Top 10 Greatest Shmup Developers of All Time!

[@joltzyclayton8674]

Ikeda was watching a programmer play and the programmer had the hitbox real small so he could get through the game easier. Ikeda asked him to keep it like that. Either way it wasn't supposed to be there. Great video my dude.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Oh thank you so much for the clarification! Yes that is what the story was, I remember now. Yeah so it wasn't a glitch exactly, but a dev made exploit for debugging. That's really cool. That's also how we sometimes get some cool dip switches in arcade games ha, where the devs use them to test and program and then leave them in.

[@luisangelorjr]

What the moment of the video its mentioned?

[@gwinbeer]

Great list! I have some honorable mentions of my own: Capcom (194X, Area 88/UN Squadron) - a Japanese game developer lets you control a United States fighter to destroy the Japanese Imperial Army (it was a big deal), weapon purchasing system Takumi (Giga Wing, Mars Matrix) - bullet manipulation mechanic so enemies can fire a crapload more bullets, pioneered the ridiculously high scoring system Compile (Aleste series, specifically MUSHA) - Freely controls how options function on-the-fly, metal music. Later the employees form Raizing Eclipse Software (Tyrian) - A shmup for PC, implemented RPG elements into a shmup I was thinking of Telenet (Gaiares) and Technosoft (Thunder Force) too, but I think their weapon systems are like an evolution to Gradius. Also, the Darius series's strongest point is the immersion with the music, composed by Hisayoshi Ogura (OGR). Starting with Darius II's final stage, the music plays while the sound effects are COMPLETELY TURNED OFF until the middle of the stage! This idea carried on to Darius Gaiden (stage 1 music goes toward 2 stages, no music for 1st half of final stage, final boss starts at a specific part of the music) and G-Darius (no music for 1st half of the 1st stage) to an extent. Not only that, his music focuses on ambiance with a specific theme. He was the leader of Zuntata for a good reason. Shohei Tsuchiya had big shoes to fill when OGR left and composing music for DariusBurst.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Oh yeah there are so many great devs that even great studios like capcom and compile couldn't make the list. I do love the darius series a lot in terms of visuals and music. Especially G. Darius and Darius Gaiden's osts.I love how weird they are while still being catchy and fitting the vibe of the games.

[@ryanbailey6900]

UN squadron was definitely a gateway shmup growing up with the SNES.

[@kurisuchiinathecrocodile333]

Shohei Tsuchiya is pretty cool, he was together with Kota Hoshino on Metal Wolf Chaos soundtrack before he joined Zuntata.

[@StrnGuy]

Really love your point about Cave going through artistic periods. For me, I always just think of the unique pattern design in each game. DOJ’s straightforward brutality, Ketsui’s tricky shit, Mushi’s living patterns, Deathsmiles’ bullets that fall down like ashes. They really are on the highest level.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yeah it s so cool to see a dev expand on design concepts and try out different but related styles like other artists do

[@davy_K]

Nice seeing Zun getting the love. I haven't played a huge amount of Touhou but there are obvious influences on games like Castle Shikigami for example. Not entirely convinced that Treasure should be as high due to the lower volume of their output. But their games are special - and there's Bangai O as well of course!

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yeah ZUN took a lot of the ideas from shiki -- like the human characters, the bullet grazing, the boss fights, and took it to that next level. Also yeah treasure's game output is limited which does make their placing generous, but I also think that their design is still ahead of its time decades later, and in a lot of ways modern devs are still playing catch up to Treasure.

[@NIMPAK1]

Even before I really learned how to appreciate the genre, Treasure has always been one of my favorite devs in general. Even though not all of their games are 10/10 masterpieces, I still don't know how to feel about Stretch Panic, they just have a style that's hard to explain that I've never felt with any other dev indie or otherwise. Their works feel so outside the cultural zeitgeist yet unpretentious and made with a clear understanding of what makes a video game a video game.

[@aegisreflector1239]

Agreed

[@tournaline3448]

Great comment. For me, Treasure are the greatest game developers of all-time. I feel like they made games specifically for hardcore gamers. I will forever be in awe of them.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Oh yeah as an overall dev treasure are such a unique piece of gaming history. I love silvergun the most in terms of shmups, but I also really love the sin and punishment series, and if there is any series that I would be legit hyped for a sequel for, it would be sin and punishment. Alas treasure are basically dead and i can't think of a dev who would have the skills to follow up where treasure left off.

[@TheCrewExpendable]

Treasure made games for the video game equivalent of cinephiles. Yeah there are people who like the big blockbusters (e.g. Marvel Movies/Call of Duty) and those certainly 100% have their place. But for those who are very invested in the medium, we can turn to Treasure (among others) just like movie people have Criterion.

[@davidgibson4901]

Could not agree more about Psikyo and Treasure. The breakdown of Garegga's mechanics is masterful. This is the best video I've ever seen on this topic, there's so much more history and insight than a typical top 10 list.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I'm really happy with how this vid turned out! Yeah it basically started as a fun ranking of the shmup devs, but knowing me, I was like well while I'm at it let me try to shove as much analysis of their game design in as possible ha. I'm really happy with how the garegga section turned out as well! I'm going to do a dedicated vid about garegga pretty soon :-)

[@benjaminturkalj4415]

Funny to think treasure were all formed as ex konami employees, to comw full circle and make gradius v many years later is pretty cool.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

It's so cool! Also yes and I have a theory that i'm going to explore in an upcoming vid that perhaps Axelay, the snes shmup, could be basically the first treasure shmup in many ways.

[@IllusionistsBane]

One more point about Touhou and an elephant in the room: CAVE made that Touhou Gensou Eclipse mobage. There was also a fan meeting for that game where CAVE had a Score Attack event for its players and showcased Deathsmiles 2007 Cave Matsuri Ver. and Ibara Kuro Black Label. EDIT: With this I can say that Arcade Shmup fans have lost any remaining reason to not engage with Touhou.

[@bun_66]

"Raizing is James Joyce of shmups" is my favourite quote from whole video :D Overall it's great!

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I'm glad you enjoy my unnecessarily highbrow references ha. Raizing really are on another level when it comes to the system design of their games.

[@tournaline3448]

This whole vid is so on point. The analysis of Treasure was the best I’ve heard yet.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Thank you very much my dude!!! I'm really happy with how the vid turned out :-) Granted I worked on it non stop for an entire week lol, so I do hope are able to find it and tune in.

[@alakeintheclouds6327]

I know some people do look down on Touhou games but I love them. They were also my gateway drug into shmups. I was because aware of touhou through memes and after trying the series I play lots of other shmups as well.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yeah as time has gone on I think we've seen more of a peaceful co existence of the touhou players and the arcade players, which I think is really good ha. Especially because these days most super players, even arcade super players, actually come from the touhou scene.

[@nickogden5312]

Dude I’m so happy to see your channel picking up steam. Been my favorite channel forever now. You possibly going full time is great news

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yeah this channel feels like it's fighting all the odds in terms of breaking into a larger audience, but I'm really excited for what is to come. I think in the past year a lot of elements of the channel for me have come together creatively and I'm really happy to see it growing in viewership. Me going full time is going to be an exciting time. I'm hoping I will be able to hand through the transition phase of being a smaller channel, but it's a leap of faith that I feel it's time to make. At this point I'd rather try and fail then never try at all.

[@ryanbailey6900]

The rank in Garegga is what's always talked about , but the reason why the rank system is meaningful is because every other aspect of the game is so incredible and brilliant. I fell in love with it for the music, style, action and graphics. I didnt even know about rank until years later when i decided to study the game...which you must. When you realize the true depth of the game with it's tricks, scoring possibilities...then you realize its arcade perfection. And MUSIC was at the top of that list... learning about jupiter jazz being used in the game is the first thing that introduced me to it!

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Oh yeah of course, garegga is the whole package, no doubt about it. And yes I agree completely that a clever scoring and rank system wouldn't matter that much without really strong fundamentals, but I just had to go on about the rank design for today's vid because the more I think about it, the more brilliant I realize that it is, and I haven't heard anyone else explain about the counter-incentive system design, which is a new concept that I'm really excited to talk more about in other games and stuff.

[@striderhiryu4643]

Great content as usual, I would also like to mention Image Fight from IREM, it was a very influential game, even to non-shmup developers, surprised it wasn't mentioned

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Oh yeah image fight, there are a lot of interesting games like this in the various dev libraries (like salamander in Konami), but the vid is already massive so I tried to mostly stick to the highlights as much as I could ha. Except in cave where I just started talking and then realized it had been 18 lol.

[@PilotDrTan]

This video was filmed in front of a live studio audience. Also, great video as always Mark!

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Ha had to document your iconic ikaruga run!! 🎉

[@darkridearts]

Shmup games are some of the best values in gaming…. Endlessly replayable, amazing production values, spectacular music, tight controls, timeless gameplay and themes, and most importantly, they do not waste your time like many modern games.

[@jucksalbe]

Mushimesama Futari (on 360) was what really brought me back to the genre after mostly ignoring it since the early to mid 90s. The only other shmup I really loved in the meantime was Gradius V, but that was more like a one-off. So their appeal to casual players worked for a few people, I guess. Just not enough people.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Futari is so cool. Another massive release in the cave library. I was going to talk about it more in the cave section, but it was already a massive section ha. I really hope we see a PC port of futari soon, I could see livewire doing a solid job with it too.

[@speedymatt1236]

1:12:18 Inbachi truly is a massive memento to countless Shmup games made by amazing developers. Truly the epitome of how far humanity truly has come, put to the absolute final test which pushes all gamers to their zenith. After seeing this entire video, the shmup truly is something special of a genre in a whole.

[@SoShiBias]

Big video. Glad to have know what are the touchstone mechanics in the genre.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yeah this vid started as a fun breezy idea and became this massive undertaking lol, where I went through and analyzed all these devs and really dug into them. I'm super happy with how the vid turned out so I hope it can survive the alg and be a cool entry point for people coming to the genre in the future.

[@jovasmav]

This channel delivers great stuff, from Tekken to Shmups always an interesting take, keep it up

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Thank you very much my dude, and when september rolls around I should be going full time and be able to do 2 vids a week, which I'm really excited about because there are a lot of really cool games and topics that I want to cover that I'm bottle necked out of being able to cover right now, due to working a desk job and all.

[@slimynaut]

Amazing video Good luck with you going full time Im excited for it, you are one of the few reviewers that knows what actually matters in a game

[@TheElectricUnderground]

thanks so much slimy! yes I'm excited to be an alternative outlet for reviews and an actual alternative outlet ha, where I talk about the gameplay and game design.

[@jankmedia1985]

5:13. There are no arcades in my town. Went to local brewery the other day and noticed they added some pinball machines and two cabinets...yup, Raiden 2. Such a pleasant surprise.

[@VisualTedium]

Picked up Garegga on PS5, thnx for helping me get edumacated on STGs

[@TheElectricUnderground]

You cannot go wrong with garegga rev 2016. One of the greatest games of fall time and an amazing port! I love how the ps5 can play ps4 games without extra lag, an really cool sony decision I have to say.

[@dingo535]

Nice, Stoked! Really good and well thought out list. I may have had Irem a couple spots higher but you did a good job explaining why they were so good and important regardless so I think them being in the top 10 is good enough at the end od the day. Plus I’ll be the first to admit I have serious nostalgia for R Type Delta which almost certainly colors my opinion. I definitely agree Taito deserved to be as high as you had them, I think you did a good job of explaining why more importantly. Plus, Taito is just too damn cool, it’s hard to explain exactly why but they just have such distinct and intriguing style to them. As such I really respect both the incredibly high bar of quality, in addition to the prolific volume of their output! I think you made CAVE’s case for them quite well and hard to contest even if you’re like me and not a CAVE boy as much, I still respect their craft as much as anyone and would never argue their placement near or at the forefront of shooting game development. All that aside, big shout out to Seibu at 10. I think they earned that 10 spot free. I’ll admit I was the tiniest bit surprised I was both happy and in agreement with their placement among the STG greats. Love or hate 5, (I like it even with all of its flaws, the weapon system is still a ton of fun, also the moment you moment action is still solid Raiden.) My positive feelings on 5 aside, it was a step down from the very good to great Raiden 4, and was clearly missing a lot of the magic that made 4 tick. Believe it or not I was actually slightly surprised to hear Treasure place so high, but after some brief thought as well as your very well stated explanation. It made all too much sense and I’m happy with their placement. Anyways, sorry for the novel, but surely it’s apparent by now that I have a hard time either of keeping my thoughts concise. Nothing is perfect as you know all too well and I’m afraid I must leave with my one and only point of contention… G REV SOME deserves, if not needs some form of representation. I personally think they have done enough to earn a spot among the top 10. That said if you are absolutely hell bent on denying them that long awaited, not to mention hard to earn Then they should have had an additional honorable mention awarded to them. I feel they are somewhat similar, albeit smaller and further niche, to Treasure and a little bit CAVE as well. In relation to Treasure, I just think they have a similarly immaculate sense for making good decisions in regards to game design no matter what the project. Moreover their games not only retain that bar in terms amazingly high quality in terms of playability. No, somehow they still manage to retain their strict adherence to arcade game design philosophy. All the while they still managed to push the limits in terms of graphical presentation. Especially when compared to what traditional shooting games are concerned with anyway. I was going to say for the time period anyway, but truthfully Under Defeat still looks better than a good 3/4 of all modern releases in the genre. Not to mention all their games utilize completely polygonal 3D worlds. Today that may sound fairly pedestrian, but keep in mind how much more poorly 3D games tend to age than their predominantly pixel powered pals. G Rev games of course are still absolutely gorgeous. Border Down, Under Defeat and Strania all hit the mark today thanks to great art design and intelligent utilization of what most every one at the time was stating to be inferior hardware. They also essentially did what CAVE did with Toaplan regarding the act of maintaining the same high standard of quality, albeit with Taito instead of Toaplan, and on a smaller scale in terms of release volume. Holy Shit, I just realized how much I typed. What the hell is wrong with me… Yeah…err…good review indeed. Sheesh.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Hey Dingo, thanks so much for the awesome comment! I actually thought about putting G Rev on the list as the honorable mention, but in the end I decided against it, not because I don't think that they are awesome, but mostly because a lot of their best work is collaborative with other studios like treasure, so it makes them really hard to place. They do fantastic work but basically what counted against them was the small output paired with their output being collaborative, but they are def in the top 15 if I extended the list further down.

[@elseifgames129]

In terms of Touhou's influence, one thing I want to see more developers experiment with is with the structure of some of his spinoff games, like Shoot The Bullet and Impossible Spell Card. Games that take the spell card practice mode and make it the main mode, splitting the game into micro levels. I don't think part of the difficulty in getting into shmups is difficulty alone. There are plenty of high difficulty games that have hit it big nowadays. I also don't think it's that they're too short. Kind of the opposite, in a way. I think a big barrier is the endurance aspect. A good shmup involves an extremely high focus form of gameplay for 30 mins-1 hour with very little breathing room, and the only thing you get out of a failed run is the knowledge you have to do it all over again. That is massively demoralizing for a lot of players. Compare that to, as an example, Super Meat Boy, or Celeste's B-Sides, which present their challenge with short bursts and frequent checkpointing. People are much more willing to throw themselves against a seep difficulty curve if they can see the top and have unlimited tries. You can argue that I'm just describing playing a shmup with savestates/a good practice system, but 1) that isn't going to come naturally to a lot of new players. That's a learned behavior. (which can be learned by more games that structure themselves that way by default.) 2) At least in Zun's case, those games allow him to do patterns that he wouldn't otherwise do in a mainline title. It lets him play meaner. Don't get me wrong, I don't want this to become the dominant mode of Shmup design. That would destroy the concept of routing, and the endurance factor is what gives a 1cc its rush. But it also feels like there's potential being left on the table.

[@marcossegon5433]

Honestly, I'm surprised nobody tried to copy the photography spin-offs. They are such an interesting concept.

[@SensatoKuro]

Awesome video. Great tribute to shmups. Thank you!

[@ArcadeHell]

What a great video! I love the level of detail on each developer, focusing on their history, their conceptual contributions to the genre, and their awesome games! Also, the criticism of each developer really added a level of drama which kept it interesting. Thank you for keeping it real, and not just talking about the positives alone. And finally, the breakdown of every Cave shmup, and what it uniquely offers, that is a seriously nice little write-up to inspire anyone to go and check out all of their games. A perfect send-off for the best developer in the business. This really amped me up to go play some shmups!!

[@sofianzinho]

Hey Man, thanks, that's really another great video. Sharp analysis, deep knowledge and contagious love of these addictive bullets' ballets. Would it be possible (or is there any ref I am missing) that would be related to dissecting the making of one of these shmups including diving into some technical issues related to their coding?

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Oh that's a really cool idea! It would be really interesting to analyze the composition of the games from a technical coding level. I think I probably could to some degree since I have some experience with it while working on the HOB alpha project. Also bog and I talk about bullet coding a good deal. It's a great idea for a vid and sounds like the type of vid I might be able to make later this year when I go full time :-)

[@SonofTzeentch]

Since influence was a main criterion, this list seems fairly spot on and "objective" (whatever that means). Really nice! I'm guessing Compile is missing because of maybe being viewed as "Proto-Raizing", but if so, a mention of them would have been nice; I think many indie devs trying to make non-bullet hell vertical shmups are often compile fans design-wise, and their library of games got quite a few people into the genre. Kind of similarly, mentioning Psikyo's previous history as Video System a bit more would have been cool. Since people are mentioning honorable mention developers that were certainly not as influential as the ones on this list: AkiraGoya (Gal Shell, Yakouga, Steel Vampire, Angel at Dusk) has been putting out shmups and Run'n'Guns every year for ~20 years now and their aggressive style of play is pretty crazy and different to anything else in the genre (warning to people looking up his games: lots of H.R. Giger inspired NSFW visuals in those games). His work is also Psikyo-adjacent I'd say, with fast bullets that require understanding and reacting to what's about to happen, rather than the bullets themselves.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Thanks so much Sono! Yeah this list is objective in the sense of being a rational and hopefully compelling explanation of my value system for evaluating the genre. But of course it is subjective in the regard of what I value in the first place, vs perhaps being more favored towards old school shmup design and so forth. It''s an interesting phenomenon which is basically objective subjectivity ha. Where you choose a value system and favor it based on your own subjective tastes, but then you try to be as clear and logical about your own tastes as possible ha. That's the concept and it sounds like it does seem to be coming through in the vids, which I'm very happy to hear.

[@thewingedavenger1007]

It's like making a top ten list of the best pop music artists of all time without mentioning the Beatles. Any expert would have Compile as the number 1 or 2 best shmup developer of all time.

[@SonofTzeentch]

@@thewingedavenger1007 Sort of - if the best following pop bands included ex-beatles members ^^ I don't disagree fudnamentally though.

[@MrOreo76]

I just want to add that Nichibutsu had a long, long pedigree of old school shumps such as Legion, Terra Cresta series, Armed formation F, all which had some sort of new game or weapon mechanics which were never seen before (like time revesal in Legion)

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Nice shout out! That's a super deep cut. Yeah there are some really cool and obscure devs out there that were doing some great stuff, another example that comes to mind for me is natsume, they had Gekioh Shooting King which is pretty cool!

[@DoktorJacob]

This guy knows his shmups. Very good.

[@what227]

Not only was Compile not top 3, but not even an honorable mention?

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I thought about compile a good deal, but the reason why compile didn't make the list isn't because I don't think their games are solid (remember how deep and competitive the shmup library is), but rather when you go through their library, none of their games are particularly influential or groundbreaking. Also because most of their shmups are console shmups, their scoring systems are really under developed. I know in the west we love our console shmups, but being outside of the arcade scene in shmup design is like releasing movies direct to video during the high point of movie theaters.

[@Covenantisolationfacehugger]

Compile's Blazing Lazers was the first console shooter I played in the hyper 8 bit 16 bit wars . I feel the sound design is unmatched and groundbreaking for shmups around that time..the clarity is remarkable and was way ahead of its time! As far as chiptunes compositions go it is easily one of the best (SynthRock!!).(I loved the metal soundtrack of TF3 and Lightening Force as well) and really nailed the sound design (you really feel the bass on those explosions ). The other Solider games were good but never surpassed this one for me, It was the first to blow my mind. Thanks Mark for the video, your anylysis is pretty amazing . I believe Hudson Soft (red)? is the alltime "workman"shmup dev that singlehandedly carried the pc engine shmups yes? Lol. Love the channel ❤ ❤

[@perlichtman1562]

@@TheElectricUndergroundI’m not sure what you mean by not particularly groundbreaking or influential. You can see the influence all over many of the games you talked about. For starters, look at how Compile advanced the role of dynamically altering the scrolling speed for artistic effect and how that influenced the way that especially Treasure (Radiant Silvergun the most but also Ikaruga) and Cave (think of some of those pivotal moments in Ketsui for starters but it shows up in lots of the others) not to mention many other developers. The way that Compile worked with dynamic scrolling speed at high speed was absolutely pivotal to how the interesting camera work you talked about appreciating in some 3D shmups developed. There’s a pretty clear dividing line between came before Compile brought that into their games and what came after. Not to mention the generally higher scroll speed overall (basically the opposite of R-Type). On top of that Zanac games were quite interesting in regards to their proto-rank system and the way the game behaved differently depending on the sub-weapon you picked up/currently had equipped. You saw a more limited version of that in Toaplan games like Truxton but you saw a more advanced version later on with the Cave TLBs that put up a shield whenever you bombed or had i-frames (like you discussed). Looking back at the Zanac games, they really don’t get enough credit for the early experimentation regarding enemy response to player behavior. In terms of possibly less influential innovations, there was the way that Zanac and Aleste experimented with controlled I-frames surrounding weapon pick-ups that was a really different from, for example, the big 3, (R-Type, Gradius, Darius), Toaplan, Raiden, etc. where a novice player might grab a power-up without thinking only to run straight into a bullet or obstacle. The dynamic of continuously jumping between power-ups for the i-frames as a way of staying alive was quite different from the dominant shmup dynamics at the time. I can understand what you’re saying about the scoring side in comparison to Raizing, Treasure, Cave, etc. and have no disagreements about that side, but I am genuinely confused by what criteria you are using to decide innovation and influence since what Compile was doing influenced both gameplay and presentation in later games and experimented in some very meaningful ways that made many of their games feel different from what had come before and their contemporaries. Also, you mentioned Cave’s style periods but you could easily say the same about Compile as well. You have the initial basic shmups/proto-shmups from 1983-1985. Then we enter the innovative high speed/stripped down graphics period starting with Zanac in 1986. Then in 1988 we see a more experimental period where they lean into other genres to mix things up for shmups (Guardian Legend and Aleste Gaiden etc. After some early releases in 1989 that show more visual ambition, in 1990 they start their more visually striking phase where we get more of the games that had boss designs or visual setpieces that people remember more: Musha Aleste, Gun-Nac, Spriggan, etc. and that continues on through 1993. Then in 2001 their last release is essentially a neo-classical take on their 1986-1987 period with Zanac Neo (from Zanac x Zanac) which is more visually complicated than those original games but also much simpler than their 1990s period. It’s a very interesting note for them to end on, commenting on one of their early innovative games very much on its own terms as opposed to trying to meld it fully into the visual excesses of some of their 90s games. In a way, it is that obvious love and respect for one of their early games and desire to bring it to a new generation that foreshadowed what we would later see M2 STG seek to do with their releases. I can’t think of many other developers that were aiming to do that yet at the time.

[@blufudgecrispyrice8528]

ShmupJunkie does mention that compile staff would go on to form raizing so there's that

[@FalcusSTG]

I've never heard of this DoDonPachi game. Can you please talk about it more in each video. Thanks Mark. Speaking of nostalgia from mushi, I get that as well. I first played it with the steam release in 2015 and immediately had nostalgia and it's one I go back to fairly frequently.

[@speedymatt1236]

Did you mean Dodonpachi Saidaioujou? If that’s the game you’re interested in, I’ll explain some of it anyways: It was originally released in 2012 on April 20th as the story canon takes place in an alternate universe. This game is harder than most other shmups in a normal 1cc playthrough without the TLB. If you somehow manage to get through the whole game without dying and using a bomb as well as collecting all the bees getting a high enough rank and hit counter depending on what attack style you chose, the one boss that took almost 12 years since release will show up.

[@hooksnfangs6006]

Fantastic list and thorough discussion/analysis on each dev! Yee Konami in the list baby! While they're more well known for their other popular non-shmup franchises, I will always view them for SHMUPs first. Their contribution to the genre is too good to ignore! OPTIONS are almost everywhere

[@TheElectricUnderground]

exactly hooks. What's also kinda sad is that Konami don't care about their arcade legacy at all, so they don't have the same pride in their shmup games as say Capcom does for the street fighter series. It's a shame really, but old school Konami were on another level in terms of dev talent and impact to game design.

[@hooksnfangs6006]

@@TheElectricUnderground Yup. Old Konami was amazing. Seeing the two ribbons appear when booting up a game meant quality back in the day.

[@FiRezfps]

Vey thorough video as always! I'd have added a 2nd honorary spot for System Erasure the 2 guys who made Zero Ranger (I don't think I've played other shmup like it). Btw Touhou kind of reminds me to Vocaloid in the sense the fandom seems to be more about the characters than the "product" itself. I'm glad you touched on that too

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Oh yes it would be cool to do a list of like western indie devs at some point, or like the top indie shmup devs or something like that! The problem with the indie scene in terms of this list, outside of CCWE is they are all too new and we haven't had enough time to see what their legacies will be.

[@FiRezfps]

@@TheElectricUnderground That's a really nice idea! And yes based on what you mention I feel it's fair to consider most of them in a separated category

[@lounowell4171]

Fantastic video Feel like a lot more should be attributed to Xevious tho Bangai-O Spirits (and the original to a lesser extent) are also fantastic Treasure shmup-adjacent games

[@perlichtman1562]

Lots of interesting thoughts in this one. Love these kinds of videos - please keep them coming. :)

[@b3asle551]

Great video! Really clarifies the landscape of classic shmups.

[@DEERF0RCE]

I explained that in-between era of Psikyo style shooters to a 20 year old and he said, "oh, so it's a bullet-heck," lol.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

That's great lol! Yeah it's bullet H.E. Double hockey sticks.

[@KrieGor27]

It's so interesting to talk about the top 10 devs in a genre, as it becomes possible to speak about all their little quirks and contributions. We should make that with bmup!

[@soratheorangejuicemascot5809]

Looking forward to that!

[@MadStalker80]

While I mostly agree with the list there are a lot of Shoot'em ups devs missing that could be argued to be included here: Technosoft, NMK, Compile, G.Rev, Milestone, Success, Capcom (yes they have some bangers as well :) ), Alfa System, Kaneko (highly underrated), Face, NCS / Masaya and hell even Namco has some great titles. And you can see all the Psikyo tropes in the Video System games already = random order of the first 4 stages, fast & dense bullet patterns "thrown" at the player & the power up system. It could also be argued that Konami has not made a great Shoot'em up since Gradius V (and that was 20 years ago) but they put out so many great Shoot'em ups in the 80s and 90s that its hard to deny their footprint in the genre.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Oh yes absolutely, if I had a top 15 a lot of these guys would be included in there. The thing that's really unique about shmups, compared to other genres, is how plentiful the amount of really great devs actually is. Most other genres tend to have a few good devs and then a bunch of B rate stuff, but shmups roll crazy deep. I think if I were going to go with an 12 pick, it would have been capcom for sure.

[@michaeltan_]

You're going full time! Nice, I will support soon...

[@j.l.9689]

Great list, great video. No Compile makes me sad though :(

[@lunaria_stg]

Can't really argue with this list. Well, I don't like playing Konami shmups, but in terms of innovation, they are certainly up there. This video is also a pretty cool analysis of how shmups evolved over the years, and what each studio's design style brought to the table! I need to try out some of these games. Like Gun Frontier, which I had no idea is proto-Garegga. The V-V/Grind Stormer story is also one I read about, I think from an interview that Shmuplations translated. And Psikyo DEFINITELY needs more recognition. I want to see indie devs hop on the Psikyo bandwagon and make some ultra-dense and frantic shmups!

[@nftscreenshotter6436]

I love the Zun respect in this. While Touhou is pretty popular online, the majority opinion from outsiders is still "ew loli anime girls, you like this? you must be a creep". It does a massive disservice to just how brilliant Touhou games are as shmups. I appreciate you sharing your insight on the subject in this video so that hopefully more shmup fans can see just how cool these games are. They truly are a shmuper's shmup. also touhou memes are fire

[@djs9997]

amazing video, probably my favorite of yours actually! Will definitely be sharing around. Curious why you didn't bring up Akai Katana Shin in this video, because to me that's the last super duper good game from CAVE but it's in a weird spot

[@TheElectricUnderground]

that's fantastic to hear! I'm really proud of how the vid turned out and I am extremely grateful if you share it around as much as possible ha.

[@WayToTheGrave]

Me and my older brother grew up playing shmups on the Sega Genesis and onto the Dreamcast with Mars Matrix and all that. I was a grown adult when I discovered Cave and it was absolutely love at first sight. Absolutely incredible developer, nothing injects what I want out of shmups so directly, straightforwardly into my brain.

[@riffmason]

Stood up during the whole CAVE segment doing the American flag salute to the screen. You could genuinely spend your whole life only playing CAVE shmups and never really need to play any other videogames. P.S. there must be an absolute mountain of gamers who play CAVE games because of your videos, that's pretty sick!

[@JohnSmith-cq7lk]

Voting to ask for that history video on what is considered the first bullet hell.

[@flottenheimer]

I wonder how much money we would have to raise on a kick-starter to bring a team of OG ace Cave developers together to do a new shmup for us?

[@PEG]

Excellent video as usual. Interesting seeing Konami and Treasure show up so high, very similar to how i''d rank them! Also CAVE is no surprise, can't say I disagree!

[@Gazkhaio]

I am new to the genre and am now watching all your content and you are breaking my bank account. Found my old modded Saturn in my parents loft and have picked up radiant Silver Gun. I can’t turn back now.

[@JogosMofados]

I didn't know that the dev behind Crimzon Clover only made that shmup. That makes me respect them even more. As for Treasure, I'm on the side of the fence that is not really sure they deserve to be so high in the list (or even in the list at all).

[@AdsOfSteelGaming]

They have a Bat Rider cab at Galloping Ghost!

[@speedymatt1236]

Coolio!

[@dj420praiseit8]

Props for shouting out grindstormer. It's a fantastic example of Toaplan at their best imo, and it's cool to hear that the smaller hit-box was actually a mistake at first. I was actually playing it not too long ago, and was struck by how diverse the enemy variety is. Idk if I'd place it above Batsugun or not, but it's easily on the same level imo. Also, I completely agree about Psykio. They stick to their fundamentals, but they are masters at their approach.

[@lightmyfire88]

Great content like always

[@BknMoonStudios]

Amazing video, Mark. I enjoyed it all the way through. I hope one day to be able to make a SHMUP, though I feel that is still far off on the future. Also, congratulations on going full time with this! I wish you the best of luck with this new chapter in your life. Best regards to you and your family. 😎👍

[@TheElectricUnderground]

What a kind comment! Thank you very much my dude! I hope you are able to start working on your shmup soon 😊

[@therhythmdivision6674]

JA! Awesome video man! Could you make a short video of Battle Squadron on the Amiga or share your thoughts? 🤩

[@daved8070]

Great video, made some notes for games I'm yet to play... I generally play console, but would like to move to PC, what stick do people recommend?

[@letsblocking]

Nice video, agree with rankings and love the Yotsubane mention. Without Crimzon Clover I wouldn't have played any of these games.

[@tomjones4921]

Mark, there is a big trend toward retro gaming right now. There is a lot of dissatisfaction with micro-transactions and DEI initiatives. I actually saw a video showing that even zoomers are moving toward retro gaming. This could be a really good wave for you to climb up on.

[@GojiGuy]

Obviously this is a subjective list, and while I would organize it quite differently (I think Taito is largely responsible for arcade gaming as a whole, and continued to support STG and STG devs outside of their own games - ultimately making the final 'AAA' arcade STG), I do have to strongly disagree that Cave was attempting to "bring shmups out of the niche." As much as I love Cave STG, they are largely credited with the - fall - of the STG outside of the mainstream and - into - the niche. They did untold damage to the genre on the world stage and the genre never really recovered. They were popular in arcades in Japan, and among hardcore niche enthusiasts, but those games never made it to the masses and were arguably never intended to.

[@boghogSTG]

Crediting the fall of shmups to CAVE would be overestimating their influence ironically enough. Shmups were basically getting abandoned left and right by bigger devs when CAVE was most active, and the arcades were increasingly being killed by consoles. It's also unsurprising if you look at everything else that was popular around the arcade - EVERYTHING declined in the 2000's. Light gun shooters, beat em ups, arcade racing, even the titan that is the fighting game genre. Even the structure and gameplay style of arcades itself was getting called archaic and dumb by reviewers of the time, regardless of game or even implementation. I think whoever thinks that shmups would be some kinda big mainstream genre if not for CAVE is out of their mind.

[@GojiGuy]

@@boghogSTG I guess it's probably fair to say "if Cave hadn't been making STG then no one else (big) would have been" but I also believe that they made explicit choices to shift shmup development to targeting more and more niche audiences, alienating average consumers. We don't know if they would have been successful with a more global approach, or if someone else would have picked up the slack, but they certainly were not attempting to grow the genre. And I'd still say they played a significant part in its global reduction in popularity. I'd also push back that those other genres declined. Fighters were incredibly strong in the 2000s, with Tekken especially making insane money (along with other 3D fighters and Mk). 2D fighters from Japan declined but they aren't the only part of the genre. That whole "death" was exaggerated and even the 2D "lull" was over by the end of the decade. Beat em ups also exploded, but again they became 3D (Dynasty Warriors, DMC, ninja Gaiden). Even light gun shooters saw a huge uptick in popularity with the Wii. Ghost Squad and HotD 2&3 were record breaking releases for the genre.

[@boghogSTG]

@@GojiGuy If you're going to include "evolutions" like Dynasty Warriors and DMC then we can very easily & clearly settle the whole dispute by simply looking at Starfox & Panzer Dragoon which, despite some early successes, actually failed the genre by fucking with the formula in ways that made it less appealing or shifted the direction (Adventure/the JRPGs). Hell even SEGA's Afterburner Climax is like that - they didn't continue pushing the series on consoles. Unlike CAVE who never really had any mainstream success to begin with, here you have actual massive developers who had the chance to sell the genre to the average gamer and completely fucked it up I'd be careful about using sales to prove that genres aren't dead - a genre can have a few big successes but still be overall very dead. 2D beat em ups were not alive in the 2010's because of Dragon's Crown's success, and they're not alive now because a tiny handful of games managed to break out (SOR4/SR) - you have to look at the overall space. How many devs can keep making games, how much can they grow, how often obscure niche franchises break into the mainstream. What's more, sales of arcadey games don't matter as much past the 2000's for several reasons - as games moved away from the arcade model their revenue massively fell (this is why SF2 Turbo is still the most profitable SF despite selling very few copies), gaming has also massively expanded so while a game's sales might be decent its market share will be tiny and as such it won't be quite as influential as the big boyz, which will make it decline as devs who chase mainstream success will copy the more successful competitor

[@GojiGuy]

I don't think I understand what you're trying to say. Sales are the best (and maybe only?) way of judging whether a genre is "dead" or not (though, defining "dead" is a constantly shifting goalpost). If people don't buy enough games in the genre, games lose money, publishers stop paying for them to be made, developers stop making them, audience shrinks. I certainly wouldn't argue that beat em ups are "dead" as they've generated 10s of millions in sales in the past 5 years and multiple publishers have pumped out multiple beat em ups that have enjoyed solid success. There are games being made, they are making money, and thus the audience is purchasing more games. Will it last forever? Probably not, but its getting more traction than shmups by multiple factors. And I'd argue that fighting games never died in the 2000s that's a humongous myth. If you can't say "just because the genre generates multi-millions across multiple titles and companies around the globe and has supported/sustained multiple entries almost every year doesn't mean its not dead" then there's no point to the discussion as that makes no sense to me. Maybe we're saying the same thing but using different terms? idk. Either way, my point that Cave was never about bringing shmups into the mainstream stands.

[@boghogSTG]

@@GojiGuy The main point I'm making is that it's bonkers to credit CAVE with the decline of shmups or even expect them to revive the genre in the first place. They were *never* in a position to do that since their inception, and if they didn't make bullet hells they'd die like every other dev around them, since they were a niche dev from the start. The industry itself was falling apart around them, they merely prolonged its life. For instance this is Miyamoto in 1993 : "What we were most worried about was this line of thinking: “STG is a dying genre, so Star Fox won’t sell well.” If anyone should be credited for the niche-fication of shmups, it should be Nintendo, SEGA and Konami. Though that whole thing is silly anyway. As for the sales thing, *NOW* sales can somewhat track a genre's life (even still imperfectly) but when you're talking about arcade -> console you have to factor in revenue cuz the model was completely different. Arcades devs didn't generate revenue primarily through sales, you've gotta track rev along with other factors like costs of development and market share. The amount of sales devs had to generate to match arcade revenue was exponentially higher, all while they had a shrinking market share with the rise of other competitive games. You *could* say that a genre is alive if it has a tiny handful of successful titles but I don't really think it's a useful way to see the health of a genre cause ideally you want some kinda longevity. Look at what's happening with 2D bmups right now - SOR4 and SR doing extremely well, but everything outside of them (Fight N Rage, DD Gaiden, countless smaller indie bmups) are struggling. We saw the exact same thing in the late 2000's/early 2010's with Castle Crashers & Dragon's Crown doing well while being surrounded by nothing, and it's gonna happen again.

[@flottenheimer]

As always great stuff, Mark! You should get kick-back from shmup developers - I've bought many games based on your excellent recommendations - just bought Raiden Fighters Jet (as part of Raiden Legacy) on Steam after watching this - never played it, didn't even know it existed, so yeah, I got curious...

[@davidjames5043]

Very surprised, was expecting Cave to come in around 7th.

[@speedymatt1236]

Turns out the company with the #1 hardest boss fight in gaming is #1!

[@darkridearts]

I adore Psikyo games. You’re right we really haven’t seen people iterating on their kind of shooter.

[@perguto]

Hey Mark, would you mind uploading videos in 4k? KZbin compression on 1080p is pretty aggressive, especially for shmup footage with many particles and sharp pixel edges, and even if you take 1080p footage, scale it up to 4k, and watch the KZbin video on a 1080p display, the picture quality will be much better.

[@magicjohnson3121]

Dragon Breed from Irem is an interesting game. Does some unique things as a shmup.

[@michielkroder4031]

Really enjoyed this. I would add that Gradius and Konami shmups (like many others following) have had rank as well, be it not as intricate as that of, say Garegga or Compile's Zanac, and that Gradius throws a tonnnnn more stuff at you when you're fully powered up. As a matter of fact, I find that I do a lot better in Gradius or Parodius when I limit myself to 2 (maybe 3) options only, while maxing out other weapons, because the game is a bit less desperate to kill me and enemies fire less projectiles... So rank management can be a thing in those games as well.

[@xmcxii]

I love your channel so much resparked my love for arcade games

[@thegobbojones]

Though they don't place on this list (and I whole heartedly agree.) Qute is likely my favourite shmup dev, easily top 3. Ginga and Natsuki I think offer enough variety to on board players new to the genre. And Eschatos is pure bliss to play. The Wonderswan games are wonderful for what they are and you can see a sort primordial version of Eschatos still gestating (if you'll forgive an unfortunate image.) Great vid as usual Mark.

[@Nintendofanboy101-yk8ro]

I haven't watched the video but I want to tell you that I just got into shoot em ups. Especially bullethells. I'm wondering what easy shoot em ups I can get into. I already have ghost blade HD and I'm planning to get crismon and whatever that skull game is called on switch.

[@MotWhinnana]

No G.Rev! :O Still a good list, lots of nice insights.

[@RobinPierre]

G.Rev at least deserved an honourable mention

[@GhibliNova]

Rayforce also inspired Panzer Dragoon! 😁

[@darkridearts]

Rayforce and Panzer Dragoon 🤌🏼🤌🏼🤌🏼

[@TheRestartPoint]

Also Sega's Afterburner, the lock-on mechanic appeared there first

[@GhibliNova]

@@TheRestartPoint nope, that's a coincidence, the developer of Panzer Dragoon aylt a past GDC said that he loved playing Rayforce in the arcades and decided to implement it's style of lock into Panzer Dragoon

[@coffeedude]

I can't believe you placed BogHog in all 10 positions

[@TheElectricUnderground]

He deserves it :-)

[@TheRestartPoint]

Awesome thought-provoking video as usual! I would say R-Type does have the first bouncing lazer in shmups, and charge shot. I was visting arcades in 87 and its hard to describe how striking and revolutionary that game was at the time, in all areas of design. It was like something sent back from the future, but I agree it doesn't quite stand up to peers like Gradius / Salamander in terms of playability and general enjoyability. I only discovered Grind Stormer relatively recently, totally agree it was ground zero for bullet hell. I think a lot more people would think the same if they played it, but it remains quite unknown in general for some reason, compared to Batsugun at least. I agree with Konami's place, and I agree its basically down to Gradius, which is my personal fave franchise of all time, and aguably the single most influential shmup of all time. My honarable mentions, who made some of the most influential shmups ever but are confined to the 80s: Namco (Xevious, Dragon Spirit), Tehkan aka Tecmo (Star Force, Gemini Wing) and Capcom (1942, Side Arms)

[@dannutting1057]

I love this channel so much keep it up.

[@satan-kun8974]

We have very different experiences with nostalgia. The most intense nostalgia I’ve ever felt was for something I’d only experienced like a year prior and that was as an adult. There’s very little from my childhood I’m nostalgic for it’s usually from stuff within a few years of having experienced it

[@arrowviper8882]

Awesome shmup content!

[@kizuma4269]

Could you make one for bmups ?

[@ludicrousfps]

Awesome video as always! Going full time with your channel is a pretty ambitious decision, wishing you the best of luck. I know some veteran shmup chumps would disagree with including Touhou on the list, but I'm personally glad that it did. Touhou's outreach as a media series is enormous, and even if 90% of fans only engage with the series on a surface level, there's always that small percentage that get invested in the games and then, maybe, in the genre as a whole. (like me lol) small note but cmon ray'n is not a reimu clone she's cooler than that :(

[@ShelfWarmer]

"Ikaruga is a polarizing release..."

[@Highwind_]

39:54 What is going on here? I never played Ikaruga.

[@riaairgarcia]

How did Touhou make it on this list but Compile didn’t? I thought you had better taste bro

[@Nepiki]

No Compile reeeeeeee Nice video bro, also you should talk about about DoDonPachi, it seems you like the game :)

[@walteravila4072]

Wonder what are your thoughts on something like Minishoot' Adventures.

[@mrpissed]

Why did the thumbnail change?

[@TheElectricUnderground]

analytics ha. The original thumb had a low click through and I didn't want this vid to get overlooked. So bog and I had a meeting about it and he created this new thumb which is working really well. So in short, youtube stuff ha. With more niche topics like shmup stuff, the poor vid can live or die based off the thumb.

[@ZZFilm]

Spot on all around! 👍💪

[@AnthonyDowellBlakemore]

39:49 I’ve always viewed Ikaruga as a rhythm shmup.

[@Tochir0]

Ray Force can thank Xevious. Great list/video! I agree 100% with you about Raizing. Obviously you’re not a huge fan of old school Shmups but toeachizown. 🍻

[@psymagearcade]

I don't think Treasure should be that high because they only made two actual shmups. I might have put Namco or Capcom on there instead of Treasure, even if neither one of them were quite as consistent in shmup quality as Treasure. Minor gripe aside, it's a very solid list.

[@unicron8soundwave724]

Mmm.. a Shmup list I HUNGER

[@speedymatt1236]

Don’t bite off more than you can chew, you know.

[@unicron8soundwave724]

@@speedymatt1236 Aiiight

[@Fly_Ry]

There was an arcade shmup I played as a kid in the nineties that I'm hoping someone can help me track down: It was a modern military themed game and I think it had an anime aesthetic. You could choose to play as one of maybe 5 or 6 pilots, each from a different country, and each pilot had a different "super" they could do. There was a Japanese pilot who could shoot a giant wide laser beam, a Viking pilot who would flip the plane over and release a giant barrage of missiles, etc. If anyone knows what the name is, please lemme know!

[@kobito1176]

Sounds like Sonic Wings 3? The modern military + anime aesthetic describes that series pretty well, and I think the third one had a viking character

[@reinhart.sieger]

are you planning to review Princess Peach: Showtime! ?

[@OriginalMasters]

Great production values and lots of good thought went into this video. Wanna try an obscure, old Sega shooter that lets you switch between narrow and wide shots? Try Transformer.

[@maxmatson1578]

I just recently picked up this year an old Xbox One from my brother-in-law and would like to know if there's any other cave games I could download off of Xbox live I have progear that I just recently downloaded from there but I like to know if there's any other cave games I can download from Xbox live

[@JohnSmith-cq7lk]

Such a good video essay

[@wing6093]

i thought i was the only one who remembered that mars matrix shmup reviewer from 10000 years ago

[@nisejohnsmith]

Thanks for the video I enjoyed the contents. I think I'd forgotten how some companies I associated more with shmups like Capcom and Hudson were sort of more publishers than developers in the space. Not a lot of point in hypotheticals, but one has to wonder how different the history of the genre would be if Toaplan hadn't folded, Raizing had kept making shmups (legit didn't realize 8ing is still in business until I checked just now), or Psikyo hadn't whatever it was that happened to them. I suppose arcades would have died in the end anyway though...

[@stgcvlt]

Bro, no mention to Compile that helped to create Raizing and gave us the great Aleste series, anyway, great video, cave all the way, I will miss you in Spain this year. - Tropicalbits

[@tehValorin]

He could get a place for Compile by removing Psikyo. ( ` ω ´ ) Their games are peak painful old shmups which just instagib you for standing in a wrong pixel and not routing the game perfectly. Also they didn't really made gameS, they just made one game and reskinned it many times.

[@AronPaul-uo6gj]

@TheElectricUnderground Thank you! Have you tried Flying Tank? It's recent and well made. I love that game.