NES shooters?
Well, I'm still on my shooter kick, so I'm looking to bring it back to the NES.
List your favorite "shmups" (I hate that term...) on the NES.
so far, I think
Xevious is in the top spot for me.
Shooters as in NES's gun sort of game or actual shooters like Halo or KillZone?
For normal shooters, I like NES's 007 games
Those are first-person shooters, man. What are you, young?
Young people... geez.
Sadly there aren't many worthwhile "shooters" on the NES.
I usually define a "shooter" as a scrolling game where you fly a ship (or other flying object) shooting everything while grabbing
POWer-ups and avoiding stray projectiles.
And usually you die in one hit.
The best ones on the NES that I've experienced are
Gradius,
Dragon Spirit,
ImageFight,
Life Force, and S.C.A.T.
That's about it.
Yeah, the NES wasn't the most
POWerful system so most of the shooters I've played on it are pretty slow and boring.
Dragon Spirit isn't bad, but hard as hell (are there easy shooters...?)
The
Guardian Legend is half shooter, and done pretty well. There was also a shooter, can't think of the name right now, where you could customize everything. You wrote the music, made your own sprite, etc. May have been unlicensed? Either way, it's a cool game...
How can we forget
Contra. The best shooters on the nes. Those games were so addicting.
I think what exactly we're talking about here needs to be clarified. We are referring to the classic "shooter", which more recently have come to be known as "shoot-em-ups" or "shmups", which is the dumbest word ever.
Yes,
Contra is a "shooter", Halo is a "shooter", but check ZEN's definition to see what exactly we mean by "shooter" in this context. Luke is looking for "shmups".
I'm not a big fan of shooters, but my favourite is Gun*Nac. It's fast and has some cool weapons. Another good one that hasn't been mentioned is
Zanac. I also like the wacky bosses in Parodius (although they obviously look better in the SNES version of that game).
Generally though, I'd say the 16 bit machines had a much better class of shooter. They could allow for more action on the screen at the same time.
My favorite Shooter is
Contra Hard Corps but thats for the genesis so
it would be
Contra,
Gradius, Parodius, etc. etc.
Well, we're slowly figuring it out
I know the NES was rather weak, and didn't allow for the best shooters, but I'd like to check out what the home consoles had to offer back then.
of course, because a console is weak doesn't mean it can't have a good shooter with lots of action. take Aleste GG on the Game Gear for example. It's one of the best I've played. (and is Japanese, so I'll likely never get it on the actual cart )
I have Robo Aleste for the Sega CD. Cool premise, but IMPOSSIBLE. I can't get anywhere in it.
I have Robo Aleste for the Sega CD. Cool premise, but IMPOSSIBLE. I can't get anywhere in it.
I've heard that's a good one. Was is released in North America? if not, where did you find it? I'd LOVE to import GG Aleste, as well as a pile of other games, but finding a good place for vintage imports seems rather impossible.
Yeah, it came out in the states. I'm PRETTY sure Tengen brought it over. I'd have to go look at the game to verify, but I'm 90% sure Tengen localized it.
There's a sequel to that game on the Genesis called 'M.U.S.H.A.' It's one of the finest shooters ever (and it was released in North America).
But of course, that was for Genesis.
...
I forgot about 'The
Guardian Legend'. That has the most unusual blending of genres I've ever seen. Good "shooter" action with decent "adventure" elements.
Another one would be '
Air Fortress'. It starts off as a traditional "side-scrolling shoot-em-up" on a flying vessel, then becomes a maze-like "search-and-destroy" type game when you enter the fortresses.
It retains it's "shooter" quality even when you are playing as the "rocket pack guy".
Very playable too (not "one hit, you're dead") but still very challenging.
Air Fortress was a great game. I remember playing it while back. I thought it was very innovative with first part of the level you shoot things then the next is a maze of some sort.