Hell is Other People [more inside]
posted by flatluigi on Oct 19, 2009 - 61 comments

Particlasm is home to the browser games of Luke Paakh. He first caught my attention with fine space shoot'em-up Ether War but I also enjoyed his other games, shooter Ether Cannon, tree defending games Phoenix and Shen Long, puzzle game blue and petri dish action game Amoeba. His new game is my favorite. It's called William and Sly and it's a beautiful platformer is about an adorable fox who likes mushrooms and his quest to recharge some runestones with fairyflies.
posted by Kattullus on Oct 9, 2009 - 9 comments

Pixelvader = minimal vector graphics bullet hell shmup flash game with upgrading system.
posted by juv3nal on Jul 28, 2009 - 19 comments

Alien Breed + arena shooter + online highscores = Alien Deathmatch 2. Windows only.
posted by pancreas on Dec 18, 2008 - 7 comments

After playing Areas, I now feel the world needs more no-click ambient shmups. [via] [more inside]
posted by Plutor on Dec 28, 2007 - 29 comments

1812 Shmupfilture. Sure, it could be better, but somehow I think this is the only time I'll see Tchaikovsky mashed up with Ikaruga. @
posted by BlackLeotardFront on Jul 19, 2007 - 8 comments

Fans of the modern classic shooter Warning Forever will be pleased with the latest game from Cactus Software, Fractal Fighter. Also try Cactus' last game, Clean Asia, a truly unique shooter that's so hard you'll cry like a baby. Via the excellent Shoot the Core, where you can also get that Thunderforce shirt you've been wanting.
posted by BlackLeotardFront on Jun 30, 2007 - 14 comments

GridWars 2 is superlative shooty thing for Windows; download here.
posted by riotgrrl69 on Sep 7, 2006 - 26 comments

Bullet Philharmonic Orchestra. A barebones, vector shooter for PC ala Kenta Cho's made for practicing bullet dodging in manic scrolling shooters, which generates bullet patterns based on the music playing(found here (previously)). Think a very, very poor man's Rez. Here's the download link if, like me, you can't read Japanese. (about 1 megabyte, Windows only, sorry) Further instructions inside the file and comments.
posted by BlackLeotardFront on Dec 8, 2005 - 7 comments

SHMUPS! aka 2D Scrolling Shoot-em-ups. Shmups.com is dedicated to this classic genre, from ancient history (Space Invaders, Tempest) to grandfather games (R-Type II, 1941) to golden age shmups (Tyrian, Blazing Star) to modern classics (Radiant Silvergun, Mars Matrix, Ikaruga). Most aren't for the PC, unfortunately, but that's what Mame and other emulators (mac too) are for. As for roms, can't help you there. For PC enthusiasts, Shoot the Core's PC Shmup listing is the most complete I've ever seen, with many links to download as well. This Thanksgiving weekend, what better to do in your food coma than sit back and blast through a few games in the most enduring video game genre of all time? *CAUTION! These sites took up five hours of my time last night and I downloaded 42 games.*
posted by BlackLeotardFront on Nov 23, 2005 - 33 comments

The Touhou, or Shrine Maiden, series of "curtain fire shooting games" start off challenging and quickly become hard enough to satisfy any hardcore gamer/masochist. They're also gorgeously crafted works of art, and were created in their entirety by one man, ZUN. If you want to play them you'll have to import them* from Japan, but you can download the demos here.
* site sells naughty things as well. Don't order at work.
posted by squidlarkin on Feb 1, 2005 - 10 comments