As much as I love U.N. Squadron, Gradius III, and Axelay, I can totally agree with naming Space Megaforce the best shooter on the system.

Macross: Scrambled Valkyrie so epic. And other very good, but R-Type III - godly.

very good run down on snes shooters. quick and to the point, perfect.

@SNESdrunk

8 жыл бұрын

+neozeed1984 Thanks

Because of your videos, I discovered Space Megaforce, and now it is one of my favorite games of all time! Thank you so much!

@mariowario5945

3 жыл бұрын

Play the other aleste games, they are far better. Space megaforce is the weakest entry to the series, like most snes games

@mikew1507

3 жыл бұрын

@@mariowario5945 What platform are the other Aleste games on?

@mariowario5945

3 жыл бұрын

@@mikew1507 Master system, msx, sega genesis (having musha aleste, which is by far the best in the series), gamegear (gg aleste is the second best), pcengine and sega cd. If you love space megaforce, you will definitly get a kick out of the others! One of my favorites besides the other two is powerstrike on the master system, it is pretty tough though, but one hell of a game! I reccomend even trying batsugun, which isnt a part of the aleste series, but is considered to be the best shmup of all time and takes inspirtation from aleste.

@mariowario5945

3 жыл бұрын

You can also wait for the aleste collection, which will have the first two and the two gamegear games plus a brand new entry to the gamegear, gg aleste 3. The aleste collection is coming on the switch sometime in november.

@jeremyjmusic

3 жыл бұрын

Super Aleste (aka Space Megaforce over there) was my favourite shoot em up on the SNES when I was a kid - this video gives me all the feels !

Its a shame this guy gets so little views. His reviews are awesome!

@fazares

4 жыл бұрын

100k+ views isnt exactly little..lol

@fidelsolis6070

4 жыл бұрын

He said Space mega force is the best shooter.

@fazares

4 жыл бұрын

@@fidelsolis6070 not the best but good enough

@dpgreene

3 жыл бұрын

I just played this for the first time and it’s already one of my favorite games. It’s a Compile developed shooter so it takes a lot of cues from another couple NES favorites: Zanac and Gun Nac.

@MrPotteeMouf

3 жыл бұрын

@@fazares i posted that 6 years ago douche

Glad you have a different point of view on the genre. It's been one of my favorites since Gradius on the NES. Thanks for the very informative video!

I picked up a Super Advantage controller not too long ago. This list is a really big help to me on my search for awesome games that really stand out when I play using this arcade-style joystick, and all of these titles fit the bill. Thanks for the great video.

This has to be my most favorite episode ever! Yes, I’ve started over from the beginning and checking out all the episodes I missed.

I bought Mega Man X2 back in the day on Ebay for $40. The seller packaged Space Megaforce and SWAT Katz together with it. All were complete except X2 was missing the manual. It turned out to be my best game purchase from both a profit stand point and the fact that I discovered Space Megaforce. It is the best shoot'em up on the SNES.

Axelay is the most spectacular 16 bit shooter ever (if you ignore the Neo Geo);-)

@maikel6035

6 жыл бұрын

SG1984 i think the neo geo had 24 bit.

@youisiaint

6 жыл бұрын

Did you play Adventures of Batman and Robin for the Genesis? Not a true shmup but had a ton of shmup levels and the rest was like Contra (run n gun). Most impressive 16-bit graphics I've ever seen

@vientopopmctinny651

5 жыл бұрын

ligthening force iv.....

@TheAgradeneu

5 жыл бұрын

@@youisiaint Looks great but I think Axelay is more impressive. (And Contra 3 too btw)

@a-dutch-z7351

4 жыл бұрын

Included NEO GEO. Amazing game, nothing seen like it ever since.

Thanks so much. This is exactly what type of video i was looking for to upload to the SNES Classic!

Thanks for the quick analysis of all these shooters, it helped me to pick up the best five for the snes classic.

I'm currently playing through R-Type 3 on SNES. I love it but like you say it kicks your ass pretty good. I need to play all the games you listed in this video. I can never get enough of the shoot em ups no matter what systems they are on.

I absolutely love Super Aleste (I’m from the UK so we got that instead of Space Megaforce.) The soundtrack was amazing and so atmospheric, the levels were all well designed. Easy to start but gets challenging later in the game. Weapon system was excellent too. Lots of variety and they were all very distinct. This was the first and only SHMUP I owned as a kid on my original SNES and I can still remember almost all the levels to this day.

You definitely got #1 right. I'd go as far as to say Space Megaforce is the best 16-bit shmup period. Darius Twin will always have a place in my heart, if for nothing else than the soundtrack.

@StaticTV80

3 жыл бұрын

You can say that but the best 16-bit shmup is thunder force 4 and that is a well documented fact.

@3xperiment8

2 жыл бұрын

@@StaticTV80 Scrambled Valkirye is better than Thunder Force IV

@ur-inannak9565

Жыл бұрын

The problem is, Space Megaforce is basically a downgraded version of Blazing Lazers. For the guy who said Thunder Force 4, while its the most technically impressive, they ruined the fun factor. Not a single power up makes you feel powerful, because so many basic enemies have so many hit points. Thunder Force 3 is much funner. Scrambled Valkyrie is tons of fun but not the best in my opinion. For me the best 16 bit shmup is clearly Lords of Thunder. Honestly its also better than the Neo Geo shmups, its just that good. Honorable mention to Gleylancer, the best non-CD 16 bit shmup in my opinion.

Definitely a useful summary of one of my favorite genres of games. Thank you!

The shmup but not me recently, and I’m getting ready to dive into what the SNES has to offer. This is THE VIDEO to watch to recap all you need to know. Thank you for this! Have a great weekend.

I love this video and how comprehensive it is while remaining quick. I picked up Super Aleste because of it. I know a ton of work must go into these but I would love to see more in this style for other genres/sub-genres.

Darius Twin is amazing! One of my favorite shooters on SNES actually

Thanks man I keep coming back to this video to check what I want next and whether it's worth buying

Nice video. SNES/SFC has some great shmups. Glad you gave praise to Macross: Scrambled Valkyrie! It's hands down my favorite shmup ever, and one of my all time favorites of any genre on any system. It blows me away.

@chrisbest2155

9 жыл бұрын

That game looks really awesome! The price tag is pretty dang high though

@CaptainNatron

9 жыл бұрын

It wasn't too bad when I bought mine last year. I think it is starting to rise though.

i never comment on videos but this video was great. loved that you went through all the games in abc order.

Awesome video man! I wasn't a fan of shoot em ups at a young age either but as I got older I enjoyed them a lot!

Darius Twin is my introduction to the SNES. I will always love it. The art direction won my heart. I had Sagaia on Sega's Master System, so the bosses and music to DT really took me to another world! It's certainly a calm energy to the game, but It wins everything else for me.

@Kylora2112

4 жыл бұрын

Darius Twin was one of the first SNES games I bought (I got my SNES shortly after launch) because the art in the previews looked awesome. Maybe it's nostalgia, but I've always loved this game.

@DaedalosC9

3 жыл бұрын

the OST is pretty awesome in Darius Twin as well but i noticed that it's more enjoyable if u don't pause the game ever because i found out that the tempo of the music and the momentum of the enemies comming to attack you are kinda synchronized, that makes me apreciate the game more

Man Your games descriptions and point of view, are the best

Nice to see Space Megaforce get some of the love it deserves. Shooters are my favorite genre and that was the best one for me on SNES also, still play it to this day.

Came here just to remember Super Nova's name. Probably my favorite Shmup on the SNES. Super hard, super rewarding, the branching paths and the cool weapons... It was awesome.

+SNES Drunk... Your video is a good resource. Covering all the games in a concise manner. Thanks!

I couldn't agree more with your list!

Very convenient that youtube recommended this to me now as I've recently subscribed to you and have also recently gotten into shoot 'em ups and cute 'em ups. I enjoyed the intro especially because you and I shared the same sentiments about the genre. I think your top 5 were interesting, but liked that you shared pretty much all of them on the console across regions. Very informative, very useful. Excellent content. :)

@SNESdrunk

8 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching

Awesome video! So much info and fun presentation! 🎉

Finally, i found someone who agrees that Space Megaforce IS the best shmup on the system. From the incredible graphics and tight controls to the ultra trippy acid jazz soundtrack. That is how you make a great fucking shoot em up.

Thanks for the vids, snes is my favorite system, keep up the good work!

Thanks Snesdrunk! I too was ignorant about this style of game I always went for platformers or rpgs when I was playing a SNES so my knowledge of shmups was limited but now I am enlightening myself. After about an hour of torturing myself on gradius... I tried to turn the difficulty to easy, man. Gradius is hard. But that was before I watched this video so and now I'm about to try your top 5 shmups and that weird dezaemon one lol. I agree with your perspective on alot of this stuff and I have to say you've pointed me in the direction of alot of great games so thanks again your channel is dope

@SNESdrunk

6 жыл бұрын

Thanks Kyle

Great picks for your top 5 dude and yes space Megaforce hands down is numero uno! :)

Thanx, that was a lot of fun to watch.

thanks so much for this survey. I've been trying to find the game blazeon for so long! I rented it once a long time ago

Great selection here. Love it. Thanks.

Super aleste is in fact the best shoot em up on snes. Played the shit out of it in the 90s.

Very nice coverage of the SNES shooters. I'm glad I found this channel a few months ago, even if it took quite some time. Also, Super R-Type...ugh. I could never get into that whole series because THAT was my first game from it. The first time I could actually LIKE the blasted series was R-Type Final. The newer games still kick my ass, but at least there making one mistake isn't potentially 3-5 minutes of setbacks.

Thanks for this video ^_^ nice work

Thank you for putting the name of the game underneath the video footage :)

I bought Space Megaforce used about 20 years ago and it blew me away. It's still one of my favorite SNES games. At that time it was ignored because there was a glut of shooters then so I'm glad its gotten some respect now.

ive been trying to find a good video that covers all the shmups on the snes, great work on this man. some of these are still pretty pricy though:( if your wanting to get the original cartridge. but thanks for your video :) i now know what id like to get.

Perfect video! Thanks!

I am glad that you changed your mind!!

Thanks for a great list. I really enjoyed the style and format you used to present it. I'm very novice at this genre, but have recently been trying to get into it. It's just a type of game I never had much experience with growing up. I tended to stick more to platformers and adventure games. So these games are really kicking my butt, but I'm kind of determined to get better through trial and error.

Thanks. I too missed out on the genre.

oh man your vídeos are sooooo great

Super Swiv!!! That’s the name of the game I’ve been looking for the past 21 years!! Holy shit dude you just made my day

@j.r.huffnstuff3549

3 жыл бұрын

Also called Firepower 2000. The first swiv is actually amazing for the time. Edit: Got to the part that mentions it. Ignore me, lol.

im glad this reviewer is self depreciating. makes me feel from the get go that that hes being honest

I really like how you list the games in the description unlike everyone else that makes these lists. It’s convenient after watching because i don’t have to skip all over the place on the video when I go to dl the rahms. Unlike with Sega Lord X when I’m trying to dL Saturn eyesos. Speaking of which, I enjoy that you don’t speak super slow either.

R-type 3 should of made your top 5 just saying the trail and error level design music , power ups and boss battles. Make it. Top tier

Axelay as well as being an awesome game with great visuals also has one of the best soundtracks I’ve heard from the entire SNES era imo

thank you so much for this. me and my dad used to play Raiden Trad all the time and I couldn't remember the name for anything in the world.

Strike Gunner STG together with my little brother were fun times ! So nostalgic !

I loved Imperium when I was a kid. I always thought it was a great game. Also, the music from that game always stood out to me, especially the first level's theme.

Hi SNES drunk. My top 5 SHMUPS on Super Nientendo are: 5. Acrobat Mission, 4. Apolocalypse 2(Unrelesed), 3. Raiden Trad, 2. Thunder Spirits, and number 1. Phalanx.

Great review brutal and honest

For my favorite shoot em ups on SNES was Gradius 3, Super R-Type, Darius Twin, Parodius, Pop'n TwinBee, Raiden Trad, U.N Squadron and Gokujon Parodius

This is one of my most favorite videos out of all of your shows. Thanks so much for paying some extra attention to shmups. It would be awesome if you did the same thing for the Mega Drive/Genesis. Would you mind sometime?

Great video I like the pacing of it makes a change from long reviews when I just want a quick look and overview of games to see if i've missed any good looking ones. I own most of the carts covered here and have to agree Super Aleste is the best shooter on the SNES (it's one of my favourite games of all time). I've also got a lovely boxed copy of Macross I imported but to be fair i've barely played it, maybe I should!

@estebancruz6194

2 жыл бұрын

Very cool. Macross looks impressive. Your collection must cost a small fortune now a days.

I moved away from my parents, but at my parental home I had a SNES/Megadrive arcade cabinet which a carpenter and I built together, watching this just makes me wish I could play at the cabinet all day, blasting Space Megaforce music till the neighbours complain. Feeling homesick right now

BlaZeon may not be the best shoot em up but it has one of the best soundtracks on the SNES

this is the best snesdrunk intro

I love playing shoot 'em up games!

Happy to see Super SWIV. It doesn't really get mentioned on KZread, but I really liked that game.

Completely agree on Super Aleste (Space Megaforce): it's perfect. The weapons are amazing and it allows you to experiment with them without screwing yourself over by trading a good weapon for a bad one, since you can change them really often. It gets tough later on, but the unlimited continues together with the checkpoint system which prevents you from exploiting them keep you going without punishing you. Fantastic game.

Blazeon was one of the first games I got for the SNES. I thoroughly played that game and beat it. The ability to actually take over enemies and use their special abilities was a nice touch in my opinion. There was one that allowed you a spread, another that allowed you to move insanely fast around the screen. The bosses were impressive and the music was amazing. The game serves as a decent introduction to the shoot 'em up series. The game doesn't have a lot of levels (partially because the levels are slower paced), but I loved it. I, personally, do recommend the game as mainly a good stepping stone into shoot 'em up games instead of starting with ones that are insanely difficult.

I love the parodius games! they are hard as balls (currently still trying to make my way through gokujo parodius) love the music and the what were these people on enemies you fight (this so needed a snes release back in the day)

Super Macross, Rendering rangers, Axelay, three of my favourites. But all brilliant.

excellent work - some good shooters in there. Spoilt for choice between this and the megadrive.

Thanks for the video

Another outstanding review! Better than 99.9% of the retro crap reviewers out there! Much respect!

Still my favorite video of yours, Just so many good games in one video, watch this one every two weeks or so (don't tell anyone but I think the SNES can actually be awesome at shmups) PS: I want to marry Space Megaforce

@chinarut

3 жыл бұрын

lol how they figured out how *not* to have slowdown is a really really amazing feat by the programmers - props up to the devs! 🙌

Every time I see Space Megaforce, I reminded of how great it is and why I'm an idiot for ever trading it in to the local retro shop. Damnit! Good list, though. I've been watching a lot of your videos lately, they're well done. I've even added a few games to my wanted list after watching some of them. :)

@SNESdrunk

8 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching!

@dersandy

7 жыл бұрын

Try to find the PAL version "Super Aleste"! I found my copy for 30€'s!

Totally agree with Super Aleste being right up there, along with U.N Squadron, and Parodius Da!/Non-Sense Fantasy for me personally as the Top 3.

Strike gunner had me as soon as I found you can combine with p2.

Great video. I cannot disagree with one word you said.

Over 25 years later, and Axelay still holds up as one of the best shooters on the SNES, if not of all time. Too bad Konami decided they don't want to make money anymore and have forgone video games for pachinko machines.

@greensun1334

2 жыл бұрын

Over 35years?

@raym1477

2 жыл бұрын

@@greensun1334 Whoops. Should have put “25 years”

@greensun1334

2 жыл бұрын

@@raym1477 ☝🏼😅

Super Swiv would be in my top 5. Option to play with either the helicopter or the tank, and also excellent music

Wow so many shootem ups I didn't know about. Luckily I owned one of the best ones back them, U.N. Squadron & I still play it sometimes. Aero Fighters I believe is now going for $500 which is crazy.

I just picked up UN Squadron and tried playing through some of it, man this game kicks my butt! But it's also really addicting. :D

@aelechko

3 жыл бұрын

Try it on hard difficulty! It is ridiculous. There’s these little blue planes I call blue angels, often six spawn at a time and each shoots up to six bullets. 42 things coming right at you from different points instantly. Tip: you gotta feel and be one with the music to succeed.

@estebancruz6194

2 жыл бұрын

I used to be good at this game, but now can’t beat it. Seems more difficult than used to. But still addicting. It is great game for sure.

UN Squadron is easily one of my favorite games of all time. My dad and I used to play it for hours when I was a kid.

I think is my favorite snesdrunk intro.

I love super nova/darius force... it's hard/unforgiving but the music is one of my favorite from the darius games... I also have nostalgia glasses when it comes to that one, I had the game growing up and still play it every so often.. I probably wouldn't if I didn't have enemy patterns memorized from my childhood.

Agree. super aleste is just fantastic, the best shmup for the snes

I LOVE Super Aleste ! Best game from my childhood on the SNES

This video is great cause I love shootemup plane games and wanting to see them all collected to see which I like and want instead of doing an extensive search for each

I played Axelay so damn much during my childhood in the 2000s.

Agreed with Space Mega Force… rented this game like 5 times when I was young. Just very well done, although I don’t think I ever beat it.

Our top five shmups for SNES lists are very similar, but mine forgoes Parodius and places R-Type III in the number one spot. ♥

Super Earth Defense Force is by far the best Shoot Em Up for the SNES. The Soundtrack on its own is a masterpiece!

UN Squadron is the only one of these games that I own. I have 80 SNES games and kinda missed out on it, having purchased my first SNES after I got the brand new N64. Shoot 'em ups are cool but, when I was a kid I was always more interested in beat 'em ups, platforms and then later fighting games. I also liked sports games when I was a kid, although I don't care much for them now. I kind of had an ignorant view on the genre like you stated in this video. I thought they were all the same. I had the same ignorant view on RPG's until I started playing Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic. At that time I realized I had passed up on many great gaming experiences due to my youthful ignorance. Now, I have a number of shoot 'em ups for NES and a few on Game Gear and I have many RPG's, to be played... someday. Love the channel, SNES Drunk. Always good content from you.

I have a lot of fond memories with Darius Twin. there aren't many co-op horizontally scrolling shoot em ups on the SNES that I know of.

All that slowdown is such a pity, because it kinda suggests the devs either didn't really know what they were doing, or couldn't be bothered. The snes CPU isn't as weak as it's made out to be, but if you mishandle your sprite data routines you end up with that nasty slowdown. Keep in mind some of these games are demonstrably almost unplayable without the slowdown though, so be careful what you wish for. XD

@EqualsDeath

7 жыл бұрын

snes is shit for shmups. it's WEAK. no way around it.

@drewsebastino2889

7 жыл бұрын

Not quite. The 65816 in the SNES is only 3.58MHz for rom accesses if the cartridge is FastROM, and always only 2.68MHz for ram accesses vs the 68000 in the Genesis that is always 7.68MHz. However, the 68000 can only access memory every 4 cycles unlike the 65816 that accesses every cycle. However (again), the bus width of the 68000 is twice that of the 65816 (16bit vs 8bit). Taking all that into consideration, the processing power of the SNES and Genesis would appear to be the same: 2(times the clockspeed)/4(the number of cycles per memory access)x2(bus width)=1 vs. 1. However (again again), the 68000 can do 32bit calculations in hardware (which makes me wonder why more people don't consider it to be a 32bit processor?) and has multiplication and division instructions that the 65816 lack. The SNES has two sets of hardware registers for multiplication and division (the better ones cannot be used if mode 7 is, which is when you'd want to use it the most...), but writing to and reading from these is slower than the multiplication and division instructions of the 68000, which are already slow as molasses. Finally, the SNES planar graphics format is far less friendly for software rendering than the Genesis packed pixel one.While still a more powerful processor overall (nowhere near what the clockspeed would lead you to believe), most of the 68000's advantages really aren't realized in any non 3D games (where 32bit operations and multiplication and division are essential). ;====================================================================================== Kuralthys is totally correct. Many SNES devs (especially at the beginning of the SNES's life) have been discovered through reverse engineering the games to do some very stupid stuff regarding sprites. The SNES, unlike virtually every other system ever made, has its sprite data across two tables, one being 512 bytes and the other being 32 bytes (which was, admittedly, a really stupid design choice). Each sprite uses 4 bytes in the first table, and 2 bits in the second table. The first table has 8 of the x-coordinate bits, while the second table has one. Instead of making one table in software and going through a routine that later divides it up, developers would, for every time a sprite needed to be manipulated (basically whenever anything would move), get the data needed from both tables, convert it into something useable (put the 9th x-coordinate bit after the 8 from the other table), do whatever, convert it back, then put the data back in whatever table it belongs. This requires multiple unnecessary AND and OR intructions, and lots and lots of bitshifts, and considering you may need to do this as much as 128 times a frame (objects, like Donkey Kong in DKC are actually made of multiple sprites), it amounts to being hella slow. You could argue this is about development time, but it's actually so much faster, from both from a programming and processing perspective, that I have no idea why this was done in the first place. Sorry for the essay...

@CommodoreKulor

6 жыл бұрын

Do I recognize that avatar from nesdev?

@noop9k

6 жыл бұрын

KuraIthys SNES CPU IS WEAK. really, it is a really primitive CPU on 8-bit bus, and in most games it doesn’t work at 3.58 MHz.

@noop9k

6 жыл бұрын

Drew Sebastino if you call 68000 16-bit then you really have to call 65816 8-bit :) Anyway, don’t forget that 68000 has many 32-bit registers and more powerful instruction set, while 65816 has to do more memory accesses also due to inability to hold many temporary values in registers. Via 8-bit bus.

Area 88 has the rare achievement, of being an amazing OVA, manga and shmup, and a pretty good TV series too.

I love Axelay...I want a remastered and a couple of sequels.

I love the Parody series xD.

This guy's great.