Before I played the video, I saw the title, and I though to myself: "I'm a very knowledgeable person about these kind of games, of course I'm going to know all of them. Yes, most people didn't played those, but not me." And then, I saw the video, and I was AMAZED. I only knew two of the games! So, hats off for this great video. I'm so happy to be able to discover new awesome games that I didn't know anything about... Keep up the good work!
I just want to take the time to say that your channel is amazing. I grew tired of most video game channels on RUclips, but you have something the vast majority of them don't : a true artistic mind. You always go deep into the games you play, your critics are spot on, it feels like you soak up every little detail those games have to offer. I often feel like people talk about games without actually having taken the time to truly understand their value. I deeply enjoy your work and just wanted to share some love !
Thank you so much for such a thoughtful comment, it's appreciated. I checked out from general YT long ago for the same reason, as most seems so generic and surface level it feels the equivalent of junk food. And not good junk food at that. I am doing my best to be general enough to appeal to a broader audience and grow (not get super niche), yet dive deep enough into the games and add some sort of value and commentary. It's always a push/pull of how far I can go without getting too deep and alienating parts of the audience, while also making it meaningful. At the end of the day I am just enjoying the hobby and helping get more people into playing these awesome games. And it seems to be working so I'll keep at it long as I can.
@@ShmupJunkie I concur with the above commenter and would like to add that it is immensely refreshing to watch your videos and realize, "hey, this guy actually took the time to play the games enough to understand their mechanics and controls". I was just watching a video by someone else and was screaming at the screen, "No! Hold up and press jump to swing up through the platforms on Bonks Revenge you dimwit!". I realize writing scripts and editing is time consuming, but at least take the time to learn how to play a game before you try to capture some footage people.
An all around outstanding presentation no matter how you approach it! I had absolutely no idea that an arcade beat em up could be so in-depth with the move set play control and mechanics. I've got some work to do finding these games 🤘
@Kevin Happe what you've said sums up in one word: passion. And Shmup Junkie has it in spades! Others would just list the top 10 shmups of a certain console. The Junkie is passionate enough to review all of them!
@@ShmupJunkie , the PS2 actually had a pretty decent amount of shooters, among them, Contra: Shattered Soldier, Neo Contra, R-Type Final, Raiden III, Castle Shingami 1, Castle Shinigami 2, and tons and tons of arcade shooter ports, especially in Japan, and, more often than not, they were just as good, if not even, gasp, BETTER than their arcade counterparts.
Wolf Fang on the Saturn runs absolutely 100% perfect, there is no slowdown at all. I can confirm having the offical disc playing on real hardware for many years. Even on the hardest difficulty, crazy enemies and bullets on screen it never wavers. I'm assuming this misinformation came from the old post on the Shmups forum? Sadly the game wasn't popular enough for someone to call that guy out on his claim. It's a great game though thank you for spotlighting it, and amazing video as always man! Thanks for all your hard work!!
Hey, thank you so much for pointing that out too, I'm glad you did. I don't own it on Saturn or PS1 and always emulated the arcade, so that's why I kind of prefaced it when I said it. As I honestly couldn't say myself not having played. I may be able to go back and edit that quick cut out of the video with the editor as I'm not a fan of spreading false info. So again, thanks for bringing that up. I'm glad to hear it, as it's not often a game runs a lot slower on Saturn. The main example that comes to mind is In the Hunt. I later learned the arcade version has built in slowdown too, so it could even be the PS1 port just runs faster than it should.
@@ShmupJunkie Very true, and In the Hunt was clearly due to the boneheads at SIMS doing the Saturn conversion, while the much more talented Xing was responsible for the PS1 conversion. Also good point on the arcade having slowdown itself, maybe the PS1 port does run too fast then. Perhaps that's where the misinformation spawned from initially. Funny how things like that happen!
In case anyone doesn’t find Riot or Guardians, I found them by these names: Kamniari Kishi Riot Guardians: Denji Makai II And by the way the first part (Denji Makai) is pretty awesome as well. Great video!! Thank you very much!! Keep up the good work.
You're welcome. And thanks for the heads up on the names. I didn't have much trouble finding Guardians arcade, but RIOT can easily be heard to find with search results. So that's really helpful.
SideLine was lost for many years, it saw only a limited realease on Poland in the West, and only an obscure demo was out there until 10 years ago. The Spanish magazine Retromaniac talked about it in 2012, making the shmup community curious about that unknown awesome game. Even having only access to the demo, people were so enthusiastic about the game's quality, less than a year later Keitai's Neil Lei arranged an interview between the magazine team and the original lead dev of the game, Jimmy Hwang. He was surprised people loved the game so much, so he granted permission to play and emulate it for free instead taking the opportunity to commercially release it elsewhere. So, this game reached (god knows how) Spain on a bootleg CD in 1996, and was distributed hand to hand. The memories about that awesome unknown game demo were so strong, 15 years later one of the kids who played it back then wrote a passionate article about it, firing up the shmup community interest, leading to selfless people to find the whole game and reach the original developer, that was happy to allow the game being available again, this time for everyone to enjoy it fully for free. I really like this little story, it speaks great things about the shmup and retro gaming community. Here the original article (in Spanish, but auto translation will do): retromaniacmagazine.blogspot.com/2012/07/side-line-el-matamarcianos-perdido-para.html and the interview a year later: retromaniacmagazine.blogspot.com/2013/10/entrevistamos-en-exclusiva-jimmy-hwang.html
Wonderful info, thank you. I only recently read about this and the history on a main page for the game. And I also linked a really good guide for the game in my description. It was too much detail to talk about in the video, but it has a fascinating history. I just really hope that highlighting it here like this brings yet more renewed interest in the game. It's easily accessible on the Free Shmups Wiki so as many people can easily play it as possible. And it certainly deserves it. The game is outstanding.
Manbow was the last game Konami did for the MSX, they went through some major internal changes after its release, it was a love letter to the fans and a farewell to the platform where they learned how to make games for a home audience. There would be no Konami on the famicom without the MSX era. The only thing I missed on your text was mentioning how big the MSX was in Brazil as well, since most of us had this platform years before the NES. So it's not wrong to say the MSX was the NES for a big part of the Brazilian audience.
You're completely right about that... sorry for giving Brazil short shrift 😅. When I think MSX, I am always thinking Japan (obviously) and Europe, but really most of the developed world including South America had it. Why it couldn't make an impact in the US is beyond me, but we totally missed out. Manbow really feels like the typical 90s Konami shooter, everything about it. All the intangibles good and bad including the great music. Really miss that vibe they had which really can't be replicated again. I actually learned of Space Manbow late in life too maybe several years ago, and that's being a lover of all things Konami. If it wasn't for the Internet I may have never known it.
Another interesting fact about Manbow: It was supposed to be a MSX port of Thunder Cross. There are lots of similarities between the two games, but I honestly prefer Manbow. The reason why the MSX never made it to the US is a looooong story I can tell you and maybe a good subject for a future video.
Metal Gear 2, SD Snatcher and Quarth were released after Space Manbow. I don't know if they were "Ready" before Manbow, but they definitely were released later. Konami had an insane output on the MSX. While they did some good and some duds on the NES, I believe they made nearly as many games on the MSX as they did for the NES, but EVERY game they did on the MSX were golden. I can't think of a single bad MSX game from Konami. Even Contra which was totally botched port, I find it to be quite fun to play if you forget it's a Contra game.
@@ShmupJunkie I'm Brazilian and I, my 3 older brothers and dozens of friends never, ever heard about the MSX even on magazines, the Master System was our second big console after the Atari 2600, while the NES was sold in numerous clones. So while Shmups BR makes it seem MSX was huge here, it was probably in his own circle, maybe region. Honestly, I don't feel we have missed anything as kids, we already had better alternatives, as far as price, games library and technical aspects go. This PC could barely play anything smoothly, all scrolling was jerky, even with its improvements over the years, unless the developer knew black magic programming skills. Golvellius, brought to the Master System from the MSX is better in every aspect, visuals, sound, scrolling and controls. I wish I had nostalgia for the MSX, I would have a different opinion, but it's indeed a mediocre machine for games, totally not designed for it. I remember watching a dedicated episode for this computer, it covered dozens of games and that was a pain to watch.
These are just the kind of games I grew up being addicted to!!! I still remember being 6 and my grandma taking me to a roller rink to teach me how to skate, only for me to get distracted by the giant Metal Slug and X-Men arcade monitors!!! Soooo awesome!!
Funny how things come full circle and the more timeless replayable games have a resurgence in popularity. I play all kinds including modern games, but the arcade style games are what I always keep coming back to. Infinitely replayable for me. Those XMen triple monitor cabinets were cool 😎
Watching your videos is like a flashback to my childhood while playing games in random arcades, smokey bowling alleys or at some random convenience store! Back then you really had to be good at the game, because you would line up your quarters on the arcade cabinet while waiting in line with other gamers. Honing your skills meant longer play time!
Much like yourself I am a retro gamer at heart and anything with pixels I am immediately drawn to it. In my mid-40s now and collecting everything that I wanted and couldn't afford as a child finding such a fantastic comprehensive list like the one you've provided with this video like you said is like finding a pot of gold! Going to find at least 2/3 of the list and give them a try. A fantastic explanation of what the games have to offer with play control and mechanically. Possibly one of the best videos I've seen so far for retro gaming 🤘
the Aliens game was insane. I used to play it with my two cousins when we walked back from school. Besides what you already said about it, it's also the music and the character walking and firing animation. I never forgot that character walking animation man. It has some kind of "groove" to it that makes moving around more dynamic and encompassing
I know exactly what you mean. And I'm stoked to have a PCB of it these days to play it that way versus on a PC only. Not likely but always wanted to see a home port of it one day.
Yup, I remember it just having this cool vibe to it like you mentioned. I didn't think it was all that obscure. I remember playing it quite a lot at an arcade called "MagicLand" on Portage Ave in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada circa 1990-91 growing up.
@@ShmupJunkie There was actually going to be a Sega Genesis version of the Aliens arcade game back in the early 90s and it was probably going to be Konami's first Sega Genesis game ever.
Welcome! Sorry for no ZX games this time but I was glad to at least include an MSX and PC98. We didn’t have any of these computers in the US so I have a lot to discover including the Spectrum. I’ve got a good few friends that are big fans of the system being from Europe.
@@ShmupJunkie the best shmup for ZX is still R-Type conversion, but there has been a lot of other obscure and playable shooters as well, some of which are even original, not arcade conversions. Speccy is a hard platform for shmups since it doesn't have hardware scrolling nor sprites, but still there are some gems for the platform. Thanks for what you are doing!
Oh snap wolf and we riot are some really awesome finds! I never heard of them before :-) ha maybe I ll go parasite mode and review one of these on my channel XD
You totally should, whichever games look coolest to you. I'm sure your base would enjoy either one. The controls of Wolf Fang take some getting used to, but it's solid once you get the hang of it. Kind of like Chelnov, the other Data East gem. It's got it's issues to nitpick like most Data East stuff, but when you are constantly experimenting it's bound to happen. What's great about RIOT is how well that foreground shooting mechanic is implemented given the limited buttons. It could've been a good idea but janky, but instead makes the game a much cooler experience than it otherwise would've been. You almost wonder why other games like it didn't copy them afterward.
@@ShmupJunkie we riot is a great find too because the gallery shooter genre has such a limited selection of games, honestly I'm surprised I haven't seen it before!
The breadth of your content and just how much you dig into things may not be for everyone, but for me they're damn near perfect. Really enjoy your channel and feel you do well standing out among the crowd that is retrogaming YT.
Thanks I appreciate that. I really enjoy digging into them deeper than most without going overboard and losing people by getting overly tedious. It's a fine line to walk but I enjoy trying. I'm really happy with how this one came out and so far it's kicking some butt!
This channel has become my Jam, so full of quality and the commentary on these games is so deep, Shmup jumkie seems like such a cool and genuine guy and his love for gaming harkens to that feeling of the 90s and 2000s when people actually became surprised and stood in awe of new games. Congrats for this channel!.
Thanks! I'm growing fast and doing my best to keep it up. Want to spread the love of the older, arcade style games around. People are getting more and more tired of the aaa stuff and going back to these games. The great ones are just so replayable over the decades.
@@ShmupJunkie I'm just so glad that traditional 2D sprite based games are now back in style and so many good new ones are coming out these days too on platforms like Steam and itch.io. In retrospect it feels like there was a bit of a "lost generation" of gaming that we never really got in the west between the 16-bit consoles and the PSX/N64 era. After the 16-bit era it seems a huge rift opened up between the west and japan with gaming tastes. Unless you were really into the import Saturn scene, new high quality 32-bit 2D pixelart games (shmups, beat-em-ups) kind of disappeared to the western gamer for a long time. I really enjoyed the sort of high-octane 32-bit arcade 2D games of the early 90s like Aliens and was looking forward to that stuff coming out on the forthcoming consoles. Alas, gaming turned almost completely towards slower paced adventure based 3D polygon games and moved away from faster paced but shorter 2D arcade style-gaming. So we never really got a home version of a 32-bit colourful 2D console generation I had been salivating for in the west that would have emulated the experience of the various capcom and konami arcade games of the early 90s. Only now are we really getting that stuff like the new TMNT game, all these various shooters, the great new beat-em-ups, etc.
@@TransCanadaPhil Sony may have played a part in that. They pushed the hell out of 3D and supported that direction quite vehemently. And since they dominated the market at the time I can see why. The N64 went all in with 3D as well so that’s what we got. I didn’t mind it but like many, really wished we got more of that gorgeous 2D style game we know that generation was capable. As opposed to the rudimentary (now kind of butt ugly) polygons that didn’t age well. It took multiple generations and advancements in hardware to reach parity with 2D artwork. At least on console. I tended to use my PC for games that really pushed the 3D envelope. And to run Crysis 😂
Amazing to see the Alltynex trilogy getting some love. Giving how much you loved Eschatos and its use of set pieces, I need to say that Reflex is one of the greatest attempts on telling a story only through set pieces and the mechanics (that will change in the final part of the game), without using a single line of text. To have an entire video in the future dedicated to the trilogy, can be nuts. And also great picks for the MS-DOS and PC-98 section! 💟
This is a strong lineup of bangers. There are some I've never heard of due to the platform they were made for, some that I have known about for a few years already and I'm glad to see you covering them (Siter Skain's Alltynex trilogy) and overall, is such a well made, in-depth video.
Right?! I never played it as a kid either. Too obscure at the time I suppose. I’m glad you discovered it too through this. That and Crisis Force are two I loved once I finally got to play them.
I can only imagine the time it took to make this video. What a roller coaster ride of emotions, from awe to disappointment that I never played them to wondering why they don't make 'em like this anymore.
Thanks! Yes it’s a lot of work but a great experience as I also get to discover new games myself. And in the grand scheme of things compared to those massive 3+ hour videos I’ve done for every mega drive and pc engine shooters reviewed, something under an hour like this almost feels like time off 🤣. Im really enjoying these longer form videos lately.
It's rare in this age of easy-access informtation and self-promotion to find someone doing something new and real - actually delivering what's on the title. Amazing video. I learned a ton and had a great time watching this. Sideline and We Riot paricularly blew me away. Great too see BKRoo getting a shout out too! Good stuff as always!
Thanks! A lot of my viewers and subs are very well versed so I go out of my way to provide some really deep cuts and unknown games. A big part of it is having a great community and discord that pitches in for videos like this and helps with some great suggestions. I discover a lot of new myself along the way.
Junike, chalk up another person excited to see Siter Skain games get a mention. I remember importing these from a contact who went to Comiket back in the day. SS's games really impress me and showed what a doujin game could really achieve. As an honorable mention, another doujin trilogy would be Twinkle Soft's lineup: Rally Raid, Excess Fraction, and Barrage Tribe. They are not quite as good as Siter Skain, but I'll bet most people haven't heard of them.
I'm still discovering so many doujin shmups myself, so you can count me on that list. I'm going to check them out and maybe they can get a mention in a future video. I just hope I got to plug the Alltynex trilogy here in time while it was still on Steam sale. I wanted more people to grab all 3 games to enjoy.
I love these discovery videos! It's so fun to find games that were simply forgotten in gaming history but are still a blast to play! I'm really interested in the Tale of Alltynex pack on Steam, gonna grab right now to check them out :)
I love making these just as much, discovering games myself along the way too. One of my favorite subjects to tackle, so there will likely be similar. I hope that trilogy was still on sale and I wasn't too late with the video.
Great video Junkie. There was a ton of games in there that looked awesome and that I had no idea existed. Thanks this was very informative. Looks like I'll be hitting up mame on my old PC.
@@probe26 I can’t do it. I used to all the time but RUclips ruins it half the time and it ends up looking like an ugly mess. I wish I could as I’ve got a 5x pro and OSSC to make beautiful scanlines, but it they end up compressed for a lot of people. Bummer of quick access lower quality streaming.
► Join my Patreon! - www.patreon.com/shmupjunkieslushfund Check out the CHAPTER LIST and see if you can guess what some of these games will be as you watch! CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Discover New Games 01:06 - We RIOT 04:34 - The BEST Beat Em Up You've Never Played 08:21 - Arcade MECHA Action Wolf Fang 13:41 - The BEST PC DOS Shoot Em Up EVER MADE! 19:11 - SmashTV meets PINBALL 21:57 - The BEST KONAMI Shooter You've Never Played 25:53 - The BEST NES Shooter You've Never Even Heard Of 29:04 - The BEST NEC PC-98 Shooter of all Time 32:20 - The KONAMI ALIENS Game that Disappeared 36:56 - The Best DOUJIN SHMUP Trilogy on PC 40:43 - But Wait! There's MORE
Haha, yeah it's that kind of game. Just looking at it makes you want to jump in. That's why I started out with it. Hope you don't have any problems finding it.
Fantastic list, a gem filled with truly obscure titles, unlike many such videos. Personally, knew of all of them apart from SideLine and Riot and so thank you.
You're welcome. And yes, Sideline was going to be a relative unknown for almost everybody and why I was so hot on including it. Such a killer game that's as obscure as they come.
This is a great video, I love your humour (especially calling one of the enemies Kevin Bacon) and the way you analyze the game (such as detailing that Rohga Armor Force has soldiers riding your mech and that even after dead you can still play as the pilot himself). Also in regards to analysis, the fact you mention that Nitro Ball is short but it can be fun if playing for the score is a good assessment. I have some suggestions: Please mention the music itself when you do the analysis. One of the best parts in these old games is the fact the music is extremely catchy, as well as the sound. Also, as much as I like the titles you make, like "We RIOT", the "SmashTV meets PINBALL" was just a bit wrong, I know the title is to the left but the actual name was "Nitro Ball" or even "Gun Ball", maybe some way to mention or add the actual title and the alternative title would be a good idea? Also, you're one of the very few Arcade players I know that are older than me! Hah, you should take that as a compliment! Anyway, I really liked this video and I hope to see much more of this quality (or hey, better quality because why not? We always improve no matter what, our age or otherwise, hehe!), you did an excellent job.
What's funny is I wasn't just trying to make up something funny. First time I ever played the game and saw that guy, that's immediately the first thing that came to my mind. Dude, that's Kevin Bacon! I literally can't play the game without thinking it. I actually go way out of my way to talk about the music and play samples all the time in my videos as I'm really big on that. I even did it in this video for all the games I thought had great music like Sideline, Over Horizon, Space Manbow and others. If it doesn't stand out but it's just OK then I don't always mention it. Oh, if you love game music in general, I did a great video called the "The Epic Music of Shoot Em Ups", that's specifically focused on the history and packed with incredible tunes. You'd really like it.
@@ShmupJunkie Kick-arse! I'll check that video you mentioned soon enough. Anyway, I hope you get more of these "You Never Played" series, especially Action RPGs, those are some very rare Arcade games, I remember Cadash being fun if a bit too repetitive.
It's always good to discover a game you missed back in the day only to discover it still holds it's own even in today's standards. Another awesome video by the way!
Thanks. It's a big reason why I love making these videos... even for myself. As I also discover awesome new games in the process. So you can definitely count on plenty more.
@@ShmupJunkie Yes your passion definitely I think is a big reason your channel does so well! I am looking forward to seeing more shmup junkie! 🤣. I was also happy to see there was some games mentioned that I have enjoyed also like steel empire, altynex second, kamui etc.
Your videos bring back all those nostalgic feelings from back in the day. I Always look forward to your videos to discover new games that have been out for a while to enjoy!! I want to salute you for your work, it is freakin' awesome!!! Thank you!!
Phenomenal Episode! I arrogantly thought I'd know of all these games... But 90% of them were a complete mystery to me! Can't wait to try the J-DOS PC shooter! Thx Shmup Junkie!
You're welcome! When I say "You haven't played" I usually mean it haha. I know not all are super obscure, but I made sure to put some real rare ones in there. The kicker is they are all awesome! And not just random games that people don't know and kinda OK.
Awesome video as always! I still need to play Sideline. I remember it wasn't as easy to run so I gave up back then but need to change that now. Wolf Fang is one of my favourite Data East games. Can get pretty hard in later stages but damn it's so awesome I bought the Saturn port some years ago. Thanks for showing some footage of my Kotsujin gameplay, I knew you'd love it, specially being a Toaplan and Tatsujin fan yourself.
Heck yeah, I owe it to you for introducing me to the game. When it comes to MSX, let alone PC88/98 I'm a complete noob. We just didn't have these systems in the US at all growing up so I am slowly discovering the games. I definitely wanted to use your gameplay for it. I can see it's modeled more after Tatsujin Ou than the original, but it still feels like it's own game. Honestly, Ou has gameplay issues and Flame Zapper is likely the better game from that standpoint alone. It's actually playable for most haha.
Lol, either that or Lion-O. Someone mentioned to me they think it looks like him too... I can see it. But first time I played the game, KB was the first thing that popped in my mind.
Some real gold in this selection and most I’ve never played! Roit looks a real hoot as does Guardians and Wolf Fang so I’ll be on those for sure. I’m a massive fan of Aliens and play that loads, real jealous you got to see the studio containing James Cameron directed props. Thanks for educating me on Nitro Ball as I’ve downloaded this on switch ready to be enjoyed!! Great video as always man. 💪
You're welcome buddy, glad this one got some more games on your radar to check out. It was a dream visiting that studio and total luck. As it's invite only. We won some Alita sweepstakes before the movie released, and ended up getting to an early screening, as well as a tour of the facility. I have a ton of great photos from that day, it was something else. Cameron doesn't mess around. Everything is life size and engineered like it would actually function in real life.
OMG GUARDIANS is absolutely INSANE!!! I came across that one recently and couldn't believe the gameplay. I've seen Rogha Armor Force and Aliens as well (also great games). The DOUJIN trilogy is on another level for shoot 'em ups, too. I WISH we could get a proper update for Kamui. It's CRAZY how good that came is and I can't for the life of me understand why it hasn't gotten updated yet. As usual introduced me to some other great ones and I'm loving it, man. Keep it coming!!!
What are the main updates we're still waiting on with Kamui? I have it on Steam and it looks and plays great, so I'm kind of out of the loop. Was it supposed to get a remaster of some kind?
@@ShmupJunkie Not to my knowledge. It just doesn't run in proper full screen and the scaling is limited to 800x600. I don't suppose you know how to fix that, do you? To my knowledge there's no patch for this. =[
@@RockyVegaTV Not on Steam I think because it’s locked down by the app most likely. I also own the original pc version which gives me a lot more flexibility to play with the resolution via third party apps. Though I haven’t really tried yet.
Finally Denjin Makai 2 gets some love thank you!! Had the PCB for years and have never been able to understand why no one ever talks about such a great beat-em-up. One of the very best imo.
It was about damn time right? It was pretty random too, as I was watching the 1CC by Iconoclast the other day and just marveling how deep it is. And I just knew I had to include and feature it in the video.
@@ShmupJunkie absolutely time. Hopefully more people will find it and enjoy it now. The original Denjin Makai/ Ghost chaser was no slouch and got a solid port on the snes. Again same deal. One of the snes' better beat-em-up's and rarely gets a mention. Some great games on this and I'm only halfway!
Ok finished it and thank you for another incredible vid. Dead jealous of the LA Aliens trip. Aliens is tied with RoboCop as my number one favourite movie so would have loved to have seen those props. Still fortunate enough to have got the PCBs for both knocking around so now need to go get my supergun out and do exactly what you said!
I've been looking for some good DOS shmups to play on my old Win95 laptop and ended up finding lots of euro shmups and mediocre (at best...) arcade ports that are often barely playable because of busted controls, and then your video popped up just in time - thanks for letting me know about Sideline! This shmup looks just like it was taken straight from Sega Mega Drive, definitely gonna download this and put it on a CD to play on my old PC (which by the way does not have a USB port xD).
No kidding on Sideline. How does possibly the best shmup ever made for DOS end up this obscure and unknown. I hope you enjoy it. Even moreso, I hope the video helps spread the word on this great game.
OMG SIDELINE! I did a video of that a long time ago. I don't even remember how I heard about it at the time but it blew my damn mind. An absolute gem of a shmup. Someone needs to find who owns the rights to that and get it on modern systems so more people can easily play it. As for the rest of the list, I'm firing up my Legends Ultimate to try some of them right now! Great finds and a great video as always dude!
You're one of the very few people that knew of Sideline. I know they officially made it free for all, so I doubt it'll ever release on other platforms now. Would love to see it given it;s so good. But seems someone like M2 or similar would have to take an interest, as porting it would be no small feat being a DOS game.
@@MrPippet1 Don’t waste all that precious time. Download it from the free shmup wiki. The package is ready to go and just works. Simply change the one line in the config file to the path where you installed it. And it just runs. Otherwise it’s a big pain in the ass
Yeah...I did download that package. Couldn't get it to run. It's my fault....can't figure it out. I followed the instructions on their website too. Did you launch it from within dosbox?
Haha my ShmupsareShooters shirt? That's my own hashtag and design from years ago (the wife made the design actually). At first it was just a one off my wife made me to use on my channel to wear, but enough people asked about it to where I put it up on my merch store. So if you really want one I actually have it for sale now. But originally it was just an old hashtag we created on Instagram that blew up (has like 5000+ posts now) and I was just wearing for myself.
Manbow is badass man, glad you mentioned it! One of my top 8bit soundtracks it's incredibly good. Good game too no doubt but not my top Konami. Another must watch video as always buddy I can't get enough watching these
Thank you. I also really enjoy discovery videos like this and helping people find great new games. It's fun to focus on just the games themselves and make fun segments highlighting each.
Well done, I've not heard of a single one of these … including the Aliens one. I always just focused on AvP and it was the main reason I set up MAME back in the day. I no longer have the equipment to play emulation though. Great vid.
That's awesome! I was hesitant on the Aliens pick at first because it really was popular then, but now I feel it's not well known enough. AvP does get all the press and that Aliens game is kind of forgotten, but it was so good. And the chance of it ever getting a port is likely much smaller than even AvP.
Great video, like always. I thought I knew every cool MAME game out there, then you showed this crazy Riot game I completely miss. What a finding, thank you!
You are the one person watching this video that knew about Sideline, but hadn't ever seen RIOT before haha. Yes, that game is pretty obscure too despite how cool it is. And not like NMK is an unknown developer. I'm glad even you were able to discover something new with this.
@@ShmupJunkie yeah hahaha, I guess I saw the snapshot of the game at some point and didn't look like something special to me so, I skipped it completely. Boy was I wrong. I played it a little bit yesterday, and it's a blast, loved the over the top madness, and it plays quite well. I discovered SideLine years ago thanks to FranfikiYT, another shmup enthusiast, and was surprised by the story behind it.
Thanks. Yeah this one is doing really well so I’ve got another one planned already. I’ve got a great list of a dozen Run n Gun types that I definitely want to make a video for.
@@ShmupJunkie try: Sengoku 3 Ninja baseball batman Gaia crusaders This 3 are some my favorite obscure hidden gems with ton of gameplay and enemies, you should try them!
Awesome video! I usually roll my eyes at a lot of "hidden gem" type videos but there was some really great stuff here and with the exception of Aliens, I wasn't too familiar with these.
Thanks. Yes, if I'm going to do something called You've Never Played I really mean it. I knew that some veterans or very well versed folks would still know most of them, as some are more obscure than others. But it was a good mix with 2-3 that are truly unknown by almost anyone. The important part is they aren't simply obscure but truly good games that deserve to be played. Aliens was definitely by far the most popular and kind of a crowd pleaser, but I wanted to get it in there as a game that never has and likely never will get a port, ever. So it's something people know but a lot never went out of their way to try emulating. Really glad you enjoyed it.
@@ShmupJunkie Really appreciate your bringing attention to the really obscure ones here. Hopefully these will get a future release (the ones that haven't been) or even maybe I'll check these out on an emulator at some point.
Another fantastic video showcasing some absolute awesome looking games that at the very least I haven't played and in most cases I didn't even know about. Coincidentally I was about to give Over Horizon a go soon. Many thanks and I hope this video gets the many views it deserves.
Another fantastic video duee. Riot, Guardian, and Wolf Fang all look AMAZING! Hoping that some of the games here get a port someday, although I'm not too hopeful sadly
@@ShmupJunkie can you imagine how amazing a Saturn port of Sideline would be? Or even better, for the source code to be released and a source port to be made? 😍
Oh yeah, the NES had some beautiful looking games toward the end. Many of them missed because people were moving on to the next gen. I'll even do an NES themed video one day as it's a very nostalgic console for me. You can bet I'll be doing more of these. I do have a very similar one planned focused on Run N Gun style games with the same theme of finding good ones many people never heard of.
Great video mate. One thing I like about your videos is that I can actually hear the enthusiasm and even passion you have for older games. Some videos by other people can sound a bit rote or even disingenuous, but not you. Anyways, I'm going to try Wolf Fang out now, looks right up my street.
I am doing this for love of the hobby, so if I'm not having fun while seeing so many others enjoying my work, there's really no point in doing it. That'll be the day I do something else. But I don't think I'll ever stop loving them.
Welcome! I’m glad you found me through this. And please do take your time and enjoy some of them. We are always overwhelmed by so many games these days we end up not really digging into any of them. But when you are ready I make a lot of videos that’ll help you discover more. Hope you enjoy those too. The one I made called Best Arcade Exclusives has some killer games too.
Awesome video as usual SJ. I'm going to have to check out Riot, Guardians, Rohga, Sideline, Nitroball, Space Manbow and Over Orizon. So many games... So little time. Aliens is the only game I played from this list and I would love to see it ported to modern consoles. Kudos on the Hudson "game over" audio clip to transition to the next game.
Haha, yes how can I not use that clip in an Aliens vid. Yes, way too many new games and I'm glad you discovered so many on here to try. Sideline is going to be the game almost nobody watching has heard of, but deserves so much more love. I hope people hit the free shmups wiki to try playing it.
Thank you for covering the trilogy of Siter Skain shooters as they really deserve the attention; I discovered these a few years ago on Steam and they really brought me back to the peak era of vertical shoot em ups. All are top-notch but I think that Reflex is my favorite of the three, or the one that I fire up the most. Those games have some sweet and well diversified bosses. With Riot I'm wondering if the developers were inspired by the dynamic action and scenery changes and sudden transitions within levels that Strider was known for. There is a hint of a Forgotten Worlds vibe present there too, even though the game-play is definitely its own thing.
I would've loved to highlight Siter Skain even more or give them their own video, but I didn't want to pass up the chance to show them here to start. I still need to spend a lot more time with Kamui and Reflex as the whole trilogy is on the newer side for me. So once I have a good handle on all of them and played all 3 more extensively, it may be time to highlight each in more detail.
@@ShmupJunkie Sounds like a good plan; they could also be included in a video about modern, indie digital distribution shooters if you want to go that route. That's a big undertaking though since there are so many of them now and of course not console specific. I have an overwhelming amount of shooters on Steam that I won't be able to get to anytime in the near future.
Awesome video, I already have all of the Arcade titles ready to go via Mame, but looking forward to giving the PC-98 emulator a shot (I actually own X68000 and FM Towns hardware, the NEC range was the one I didn’t bother with!) Will check out your other videos!
Awesome, really glad you found it and the channel. You won't see too many old PC-98 games referenced so now you have a reason to grab the emu. Growing up in the US I never knew any of the Japanese computer systems, so it's been a great path of discovery for me the last couple years. I don't own any of that hardware and if I did, I doubt I could get something like the Sharp to even work right. So I'm glad for the solid MiSTer cores being released along with some good emus for it.
It's funny, I discovered Over Horizon because of its soundtrack and not the game itself via Legacy Music Hour. What a gem of a soundtrack. Its on my "to be played" playlist.
Any time I hear familiar NES type chip tunes I immediately get the feels. Something about the instrumentation/sounds used in Over Horizon does it for me and reminds me of other NES games, while being so good on it's own.
Great vid.Glad u pushed the Alltynex trilogy- these games are just legendary.Kamui is probably my fav if I had to choose but there all great.Going to have to check out Guardians!
Heh. Great video. I've seen half of these already because I subscribed to some japanese play-through channels, and even now it amazes me how much gold is out there. You're title is still accurate for me though since I haven't gotten around to playing any of them yet ^^
Yeah, I figure some of the games people may know but just ignored or didn't have time. So I try to highlight them a bit and show why they're worth it. But if you at least found a few new ones too then it was worth it.
Wow this video was frenetic, I was aware of some of the games but not about the first 4 games (RIOT, Guardians, Wolf Gang and Sideline) which was a pleasant surprise. RIOT and Guardians look amazing, it's a shame they flew under the radar but probably they were overshadowed by big the franchises at the time in the 90's, hopefully more people will know about them thanks to your video Junkie.
I think many didn't do well because of bad timing as well. Guardians, RIOT, and many more like it (Elevator Action Returns) just came out too late. So they got passed up. Kind of like how Little Samson is a big deal now, but back then it got ignored and ended up rare. People had moved on to newer consoles etc, or newer genres. But I think there is quite a resurgence now in arcade style games as people slowly get tired of the more modern types. So I'll do my best to help push that resurgence!
I gotta say, this is the first "Games you've never seen" list that lived up to the hype. The only game I had actually played or heard of was Aliens. Well done! Btw, since you grew up in LA, did you ever visit the Galleria Mall in Sherman Oaks? I went there once as a kid and their arcade was insane! It felt like I was in Heaven.
Heck yeah, they both are. Totally different games depending on what you're looking for, whether 8bit NES style or more modern Tatsujin Ou mix, but both are some of the best examples of their type.
Awesome Video one more time !!! 👍👍😀😀 This is a real pleasure everytime to watch your videos 👏👏 Shmup Junkie NUMBER ONE 💪💪 Thanks for this awesome discovery 🙏🙏😀😀
Interesting thing about Sideline, I was just commenting on GameSack's D&D episode, in which they won't cover ANY PC version, as such games were mostly designed for PCs. The DOS and 9x era (Win95 up to XP) got so many unique, and up to this day, locked and exclusives to them, I feel the retro gaming community is being educated solely by console/handheld owners from that time, which is a shame, as the late 80's, 90's and early 00's hold games in all genres, just as great as Sideline. Like you said, a gem no one heard about. Honestly, nostalgia is getting less and less of an influence on this hobby, meaning what we call 'retro', it's mainly about the very subject of this video. Games from our time, we've mostly missed. As a side note, using DOSBox Pure is almost just as simple as loading a Genesis/SNES rom, as this Retroarch core can load the original DOS zipped files and execute them directly, gamepad mappings are also automatic, unless the user wants to customize it, so I believe this is a game that can be played on any handheld/smartphone, Switch, Xbox, PS, Windows, Linux, Mac etc, as long as the system has Retroarch installed.
Absolutely, older 80s/90s PC gaming is very under represented in general. Maybe just less popular so videos don't focus on it as it won't get the views. But only a guess. I played a TON of PC games and was always tinkering and building my various versions. I honestly have forgotten so many games I used to play and wish I didn't, as they're gone forever from my memories and most online accounts. But I clearly recall playing almost all of my D&D and RPG type games on PC, it was simply a better platform for it. For whatever reason, Dosbox Pure gave me issues trying to run Sideline within Retroarch. It was crashing all over the place or cutting out audio etc. Not sure why as I know it works for the most part. But the easy download package from the wiki worked a champ right off the bat. I just had to use Joytokey externally to map my buttons. Maybe if this video helps make Sideline a little more popular someone will figure out how to make it work perfectly through Pure on Retroarch. Or maybe it was just me and my setup. Had no issues running it outside Retroarch though.
@@ShmupJunkie I just tried a zip file from dosgamesarchive and the game didn't crash on DOSBox Pure, I executed the sndsetup.exe and got everything working fine, though I'm not sure if the scrolling could be smoother. I agree that older PC games are mostly uncovered, at least, as far as bigger channels go. But this is the way they lead the herd. Honestly, I don't think PC games are generic as most console fans tend to make it seem so, most of the time, PC versions were superior, specially when it was the target platform, there was a gap in the early 3D era, when the PS1 and Saturn were released, but as 3D cards started popping out from 96 onwards, it never looked back. I've tried the original Mortal Kombat for DOS some time ago, this version is basically the arcade port, specially in the visuals. No other port could touch it, funny how no one talks about it, it's superior, but it's a computer...
we riot is a beautiful game those sprites are amazing, the kevin bacon hair 🤣 your channel is awesome i have to subscribe i essentially turned my xbox into an arcade machine because of you i'm addicted to seeing scores go up
I got to play Flame Zapper Kotsujin at a gaming convention in 2019. There was a room dedicated to obscure computers and this was on the PC-98 they had there.
36:40 Emulated it on a 50 inch TV, spend some time to find shaders that kept it gritty but didn't blow up pixels too much, in the end customized them and added film grain and it looked gorgeous! Why Ripley blonde tho?
You're welcome. I know there is an endless supply of games on our backlog to try, but it's great to discover some we never heard of before. I always do while making these.
Before I played the video, I saw the title, and I though to myself: "I'm a very knowledgeable person about these kind of games, of course I'm going to know all of them. Yes, most people didn't played those, but not me." And then, I saw the video, and I was AMAZED. I only knew two of the games! So, hats off for this great video. I'm so happy to be able to discover new awesome games that I didn't know anything about... Keep up the good work!
I just want to take the time to say that your channel is amazing.
I grew tired of most video game channels on RUclips, but you have something the vast majority of them don't : a true artistic mind. You always go deep into the games you play, your critics are spot on, it feels like you soak up every little detail those games have to offer.
I often feel like people talk about games without actually having taken the time to truly understand their value.
I deeply enjoy your work and just wanted to share some love !
Thank you so much for such a thoughtful comment, it's appreciated. I checked out from general YT long ago for the same reason, as most seems so generic and surface level it feels the equivalent of junk food. And not good junk food at that. I am doing my best to be general enough to appeal to a broader audience and grow (not get super niche), yet dive deep enough into the games and add some sort of value and commentary. It's always a push/pull of how far I can go without getting too deep and alienating parts of the audience, while also making it meaningful. At the end of the day I am just enjoying the hobby and helping get more people into playing these awesome games. And it seems to be working so I'll keep at it long as I can.
@@ShmupJunkie I concur with the above commenter and would like to add that it is immensely refreshing to watch your videos and realize, "hey, this guy actually took the time to play the games enough to understand their mechanics and controls". I was just watching a video by someone else and was screaming at the screen, "No! Hold up and press jump to swing up through the platforms on Bonks Revenge you dimwit!". I realize writing scripts and editing is time consuming, but at least take the time to learn how to play a game before you try to capture some footage people.
An all around outstanding presentation no matter how you approach it! I had absolutely no idea that an arcade beat em up could be so in-depth with the move set play control and mechanics. I've got some work to do finding these games 🤘
@Kevin Happe what you've said sums up in one word: passion.
And Shmup Junkie has it in spades! Others would just list the top 10 shmups of a certain console. The Junkie is passionate enough to review all of them!
@@ShmupJunkie , the PS2 actually had a pretty decent amount of shooters, among them, Contra: Shattered Soldier, Neo Contra, R-Type Final, Raiden III, Castle Shingami 1, Castle Shinigami 2, and tons and tons of arcade shooter ports, especially in Japan, and, more often than not, they were just as good, if not even, gasp, BETTER than their arcade counterparts.
Wolf Fang on the Saturn runs absolutely 100% perfect, there is no slowdown at all. I can confirm having the offical disc playing on real hardware for many years. Even on the hardest difficulty, crazy enemies and bullets on screen it never wavers. I'm assuming this misinformation came from the old post on the Shmups forum? Sadly the game wasn't popular enough for someone to call that guy out on his claim. It's a great game though thank you for spotlighting it, and amazing video as always man! Thanks for all your hard work!!
Hey, thank you so much for pointing that out too, I'm glad you did. I don't own it on Saturn or PS1 and always emulated the arcade, so that's why I kind of prefaced it when I said it. As I honestly couldn't say myself not having played. I may be able to go back and edit that quick cut out of the video with the editor as I'm not a fan of spreading false info. So again, thanks for bringing that up. I'm glad to hear it, as it's not often a game runs a lot slower on Saturn. The main example that comes to mind is In the Hunt. I later learned the arcade version has built in slowdown too, so it could even be the PS1 port just runs faster than it should.
@@ShmupJunkie
Very true, and In the Hunt was clearly due to the boneheads at SIMS doing the Saturn conversion, while the much more talented Xing was responsible for the PS1 conversion.
Also good point on the arcade having slowdown itself, maybe the PS1 port does run too fast then. Perhaps that's where the misinformation spawned from initially. Funny how things like that happen!
10 minutes into the video and that's it. Subscribed.
Epic list !
Welcome! And hey, I hope you enjoy the rest of the games on tap too. I always try uncover actual obscure games like these.
In case anyone doesn’t find Riot or Guardians, I found them by these names:
Kamniari Kishi Riot
Guardians: Denji Makai II
And by the way the first part (Denji Makai) is pretty awesome as well.
Great video!! Thank you very much!! Keep up the good work.
You're welcome. And thanks for the heads up on the names. I didn't have much trouble finding Guardians arcade, but RIOT can easily be heard to find with search results. So that's really helpful.
@@ShmupJunkie like, the very first game you present. It got me real pumped but I couldn't find anything :D I assume you played on MAME?
@@RottenMuLoT Yes there’s really no other way unless you own the PCB.
SideLine was lost for many years, it saw only a limited realease on Poland in the West, and only an obscure demo was out there until 10 years ago. The Spanish magazine Retromaniac talked about it in 2012, making the shmup community curious about that unknown awesome game. Even having only access to the demo, people were so enthusiastic about the game's quality, less than a year later Keitai's Neil Lei arranged an interview between the magazine team and the original lead dev of the game, Jimmy Hwang. He was surprised people loved the game so much, so he granted permission to play and emulate it for free instead taking the opportunity to commercially release it elsewhere.
So, this game reached (god knows how) Spain on a bootleg CD in 1996, and was distributed hand to hand. The memories about that awesome unknown game demo were so strong, 15 years later one of the kids who played it back then wrote a passionate article about it, firing up the shmup community interest, leading to selfless people to find the whole game and reach the original developer, that was happy to allow the game being available again, this time for everyone to enjoy it fully for free.
I really like this little story, it speaks great things about the shmup and retro gaming community.
Here the original article (in Spanish, but auto translation will do):
retromaniacmagazine.blogspot.com/2012/07/side-line-el-matamarcianos-perdido-para.html
and the interview a year later:
retromaniacmagazine.blogspot.com/2013/10/entrevistamos-en-exclusiva-jimmy-hwang.html
Wonderful info, thank you. I only recently read about this and the history on a main page for the game. And I also linked a really good guide for the game in my description. It was too much detail to talk about in the video, but it has a fascinating history. I just really hope that highlighting it here like this brings yet more renewed interest in the game. It's easily accessible on the Free Shmups Wiki so as many people can easily play it as possible. And it certainly deserves it. The game is outstanding.
Dear Sir, your channel is a gold mine. Thank you so much!
You’re welcome 👍🏻. I’m working on many more fun videos like this.
@@ShmupJunkie Great news!
Manbow was the last game Konami did for the MSX, they went through some major internal changes after its release, it was a love letter to the fans and a farewell to the platform where they learned how to make games for a home audience. There would be no Konami on the famicom without the MSX era. The only thing I missed on your text was mentioning how big the MSX was in Brazil as well, since most of us had this platform years before the NES. So it's not wrong to say the MSX was the NES for a big part of the Brazilian audience.
You're completely right about that... sorry for giving Brazil short shrift 😅. When I think MSX, I am always thinking Japan (obviously) and Europe, but really most of the developed world including South America had it. Why it couldn't make an impact in the US is beyond me, but we totally missed out. Manbow really feels like the typical 90s Konami shooter, everything about it. All the intangibles good and bad including the great music. Really miss that vibe they had which really can't be replicated again. I actually learned of Space Manbow late in life too maybe several years ago, and that's being a lover of all things Konami. If it wasn't for the Internet I may have never known it.
Another interesting fact about Manbow: It was supposed to be a MSX port of Thunder Cross. There are lots of similarities between the two games, but I honestly prefer Manbow. The reason why the MSX never made it to the US is a looooong story I can tell you and maybe a good subject for a future video.
Metal Gear 2, SD Snatcher and Quarth were released after Space Manbow. I don't know if they were "Ready" before Manbow, but they definitely were released later.
Konami had an insane output on the MSX. While they did some good and some duds on the NES, I believe they made nearly as many games on the MSX as they did for the NES, but EVERY game they did on the MSX were golden. I can't think of a single bad MSX game from Konami. Even Contra which was totally botched port, I find it to be quite fun to play if you forget it's a Contra game.
@@ShmupJunkie I'm Brazilian and I, my 3 older brothers and dozens of friends never, ever heard about the MSX even on magazines, the Master System was our second big console after the Atari 2600, while the NES was sold in numerous clones. So while Shmups BR makes it seem MSX was huge here, it was probably in his own circle, maybe region. Honestly, I don't feel we have missed anything as kids, we already had better alternatives, as far as price, games library and technical aspects go. This PC could barely play anything smoothly, all scrolling was jerky, even with its improvements over the years, unless the developer knew black magic programming skills. Golvellius, brought to the Master System from the MSX is better in every aspect, visuals, sound, scrolling and controls. I wish I had nostalgia for the MSX, I would have a different opinion, but it's indeed a mediocre machine for games, totally not designed for it. I remember watching a dedicated episode for this computer, it covered dozens of games and that was a pain to watch.
@@rafaellima83 it was their last shooter on MSX though
These are just the kind of games I grew up being addicted to!!! I still remember being 6 and my grandma taking me to a roller rink to teach me how to skate, only for me to get distracted by the giant Metal Slug and X-Men arcade monitors!!! Soooo awesome!!
Funny how things come full circle and the more timeless replayable games have a resurgence in popularity. I play all kinds including modern games, but the arcade style games are what I always keep coming back to. Infinitely replayable for me. Those XMen triple monitor cabinets were cool 😎
Watching your videos is like a flashback to my childhood while playing games in random arcades, smokey bowling alleys or at some random convenience store! Back then you really had to be good at the game, because you would line up your quarters on the arcade cabinet while waiting in line with other gamers. Honing your skills meant longer play time!
Much like yourself I am a retro gamer at heart and anything with pixels I am immediately drawn to it. In my mid-40s now and collecting everything that I wanted and couldn't afford as a child finding such a fantastic comprehensive list like the one you've provided with this video like you said is like finding a pot of gold! Going to find at least 2/3 of the list and give them a try. A fantastic explanation of what the games have to offer with play control and mechanically. Possibly one of the best videos I've seen so far for retro gaming 🤘
Really enjoyed your video and appreciate your hard work. Thank you!
the Aliens game was insane. I used to play it with my two cousins when we walked back from school. Besides what you already said about it, it's also the music and the character walking and firing animation. I never forgot that character walking animation man. It has some kind of "groove" to it that makes moving around more dynamic and encompassing
I know exactly what you mean. And I'm stoked to have a PCB of it these days to play it that way versus on a PC only. Not likely but always wanted to see a home port of it one day.
Yup, I remember it just having this cool vibe to it like you mentioned. I didn't think it was all that obscure. I remember playing it quite a lot at an arcade called "MagicLand" on Portage Ave in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada circa 1990-91 growing up.
@@ShmupJunkie There was actually going to be a Sega Genesis version of the Aliens arcade game back in the early 90s and it was probably going to be Konami's first Sega Genesis game ever.
Thank you for the video! I'm a die-hard shmups fan from the times of ZX Spectrum, and every second of this review is a pleasure :)
Welcome! Sorry for no ZX games this time but I was glad to at least include an MSX and PC98. We didn’t have any of these computers in the US so I have a lot to discover including the Spectrum. I’ve got a good few friends that are big fans of the system being from Europe.
@@ShmupJunkie the best shmup for ZX is still R-Type conversion, but there has been a lot of other obscure and playable shooters as well, some of which are even original, not arcade conversions. Speccy is a hard platform for shmups since it doesn't have hardware scrolling nor sprites, but still there are some gems for the platform. Thanks for what you are doing!
Oh snap wolf and we riot are some really awesome finds! I never heard of them before :-) ha maybe I ll go parasite mode and review one of these on my channel XD
You totally should, whichever games look coolest to you. I'm sure your base would enjoy either one. The controls of Wolf Fang take some getting used to, but it's solid once you get the hang of it. Kind of like Chelnov, the other Data East gem. It's got it's issues to nitpick like most Data East stuff, but when you are constantly experimenting it's bound to happen. What's great about RIOT is how well that foreground shooting mechanic is implemented given the limited buttons. It could've been a good idea but janky, but instead makes the game a much cooler experience than it otherwise would've been. You almost wonder why other games like it didn't copy them afterward.
@@ShmupJunkie we riot is a great find too because the gallery shooter genre has such a limited selection of games, honestly I'm surprised I haven't seen it before!
The breadth of your content and just how much you dig into things may not be for everyone, but for me they're damn near perfect. Really enjoy your channel and feel you do well standing out among the crowd that is retrogaming YT.
Thanks I appreciate that. I really enjoy digging into them deeper than most without going overboard and losing people by getting overly tedious. It's a fine line to walk but I enjoy trying. I'm really happy with how this one came out and so far it's kicking some butt!
This channel has become my Jam, so full of quality and the commentary on these games is so deep, Shmup jumkie seems like such a cool and genuine guy and his love for gaming harkens to that feeling of the 90s and 2000s when people actually became surprised and stood in awe of new games. Congrats for this channel!.
You deserve more subscribers! This is top notch content for retro fans. Two thumbs up!
Thanks! I'm growing fast and doing my best to keep it up. Want to spread the love of the older, arcade style games around. People are getting more and more tired of the aaa stuff and going back to these games. The great ones are just so replayable over the decades.
@@ShmupJunkie I'm just so glad that traditional 2D sprite based games are now back in style and so many good new ones are coming out these days too on platforms like Steam and itch.io. In retrospect it feels like there was a bit of a "lost generation" of gaming that we never really got in the west between the 16-bit consoles and the PSX/N64 era. After the 16-bit era it seems a huge rift opened up between the west and japan with gaming tastes. Unless you were really into the import Saturn scene, new high quality 32-bit 2D pixelart games (shmups, beat-em-ups) kind of disappeared to the western gamer for a long time. I really enjoyed the sort of high-octane 32-bit arcade 2D games of the early 90s like Aliens and was looking forward to that stuff coming out on the forthcoming consoles. Alas, gaming turned almost completely towards slower paced adventure based 3D polygon games and moved away from faster paced but shorter 2D arcade style-gaming. So we never really got a home version of a 32-bit colourful 2D console generation I had been salivating for in the west that would have emulated the experience of the various capcom and konami arcade games of the early 90s. Only now are we really getting that stuff like the new TMNT game, all these various shooters, the great new beat-em-ups, etc.
@@TransCanadaPhil Sony may have played a part in that. They pushed the hell out of 3D and supported that direction quite vehemently. And since they dominated the market at the time I can see why. The N64 went all in with 3D as well so that’s what we got. I didn’t mind it but like many, really wished we got more of that gorgeous 2D style game we know that generation was capable. As opposed to the rudimentary (now kind of butt ugly) polygons that didn’t age well. It took multiple generations and advancements in hardware to reach parity with 2D artwork. At least on console. I tended to use my PC for games that really pushed the 3D envelope. And to run Crysis 😂
Subscribed 😎
@@gamerforever3654 Welcome to the channel 😁.
Amazing to see the Alltynex trilogy getting some love. Giving how much you loved Eschatos and its use of set pieces, I need to say that Reflex is one of the greatest attempts on telling a story only through set pieces and the mechanics (that will change in the final part of the game), without using a single line of text. To have an entire video in the future dedicated to the trilogy, can be nuts. And also great picks for the MS-DOS and PC-98 section! 💟
This is a strong lineup of bangers. There are some I've never heard of due to the platform they were made for, some that I have known about for a few years already and I'm glad to see you covering them (Siter Skain's Alltynex trilogy) and overall, is such a well made, in-depth video.
Thank you. I really enjoy making these type of discovery videos and should do them more often.
As someone who grew up with the NES, Over Horizon blew me away. I had no idea it existed and am stunned TBH. Thanks for presenting it.
Right?! I never played it as a kid either. Too obscure at the time I suppose. I’m glad you discovered it too through this. That and Crisis Force are two I loved once I finally got to play them.
I can only imagine the time it took to make this video. What a roller coaster ride of emotions, from awe to disappointment that I never played them to wondering why they don't make 'em like this anymore.
Thanks! Yes it’s a lot of work but a great experience as I also get to discover new games myself. And in the grand scheme of things compared to those massive 3+ hour videos I’ve done for every mega drive and pc engine shooters reviewed, something under an hour like this almost feels like time off 🤣. Im really enjoying these longer form videos lately.
These games look badass I only ever saw Aliens the rest are new 2 me
Bro, shmups for life! but you doing other genres is absolutely right up my alley. Awesome !
It's rare in this age of easy-access informtation and self-promotion to find someone doing something new and real - actually delivering what's on the title. Amazing video. I learned a ton and had a great time watching this. Sideline and We Riot paricularly blew me away. Great too see BKRoo getting a shout out too! Good stuff as always!
Thanks! A lot of my viewers and subs are very well versed so I go out of my way to provide some really deep cuts and unknown games. A big part of it is having a great community and discord that pitches in for videos like this and helps with some great suggestions. I discover a lot of new myself along the way.
Junike, chalk up another person excited to see Siter Skain games get a mention. I remember importing these from a contact who went to Comiket back in the day. SS's games really impress me and showed what a doujin game could really achieve.
As an honorable mention, another doujin trilogy would be Twinkle Soft's lineup: Rally Raid, Excess Fraction, and Barrage Tribe. They are not quite as good as Siter Skain, but I'll bet most people haven't heard of them.
I'm still discovering so many doujin shmups myself, so you can count me on that list. I'm going to check them out and maybe they can get a mention in a future video. I just hope I got to plug the Alltynex trilogy here in time while it was still on Steam sale. I wanted more people to grab all 3 games to enjoy.
I love these discovery videos! It's so fun to find games that were simply forgotten in gaming history but are still a blast to play! I'm really interested in the Tale of Alltynex pack on Steam, gonna grab right now to check them out :)
I love making these just as much, discovering games myself along the way too. One of my favorite subjects to tackle, so there will likely be similar. I hope that trilogy was still on sale and I wasn't too late with the video.
Great video Junkie. There was a ton of games in there that looked awesome and that I had no idea existed. Thanks this was very informative. Looks like I'll be hitting up mame on my old PC.
You're welcome! And exactly why I love making these aside from just being great to discover new games myself too.
Aliens is an absolute gem on arcade hardware, still a very affordable board to buy as well.
I actually own that board! I sick grabbed it as I loved that old game in arcades and can now play it on my bigger screen using the Supergun.
@@ShmupJunkie scanlines needed in your vids.
@@probe26 I can’t do it. I used to all the time but RUclips ruins it half the time and it ends up looking like an ugly mess. I wish I could as I’ve got a 5x pro and OSSC to make beautiful scanlines, but it they end up compressed for a lot of people. Bummer of quick access lower quality streaming.
@@ShmupJunkie Same here, it's amazing on my Egret II, great vid as usual man!
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Check out the CHAPTER LIST and see if you can guess what some of these games will be as you watch!
CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Discover New Games
01:06 - We RIOT
04:34 - The BEST Beat Em Up You've Never Played
08:21 - Arcade MECHA Action Wolf Fang
13:41 - The BEST PC DOS Shoot Em Up EVER MADE!
19:11 - SmashTV meets PINBALL
21:57 - The BEST KONAMI Shooter You've Never Played
25:53 - The BEST NES Shooter You've Never Even Heard Of
29:04 - The BEST NEC PC-98 Shooter of all Time
32:20 - The KONAMI ALIENS Game that Disappeared
36:56 - The Best DOUJIN SHMUP Trilogy on PC
40:43 - But Wait! There's MORE
Wolf Fang is just simply the tits baby.
Four minutes in and I feel like I NEED to play RIOT like right now! Never heard or seen that game before. Great content Junkie.
Haha, yeah it's that kind of game. Just looking at it makes you want to jump in. That's why I started out with it. Hope you don't have any problems finding it.
Fantastic list, a gem filled with truly obscure titles, unlike many such videos. Personally, knew of all of them apart from SideLine and Riot and so thank you.
You're welcome. And yes, Sideline was going to be a relative unknown for almost everybody and why I was so hot on including it. Such a killer game that's as obscure as they come.
This is a great video, I love your humour (especially calling one of the enemies Kevin Bacon) and the way you analyze the game (such as detailing that Rohga Armor Force has soldiers riding your mech and that even after dead you can still play as the pilot himself).
Also in regards to analysis, the fact you mention that Nitro Ball is short but it can be fun if playing for the score is a good assessment.
I have some suggestions: Please mention the music itself when you do the analysis. One of the best parts in these old games is the fact the music is extremely catchy, as well as the sound.
Also, as much as I like the titles you make, like "We RIOT", the "SmashTV meets PINBALL" was just a bit wrong, I know the title is to the left but the actual name was "Nitro Ball" or even "Gun Ball", maybe some way to mention or add the actual title and the alternative title would be a good idea?
Also, you're one of the very few Arcade players I know that are older than me! Hah, you should take that as a compliment!
Anyway, I really liked this video and I hope to see much more of this quality (or hey, better quality because why not? We always improve no matter what, our age or otherwise, hehe!), you did an excellent job.
What's funny is I wasn't just trying to make up something funny. First time I ever played the game and saw that guy, that's immediately the first thing that came to my mind. Dude, that's Kevin Bacon! I literally can't play the game without thinking it. I actually go way out of my way to talk about the music and play samples all the time in my videos as I'm really big on that. I even did it in this video for all the games I thought had great music like Sideline, Over Horizon, Space Manbow and others. If it doesn't stand out but it's just OK then I don't always mention it. Oh, if you love game music in general, I did a great video called the "The Epic Music of Shoot Em Ups", that's specifically focused on the history and packed with incredible tunes. You'd really like it.
@@ShmupJunkie Kick-arse! I'll check that video you mentioned soon enough. Anyway, I hope you get more of these "You Never Played" series, especially Action RPGs, those are some very rare Arcade games, I remember Cadash being fun if a bit too repetitive.
It's always good to discover a game you missed back in the day only to discover it still holds it's own even in today's standards. Another awesome video by the way!
Thanks. It's a big reason why I love making these videos... even for myself. As I also discover awesome new games in the process. So you can definitely count on plenty more.
@@ShmupJunkie Yes your passion definitely I think is a big reason your channel does so well! I am looking forward to seeing more shmup junkie! 🤣.
I was also happy to see there was some games mentioned that I have enjoyed also like steel empire, altynex second, kamui etc.
Your videos bring back all those nostalgic feelings from back in the day. I Always look forward to your videos to discover new games that have been out for a while to enjoy!! I want to salute you for your work, it is freakin' awesome!!! Thank you!!
Phenomenal Episode! I arrogantly thought I'd know of all these games... But 90% of them were a complete mystery to me! Can't wait to try the J-DOS PC shooter! Thx Shmup Junkie!
You're welcome! When I say "You haven't played" I usually mean it haha. I know not all are super obscure, but I made sure to put some real rare ones in there. The kicker is they are all awesome! And not just random games that people don't know and kinda OK.
Awesome video as always! I still need to play Sideline. I remember it wasn't as easy to run so I gave up back then but need to change that now. Wolf Fang is one of my favourite Data East games. Can get pretty hard in later stages but damn it's so awesome I bought the Saturn port some years ago. Thanks for showing some footage of my Kotsujin gameplay, I knew you'd love it, specially being a Toaplan and Tatsujin fan yourself.
Heck yeah, I owe it to you for introducing me to the game. When it comes to MSX, let alone PC88/98 I'm a complete noob. We just didn't have these systems in the US at all growing up so I am slowly discovering the games. I definitely wanted to use your gameplay for it. I can see it's modeled more after Tatsujin Ou than the original, but it still feels like it's own game. Honestly, Ou has gameplay issues and Flame Zapper is likely the better game from that standpoint alone. It's actually playable for most haha.
What you expect: Six degrees of Kevin Bacon
What Riot throws at you without warning: Six facsimiles of Kevin Bacon, all trying to kill you
Lol, either that or Lion-O. Someone mentioned to me they think it looks like him too... I can see it. But first time I played the game, KB was the first thing that popped in my mind.
Some real gold in this selection and most I’ve never played!
Roit looks a real hoot as does Guardians and Wolf Fang so I’ll be on those for sure.
I’m a massive fan of Aliens and play that loads, real jealous you got to see the studio containing James Cameron directed props.
Thanks for educating me on Nitro Ball as I’ve downloaded this on switch ready to be enjoyed!!
Great video as always man. 💪
You're welcome buddy, glad this one got some more games on your radar to check out. It was a dream visiting that studio and total luck. As it's invite only. We won some Alita sweepstakes before the movie released, and ended up getting to an early screening, as well as a tour of the facility. I have a ton of great photos from that day, it was something else. Cameron doesn't mess around. Everything is life size and engineered like it would actually function in real life.
OMG GUARDIANS is absolutely INSANE!!! I came across that one recently and couldn't believe the gameplay. I've seen Rogha Armor Force and Aliens as well (also great games). The DOUJIN trilogy is on another level for shoot 'em ups, too. I WISH we could get a proper update for Kamui. It's CRAZY how good that came is and I can't for the life of me understand why it hasn't gotten updated yet.
As usual introduced me to some other great ones and I'm loving it, man.
Keep it coming!!!
What are the main updates we're still waiting on with Kamui? I have it on Steam and it looks and plays great, so I'm kind of out of the loop. Was it supposed to get a remaster of some kind?
@@ShmupJunkie Not to my knowledge. It just doesn't run in proper full screen and the scaling is limited to 800x600. I don't suppose you know how to fix that, do you? To my knowledge there's no patch for this. =[
@@RockyVegaTV Not on Steam I think because it’s locked down by the app most likely. I also own the original pc version which gives me a lot more flexibility to play with the resolution via third party apps. Though I haven’t really tried yet.
Amazing content junkie. Keep it up!
Finally Denjin Makai 2 gets some love thank you!! Had the PCB for years and have never been able to understand why no one ever talks about such a great beat-em-up. One of the very best imo.
It was about damn time right? It was pretty random too, as I was watching the 1CC by Iconoclast the other day and just marveling how deep it is. And I just knew I had to include and feature it in the video.
@@ShmupJunkie absolutely time. Hopefully more people will find it and enjoy it now. The original Denjin Makai/ Ghost chaser was no slouch and got a solid port on the snes. Again same deal. One of the snes' better beat-em-up's and rarely gets a mention. Some great games on this and I'm only halfway!
Ok finished it and thank you for another incredible vid. Dead jealous of the LA Aliens trip. Aliens is tied with RoboCop as my number one favourite movie so would have loved to have seen those props. Still fortunate enough to have got the PCBs for both knocking around so now need to go get my supergun out and do exactly what you said!
I've been looking for some good DOS shmups to play on my old Win95 laptop and ended up finding lots of euro shmups and mediocre (at best...) arcade ports that are often barely playable because of busted controls, and then your video popped up just in time - thanks for letting me know about Sideline! This shmup looks just like it was taken straight from Sega Mega Drive, definitely gonna download this and put it on a CD to play on my old PC (which by the way does not have a USB port xD).
No kidding on Sideline. How does possibly the best shmup ever made for DOS end up this obscure and unknown. I hope you enjoy it. Even moreso, I hope the video helps spread the word on this great game.
OMG SIDELINE! I did a video of that a long time ago. I don't even remember how I heard about it at the time but it blew my damn mind. An absolute gem of a shmup. Someone needs to find who owns the rights to that and get it on modern systems so more people can easily play it.
As for the rest of the list, I'm firing up my Legends Ultimate to try some of them right now! Great finds and a great video as always dude!
You're one of the very few people that knew of Sideline. I know they officially made it free for all, so I doubt it'll ever release on other platforms now. Would love to see it given it;s so good. But seems someone like M2 or similar would have to take an interest, as porting it would be no small feat being a DOS game.
I've spent about 3 hours trying to figure out dosbox to play this. Argh!!!!!
@@MrPippet1 Don’t waste all that precious time. Download it from the free shmup wiki. The package is ready to go and just works. Simply change the one line in the config file to the path where you installed it. And it just runs. Otherwise it’s a big pain in the ass
Yeah...I did download that package. Couldn't get it to run. It's my fault....can't figure it out. I followed the instructions on their website too. Did you launch it from within dosbox?
Still watching the video, but bro I gotta ask, where did you get that amazing T-shirt?
Haha my ShmupsareShooters shirt? That's my own hashtag and design from years ago (the wife made the design actually). At first it was just a one off my wife made me to use on my channel to wear, but enough people asked about it to where I put it up on my merch store. So if you really want one I actually have it for sale now. But originally it was just an old hashtag we created on Instagram that blew up (has like 5000+ posts now) and I was just wearing for myself.
@@ShmupJunkie Sounds good! I'm pretty sure I'll end up ordering it :Dl
Manbow is badass man, glad you mentioned it! One of my top 8bit soundtracks it's incredibly good. Good game too no doubt but not my top Konami. Another must watch video as always buddy I can't get enough watching these
Awesome stuff man. I can’t say why I love this video but I really enjoyed it a lot.
Keep it up!
I look forward to seeing more of you stuff.
Thank you. I also really enjoy discovery videos like this and helping people find great new games. It's fun to focus on just the games themselves and make fun segments highlighting each.
Awesome list !!! Love a good showcase !!!
Well done, I've not heard of a single one of these … including the Aliens one. I always just focused on AvP and it was the main reason I set up MAME back in the day. I no longer have the equipment to play emulation though. Great vid.
That's awesome! I was hesitant on the Aliens pick at first because it really was popular then, but now I feel it's not well known enough. AvP does get all the press and that Aliens game is kind of forgotten, but it was so good. And the chance of it ever getting a port is likely much smaller than even AvP.
Great video, like always. I thought I knew every cool MAME game out there, then you showed this crazy Riot game I completely miss. What a finding, thank you!
You are the one person watching this video that knew about Sideline, but hadn't ever seen RIOT before haha. Yes, that game is pretty obscure too despite how cool it is. And not like NMK is an unknown developer. I'm glad even you were able to discover something new with this.
@@ShmupJunkie yeah hahaha, I guess I saw the snapshot of the game at some point and didn't look like something special to me so, I skipped it completely. Boy was I wrong. I played it a little bit yesterday, and it's a blast, loved the over the top madness, and it plays quite well.
I discovered SideLine years ago thanks to FranfikiYT, another shmup enthusiast, and was surprised by the story behind it.
Great video man! Make this a series, where you show us underrated and hidden gems, keep doing the great work!
Thanks. Yeah this one is doing really well so I’ve got another one planned already. I’ve got a great list of a dozen Run n Gun types that I definitely want to make a video for.
@@ShmupJunkie try:
Sengoku 3
Ninja baseball batman
Gaia crusaders
This 3 are some my favorite obscure hidden gems with ton of gameplay and enemies, you should try them!
I've immediately fallen in love with Rohga/wolf fang, and Sideline. Please do more reviews, I love them.
Thanks for this video.
That was an awesome episode!❤
Awesome video! I usually roll my eyes at a lot of "hidden gem" type videos but there was some really great stuff here and with the exception of Aliens, I wasn't too familiar with these.
Thanks. Yes, if I'm going to do something called You've Never Played I really mean it. I knew that some veterans or very well versed folks would still know most of them, as some are more obscure than others. But it was a good mix with 2-3 that are truly unknown by almost anyone. The important part is they aren't simply obscure but truly good games that deserve to be played. Aliens was definitely by far the most popular and kind of a crowd pleaser, but I wanted to get it in there as a game that never has and likely never will get a port, ever. So it's something people know but a lot never went out of their way to try emulating. Really glad you enjoyed it.
@@ShmupJunkie Really appreciate your bringing attention to the really obscure ones here. Hopefully these will get a future release (the ones that haven't been) or even maybe I'll check these out on an emulator at some point.
Another fantastic video showcasing some absolute awesome looking games that at the very least I haven't played and in most cases I didn't even know about. Coincidentally I was about to give Over Horizon a go soon. Many thanks and I hope this video gets the many views it deserves.
Thanks! Really glad you found some more to try. And yeah, so far this video is off to a really good start. Fingers crossed it keeps up the momentum.
Another fantastic video duee. Riot, Guardian, and Wolf Fang all look AMAZING! Hoping that some of the games here get a port someday, although I'm not too hopeful sadly
This was a tremendously entertaining video. I truly had not heard about some of these. Amazing work! 👏🏻👏🏻💪🏻💪🏻
Thanks! I really did mean to find games many wouldn’t have known. Some I even discovered myself while making this.
@@ShmupJunkie can you imagine how amazing a Saturn port of Sideline would be? Or even better, for the source code to be released and a source port to be made? 😍
SmashTV meets Pinball? That is something i never heard of and Nitroball looks like a fun arcade game. Thanks for your recommendation
Excellent video as usual my dude! Gave me some cabinets/ roms to chase down
These are my favorite types of videos, I had no idea the NES was capable of something like Over Horizon, for example. I hope you make more of these!
Oh yeah, the NES had some beautiful looking games toward the end. Many of them missed because people were moving on to the next gen. I'll even do an NES themed video one day as it's a very nostalgic console for me. You can bet I'll be doing more of these. I do have a very similar one planned focused on Run N Gun style games with the same theme of finding good ones many people never heard of.
Great video mate. One thing I like about your videos is that I can actually hear the enthusiasm and even passion you have for older games. Some videos by other people can sound a bit rote or even disingenuous, but not you. Anyways, I'm going to try Wolf Fang out now, looks right up my street.
I am doing this for love of the hobby, so if I'm not having fun while seeing so many others enjoying my work, there's really no point in doing it. That'll be the day I do something else. But I don't think I'll ever stop loving them.
Solid list! Only played few of these on the list, so have games to dig up to try!
Denjin Makai! Always good to see a criminally underappreciated series get some love like that.
SHMUP JUNKIE SUNDAY COMMENCE!!!!!! Edit: awesome vid!!!! The beatemup has to get played ASAP...
Hell yeah! Let’s Go!
Tack!
Great presentation that also provides a brief review of each game.
Thank you for sharing these! More power to you man!
Great Video! I thought i knew games but ive never heard of any of these and i want to play them all! Subscribed!
Welcome! I’m glad you found me through this. And please do take your time and enjoy some of them. We are always overwhelmed by so many games these days we end up not really digging into any of them. But when you are ready I make a lot of videos that’ll help you discover more. Hope you enjoy those too. The one I made called Best Arcade Exclusives has some killer games too.
@@ShmupJunkie thanks! I definitely will check out that video and i saw some others i want to watch.
Love your stuff man, thanks for the new awesome games to play
You're welcome! I even discovered some new games myself in the process.
Awesome video as usual SJ. I'm going to have to check out Riot, Guardians, Rohga, Sideline, Nitroball, Space Manbow and Over Orizon. So many games... So little time.
Aliens is the only game I played from this list and I would love to see it ported to modern consoles. Kudos on the Hudson "game over" audio clip to transition to the next game.
Haha, yes how can I not use that clip in an Aliens vid. Yes, way too many new games and I'm glad you discovered so many on here to try. Sideline is going to be the game almost nobody watching has heard of, but deserves so much more love. I hope people hit the free shmups wiki to try playing it.
I remember playing a ton of games made by DataEast back in the day.
Excellent video as usual!
Thanks! To this day I am still discovering crazy Data East games I didn't know about. Some of them are just so wild it's hard to categorize.
Thank you for covering the trilogy of Siter Skain shooters as they really deserve the attention; I discovered these a few years ago on Steam and they really brought me back to the peak era of vertical shoot em ups. All are top-notch but I think that Reflex is my favorite of the three, or the one that I fire up the most. Those games have some sweet and well diversified bosses.
With Riot I'm wondering if the developers were inspired by the dynamic action and scenery changes and sudden transitions within levels that Strider was known for. There is a hint of a Forgotten Worlds vibe present there too, even though the game-play is definitely its own thing.
I would've loved to highlight Siter Skain even more or give them their own video, but I didn't want to pass up the chance to show them here to start. I still need to spend a lot more time with Kamui and Reflex as the whole trilogy is on the newer side for me. So once I have a good handle on all of them and played all 3 more extensively, it may be time to highlight each in more detail.
@@ShmupJunkie Sounds like a good plan; they could also be included in a video about modern, indie digital distribution shooters if you want to go that route. That's a big undertaking though since there are so many of them now and of course not console specific. I have an overwhelming amount of shooters on Steam that I won't be able to get to anytime in the near future.
love your content, you have revived my love for old school arcade fun
Thanks! I'm having such a good time making these and glad it's getting others playing them again too.
Another great video, I expected nothing less from You. Gracias amigou.
De nada buddy, glad you enjoyed it. I love making them.
Another banger your vids just keep getting better it's always worth the wait thanks man 🙂
Thanks! I am always trying to improve little things with every one.
Awesome video, I already have all of the Arcade titles ready to go via Mame, but looking forward to giving the PC-98 emulator a shot (I actually own X68000 and FM Towns hardware, the NEC range was the one I didn’t bother with!) Will check out your other videos!
Awesome, really glad you found it and the channel. You won't see too many old PC-98 games referenced so now you have a reason to grab the emu. Growing up in the US I never knew any of the Japanese computer systems, so it's been a great path of discovery for me the last couple years. I don't own any of that hardware and if I did, I doubt I could get something like the Sharp to even work right. So I'm glad for the solid MiSTer cores being released along with some good emus for it.
Love these kind of videos. Guardians looks awesome. I will be checking that one out.
It's funny, I discovered Over Horizon because of its soundtrack and not the game itself via Legacy Music Hour. What a gem of a soundtrack. Its on my "to be played" playlist.
Any time I hear familiar NES type chip tunes I immediately get the feels. Something about the instrumentation/sounds used in Over Horizon does it for me and reminds me of other NES games, while being so good on it's own.
Great vid.Glad u pushed the Alltynex trilogy- these games are just legendary.Kamui is probably my fav if I had to choose but there all great.Going to have to check out Guardians!
Heck yeah, and I can't believe it's 10 bucks right now on Steam for all 3 games. I sick grabbed it even though I own them all on PC physical.
Heh. Great video. I've seen half of these already because I subscribed to some japanese play-through channels, and even now it amazes me how much gold is out there. You're title is still accurate for me though since I haven't gotten around to playing any of them yet ^^
Yeah, I figure some of the games people may know but just ignored or didn't have time. So I try to highlight them a bit and show why they're worth it. But if you at least found a few new ones too then it was worth it.
Just discovered your channel and I just LOVE how detailed these reviews are! Keep up the awesome work!
Welcome! Glad you found me and hope you enjoy the other vids like this one. This series has been popular so I definitely plan to make more.
@@ShmupJunkie 🤘😁
Wow this video was frenetic, I was aware of some of the games but not about the first 4 games (RIOT, Guardians, Wolf Gang and Sideline) which was a pleasant surprise. RIOT and Guardians look amazing, it's a shame they flew under the radar but probably they were overshadowed by big the franchises at the time in the 90's, hopefully more people will know about them thanks to your video Junkie.
I think many didn't do well because of bad timing as well. Guardians, RIOT, and many more like it (Elevator Action Returns) just came out too late. So they got passed up. Kind of like how Little Samson is a big deal now, but back then it got ignored and ended up rare. People had moved on to newer consoles etc, or newer genres. But I think there is quite a resurgence now in arcade style games as people slowly get tired of the more modern types. So I'll do my best to help push that resurgence!
I gotta say, this is the first "Games you've never seen" list that lived up to the hype. The only game I had actually played or heard of was Aliens. Well done!
Btw, since you grew up in LA, did you ever visit the Galleria Mall in Sherman Oaks? I went there once as a kid and their arcade was insane! It felt like I was in Heaven.
Great video! Picking up Nitroball this friday, and wishlisted Allytnex trilogy.
Sweet. Sorry this video missed the sale on the trilogy, it was only 10 bucks for all 3 while I was working on it.
@@ShmupJunkie No worries! I went on the sale tracker and they seem to put them up for sale pretty often :D
Over Horizin and Flame Zapper look incredible. Another great video, got some new games to try out now
Heck yeah, they both are. Totally different games depending on what you're looking for, whether 8bit NES style or more modern Tatsujin Ou mix, but both are some of the best examples of their type.
Well made video that surprized me with these cool arcade games. All your video are very fun n interesting to watch
Thank you. I really enjoy making them so glad you did.
Very cool! Always great to find more retro games i never heard of to check out!
And I'm always happy to find more for you discover. Glad to see your here and hope the game is still coming along well.
@@ShmupJunkie Thanks! The game is coming along. getting much closer to wrapping things up and cant wait to see it get released.
Bow Bow Bow, what a list. Never knew about Alltinex and it looks incredible plus Guardians blew me away.
Stoked to hear it! And Alltynex trilogy is pretty cheap on Steam. Can’t go wrong with any of those three games.
Another great video, Junkie! Even brought a few new games to my attention.
Thanks! I love making these as I discover new games myself. A couple here I didn't know about either and was glad to play them for the first time.
Man I’m so impressed by some of the visuals of these games, incredible!
Nothing more beautiful than old school pixel art and sprites. Love the artistry that was involved in bringing the games to life.
AMAZING video per usual, and I clearly need to play Guardians in the future! Cheers and rock on!
Awesome Video one more time !!!
👍👍😀😀
This is a real pleasure everytime to watch your videos 👏👏
Shmup Junkie NUMBER ONE 💪💪
Thanks for this awesome discovery 🙏🙏😀😀
You're welcome! These discovery type videos are some of my favorite to make.
👍👍😄😄
Interesting thing about Sideline, I was just commenting on GameSack's D&D episode, in which they won't cover ANY PC version, as such games were mostly designed for PCs. The DOS and 9x era (Win95 up to XP) got so many unique, and up to this day, locked and exclusives to them, I feel the retro gaming community is being educated solely by console/handheld owners from that time, which is a shame, as the late 80's, 90's and early 00's hold games in all genres, just as great as Sideline. Like you said, a gem no one heard about.
Honestly, nostalgia is getting less and less of an influence on this hobby, meaning what we call 'retro', it's mainly about the very subject of this video. Games from our time, we've mostly missed.
As a side note, using DOSBox Pure is almost just as simple as loading a Genesis/SNES rom, as this Retroarch core can load the original DOS zipped files and execute them directly, gamepad mappings are also automatic, unless the user wants to customize it, so I believe this is a game that can be played on any handheld/smartphone, Switch, Xbox, PS, Windows, Linux, Mac etc, as long as the system has Retroarch installed.
Absolutely, older 80s/90s PC gaming is very under represented in general. Maybe just less popular so videos don't focus on it as it won't get the views. But only a guess. I played a TON of PC games and was always tinkering and building my various versions. I honestly have forgotten so many games I used to play and wish I didn't, as they're gone forever from my memories and most online accounts. But I clearly recall playing almost all of my D&D and RPG type games on PC, it was simply a better platform for it. For whatever reason, Dosbox Pure gave me issues trying to run Sideline within Retroarch. It was crashing all over the place or cutting out audio etc. Not sure why as I know it works for the most part. But the easy download package from the wiki worked a champ right off the bat. I just had to use Joytokey externally to map my buttons. Maybe if this video helps make Sideline a little more popular someone will figure out how to make it work perfectly through Pure on Retroarch. Or maybe it was just me and my setup. Had no issues running it outside Retroarch though.
@@ShmupJunkie I just tried a zip file from dosgamesarchive and the game didn't crash on DOSBox Pure, I executed the sndsetup.exe and got everything working fine, though I'm not sure if the scrolling could be smoother.
I agree that older PC games are mostly uncovered, at least, as far as bigger channels go. But this is the way they lead the herd. Honestly, I don't think PC games are generic as most console fans tend to make it seem so, most of the time, PC versions were superior, specially when it was the target platform, there was a gap in the early 3D era, when the PS1 and Saturn were released, but as 3D cards started popping out from 96 onwards, it never looked back.
I've tried the original Mortal Kombat for DOS some time ago, this version is basically the arcade port, specially in the visuals. No other port could touch it, funny how no one talks about it, it's superior, but it's a computer...
RefleX is one my best favourite doujin shmup alongside with Hellsinker, Ether Vapor and Trouble Witches
so many great arcade games I now have to check out this was awesome smashing the like
we riot is a beautiful game those sprites are amazing, the kevin bacon hair 🤣 your channel is awesome i have to subscribe i essentially turned my xbox into an arcade machine because of you i'm addicted to seeing scores go up
I got to play Flame Zapper Kotsujin at a gaming convention in 2019. There was a room dedicated to obscure computers and this was on the PC-98 they had there.
love watching your content..been back watching the vids its awesome...love trying these games on my anbernic device...
36:40 Emulated it on a 50 inch TV, spend some time to find shaders that kept it gritty but didn't blow up pixels too much, in the end customized them and added film grain and it looked gorgeous! Why Ripley blonde tho?
Again.... thank you. I've got my week planned. Thanks junkie!
You're welcome. I know there is an endless supply of games on our backlog to try, but it's great to discover some we never heard of before. I always do while making these.
Wow, you just found the beat 'em up that I've always dreamed of 🤯