The Shooter Tier Thread

[bust3dstr8]

Rank some of the of the shooters you have played and discuss.........



Top Tier

Ai Cho Aniki
Coryoon
Galaga88
Gate of Thunder
Gradius II
Gunhed
Kyukyoku Tiger
Lords of Thunder
Nexzr
Parodius
PC Denjin
Spriggan
R-Type
Raiden
Soilder Blade
Star Parodier
Super Darius II


Middle Tier

Aero Blaster
Avenger
Cho Aniki
Cotton
Daisenpu
Darius Plus
Detana Twinbee
Dragon Spirit
Dragon Saber
Final Blaster
Final Soldier
Gradius
Image Fight
Kiaidan 00
Macross 2036
Salamander
Side Arms
Spriggan 2
Super Darius

Bottom Tier  

Armed F
Atomic Robo Kid
Barnuba
Cyber Core
Download
Paranoia
Steam Hearts'
Violent Soldier

Trash Bin  

Deep Blue

[Bigdog302]

you forgot ginga fukei densetsu sapphire that is a rockin' shooter and easily the best graphics.too bad this game came out fairly late and was not released here.
i have played sapphire and i can tell you it is pretty good.gate of thunder,blazing lasers,gradius 2 lords of thunder and air zonk is pretty good stuff also,psychosis is a trip in itself.super raiden and the hu card raiden is decent,space harrier is the best home port other than the 32x version and..... there is so many cool shooters on the turbo/pc engine.r type complete is a good one and the cd version of super air zonk is kind of disappointing.

[Bigdog302]

i also forgot the original spiggan.there is too many but so much of them belong in the top tier.

[Lochlan]

Middle Tier

Gradius
Gradius II

Whaaaaa?

Gradius is amazing and nearly unparalleled in its influence on the genre (except for maybe Space Invaders or Batsugun), but I can't fault anybody for disliking the PCE port's slowdown if that's your "beef".

Gradius II, on the other hand, is one of the greatest shooters of all time and easily the best game in the series.  The PCE port is excellent although there are some minor differences from the original version.

I prefer these games to pretty much everything else on the list, but obviously tastes are subjective.  I can't for the life of me understand how you could rank Super Darius II above Gradius II though.  (The Darius series needed a multi-screen gimmick to stand out in the Arcade marketplace for christ sake.)

[shubibiman]

To me, Gradius II is the best of the Gradius series and it deserves to be top tier.
Download too deserves to be at least in the middle tier. Graphic wise, it is not so impressive, but the gameplay is really good.

[rag-time4]

Here's my tier list, including only games i've played, with commentary

Top Tier:
Blazing Lazers - Diverse weapons and killer soundtrack
Gate of Thunder - Fantastic graphics + sound: quintessential 16 bit shooter
Gradius II - Lots of nice effects, good use of the system
Image Fight - Best pure gameplay of any shoooter I've ever played
Image Fight II - Features redbook remixes of the music from the first game! Perfect sequel!
Lords of Thunder - Nice game to show your friends or Turbo-newbies. Would have done well if they had used different instruments for the music... something more like the original Rastan maybe
Mr. Heli - Very fun and unique game. Never played anything quite like it!
Override - Reminds of Image Fight, except with hordes of weak enemies instead of fewer really tough ones as found in Image Fight
R-Type - Great music, a true 80's classic

Second Tier (I admit I might like all of these even more if I spent more time with them):
Aero Blasters - 2 player simultaneous,
Barunba - My favorite of this group, underrated, creative gameplay
Dead Moon - Very cool boss battles
Download - Challenging
Dragon Spirit - Mixed land + ground attacks a la Xevious. Unique theme gets it some points.
Kyukyoku Tiger - Decent old school shooter, unspectacular
Ordyne - It's got a shop like Lords of Thunder, but it has a lame theme
Psycho Chaser - Need to play this one more, looks promising
Spriggan - Seems decent enough, haven't played it much
Super Star Soldier - Very nice graphics but uninteresting gameplay.

Trash bin:
Legion - Slow moving ship and fast moving enemies make this one super tough. Lame death noise helps make this game feel poorly made.
Rock On - Stupid looking ship and even stupider gameplay.

[runinruder]

Runin's favorites
Macross 2036
Blazing Lazers
Cyber Core
Deep Blue
Gate of Thunder
Lords of Thunder
Nexzr
Nexzr Special
Psychic Storm
Psycho Chaser
Psychosis
Rayxanber II
Salamander
Spriggan
Sinistron/Violent Soldier
Soldier Blade
 
Games that Runin likes very much
Aero Blasters
Air Zonk
Atomic Robo Kid Special
Choaniki
Coryoon
Darius Plus
Download
Fantasy Zone
Final Soldier
Galaga '90
Sapphire
Hellfire-S
Kiaidan 00
Kyuukyoku Tiger
Legion
Parodius
Spiral Wave
Star Parodier
Super Darius
Super Darius II
Sylphia
 
Games that Runin thinks are pretty cool
Ai Choaniki
Avenger
Cotton
Dead Moon
Dragon Saber
Hawk F-123
Image Fight
L-Dis
R-Type
SideArms
Space Harrier
Tatsujin
 
Games that Runin thinks are okay
1943 Kai
After Burner II
CD Denjin
Detana!  Twin Bee
Dragon Spirit
God Panic
Gradius II
Hana Taaka Daka
Mr Heli
Rayxanber III
Spriggan Mk. 2
Steam Hearts
Super Raiden
Terraforming
 
Games that Runin tosses around his house because they suck
Magical Chase
Ordyne
Super Star Soldier
Toy Shop Boys
 
Game that Runin just bought or else his tiers would be entirely different
Barunba

[Joe Redifer]

Gradius II, on the other hand, is one of the greatest shooters of all time and easily the best game in the series.

No, Gradius V is much better.  Part 2 has the potential to be a decent game, but one of the things that kind of ruins it for me is how short the CD tracks are.  They repeat so frequently.  Each track is what, barely a minute or so long?

Lords of Thunder - Nice game to show your friends or Turbo-newbies. Would have done well if they had used different instruments for the music...

I agree, the lack of a harmonica definitely ruined the overall sales of the game.


I'll try to come up with my "tiers" later on.

[runinruder]

Download too deserves to be at least in the middle tier. Graphic wise, it is not so impressive, but the gameplay is really good.

I thought Download's visuals were very impressive.  That's some of the best parallax to be seen in a HuCard, and some of those effects in the last level were crazy.

[nectarsis]

As many know I am no "super f*cking shooter metal god" (or some such  ).  I am not the best at them, nor have the most impressive selection in my collection.  Now that that is out of the way, here's my lists 

GREAT: 

Aldynes   (bit of a cheat here I know)
Macross 2036
Star Parodia
PC Denjin
Lords of Thunder
Gates of Thunder
Kiaidan 00
Sapphire


GOOD:   
Gradius 2
Image Fight
Psychic Storm
Mr Heli
Override


NEW GAMES JUST IN...OPINIONS NOT YET FORMULATED   
Download 2
Spriggan 2
Ai Cho Anki

[bust3dstr8]

I was right on the line on making Gradius II Top Tier when I made the list. The slowdown and go make a sandwich
load times made me drop it to Middle. After rethinking it, these are not enough to keep out of the top.

[Lochlan]

No, Gradius V is much better.  Part 2 has the potential to be a decent game, but one of the things that kind of ruins it for me is how short the CD tracks are.  They repeat so frequently.  Each track is what, barely a minute or so long?

I honestly couldn't tell you off the top of my head -- I've never noticed frequent repeating, but I'm generally pretty focused on the game anyhow -- but I can not understand what you're talking about.  Gradius II's music is so good it makes me want to hit myself in the face with a brick.  Everything about the music is wonderful, actually; the intro has an amazing melody and a really epic feel; the level music never gets tiresome for me; and I have to admit that I really enjoy the high score and game over music, as weird as that sounds.

(Actually, all Konami games from that era have really great sound and music now that I think about it.)

Gradius V is a great game, but it's definately a distant third favorite in the series after II and the first one (I'm glad Konami was able to revive the series after the mess they made with parts III and IV).  V is a great game, but it leaves me a little cold to be honest.  It doesn't have as much "character" ("soul"?) as the first two games (or even the third IMO even though I'm not a fan of it) and although I really like the way they evolved the option mechanic, there's something about the game that makes it not really "feel" like a Gradius game to me.  I love to play it, but it doesn't hold a candle to part II.

Man, I really can't believe you don't like the music in Gradius II, it's one of the things it's best known for.

[sunteam_paul]

Too harsh putting Atomic Robo-Kid on the bottom tier 
It's not a conventional shooter, but it's really good when you get your teeth into it.

And I would personally move Gunhed down one, the early levels are really dull.

[Joe Redifer]

Man, I really can't believe you don't like the music in Gradius II, it's one of the things it's best known for.

I like it fine, the tracks are just too short.  Recording/sound quality could be better as well.

[WoodyXP]

Top Tier
Kyukyoku Tiger
Super Star Soldier
Soldier Blade
Gradius II
Sapphire

I don't really play much else.