#2 Shoot 'em up (a.k.a Matamarcianos)

Everything You Know About Shmups Is Wrong.

1 A sorry state of affairs
1.1 How the hell did this happen?
1.2 Where the shmups went

2 Misconceptions
2.1 Shmups are quarter munchers
2.2 Shmups are simplistic/all shmups are the same game
2.3 Shmups are all memorizers
2.4 Shmups are impossible to get good at without turning into a shut-in
2.5 Shmups are expensive and not worth the money

3 The problem with euroshmups
3.1 Poor level design, boring bosses
3.2 Weak player weapons, inertia, shields

1 A sorry state of affairs

1.1 How the hell did this happen?

Back in the 80s and 90s, shmups were everywhere. They dominated the arcade scene, and had a fairly large presence on home consoles as well. It seemed shmups were here to stay, and everyone played them.

Fast forward to 2010. Shmups are an extremely small niche in a gaming market that has by all accounts gone completely mainstream. Most people have no clue what shmups even are, and the few that do only have memories of a small number of arcade titles, vague memories at that. No-one has any idea what they're about, where they came from, or where they went.

Recently, with the popularity of Youtube, a few videos of CAVE's most difficult shmups have popped up. The average viewer's reaction to this is akin to them looking into the basement of a mad scientist, who has been slaving away for the past decade creating the most horrific monsters ever known to man. Cries of "Cheating! Impossible!" are heard, amongst other ignorant statements.

How did we end up in this sorry state of affairs? What the hell happened?

1.2 Where the shmups went

While the gaming industry was moving further and further towards console and PC games with elaborate cutscenes, 3D graphics and watered down gameplay, shmups were heading in the exact opposite direction. They continued to be refined by a handful of pioneers, and played by fanatics who had already beaten everything else that developers threw at them. In what could be considered a feedback loop, shmups gradually became more and more insular, catering to superplayers who were willing to plug hours and hours into the same extremely refined and calculated 30 minute game until they had perfected their playthrough of it.

2 Misconceptions

2.1 Shmups are quarter munchers

This is one of the big ones, and the reason I'm putting this one first. By far the biggest misconception is that shmups (and arcade games in general) are designed to suck down your quarters like a crazy hoover wallet hooked up to your piggy bank. This is not true. While shmups are extremely difficult, they are designed to be completed with only one credit, if you put enough time into them. True quarter munchers have things like unavoidable damage/death, time limits (where you must insert more quarters to continue) and are actually very rare. A well designed arcade game will NEVER screw you over like this. Annoyingly enough, most of the true quarter munchers were US-developed arcade games, or Japanese arcade games that were screwed around with when they were released in the US.

You also see a lot of this in ignorant Youtube video comments, claiming the player had to credit feed to even get that far, without even having any knowledge of the game they're commenting on. Most of the time, those videos show parts of the game that are literally impossible to reach if you continued even once; the game simply ends before that point if you used a continue. See also: http://falsificare.com/

2.2 Shmups are simplistic/all shmups are the same game

This may be true if you're talking about older shmups. Back then, there wasn't really a lot of variety, and there were a lot of clones and knock-offs of the big names (R-Type especially had a ton of clones). It seems a lot of people see any shooter and instantly assume it's just like the games they played in arcades back in the 90s, back when scoring systems rarely existed, and when they did, were so simplistic that they didn't matter very much. You can even show your average gamer two completely different modern shmups and they wouldn't be able to tell them apart. Modern shmups have evolved and progressed. The devil may be in the details, but it's definitely there. The rules and scoring systems that overlay each shmup makes each one play quite different from eachother.

One particular thing that drives many shmups regulars nuts is someone who knows next to nothing about shmups comparing two shmups that are absolutely nothing alike, e.g. Raiden 4 and Ikaruga, or Mushi Futari and Touhou. This just speaks volumes of ignorance about shmups and their varying degrees of difference. If all you've got to go on is hype and hearsay, and haven't actually played the games you're mouthing off about, it's for the best if you keep quiet until you figure out what you're talking about.

2.3 Shmups are all memorizers

While not a very common misconception, I'd like to take care of this one anyway. It's true that any good shmup is going to have a certain level of memorization, but claiming shmups are 100% memorization is false. This misconception mainly comes from the fact that there were shmups back in the days of arcades that were very heavily biased towards memorization and figuring out strategies for dealing with each part of a level. By far the biggest of these is R-Type. Many other IREM shmups were similar, including the infamous Image Fight. Raiden was somewhat of a memorizer in that you needed to know where and when those damn sniper tanks were going to show up and mercilessly flank you from close range. However, these are exceptions, not the rule. In my opinion, the best shmups combine equal parts memorization and execution. But some people like memorizers more than others. That's really more a matter of taste.

2.4 Shmups are impossible to get good at without turning into a shut-in

While it's true that shmups do take a large time investment to get good at and conquer, you certainly don't need to quit your job/school and sit around playing them 24/7 in order to get any good at them. Like anything, patience and dedication will get you to your goal if you want to attain it. Practicing in regular intervals instead of playing until your eyes fall out is the best strategy. I have personally seen gamers who were completely awful at shmups practice consistently, the eventual result: looping one of Cave's hardest games. The satisfaction of dominating a game most people consider impossible may be reward enough for some.

2.5 Shmups are expensive and not worth the money

The vast majority of shmups cost quite a bit more pocket change than your average game of any other genre. But the "Not worth the money" part is entirely wrong. I think a lot of the problem here is that most gamers do not even see the value in a well designed shmup. They have ridiculous replay value and you can pour hours into them and still not have seen everything a shmup has to offer. But to non-shmup players, they see a game with no bonus material/cutscenes/easy mode and lasts 30 minutes of frustration and slapping the continue button. It's all about mastering that content.

Unfortunately, this misconception is so pervasive that you will often see reviews of modern shmup ports in "Professional" game magazines claiming that the game is way too short, and can be beaten in 20 minutes by slapping start on the continue screen every time you run out of lives. This is entirely missing the point. Yes, you can tape down the start and bomb buttons and beat the game, but it's not like anyone is going to clap enthusiastically for you.

3 The problem with euroshmups

Every time I try to have a conversation with someone who doesn't play shmups, I end up having to explain to them that the euroshmups they played on their PCs were not that great. I also have to listen to them talk about that one time they credit fed through the entire first loop of Raiden with all of their dad's quarters, but that's another story. Also when I talk about euroshmups, I am still including American/other developed shmups that are basically the same thing. Not all euroshmups suffer from all the problems here, but most of them do.

Keep in mind that I played euroshmup-ish games when I was younger, just like everyone else. The difference is I've grown to realize they haven't survived the test of time and pale in comparison to (mainly) Japanese developed shmups, while others seem to want to cling to nostalgic idealism.

The main issues with Euroshmups are poor level design, boring bosses, weak player weapons, inertia and shields. Also the music generally sucks. Also their tendency to rip off R-Type over and over with no clue what made it work or why it was any good.

3.1 Poor level design, boring bosses.

Euroshmups in general just have really bad level design. In general, levels are just too damn long and repetitive, with the same enemies appearing over and over with no strategy or variety. This makes the game last longer than smaller, well designed levels, but is less interesting in the end. There's the infamous levels that are nothing but an endless asteroid field that go on for several minutes, followed by a few popcorn enemies. There's also a problem with overuse of randomness, making it so playing for score is pretty pointless.

Bosses are by far one of the worst aspects of euroshmups. They take way too long to kill and just have the same simplistic attack patterns repeated over and over. Compared to modern shmup bosses, which have a wide variety of interesting and challenging attack patterns, euroshmups are just sad.

3.2 Weak player weapons, inertia, shields

I've grouped all these together because they generally relate to one thing: The player ship in most euroshmups is terrible. The player weapons are comically weak and you usually can't even kill everything that appears on the screen. Even games that give you weapon upgrades don't help much here. Inertia is another big one. It removes so much of the precision that makes high level play possible. You can't make super precise movements when you're sliding all over the place, no matter what you do. Finally, shields. While this isn't really making the ship worse, it makes the game worse overall. Because the bosses and levels can be designed with the player getting hit in mind, since they can just figure "Oh well, he has a shield". This leads to sloppy design where it's impossible to avoid taking a few hits at times. This combined with the inertia and weak weapons makes for a frustrating experience.