Focus On: Shmups

One of the things we've discovered--not entirely to our surprise--is that almost nobody Googles "shmup"--which is too bad, since we have a bunch, some quite nice. Perhaps we'd be better off if we called them "games like Geometry Wars"--which is only partially correct, of course, but the surprise success of Geometry Wars on Xbox Live has revived interest in the genre, to a degree.

The one that's done the best for us is Jets'N'Guns, primarily because of what Jonathan Blow called its "Team America f*** Yeah!" attitude, bombastic heavy metal score, and finely-tuned "R-type"-ish gameplay. Patrick Dugan calls it "the riff ripping explosionary wargasm shmup fans have been waiting for!"--nice phrasing we're too shy and retiring to adopt as our own hype (ahem), but we're glad someone else put forth.

A personal favorite is Bullet Candy, a Minteresque game that produces amazingly pretty visuals during play--something you hardly notice because you're on the edge of your seat trying not to die throughout. We also like that it's a one-man effort, and the developer--Charley Knight--clearly knows and adores his subject material.

If a Galaga-style game is more your cup of rocket fuel, then Warblade may be what you're looking for--Bytten describes it as "Galaga brought into the twenty-first century. The basic game has been polished and redesigned until it shines like a golden nugget sparkling in a river bed."

Another Galaga-esque title, this one with an excellent techno score, is Xenoblast, from French developer Parallax Factory.

Then again, if something more like Defender appeals, it's hard to do better than Alien Abduction, which is tremendously challenging and was awarded 9 out of 10 points by Game Tunnel.

Starscape isn't a pure shmup; it actually has a story, and a game of resource management and tech development layered onto the fast, frenetic space combat that shmup fans expect. As a result, it's actually a much deeper game, something you'll feel like you want to finish--a rather different feel from the shorter-term gameplay of most shmups.

Which brings us naturally to Flatspace II, which, like Starscape layers an entirely different game onto shmup-like combat--in Flatspace's case, an Elite-style game in which you can play as trader, mercenary, bounty hunter, assassin, police officer, or scavenger, buying new stuff for your ship and growing in power over time.

As a genre, shmups haven't done as well for us as many others--our audience seems to gravitate more to graphic adventures, RPGs, and turn-based strategy--but we're proud of our shmup catalog, and look forward to introducing other cool shmups in future.