Really, a true shmup is an auto-scrolling shooting game where you move around the screen and shoot things. They're shooting games, sure, but not shmups. Gun Smoke, Commandos, Guerilla War, Ikari Warriors I-III, Jackal, Iron Tank, etc, really aren't shmups in any way. I mean, the graphics are great, but with the simplified powerup system it's just not the same. It's too bad no version of Salamander 2 has the Gradius powerup system as far as I know, it would help the game. not certain about that, but I think it did. I believe that that Japanese Saturn/PSX Salamander collection included both the Japanese and US versions of the first arcade game, to play it both ways. though the US arcade version of Life Force, which does have the Gradius powerup system, would definitely be the best of those. Also, with only six stages (in both Life Force and Axelay's cases), that means only three stages of each type, which isn't much.Īgreed about NES vs. the vertical stages are really cool looking, but the horizontal ones are more fun. Oh, and I prefer horizontal to vertical shmups, so while having both types is nice variety-wise, it doesn't really make the game better. NES Life Force? Yeah, Life Force wins in a lot of categories, but still, perhaps for nostalgia, or game title, or something, I would put Gradius slightly ahead. Of course, NES Life Force/Salamander is pretty good, having the Gradius powerup system, but the ones without that are definitely worse than Gradius, as I said. I mean, yeah, Life Force added some very nice things, but still, I don't know. So yeah it's not terrible, but I'd much, much rather play Gradius, or Image Fight, or TGL, or something like that.Įh, I do think I slightly prefer Gradius. and tough too, I can't get more than a couple of levels into it and I've owned it for like a year now (hadn't played it much before then). In this game you move so slow, and so many enemy waves approach from the rear (and you can't shoot backwards), that you have to spend a lot of time slowly trying to dodge bullets. and I like to actually be able to kill the enemies. I like to be able to actually dodge things. Oh, and yeah, the extremely slow speed of the helicopter is something I really dislike. Oh, and the serious lack of powerups doesn't help much either, or that they can so easily get shot away (even including your bombs, which you evidently can't replace without dying and only have two of).

Very slow-paced games where dying punishes you heavily and it's so slow like that. It's just kind of boring and frustrating.

Tiger-Heli isn't actually awful or something, it is a decent game. I mean, I loved BlaZeon on SNES, and that's a very slow-paced game. I don't necessarily have a problem with slow-paced games.

Gradius 2 final.boss