Atomic Robo Kid (Genesis / Mega Drive)

While it's tempting to look at this game as some sort of side-scrolling action title, players spend most of their time flying around, so Atomic Robo Kid feels a lot more like a shmup.  The game has a very nice art style, some huge bosses, and can be quite difficult.  Expect to die a lot with little warning, and to have to learn a lot of enemy placements in a hurry in order to progress in this game.

Axelay (SNES / Super Famicom)

This is probably one of my favorite of the lesser known shoot 'em ups to come out on the SNES.  For it's time, Axelay had some amazing graphics as it showed off what the console could do.  Bosses in particularly looked amazing.  Part vertical, part horizontal shooter, players could cycle between three weapon types and launch missiles at enemies.  All in all it was a very good looking, fun shmup well worth trying out.

Afterburner II (Genesis / Mega Drive)

The Afterburner games were some of the earliest examples that I remember of an arcade game that seemed more like an amusement part ride.  The units for them could sometimes be gigantic with their cockpit-like set up.  Granted the home experience wasn't quite as bombastic, but Afterburner II on the Genesis was pretty darn fun.  Looking back it seems strange that your machine guns were constantly firing, and players were pretty much just dodging enemy missiles while shooting their own.  I guess gamers at the time were to busy thinking, "I'm flying a jet plane!" to think about some of the more nonsensical aspects of the game.

G. Darius (PlayStation)

Okay, so today we'll be transitioning from a shoot 'em up featuring dragons to a shoot 'em up featuring fish.  The Darius series has always been one of the core franchises in the world of shmups in no small part because of all the fish in it, but there are also some other neat elements to them, not the least of which is the branching paths players can take after each level.  It just adds so much replay value to the game, and G. Darius is no exception to this.  It's also got some nice polygonal visuals, a decent soundtrack, and you can take control of enemy ships and use their weapons as your own.  Good times. =)

Dragon Spirit (TurboGrafx-16 / PC Engine)

Long before series like Panzer Dragoon had us flying around on dragons fighting evil, there were games like Dragon Spirit challenging us with this.  It's a solid little shmup with decent controls, and cool power-ups.  As opposed to the traditional combination of regular attacks and super bombs found in other games in the genre, here you had air attacks and ground attacks, and had to make good use of both in order to succeed.  Boss fights were pretty tough, as was the game as a whole because once you ran out of lives it was game over with no continues.

Raiden IV (Xbox 360)

Going with back to back shoot 'em ups today with some pics of Raiden IV tonight.  I don't think I'll be making a habit of putting up picks for current gen consoles because it's a royal pain in the behind to do with my current setup.  Maybe every now and then, but that's about it.  Anyway, this game is pretty decent fun.  Good controls, plenty of enemies to blow up.  I wouldn't go so far as to call it a bullet hell shooter, but things can get pretty hectic at times.  It is kind of annoying that the other ships are hidden behind DLC, though.

Satazius (PC)

I like the games that come out of the doujin scene, so I've been quite happy to see companies like Carpe Fulgur, Rockin' Android, and NyuMedia translating these games for a Western release.  One such game is Satazius, which is very much a homage to the Gradius series.  It has a nice 16-bit visual style, good music, well laid out levels, and solid controls.  If you like old school non-bullet hell shmups, I recommend checking it out. =)

Elemental Master (Genesis / Mega Drive)

Back in the early 90s, it seemed like every issue of EGM had a bunch of ads for games by Renovations.  El Viento, Gaiares, and Master of Monsters all featured prominently, but one game that always struck me as being kind of neat was Elemental Master.  It was basically a shmup, but had the walking around like qualities of Ikari Warriors with the ability to shoot forward and back.  The game moved at a nice pace too.  It's certainly an often times forgotten game on the Genesis, but well worth playing.