r/shmups

while the Steam summer sale is still going, looking for your suggestions for 3D shmups, à la Einhänder or R-Type Final. merci!

Last summer I posted a video on testing out this LE Earthion Saturn-style gamepad on Steam via Linux Mint as well as RetroPie. I recently bought Radiant Silvergun on Steam and it works great on Bazzite (I couldn't get it to work on my Mint desktop). RSG is too awkward playing on a Playstation-style controller, but if you've played the game on the Saturn then an M30 gamepad works exactly as you'd expect. After 29 years, I know the buttons by heart and I was expecting that I'd have to configure the buttons to get it to work. It turns out that it wasn't necessary at all. Unfortunately, the Saturn Tribute games by City Connection do not automatically support the M30, which is a real shame. I haven't tried Steam Input on such games yet.

Hey, I thought r/shmups'ers might like this and maybe have some feedback

I'm developing a shmup where you play as the last fighter pilot on earth, fighting against a demon invasion. The mechanical twist in this game is that you can combine elements (fire, ice, lightning, impact and holy) to create different projectiles—which you will need to get you through the different scenarios thrown your way.

I'm hopeful to get a playable demo out this year to gather some feedback from hardcore shmup fans but in the meantime here's an early video demo.

40% OFF Touch Force! Grab it at a discount!
Feel like a boss with no ship to defend! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2465880/Touch_Force/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bynSXXTl94A&t=1s

Hi everyone! We're the team behind FightBox Arcade, and we recently released our R10 Dual Flight Stick + Spinner controller.

We wanted to build something that could recreate the experience of classic arcade games that use dual sticks, flight controls, or a spinner.

Here's a recent hands-on review from GXG (GenXGrownUp):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waBhPMS3hNM

Games featured in the video:

🤖 Robotron: 2084
🚁 Assault
🚓 Battlezone
🕷️ Black Widow
✈️ After Burner
🧱 Arkanoid
🌪️ Tempest
🏺 Lost Tomb
💡 Tron
💿 Discs of Tron

We're always looking for more classic shooters and arcade titles to test.

What games would you like to see us try next? 😊

We all know shmups are not as popular as they used to be. Most mainstream gaming sites barely cover them at all.

However, an interesting thing the observant might have spotted over time is the way they cheekily sneak shmups into the illustrative material for broader stories on Nintendo Life with great regularity - always with the image credit going to Damien McFerran.

And here's exhibit A. A general story about the whole Sony/physical media thing. And yet in amongst your Street Fighters, Donkey Kongs and Metroids, the shmup fan will find their eye caught by: Akai Katana, ESP Ra. De., R-Type (Delta, I think?), Kyuukyoku Tiger Heli, Psyvariar Delta, DFK and I'm pretty sure that's DOJ behind it too.

And this is not a one-off, by the way. It's very consistent and, personally, I think it's brilliant. So hats off to this guy. We appreciate it!

For the record, I grew up in the early 80's with the Commodore 64. I dearly loved that machine which introduced me to Mr. Minter's games, or at least the few that made their way across the ocean to the States, and in particular the far flung reaches of outer suburbia where I lived. One of my neighbors would come visit from time to time bearing 5¼" floppies with handwritten labels, we'd fire them up on the C64 and he'd ever so kindly offer me a copy of any that really jived. Out in the sticks we had only one store that offered anything remotely video game related, "Thor's Audio Video" (that's a story for another day), so getting legitimate copies was damn near impossible anyways.

So one day I noticed one disk in particular, it had an arresting name, "Attack of the Mutant Camels"... with a name like that it demanded a play! Turned out the game was like "Empire Strikes Back" on the 2600, which I loved, but with camela and a silly sense of humor. We next popped in Gridrunner, it was like a souped up cyberpunk Centipede which immediately got its teeth into me. That was it, that was the hook, I knew there was something special there and I've been a fanboy ever since!

IMHO Jeff Minter's games have had a very consistent aesthetic through the years that complements his play style perfectly. Simple yet riotously colorful retro graphics, pumping beats (feel that flow state), compelling action that rewards practice, and of course a quirky (and very British) sense of humor.

I know his games aren't always shumps in the strict sense of the word, often being kind of abstract (Akka Arrh for example), but the man definitely likes for us to shoot things... and hey, if it's a moose that's doing the shooting? Eh, I say let's just enjoy the ride 😎

So what do you think r/shumps, did anyone else grow up with a thing for Llamas(oft), is there room in the shmup arcade for shooters with a distinctly ungulate flair?

Any tips on how to beat this pattern consistently without bombing ? I'd like to try and put some time in to trying to get the Omote loop.

Thanks

Hey everyone,

I’ve been working on Astrorift, a browser-playable space combat game, and I’m finally putting it in front of more people.

It’s best played on mobile with touch controls, but it also supports keyboard/mouse and gamepad on desktop.

The basic loop is: take contracts, fight through hostile sectors, collect rewards, return to a hub station, upgrade your ship, then push farther out.

I recorded the first mission gameplay here if you want to see the opening flow first:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fc0q5x9jRQ4&t=29s

Right now the game has:

• 9 playable hulls
• 38 weapons total
• 15 main weapon tiers across laser, ion, and plasma
• 23 side/secondary weapons like EMP, missiles, railgun, drones, gravity well, orbital strike, and repair systems
• 8 hub stations
• 7 mission types
• pirates, drones, aliens, minibosses, boss encounters, and asteroid hazards
• crew hiring, ship upgrades, mission boards, story/unlock beats, and offline/PWA support

It’s still in active development, so I’m mostly looking for feedback on onboarding, UI clarity, and how the first few minutes feel.

itch.io : https://ashriftstudio.itch.io/astrorift

Playable here:

https://astrorift.pages.dev/

Any first-impression feedback would help a lot.

I wonder if the designers of R-Type felt flattered or peeved when they saw this the year after their own take

https://youtu.be/vnmgWKLVH1c