Easy shmups?

[Erik]

Which shmups emulated in mame are considered good beginner games?     The only one I can play for any decent amount of time is Varth. 

[mgb]

I'm not sure it qualifies as easy or not, but it's not a bullet hell like some others anyway, but I like Flying Shark alot.
Also Neo Geos Ghost Pilots (horizontal screen, not vertical)

[Well Fed Games]

Don't forget that some games have difficulty settings in the DIP switch menu. For instance, I would recommend Raiden on "easy" as a good place to start.

[spoot]

Gigawing as long as you use your forceshield.  I'll try to list more later.

If sumthing seems to hard.......fire up Mars Matrix for a few minutes.......then you can go back to the other game and go "oh this is easy".     

[Louis Tully]

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[harveybirdman]

Give Final Star Force a try

[rCadeGaming]

If you're having trouble with a more difficult game, you could try running at 3/4 or half speed or something for practice.

[brad808]

The trick is to raise the difficulty.

After you get your ass handed to you for 30 minutes or so put it back to normal difficulty and see how much easier it feels.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

[CoryBee]

The trick is to raise the difficulty.

After you get your ass handed to you for 30 minutes or so put it back to normal difficulty and see how much easier it feels.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

This is so true. Whenever I play any game pretty much, I put it on the hardest difficulty to see if I can beat it that way. If not, then I lower it a bit and feel like a champ.

[rCadeGaming]

You guys are right.  It's like playing Hagane on the SNES.  After beating that, Castlevania seems so much easier.

[WindDrake]

Another +1 on Gigawing.

Raiden Fighters Jet is a personal favorite of mine if you notch the difficulty down.

Blazing Star on the Neo Geo is also pretty easy.

[matsadona]

I second that Flying shark is a great old school game. But one that I always get back to is Twin Cobra. It is pretty hard since it is unforgiving with enemies firing at you even when you are just one pixel away (as of my understanding newer games doesn't. But they spray a ridiculous amount of bullet at you instead...) but still my favorite.

[spoot]

Batsugun - no "mechanics" to learn such as shield, chaining or scoring besides KILL THEM ALL.  Does get a bit rough a ways in the game though.

[harveybirdman]

Batsugun - no "mechanics" to learn such as shield, chaining or scoring besides KILL THEM ALL.  Does get a bit rough a ways in the game though.

Awesome Toplan shooter.  It does get hard pretty fast though.

[Malenko]

Jamestown on the PC, Easy is SUPER EASY, Divine is rage inducing. and the game is like $3.


I know I know you said "emulated in MAME" but this game is totally worth it.

[spoot]

Batsugun - no "mechanics" to learn such as shield, chaining or scoring besides KILL THEM ALL.  Does get a bit rough a ways in the game though.

Awesome Toplan shooter.  It does get hard pretty fast though.

Yeah, I still hate Jupiter.

[rCadeGaming]

Ok, if we can suggest PC games, here's one you reminded me of.  Raptor: Call of the Shadows.  It's super easy, especially when you've earned a little money and upgraded your plane.

[sharpfork]

Raiden was my first shmup love.

SIII + Cyanogen + Tapatalk 2

[Woodshop Flunky]

I had my son play Tiger Heli first.  It starts off really slow.  He had never played a shmup before, so I just wanted him to get the idea of dodging, and keep shooting.

After that, he picked up Raiden, and played it forever.

Now he can jump into most shmups and do okay.

[M.Lanza]

You can try the freeware pc shooter Rrootage (sp).
It's a pretty good introduction to bullet hell type shooters.

Truxton is pretty awesome as well.

[emphatic]

Twin Cobra. Bomb a lot and use the blue weapon. Profit.

[DeLuSioNal29]

+1 on Raiden Fighters Jet.

E.S.P. RaDe is also one of my favs along with Do Don Pachi.

Also, if you can find it:  Raiden III for the PC.  You can set it to "practice" which sets the enemies to not shoot any bullets (collisions will be on though - so you can still die.)

See a quick demo of it on my machine here:



DeLuSioNaL29

[stripe4]

If you don't mind NES, Gun-Nac is super easy!

[harveybirdman]

As long as we're talking consoles, check ou Spriggan Powered on the snes.

[rCadeGaming]

I was just reading up on Compile shooters, and apparently Spriggan Powered sucks in comparison to Compile's main works, at least according to this:

http://hardcoregaming101.net/aleste/compile2.htm

Is it just easy?

The PC Engine Spriggan games are supposed to be much better, and the Aleste series even more so.  So far I only have Blazing Lazers/Gunhed for the PC Engine.  That's a great game, and it's really easy when your weapons are powered up.

[melvinbates]

My three year old loves Don Pachi.  It's not too difficult in the beginning stages.

[harveybirdman]

I was just reading up on Compile shooters, and apparently Spriggan Powered sucks in comparison to Compile's main works, at least according to this:

http://hardcoregaming101.net/aleste/compile2.htm

Is it just easy?

The PC Engine Spriggan games are supposed to be much better, and the Aleste series even more so.  So far I only have Blazing Lazers/Gunhed for the PC Engine.  That's a great game, and it's really easy when your weapons are powered up.

Essentially yes, very easy difficulty starting out which is why I suggested it.  The power up system leaves a bit to be desired as well, I'll have to try out the PC engine games, I didn't know about them, thanks for the link!

[rCadeGaming]

NP, that's a great site.  I read that and RacketBoy a lot.

Yup, just kind of discovering the PC Engine myself (IMHO Bonk is terrible btw).  After playing Rondo of Blood emulated a few years ago, that lead me to finally getting a real copy and a Duo R recently.  The shmups I have so far are Blazing Lazers, Gate of Thunder (my favorite console shmup so far, not easy though), and Sapphire (it's a sealed repro though, and I haven't brought myself to open it yet).  On my list are Lords of Thunder, the Star Soldier series, and the Aleste Series (related to MUSHA Aleste on Genesis), among others.

To the OP, I think all of the above are fairly difficult, except Blazing Lazers at least, which would be a good starting point into these.

[Generic Eric]

Truxton II and Juno First.  Galaga '88

[emphatic]

Truxton II

ORLY?  Or is the World revision easier than the Japanese one?

[Cynicaster]

Dragon Spirit! 

Totally kidding.

Seriously though, what about 1943?  I haven't spent all that much time playing that game, but I feel like whenever I do, a single credit lasts a lot longer than most arcade games and I am able to survive past 3-4 bosses (it's been a while, I forget). 

[Generic Eric]

Truxton II

ORLY?  Or is the World revision easier than the Japanese one?

Nope.  My only exposure was from the high score competition #66.  Haven't played the other to comment

[opt2not]

I say just find a Shmup you like, then play it on easier difficulties till you get better.  Heck, if you're emulating it, then use save states to give you some practice for areas you tend to die a lot at.

The whole point of shmups is to concur difficulty, by learning patterns, controlling the spawning so you don't get overrun, and of course learning hit boxes and how to use 'em for dodging.