Is there such a thing as a "casual shoot 'em up"?

[ommadawnyawn2]

There are easy modes and unlimited continues like someone mentioned. Then there's save states. Some easier games are Gun Nac, Gleylancer with autotargeting gun drones, Super Fantasy Zone, Life Force, Thunder Force 3 and MUSHA.

[ZenithianHero]

I suck at these too, but I enjoyed Twinbee (I played the 3DS port) and managed to complete a loop with practice.
Also decent at the 19XX games by Capcom. Just try different games and see what works.

[JoeQ]

There's Omega Five, a forgotten XBLA horizontal shmup.


R-Type Dimensions also has infinite lives modes that allows you respawn where you died. Co-op too.

[Snake]

I agree that Parodius and Life Force is pretty accessible.  Especially since there is a 30-lives code for Life Force.  

Pop 'n Twinbee is pretty light and casual too. You can adjust the difficulty setting.

Raystorm, I think, is rather approachable.  You should be able to get halfway through on your first try.  The learning curve isn't on the level of Ikaruga insanity.  If you were kid that had this as that one game you bought each year, or marathoned it because you rented it from Blockbuster and had to return it in 2 more days, you would be able to finish it.  

Forgotten Worlds too. If you got the 1st Capcom collection on PS2, it basically plays like an arcade game set to Free Play credits.  

[aaa]

A Space Shooter for 2 Bucks. Fun little joint that doesn't punish you for not having razor sharp reflexes and the memorization skills of Kevin Trudeau.

[JoeQ]

Space Invaders: Infinity Gene and Space Invader Extreme.

[surnshurn]

Anything with an easy mode, allowing a decent amount of character customization, or unlimited/30 credits, and that doesn't judge your poor performance. Tyrian2000 is pretty easy to play, with plenty of opportunity to tweak your chip, secret levels and collectables, and a pretty good sense of humor poking fun at software dev culture of the era.
The Guardian Legend is one of my favorites, though it's more of an action/rpg/shmup hybrid. I'd describe it as casual - there's a hub world between shooter missions with no imposed time limit and straightforward exploration to acquire powerups if things feel unfair (it even has an automap).

[Bumpyroad]

Oct 21, 2017 17:02:24 GMT -5 Gamers Tavern said:

I also have this problem; I love shmups, but I'm terrible at them.

I tried to eat pasta--it didn't help much, believe it or not

[1upsuper]

Oct 21, 2017 19:11:55 GMT -5 surnshurn said:

Anything with an easy mode, allowing a decent amount of character customization, or unlimited/30 credits, and that doesn't judge your poor performance. Tyrian2000 is pretty easy to play, with plenty of opportunity to tweak your chip, secret levels and collectables, and a pretty good sense of humor poking fun at software dev culture of the era.
The Guardian Legend is one of my favorites, though it's more of an action/rpg/shmup hybrid. I'd describe it as casual - there's a hub world between shooter missions with no imposed time limit and straightforward exploration to acquire powerups if things feel unfair (it even has an automap).

I've been meaning to play The Guardian Legend. Are there any meaningful region differences or should I just go NTSC?

[surnshurn]

Oct 21, 2017 19:55:17 GMT -5 1upsuper said:

Oct 21, 2017 19:11:55 GMT -5 surnshurn said:

Anything with an easy mode, allowing a decent amount of character customization, or unlimited/30 credits, and that doesn't judge your poor performance. Tyrian2000 is pretty easy to play, with plenty of opportunity to tweak your chip, secret levels and collectables, and a pretty good sense of humor poking fun at software dev culture of the era.
The Guardian Legend is one of my favorites, though it's more of an action/rpg/shmup hybrid. I'd describe it as casual - there's a hub world between shooter missions with no imposed time limit and straightforward exploration to acquire powerups if things feel unfair (it even has an automap).

I've been meaning to play The Guardian Legend. Are there any meaningful region differences or should I just go NTSC?

I think it's a pretty cut-and-dry irem translation, but don't quote me on that.

[1upsuper]

Cool, thanks.

[Chezni]

Firepower 2000 for the SNES, also known as Super SWIV for the Super Famicom and Mega SWIV for the European Sega Mega Drive, is very easy to get in to and a lot of fun. It's probably one of the most underrated shoot 'em ups in recent years, although I believe Firepower 2000/Super SWIV/Mega SWIV was well-received at the time of their release. And although it's not a shoot 'em up, the original Star Fox for the SNES is in a closely-related genre and very easy to get in to a lot of fun as well -- it's not unusual for me to quickly play through the first or second mission if I've got a few minutes to kill before going somewhere.

[llj]

Older console shmups have gotten damn expensive over the past few years in the retro market. Seems like every major Mega Drive and SNES shmup have gone up a ton. And let's not even get into the prices for Saturn's shmups.

[alphex]

Oct 21, 2017 21:54:24 GMT -5 llj said:

Older console shmups have gotten damn expensive over the past few years in the retro market. Seems like every major Mega Drive and SNES shmup have gone up a ton. And let's not even get into the prices for Saturn's shmups.

EVERYTHING has gotten super pricey, which is fucking insane. Games that used to be 20$ just a couple of years ago are now 150$. At least technically - we all know that stuff that's listed with stupid "buy now!" prices rarely ever goes for that much in practice.

Thanks for the contributions, everyone; good to know I'm not the only one who is happy when these games offer easier difficulty settings.

All the bullet hell stuff looks nice enough, but kinda misses that otherworldly atmosphere I like about the genre. The term "visual storytelling" is definitely appropriate I guess. From the responses I take it none of the big names other than Gradius were particularly approachable? Kind of a shame, cause those tended to have the nicest presentation (well, Axelay looks pretty damn pretty as well, of course). Can't believe I forgot about Tyrian 2000.

Speaking of Gradius, I think I actually own a version of Gradius 2, since I have that Konami GB Collection it's on. Game always kicked my ass, but I probably should give it another go. Parodius also seems strangely affordable, so I might just pick that up.

Viriax looks interesting, too. Treasure's stuff I'm not overtly familiar with, but Bangai-Oh was a great one. Will check those out. Thanks again everyone, keep 'em coming!

[surnshurn]

That reminds me - Fantasy Zone is another one that I enjoyed back in the day. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_Zone
I played the NES port that was done by Tengen, who did manage to beat Nintendo's lockout chip and released unauthorized arcade ports in those odd-shaped cartridges.

As I recall - the game is pretty unbalanced as far as powerups are concerned and can be completed in ~20 minutes. It also has a very colorful art style that sets it apart from the more serious-themed shooter games.