Anyone know any good Shoot 'em ups?

[Nightlight]

I've suddenly gotten into a mood to play one and am wondering if there are any good ones on Steam I can check out. I would prefer it to be retro in style and it to be a vertical or horizontal scroller.

[ShelLuser]

Nothing beats the original IMO:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/13240/Unreal_Tournament_Game_of_the_Year_Edition/

Not a problem if you're not so good yet, the bots can be configured to auto-adjust their difficulty level meaning that they should provide a good challenge no matter how good or bad you are.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Boofette:

Quint, as you otter know, you mention Jamestown, but not Jets 'n' Guns....any reason why? Also, what do you think about Aces of the Luftwaffe? Is it too much for a single player to play, and the Bullet Soul series?

And lastly....can anyone tell me the difference between a 'normal' SHMUP and a Bullet Hell SHMUP? TIA!

I didn't mention Jamestown, though I have briefly played it.

I am unfamiliar with any of the other games you mentioned there, sorry.

"Bullet hell" (a.k.a. "bullet curtain" or "danmaku") shmups generally have a larger (and often geometrically prettier) concentration of enemy bullets, and involve more intricate weaving one's way through them. In turn, the individual bullets somewhat more slowly on average, and your player-character's hitbox is often just a single pixel -- sometimes with "graze" bonuses that you can get by having bullets pass through your sprite but not your hitbox.

[AmsterdamHeavy]

Not exactly what youre asking for, but I dig a good "on rails" shooter:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/448370/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/452860/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/305380/

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Boofette:

Quint....I stand corrected. You DIDN'T mention Jamestown...it was the post right below yours and I didn't realize it was a different post.. Sorry. :/ And thank you for explaining the Bullet Hell for me....that really helped.

This has turned out to be quite the task to find a game that isn't so difficult that I can play, that every level isn't just full of bullets to where I can't tell where I am, and yet still provide a fun experience. Oh well.....onward & upward as they say.... :)

Some games have "newbie-friendly" features -- for example, they give you more continues the more times you game over, making it easier to see the story but also encouraging you to replay to get better.

Ether Vapor Remaster and RefleX both do this,

eXceed 3rd is a straight-up bullet hell that doesn't have such a feature, but I do think it's relatively approachable for newbies anyway.

Of these I particularly recommend RefleX, as it has the simplest control scheme (movement buttons + shoot + reflect shield), but it also uses this simple control scheme to create some brilliantly creative gameplay. So it's easy to learn but also has lots of depth.

(Contrast, for example, eXceed third, which has buttons for shoot, focus fire which slows you down but lets you weave more accurately, charged weapon which you get from destroying enemies and grazing, and screen-clearing bomb. It's not actually all that complicated once you get used to it, but RefleX just has a noticeably smaller number of these buttons -- particularly since it lacks even a bomb button.)

[Fry McFly]

On Steam? None at all! Because there is no game of the caliber of SWIV here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U06qKApT0aA