I had no idea what SHMUP is… so if you’re like me they are SHoot eM Up games. Either bullet hell or isometric shooters.
There’s a lot more to the genre, and the isometric shooters you’re talking about are technically not shmups, rather they’re twin stick shooters. A true Shmup is the bullet hells you mentioned, but bler hell is actually a subgenre, there are many types of shmups that control the same way a bullet hell does, but minus the hell of bullets. Check out Shmup Junkie on YouTube and join his discord to learn more than you ever imagined about this amazing genre!
My recommendations are Dodonpachi Resurrection, Mushihimesama, and Deathsmiles. They’re all on sale, they’re all made by CAVE. One more CAVE game, Akai Katana, is also listed but it’s not on sale. They are all extremely difficult if you have never played the style of game before (Japanese arcade bullet hell / scrolling shooter). Heavy emphasis on learning bullet patterns and doing precise dodges. It feels so good when you manage to dodge a pattern, or time a screen cancel/hyper just right.
If you only try one, Mushihimesama is 6 dollars right now, has an awesome soundtrack and a cool fantasy forest and insect theme. It’s relatively beginner friendly but you will definitely notice a sharp difficulty spike going from stage 3-4-5. I got to play it on an actual cabinet at PAX west, definitely my highlight of that weekend.
Any recommendations? Not too well versed in the genre… I did see synthetik on there, which was dope as hell. That’s a great game.
Synthetik isn’t actually a Shmup, if you’re looking for games like it you want to look into twinstick shooters. A Shmup is an automatically scrolling shooter with where you are traveling in a single primary direction. A true Shmup gives you freedom to move all around the screen but the screen scrolls through the level at a fixed rate. Famous shmups include Gradius, R-Type, Raiden. There are a few different subgenres but the main offshoot you’ll see is Bullet Hell.
A great place to start is the Touhou games, and fan games (My favourite is Blue Devil in the Belveder). My all time favourite Shmup is Teslapunk, but it’s pretty obscure and not exactly popular.
If you want to learn more look up Shmup Junkie on YouTube and join his discord. Lots of great guys and a curated list of beginner games/goals for someone who’s interested in the genre. Trust me there is a Shmup for every taste out there. Try lots to see what clicks for you!
Enter the Gungeon is a steal at that price. And so is West of Dead.
