Forgotten Worlds (Arcade, 1988)

 

The very first game developed for Capcom's CPS-1 arcade hardware, making this an important historical footnote. This is what would happen if SCAT and Bad Dudes cross-pollinated. It's an arcade shooter very similar to SCAT (to the point that at first glance I nearly thought it was a prequel/sequel, or made by the same people) where you play as these two rad dudes as they fight their way through space to save Earth.

It also looks REALLY nice for 1988. Arcade games were punching on a whole different weight class in the late 80's. I'm not kidding, this looks insane visually. I thought it was from the mid-90's until I checked the year.

As usual, I had no idea what I was getting into with this one. Capcom's been doing a really good job resurrecting their old arcade games and preserving them with modern systems. Arcade games aren't something you'll just find in the wild, so they might be the most important games to make ports of for modern systems. Just to keep them from ceasing to exist entirely. I wish someone would port over the Aliens vs Predator arcade game where you can play as Arnold's character Dutch, as well as various Predators, while bashing your way through a horde of Xenos. It's so, so much better than the SNES beat 'em up. And basically nonexistent at this point in time.

Anyway, time for Capcom's first arcade game. It's called Forgotten Worlds but thanks to them it isn't a forgotten game.

S.C.A.T.: Special Cybernetic Attack Team (NES, 1991)

     

A jetpack-based shoot 'em up with an absolutely terrible name, this one has been on my radar for about 30 years. Seriously though, this has to be the worst-named game in the entire NES library. It's a pretty solid Natsume game, though, and deserves a bit of recognition.

Star Fox 64 (Nintendo 64, 1997)

This is quite the evolution of the shooter genre. Say what you will about Nintendo, but they're the masters of having first-party franchises that people really care about... even if that isn't as much the case in the modern era. For the N64, all they had to do was bring back beloved SNES franchises, add a 64 to the end of the title, and they had a guaranteed hit. This is one of the more shining examples of this practice; Star Fox 64 is a fine game. And it adds the Charged Homing Shot, which is a game-changer that makes it so much more fun to play.

Originally posted March 2013, now with more of the game added

Star Fox 2 (Super Famicom, 1995)

 

Everyone knows the story by now. This is the missing link between the original and Star Fox 64, and never made it out of Japan. Much like Earthbound Zero, the game was finished, but just didn't get published, so it was easy for Nintendo to dig it up and put it on their modern classic consoles. I'm playing it on Switch Online, and this is the first time I've ever played it in complete form. Even the complete form seems kind of incomplete though, lul.

Star Fox (Super NES, 1993)

 

Major Super NES classic here and the first game I think of when I think of their 1993 lineup. (The system would absolutely explode in 1994, the year I got it, with a litany of incredible games that defined the whole gaming generation).

Star Fox is mostly a showcase for the Super FX Chip, which let the SNES make use of three-dimensional polygon graphics for the first time ever. ...and this particular tech didn't really stick around, so it's a bit of an artifact now. While the 3D effect is quite rudimentary, and the system was in most regards better off sticking to 2D (which it largely did after this), there's still a place for this game in the SNES lexicon. Nothing else was like it at the time.

As for my own experience with it, this was one of the many SNES games I rented circa 1995 or so. Had a great time with it as a kid. However, I was only able to beat the first of the three level paths. That first path is the one the vast majority of players did, so only beating the game on easy mode (ostensibly) is nothing to be ashamed of. However, I've been wanting to revisit it and finish the other two paths ever since. Now I finally have an excuse to.

Playing this on Nintendo Switch Online. It's cool how things like this and Capcom Arcade Stadium are making emulation less necessary to revisit retro games, as well as letting me revisit them on a TV.

Silver Surfer (NES, 1990)

Before there was the T-1000, Marvel was making gleaming silver metal dudes cool with Silver Surfer and his rad to the max space-surfboard. This game has been on my radar for a while, as it's said to be one of the worst games on the NES. So of course I had to play it. Let's see how bad it really is. Will it be "bad" in the Power Glove sense, or "bad" in the "BAD DUDES" sense?

Super Earth Defense Force (Super NES, 1991)

 

1991 gave us two massive cultural touchstones that completely shook the world: Highlander II, and this space shooter from Jaleco that I never heard about until recently. Thought it was related to the Earth Defense Force series from 2005+, but nope, totally unrelated it seems. Trying it out anyway, as Jaleco usually makes good games. Also, "Jaleco" is like the most rad-to-the-max 80's/90's video game company title.

This is without a doubt the most attention this game has gotten in a long, long time.

R-Type III: The Third Lightning (Super NES, 1994)

 

This was the first really difficult game that I ever beat. They totally cranked that difficulty meter from the previous games and made this an ahead-of-its-time murderfest akin to Super Meat Boy. The good news is that rather than repeating the levels on death like all previous games in the series, this one gives you actual checkpoints and lots of them. Also infinite lives. So the incredibly tough levels can be tackled one segment at a time. There are no difficulty levels, but the difficulty is just right, and they pretty much got it perfect here. Though be prepared that this game does take a while to get through if played fully legit, and every stage is a fierce battle.

Super R-Type (Super NES, 1991)

Time for one of my favorite SNES shooters. This is basically R-Type II remixed for the new SNES, with some R-Type content thrown in, and a couple entirely new levels. I got this game as a kid, one of the 10-15 games I got in the 1990's, and really liked it because I kinda had to. It was all I had to play for a few weeks there! It's a good game regardless, and certainly easier on the eyes than the Game Boy ones (which admittedly punch above their weight). Since we hadn't gotten R-Type II in the states at the time, this game seemed almost entirely new. Still no build variety though.

(Originally posted in 2014, rewriting some of it now to go with the others)

R-Type II (Game Boy, 1992)

 

This one I played way later in time than the other one, and for a while didn't even know it existed. The first one was the only one I saw covered or talked about anywhere. And there's a very good reason for this: It never came out in North America. That's right, it got Japan and Europe releases and then they just kinda cancelled the American version. Regardless, this is basically part two of the first game, picking up right where it left off. It has a lot in common with Super R-Type (but not everything). I think most people only experienced this via the R-Type DX compilation on Game Boy Color, especially in the States.

R-Type (Game Boy, 1991)

 

Another Game Boy Player's Guide game, and one I'm surprised I never posted about already. I actually got this game as a kid, one of the ten or so Game Boy games I ever owned. Unfortunately, out of those ten-ish, this was probably the one I got the least out of. I think I played it a grand total of maybe 2-3 hours at the most, and was pretty much done with it in one day. It's a very short game and doesn't pose any particular challenge, especially compared to other games in this series. Still, it's worth a look.

The R-Type series, from Irem, was sorta the Ross Perot of the shooter universe circa the 1990s. Not as popular or well-known as Gradius and not as beloved by the hardcore as the vertical Compile games. It has a number of innovations that set it apart from (and even surpass at times) the Gradius games.

The Hunt for Red October (Game Boy, 1991)

 

Another game from the Game Boy Player's Guide. This one has Sean Connery! ...on the box!

Solar Striker (Game Boy, 1990)

 

Basically the Space Megaforce of the Game Boy, this is a vertical shoot 'em up that plays very well for the system it inhabits. It's yet another game from the Game Boy Player's Guide, which I'm pretty close to playing / covering everything from at this point. Also, little-known factoid: This game was directly produced by Gunpei Yokoi and developed by a Nintendo studio. You don't see many Nintendo space shooters flying around.

Gradius II (Famicom, 1988)

 

I somehow forgot about this game entirely when I covered the series on here a while back, and was reminded by its presence on the big list. I went from Gradius to Life Force to Gradius III and thought nothing of it because I figured Life Force was the second game. Well, it's more of a spinoff that became the second game in the U.S. by default.

Meanwhile there was an actual second game that wasn't released outside of Japan. To make things even more confusing, both this and Life Force were both released in 1988. Also, Nemesis II on Game Boy was called Gradius II in Japan, so there were two different Gradius II games. And there's also an arcade version of this game... that closely resembles the SNES Gradius III. My head is spinning like a kitten on a fast-moving record player.

Parodius (Super Famicom, 1992)

From the makers of Gradius, a game that will change the way we look at shooters! Also, what's going on in this box art? Is that octopus on meth?

(Originally posted in 2014. Reposted for reasons)

T2: The Arcade Game (Game Boy, 1992)

 

I've tried on two different occasions to cover this on the site (within posts for other games) and didn't get far either time. This time I'm going for broke. Why bother with THIS version, you ask? Well, it may not be great, but it is kind of a wonder of science that it exists at all. It's a reminder of a time when they'd try to fit pretty much ANY game onto a Game Boy port, regardless of how little sense it made or how unfeasible it seemed.

T2: The Arcade Game (Arcade/Genesis/SNES, 1991-1994)

 

 Here's a game that a lot of us spent waaaay too many quarters on back in the day, because it was approximately the coolest arcade game on the planet for a while. One or two players can wield light guns and battle the forces of Skynet in a first-person rail shooter.

Wait a minute...where are the PURPLE LASERS?

(Originally posted: November 2016. I've decided to give the Game Boy version its own post, for...reasons)

Freedom Finger (Playstation 4 and Switch, 2020)

 

This is the single craziest space-shooter I've ever seen. It's a parody of American foreign policy and a bit of an indictment of the Establishment with its many victims. It's also completely nutso. I had no idea what I was getting into until I played this with a friend over one afternoon. We expected a pretty basic space shooter and what we got was something else entirely.

In the immortal words of William Shakespeare: F*** it let's just do it.

Judgement Silversword (Wonderswan Color, 2001)

 

Wonderswan Color gets on the board with this shockingly good space shooter. Shockingly good for a portable system from the Game Boy Color era, that is. I don't know how they were able to get this game to play as well as it does with zero slowdown considering the massive number of moving objects onscreen at any given time. It's safe to say the Wonderswan Color was a really impressive portable and it's too bad we never got it in the states. In any case, this game will float you a few hundred dollars on eBay, or you could just download the ROM and actually have a shot at beating the game due to save states. Because this game is ludicrously hard. There's also a Steam version for like $20, but no states so good luck. It sure does play well, despite its near-impossibility.

Earth Defense Force 4.1 - The Shadow of New Despair (Playstation 4, 2015)

 

BUG HUNT continues as I play an EDF game for the first time. These are known for being super fun shoot 'em ups. This one is a PS4 remaster of an XBox 360 game, so it looks a little antiquated at this point, but hopefully the gameplay is as good as I've heard.