Every amazing forum needs a thread on shmups! 
post your favorites
Mine are:
Raiden I and II
R-Type I, II, and III
Ikaruga
Earth Defense Force
Battle Garegga
This goes for music too!
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astral cat
contra contra contra contra contra contra contra contra contra contra contra and more contra!
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Contra is not a shmup 
it's a platformer.
Oh, forgot to mention Galaga. I fucking love Galaga!
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astral cat
hmmm, well i don't know. I'd say it could be both. I know when i play i never stop shooting shit up.
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England
debate about genre, i'm there!
contra is a run and gun!
"Run and gun" games feature protagonists on foot, rather than spacecraft, that often have the ability to jump; they may feature either scrolling or multidirectional movement, lol.
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Sweden
On the PC, I enjoy the usual doujin suspects rRootage, Parsec 47 and Cho Ren Sha.
On the MSX there are a whole bunch of games I play occasionally, Gradius series, Salamander, Space Manbow, Zanac EX, Aleste, Gall Force, Super Laydock, Universe: Unknown.
I haven't played many Mega Drive shmups, but among those I enjoy are M.U.S.H.A. and Thunder Force.
PC Engine: I've played a bunch of really good ones but I can't remember what they're called. 
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New York City
Oh I fucking love this debate about run and guns, we had it for years at shmups.com XD
We ended up considering them "borderliners", which are those games that are almost shmups but for some reason aren't.
We even debated proto-shmups a-lá Galaga.
Anyway, enough digressing. Some of my favourites:
- Ikaruga (DC)
- R-Type II (Arcade)
- R-Type Delta (PSX)
- Soldier Blade (PCE)
- Disposable Hero (Amiga)
- Uridium 2 (Amiga)
- Gradius 2 (MSX)
- Shippu Mahou Daisakusen (Arcade)
- Dangun Feveron
- Zanac NEO (PSX)
- Radiant Silvergun (Saturn)
- M.U.S.H.A. Aleste (Megadrive)
- Thunderforce IV (Megadrive)
- Aleste 2 (MSX)
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Los Angeles
R-Type 1 & 2 (TG16/GBA/Arcade)
Alien Syndrome (C64/Amiga/Arcade)
Blazing Lasers (tg16)
If it moves shoot it (pc)
Silo64 (c64)
Last edited by 8bitweapon (Feb 3, 2010 5:26 pm)
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Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA
I'm disappointed 1942/1943 hasn't been mentioned.. you guys are young.
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Los Angeles
low-gain wrote:
I'm disappointed 1942/1943 hasn't been mentioned.. you guys are young.
I didnt like one of these because it didnt have power-ups
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Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA
1943 did.. to a degree...
I love raiden, dont get me wrong. but once you get the large power up it's almost impossible to see anything on the screen there's so much gun fire going on. lol
sometimes i just like to keep it simple and skill driven and play 1943.
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))<>((
low-gain wrote:
I'm disappointed 1942/1943 hasn't been mentioned.. you guys are young.
I was just about to post 1942. 
also, Einhänder is awesome.
Last edited by tacticalbread (Feb 3, 2010 6:24 pm)
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any of the r-type games.
arcade being the best IMHO