. Keep up the great work 👍
The ultimate back handed compliment! 😂 I know not everyone will, but I am what I am I guess, so I'm glad the rest is so good you can stomach through my humor. Honestly if I wasn't doing it, I wouldn't be having as much fun.
@@ShmupJunkie "im what im". That and your love about shooters and data, are the reasons i support you my friend. Once again, keep up the awesome work and please, never change 💪💪💪
I remembered the day when I 2 loops Raiden without dying. Now I can't get pass stage 1.... I'm fucking old!!!
Lol, I was never able to even 1loop Raiden without dying, the first couple games are vicious. Way beyond my paygrade. But I did used to be able to do really well by the skin of my teeth and now am too old as well. 😣
Shmup Junkie therein lies the appeal of raiden. Getting through a stage by the skin of your teeth. Defeating the brutal AI. Staying ahead of the enemies by killing them before they spray you with their fast bullets. Seat of the pants stuff. I'll take a raiden game over a psykio game all day every day.
in Raiden DX, the blue ship (player 2) moves faster than the red ship horizontally.
great video btw, G Darius is the only one missing for me to beat. I should start playing it soon
I'm not a huge Raiden expert so I'll keep that in mind for next time thanks. I never did try player 2. Really slow ships drive me nuts so I think that would help me a lot. G Darius is pretty rough but if you can do the full DX you can likely finish just about anything.
In The Hunt was the game that turned me away from shmups as a kid. I thought to myself 'well, I dont have enough skill for this' and didn't look back for years
To be fair most arcade shmups may have done similar. They’re nearly all super hard. What a beautiful game it was though it kept me coming back whenever I did see it. But yeah it’s much easier to jump on metal slug and credit feed it like many did versus In the Hunt.
In the Hunt is an awesome shooter, my favorite of the 32-bit era on consoles. Challenging but with the responsive controls and fair difficulty curve, it can be mastered.
Exactly. It’s fair and never feels like it’s cheating you. Except I never figured out that missile section right before the final boss. There is a trick I haven’t found nor a video by anyone that doesn’t look like they are getting pretty lucky too.
"...and don't expect a reach around either..." - Love it ;)
😂 I was hoping it's the least they could do after something like that haha
LOL at the intro, we all had to do that with the early batch of PS1 consoles, or even turn the sytem upside down.
I remember having to angle mine just right to read properly. If it wasn’t at a perfect angle it just wouldn’t work 🤣. I admit though partially my fault as I often did the open swap trick to play imports I bought or rented. Wasn’t good for the laser I’m sure.
Raiden was my jam back in the early 90s, playing it on arcade machines as a little kid, or at least _trying_ to. It's one of those games I've treasured all these years, being the very first shmup I ever played, but it's still one I have a major love/hate relationship with. I want so bad to be able to beat Raiden 2 on MAME, but I get unfairly pot-shot time and time again, even on the easiest difficulty setting
Yeah the original games are absolutely brutal. Most who love them still never made it past the first few stages at most. And the Raiden cabinets were probably the most common of any shooter out there. They were everywhere that I remember. We all lost plenty of quarters into the blasted machine for years 😂 and I think I had a better chance at beating RType before this one.
G Darius and Raystorm were also released on the Taito PS2 collections. The versions on those differ from the PS1 versions a bit, but still can be had for much cheaper than buying the actual PS1 copies. Also, look up the contents of what's on the Taito collections before trying to find/buy them, if I recall, G-Darius and Raystorm were not listed on the back of the case with the rest of the titles so it made it confusing when I went looking for the one with Darius and Raystorm. The Taito PS2 collections are also a goldmine for other Taito arcade shoot em ups from 80's and 90's, I'm not sure about input lag or slowdown but at least they are cheap, easy to obtain and play on a PS2. I bought all the Taito/Capcom/Namco/Midway PS2 collection discs years ago when I bought the XArcade Tankstick and never had any regrets.
I'm actually going to get into the PS2 Taito collection in the very next video! At least for G Darius as it's about the upcoming collection. The PS2 version runs without slowdown, too fast actually vs the arcade, so some people prefer it. But it's missing the ps1 port options like beginner mode and the boss rush which is a very useful feature. So kind of a give and take. But at this point, with Revelations coming soon where you can get the actual version 2 arcade port, and in HD no less, it may end up being the way to go soon. I played the PS1 port the other day emulated and upscaled to 1080P and it looked sooo good.
I want to love In The Hunt so much, the graphics are beautiful. Definitely got the Metal Slug vibes on my own before I realized the connection. But it's SO DAMN HARD!!
I don’t think IREM knows how to make a game that isn’t so damn hard 🤣. Or in this case Nazca folks still at IREM. Metal Slugs are real quarter munchers too.
@@ShmupJunkie I recently decided on a whim to try out some neo geo stuff on an emulator. Immediately got drawn to the metal slug line. Played all five in a weekend and started researching the franchise more. Learned about In the Hunt. Researched that, and thats how I found your channel. :D I'm a newbie to schmups, I usually play RPGs actually! My favorites so far are probably Blazing Star on neo geo and Einhander on psx.
Very nice work. Thank you.
You're welcome. I do have fun making these brutal shmup videos even if there is a lot of painful gameplay in the process.
Great vid. I still love the early Raiden games though i've never finished one and probably never will. Kyūkyoku Tiger on PC Engine starts to give you the suddenly-appearing enemies in later levels. I call them "side bastards". Seibu Kaihatsu definitely took a lot of inspiration from Kyūkyoku Tiger for Raiden games, so much so I often wonder if Toaplan staff moonlighted for them. In The Hunt is another fave, what a stunning creative game, still relatively unknown for such a cool game.
Raiden on PC Engine I can still kind of manage, even if it too gets crazy later. And Tiger on PCE is an old favorite and much rather play it to Twin Cobra on MD, talking about side bastards 😂 it's like the PCE version only on hard mode. The PCE version is less frustrating by comparison. In the Hunt I just love, it's never frustrating, but supposedly the Arcade had slowdown too which I just learned. So technically the Saturn port with slowdown isn't as far off, although now that I am used to no slowdown on PS1 I prefer it, even if the screen scrolls up and down a bit.
Up to Raiden DX is all fun because it ends being a match of dodgeball when it hits max rank. Is great to have that scenario happening in Raiden 2 where you can get randomly sniped by a tank because yoloswag 360 hardscope. Also, there's a mod for Super R-Type on both original release and other... slightly illegal ways, that strips entirely the slowdowns on the game even on original hardware. Who's up to do a 1CC 2-All with the mod?
Oh yeah I know the SuperR mod, I have been wanting to do a video for it, but keep getting distracted for other stuff because February has so many new releases. Or maybe I will do an RType video and can include that in there. I have been wanting to play the hack and see how I can do. I never played it much before because of the slowdown
Great vid! But my curse of choosing hard games continued, raystorm was one of the first ps1 shmups i played!😂 (strikers 45 being another, also found that reasonably tricky....honorable mention? Tho originally a neo game i guess?)
Yeah Strikers was Arcade MVS/Neo Geo and a really tough one, all Psikyo games were really. Super fast bullets like in Raiden. Raystorm is just really hard to 1cc but if you just play it for fun it's not bad. I honestly never one credit cleared it as a kid and just finished it, so I didn't realize how hard it would be to try and do.
Those bullets on Raiden DX were almost indistinguishable from the spread weapon to the point where I would say they looked harder to pick out than the missile bullets in Battle Garegga.
No kidding! That and the one stage in G Darius they just disappear. Except at least Darius doesn’t pop you from off screen. That’s the worst!
Raiden having slow fighter speed is part of the core game. It all about memory position of where the enemy will spawn. Raiden doesn't ask you for forgiveness because it expects you to expect the unpredictable with no warnings. Enemy shooting pattern is also a memory game and once you have all of that figure out, the slow speed of your fighter no longer becomes an issue. It all about remembering where off screen enemies will spawn, where the position of your fighter is, and remembering firing spread of each enemy type.
Absolutely it’s the classic Toaplan formula of many of their early games that Raiden borrowed so heavily from. It’s just something that always drove me nuts in vertical shooters and why I preferred games like Tatsujin and Slap Fight. But I totally get it and you’re 100% correct. What’s funny is I didn’t mind it as much for horizontal shooters like Pulstar, because it seemed to match the pace of the game and slower bullets. But yeah Raiden was always and still is a tough one for me as it plays against my sensibilities as a player.
@@ShmupJunkie Raiden was my childhood game growing up in the 90s. I had a bootleg copy of it on my PS1 and I played it for days on end. Even now, I still play it on a hack psp that has PS1 games installed in it. I also grew up playing Gradius Gaiden and while I know Raiden and Gradius are two different types of shmups and play differently, I love them both because they're iconic and classics of their day. I didn't like playing View Point though even though I know it an arcade and PS1 classic, the 3d isometric view always fucked me over when trying to pass through opening walls. I notice you don't have a video about Bullet Hell genre or the Touhou series, and I'm curious if you do plan on making a dedicated video about them considering the popularity of the bullet hell genre and Touhou series.
@@WatcherMovie008 I did do a video top 5 hardest on Xbox360 which is of course all Cave games lol. So there’s that. And I bring up Touhou in various videos of mine especially the educational ones because some of them on easy mode are fantastic for learning danmaku. But the reason you don’t see too much is I’m not a huge danmaku player compared to the older style games. So it’s not my area of expertise. I defer to my friend Mark and his channel Electric Underground for that style of game as it’s 100% his favorite and he’s incredibly good at them. I even had him as a guest in my Xbox360 video. But that’s why you don’t see as much of it on my channel.
Can you do the 5 hardest shmups on the PS2? (Maybe the NES and Master System?) Love to see it.
Big fan of the Darius games and yeah the bottom route is nails in all the games looking forward to the release on the 27th more burst cant be a bad thing and a updated G Darius should be good, i agree with you R-Type 2 is a very tricky game lol.
I’ve been playing G on an emulator scaled to 1080p this week and it’s gorgeous so I have an idea of what to expect with the new release. Looking forward to it too.
You are absolutely insane my friend.......and I LOVE IT!!!!! 😂💕💕😂
The games are insane, and I am insane for playing and trying to beat them. But I'm having too much fun with the rest. I'll be said when I run out of consoles to do these Top5 brutal videos for.
R-Type II on R-TYPES defaults to WAIT OFF. Go into the options menu for the game and turn WAIT ON in order to have the port simulate the PCB's slowdown.
Irem stated that they were really proud of the work they did on R-TYPES so I guess they figured that showing off the games without any hardware restrictions (by default) was a way of demonstrating their porting prowess.
Now that would have been good to know BEFORE I killed myself on that mode 😂😂 I mean I like no slowdown modes but man that last stage is killer. Just a little help would have been appreciated. Now I know.
Einhander and R-Type Delta are two of my favorite PS1 games. I think Einhander is one of the most challenging.
Both are awesome games, yeah. My favorites too. Einhander is weird where some parts are really tough and others not too bad, it can be memorized with some work. I always felt Delta was harder, but both were killer games. If I do a PS1 favorites one day guaranteed they'll both be on it.
@@ShmupJunkie Definitely! Also, I do have my R-Type Delta and
Einhander playthroughs with subtitles if you'd like to check it out!
@@DawnHibiki I will. I just subbed so I can have it handy later when I’m chilling to check it out. 👌
You maneuvering the PS1 gave me PTSD. But normally when they started to crap out (I had 3) I'd just flip it upside down.
It was weird, sometimes upside down worked, and other times I had to get it at just the right angle. Or when it was havin trouble reading, I would start to adjust the angle ever so slightly until it caught, and then set it down again lol. It was always an art form. Like blowing into cartridges only for the new CD generation.
I’ve never been able to get into the Raiden series of games, but I love In the Hunt!! Such a rad game.
My favorite shooters tend to be ones where you go on an adventure like In the Hunt, or LifeForce, instead of just score chasing or weaving through geometric bullet storms.
In the Hunt is freakin awesome you really can't go wrong with it. I'm with you on the game part, I do like the older style where the atmosphere and journey was part of the experience. One reason I really enjoy the older games, though I can appreciate the newer style for what they bring. Raiden is just super hard and always has been.
Great video! Where is that amazing RTYPE Dobkeratops poster hanging in the background at the start of the video?
That's exactly what it is. It's custom art by someone named Dan Mumford who makes some amazing work. It was limited print. Soon as I saw it I had to have it!
excellent review of in the hunt aka metal sub, bro. brilliant game!
Star fox 64 and Sin and punishment are my favorite shooters. I grew up with an n64 but these PS games look cool.
You and Mark_MSX from Electric Underground would get along well... he is a big fan of both those games too and has even done some video on them.
the submarine sub-level in metal slug 3 always reminded me of in the hunt :)
Yeah I'm sure that's where it came from too, an homage to the game.
Just got a PS1 classic, hope to see some more playstation vids from you if you have time mate. G Darius is on the Japanese version of the classic PS by the way, as well as a Gradius game.
Never had Raiden DX but beat Raiden 2 on The Raiden Project.
Best trick it to stay low on the screen and move gradually side to side, just firing and ignoring what you're firing at.
With G Darius though, wouldn't say there was much difference in difficulty between the top and bottom routes. The later bosses are insane till you figure out the alpha beam counter timing though.
Wasn't aware of RayStorm's region difference though. Bit like DMC3 on Ps2
Once again another quality video
Thanks. Took a while to finish and some blood and tears were had, but it all worked out. I'm happy with how all the segments came out.