I loooooove shoot 'em ups, or SHMUPs for short. Like, I can never get enough of these games. It wasn't always like this, however. During much of the NES era, my time was spent honing my platforming skills with the Super Mario Bros. trilogy, DuckTales, Chip 'N Dale's Rescue Rangers, the occasional beat 'em up and failing miserably in Contra as well as Super C. My second game on the SNES was a SHMUP called Darius Twin and it was my introduction to the long running Darius series. My dad was buying me a game of my choice for my 11th birthday. Toys 'R Us had non gameplay demos set up and one of the games you could see footage of was Darius Twin. All the bad buys were fish and the bosses were huuuuuge! I was intrigued by the game but I recall my dad being pretty hyped about it. My dad's enthusiasm pushed me to settle on Darius Twin and I ended up enjoying that game a great deal. Of course my dad like it as well and he would play the game when I was at school or when he wasn't working. Yeah, we both won out with that one and I've been a fan of the Darius franchise ever since.
Back in the days when renting entertainment was big, we would frequent Blockbuster Video. One weekend in either 1992 or 1993, my dad's rental choice was Space Megaforce, AKA Super Aleste, the very first game I played from SHMUP giant Compile. This game had some really long stages (lengthy levels are a hallmark for Compile SHMUPs) some of the coolest laser power-ups I'd ever seen and a killer soundtrack! Super Aleste is one of, if not my favorite Conpile shooter. At one point, it became my rental pick.
Another trip to Blockbuster and my dad rented Thunder Spirits, what fans often consider the watered down version of Thunder Force III or Thunder Force AC. At the time, I didn't know it was a different version of Thunder Force III and I didn't care. It was another cool SHMUP and as I watched my dad play it, I knew I had to take it for a spin. Thunder Spirits was the first Thunder Force game I played and when I had a chance to pick up a used SNES cart in the early 2000s for chump change, I did not hesitate to do so and this was knowing full well that it was an "inferior" version of Thunder Force III. If it weren't for my dad renting this game, I may not have discovered the Thunder Force so early on.
Every now and again we'd go to a different rental outlet, one that shared a complex with a pizza joint, so we could get pizza, movies and games. It was one fateful weekend that my dad rented Gradius III. Everything about Gradius III blew me away. You could pre-select your power-ups before starting a game. The different option formations, lasers, missiles and shields made for some nice customization. Music consisted of a lot of bass and synth and the music was unusually upbeat, something I wasn't really used to from this genre, but the music was so good, I didn't mind. Of all the SHMUPs I've listed here, Gradius III and Super Aleste were the ones that captivated me the most. Even with Gradius III's slowdown, I still adored this game. When I got money from my grandmother in December of 1992, I could have bought Gradius III or Super Mario Kart. I really wanted to buy Super Mario Kart but I really enjoyed Gradius III as did my dad. So I bought Gradius III and would play that game to death and so did my dad. It was such a struggle just to beat this game on the easy setting and I felt like a king when I finally did.
I think a great deal of my love for the SHMUP genre comes from my dad renting them in the early 1990s. Because he rented such good titles, I had fun over the weekend and was introduced to some of the best franchises the genre has to offer. SHMUPs have made quite the comeback in the current generation of gaming and thanks to the portability of the Switch, companies are more than happy to supply the system with a steady flow of titles. I actually added a few more to my collection as of this writing including Arcade Archives Armed F, Rigid Force Redux and ESP Ra. De.
I am always on the lookout for shooters and with the revival the genre has enjoyed over the last few years, I really cannot thank my dad enough for simply renting SHMUPs when I was a kid and exposing me to what would be one of my favorite types of games to play. I love you, dad. Happy Father's Dad! Thanks for getting me into one of the best genres on this or any other planet!
All screenshots from Emuparadise.
1 comment:
Reg, reading this post really took me back in time. Sometimes we forget about events that have brought us to this point in our lives. I'm sitting here reading this and remembering the times I played solo but also the time we played as a team so many times. Thank you for this fantastic memory. Much love my son.
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