I have played shoot 'em ups (shmups) all my life, never been really good at them, but the constant action and frenetic pace of the genre keeps me coming back for more everytime I die.
The first traditional shmup I remember playing as a kid was Tyrian, I was probably around 7 years old at the time, it will always have a special place in my heart because of that, even if it's not the best shooter out there.
Times have changed and those first playthroughs are long gone now, the shmup genre has also evolved a lot over the years, giving us classics like Ikaruga or Dodonpachi that always introduce some new mechanic to keep the shmup genre fresh.
You can now get a shmup on almost every gaming platform on the planet, and believe me when I say that there are some real masterpieces out there, but today we will be taking a look at the shoot 'em ups for the Android, a gaming platform that much like the shmups has evolved immensely throughout the years.
Raiden Legacy is our number one game in this list because it is basically four games in one, when you buy Legacy you will get Raiden, Raiden Fighters, Raiden Fighters 2 and Raiden Fighters Jet, while all of them play very similarly you will quickly notice the extremely difficulty of the original title is toned down in the sequels.
The visuals are almost perfect emulations of the originals, that goes for the sound effects and music as well, everything is very polished so it looks and sounds great most of the time.
Of course the most important factor in any shmup are the controls, especially in a gaming platform that uses a touch screen 90% of the time, so how do they fare? Almost better than the original games I dare say!
Your ship fires automatically, so you only have to worry about dodging and weaving those pesky bullets, it works great and it really helps out "noobs" like me who enjoy these titles, yet, lack the skill to actually be any good at them.
Dodonpachi Resurrection is amazing, it's a shooter that opts for the lunatic approach, forcing the player to train their shmup skills if they want to progress further than the first few levels of the game, the screen is constantly filled up with bullets and enemies, making precise movement a must if you want to survive.
Out of the three games we present you today it is the most expensive by far, yet, it justifies the price by adding a smartphone mode only available in this mobile version, it's good to see that the developers put some work into this port.
Visually the game looks great, with lots of vivid colors and well done backgrounds, just watch out if you're going to play this on a smaller screen, it may be hard to see exactly what's going with so much happening at the same time.
The controls much like Raiden Legacy are simple and easy to pick up, auto fire is enabled and you just need to dodge bullets and activate your special weapons.
Like I said in the prologue, Tyrian might be the first shmup I ever played, so this choice is probably a bit biased, still, Open Tyrian is completely free, so there's no harm in trying it. Give it a shot, I think you will not regret it.
This is an almost straight port from the DOS version, so the controls are a bit more clunky than the other two candidates, still, everything else is there. Visually the charming graphics still hold up pretty well, even if the color palette could be a bit more varied at times, the sound and music department are emulated really efficiently, contributing to a nice experience.
Have you got a different opinion? Maybe a totally different Top 3?
Drop us a comment and share those opinions with us!
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