horizontal vs vertical shmups

[Dicer]

I like horizontal shooters more because they tend to be more creative and have much more interesting graphics. Overhead shooters are usually very plain and one-note. There are exceptions like MUSHA and Galactic Attack. Games like Soldier Blade are pretty damn sparse but at least it's fun. Blazing Lazers gets boring very quickly for me. There's not much special about it. It could benefit from levels that are a half hour shorter than they are. Horizontal shooters are just more interesting and I think they are likely more difficult to make.

When are you guys gonna crowdfund a rubber feet hori shewty?

[SignOfZeta]

I'm not sure which is which, is R-Type horizontal? That's the one I like.

However, I think the last "all in" holy shit wowzers shooter of that style was probably Pulstar. There aren't a lot of them made after the PCE era so I do play a lot of the other type.

And yes, the horizontal ones are more obstical based, but I'm not sure how much that has to do with the format itself. Around the time horizontals died in the early/mid 90s, shooters went into hybernation in general, most of them not even getting home ports. Then by the time things got moving again in the DC era Cave had done a lot of work to change the scene to a more score/combo based way of doing things and they happen to prefer vertical stuff with zero obsticals. If the Nazca guys had had a hit with In the Hunt instead of Metal Slug things may have turned out differently.

Btw, "shmup" is stupid term. Quit it. It sounds like a bowel movement or a line of cologne marketed by the guys from Duck Dynasty. f*ck.

Not as stupid as playing the things stretched 4x in one direction and not at all in the other though, meaning that things traveling at a 45deg angle move faster left to right that they do up and down. I can see the interest in that, psychedelically speaking, or maybe as an extra challenging funhouse mode or something, but it's the video game equivalent to installing a nose bra on a sports car. All it does is identify the owner as someone who doesn't see what the point is in owning the thing they are so proud of in the first place.

You asked for it, what can I say...

[esteban]

You can sort by various criteria:

http://archives.tg-16.com/complete_list_of_tg16_pce_shooters.htm

BUT I JUST REALIZED THAT POWER GATE IS MISSING FROM THE LIST!!!!!!!!!

Power Gate.

Missing.

This entire time.

[Otaking]

Please use the current term which is "hori", saying horizontal is so dated.

[Black Tiger]

Please use the current term which "hori", saying horizontal is so dated.

! No longer available

Don't forget vertis, diagos and intos. Nu gamers like to count first person shooters as shumps as well (and Zeldas as the most legendary RPG series of all).

[SignOfZeta]

I don't have anywhere near as many problems with abbreviations. "Schmup" is some other thing though. A mush mouth's portmanteau of a vaudeville-esque description of "shooter".

[EmperorIng]

It doesn't sound nearly as dumb as "shewtie" though.   

Horizontal shmups are generally harder because in most of them, there are walls or pieces of setting you can crash into.

I don't find this to really be the case. The walls/environment themselves aren't really an added difficulty factor unless you are an IREM game, or Gradius III. Heck, most PC Engine shooters are so easy/forgiving that their orientation doesn't even matter.

Later Verticals trounce most horizontals in the difficulty department, simply because there has been more verticals made and the genre was more heavily refined in that direction. DoDonPachi DaiOuJou is about as hard as any shooter ever made, along with the likes of Gunbird 2.

In regards to the OP's original point, verticals tend to be easier to make progress in, though (to say nothing of actually BEATING them), because it's easier for our eyes to read up-to-down (following where attacks are coming from), than right-to-left or left-to-right in horizontals. You have generally a better sense of your bearings when it comes to maneuvering enemy attacks, because you have a relatively limited amount of horizontal movement to make when reacting to attacks.

[lukester]

Please use the current term which "hori", saying horizontal is so dated.

! No longer available

Don't forget vertis, diagos and intos. Nu gamers like to count first person shooters as shumps as well (and Zeldas as the most legendary RPG series of all).

Just want to make a point...since BT hates on Nintendo fans a little too much sometimes. Let's talk about the actual modern perspective.

Zelda is not as renowned as it used to be. Many "hardcore" gamers play dark souls, and everyone else plays elder scrolls. Zelda U (nx) is also gonna have to live up to witcher 3. The wii u is a dead console. I've sold mine recently as there are no more games coming out! Hopefully the NX does well.

Hell, even my stoner football friend plays only two games. Madden, and dark souls. Could be an exception though.

I'm actually playing through bloodborne right now. It's my first souls game, but despite the challenge it's an incredible experience.

[SamIAm]

I think that the reason why relatively modern shooters tend to be vertical is that bullet movement from the top of the screen to the bottom feels easier to track. I don't know if it's because of a sense of gravity, or if it's because the bullets seem more like they're coming directly at you this way.

All I know is, when I play a horizontal shooter, I feel like I'm controlling a ship in a totally different space, but when I'm playing a vertical shooter, I feel like I am the ship.

[blueraven]

I don't have anywhere near as many problems with abbreviations. "Schmup" is some other thing though. A mush mouth's portmanteau of a vaudeville-esque description of "shooter".

On the same logic, I suppose the term shewtie equally annoys you then?

...but when I'm playing a vertical shooter, I feel like I am the ship.

QFT

[cr8zykuban0]

i love both types of shmups but i would say i perfer veritcals especially with the long screens! Just has more of that pure arcade feel to me

[Black Tiger]

Please use the current term which "hori", saying horizontal is so dated.

! No longer available

Don't forget vertis, diagos and intos. Nu gamers like to count first person shooters as shumps as well (and Zeldas as the most legendary RPG series of all).

Just want to make a point...since BT hates on Nintendo fans a little too much sometimes. Let's talk about the actual modern perspective.

Zelda is not as renowned as it used to be. Many "hardcore" gamers play dark souls, and everyone else plays elder scrolls. Zelda U (nx) is also gonna have to live up to witcher 3. The wii u is a dead console. I've sold mine recently as there are no more games coming out! Hopefully the NX does well.

Hell, even my stoner football friend plays only two games. Madden, and dark souls. Could be an exception though.

I'm actually playing through bloodborne right now. It's my first souls game, but despite the challenge it's an incredible experience.

I guess you've never heard the term "Zelda-good"? My post had nothing to do with Nintendo and you talked about a completely different type of gamer. I was talking about people who discuss games that are before their time and their skewed perspective of genres and need for ridiculous terminology.

You're talking about games which haven't even been released yet and people who only play a limited number of current games and nothing else.

It doesn't matter how good anyone thinks the Zelda games are, it's not an RPG series. Shining Force, Snatcher and Populous are not RPGs. Shining Force at least incorporates RPG elements, but just like Langrisser, they're war sims. Gradius, Twinbee, Space Harrier and Doom are not the same genre.

Maybe you take all of these lame terms for granted and don't realize what we're talking about?

[majors]

Blazing Lazers gets boring very quickly for me. There's not much special about it. It could benefit from levels that are a half hour shorter than they are.

You gotta remember when it came out(I think the term is "context"). We wanted our 50 bucks to give us the most game play, even if it was slow, long levels. I've realized that in the late 90's, arcade dev's where going with the more-is-better line of thought, keep adding more levels to grind(and take players quarters). I give Cave credit to re-vitalizing the scene with the bullet hell, 5 level format. Short and sweet. Just look at 1944 Loop Master...15 levels of yawn, sure it looks good and sound amazing but the more-is-better game design was stale then.

... Then by the time things got moving again in the DC era Cave had done a lot of work to change the scene to a more score/combo based way of doing things and they happen to prefer vertical stuff with zero obsticals.

Do not forget ProGear, Akai Katana or Death Smiles. Tate is def more popular, but hori is still alive.

As for the original post, I prefer horizontal shooters. Ever since Super Cobra, I was a fan. Thunderforce 3 solidified my passion for the genre. I'm lucky to have fellow PCB friends that love then even more and drop bank on the newer(at the time) Cave boards so I could at least experience them, even if most of them are vertical. "Bug Bitch 2" is still my fave for that style.

[Black Tiger]

On the same logic, I suppose the term shewtie equally annoys you then?

I don't like it, but it's no where near the level of Shump. I don't know if I'm surprised that more random terms like platters, warms, dics, actors, firsoners, sporms, fmalls, etc aren't common, or if I just don't hear them because I don't post on forums like NeoGAF.

[TheClash603]

Isn't shmup an abbreviation for shoot-em-up?  Because the other big genre during the period were Final Fight type games, formerly referred to as beat-em-ups?

I don't really dislike shmup, I am more disappointed by the lack of the term bemup.