What are the Best FREE Shoot Em Ups you can play right now? My 12 picks for must free-to-play games and some are so good, you won't believe they're free. Check them out in the video, then head over to the free-to-play shmups wiki here and try them out: shmups.wiki/library/Free_to_Play And if you see any good ones missing, please contribute and add to the list! ✅ Subscribe To My Channel ➡️ Support me on PATREON www.patreon.com/shmupjunkieslushfund HUGE thanks to HAUSER, who came up with the idea of creating this Free Shmups Wiki, and all the other awesome community members who have been contributing and compiled over 200 games. And none of it would be possible without Charlene (CHA-STG) for maintaining the overall Shmups Wiki for the community. The main page is here: shmups.wiki/library/Main_Page and you can follow her on Twitter here: twitter.com/CHARLENEMAXIMUM CHAPTERS 00:00 - Timmay wants Flappy Bird 00:23 - Celebrating FREE Shoot Em Ups 01:44 - Kaikan 05:33 - Cho Ren Sha 68K 08:26 - Blue Wish Resurrection Plus 11:19 - Spolous if you love Gradius 13:27 - Hydorah by Locomalito 16:26 - Paro Paro if you love Parodius 18:57 - Warning Forever 21:29 - The Flying Pancake Space Octopus in a Black Hole 25:17 - Mecha Ritz for that Mega Drive sound 27:36 - Radio Zonde "Hardest Shmup Ever?" 30:21 - Bike Banditz 33:11 - XOP Black Ultra 36:17 - Even more Shmups! All of these great Shmups are FREE and linked in the Free to Play Shmups Wiki, so check them out and enjoy.
@@AstarOfDavid really? Oh yeah of course. If you use discord you can use this link to DM me there. discord.gg/xeqcfSBf. Or email shmupjunkie@gmail.com I’ll get it there. That sounds intriguing!
Of course man, every chance I get. I hope some people go check out your very good longer reviews of those two games. I just barely scratched the surface.
Man this was a SHMUP video we definitely needed. Not just boasting about "Free" games but giving them the well deserve praise and promotions. Gotta say I watched the whole thing (along with 2 beers) and enjoyed every minute. I already downloaded 3 of them!!!
That’s awesome man I love hearing that. It was the community that made it happen and I did my part to get it out there and generate some hype. Now anytime you or others need a break from the wallet busters this will be there and growing. I’d be downloading even more to try now if I wasn’t busy grinding the next video. But when I get free time I’m on it!
What a great public service, I don't think I'd heard of a single one of these before this past week. Great job demonstrating them too, seeing the R-Type Walrus sold Paro Paro for me and I will definitely be checking it out. Really cool to see the community come together and compile this list of games, many of which may have been lost to time otherwise.
I really couldn't have even done this video without the discord and the group this time. I didn't have a lot of experience with most of these free games except for the big names, and wouldn't have known where to start. Everyone else did the legwork and my job was to get it some exposure. So I hope it does well long term and the games live on for the foreseeable future. I didn't expect some of these games to be as great as they were either.
Making these videos means I am never bored either ahaha. But seriously thanks and I'm glad it's so useful for you. With that free shmups wiki we've all got enough to play on no budget for a long time.
Glad to see you included Warning Forever, it's underrated. Also, thanks for mentioning the music thing! I completely forgot to mention that, when I covered it on my podcast a couple years ago, so I'm glad you included that tidbit. A couple of the games you mentioned haven't crossed my radar yet, and Paro Paro looks awesome! Will have to give that a go.
It's a pretty cool touch to use whatever you want and it makes total sense for that game in particular. To be able to change it up too if you are replaying it a lot. Definitely give Paro Paro a go later it's so well made and could easily be mistaken for a Parodius entry. And in 2021 no less it's brand spanking new.
Considering I have probably bought $300 worth of games in the last few days by binging your channel, this was a really nice change of pace :) also with so many free games in the wiki, I can't help but think there must be many more good ones. So I would love for you to do a follow up series, or even make this a regular as long as you can find a good feed of games say a monthly video for "Top 5 Free Games" and if material gets thin, maybe throw a demo or something in there.
Glad you found this as yes, the Free Shmups Wiki is an awesome resource. There’s hundreds of games there and many very good. I can barely keep up producing a video or two every month with my schedule so a regular Free Shmups episode wouldn’t likely happen until the cloning machines come back in stock at Amazon. Been back ordered for years 🤣. But seriously I try to push good ones every chance I get into other videos I do. In fact this next one coming up called Best Action Games you never played has a completely amazing one that’s from the Free Shmups Wiki. I don’t want to give it away because it’s going to blow people away it exists and they never heard of it. A PC DOS game that time forgot and is actually the best PC based shooter I think I’ve ever played. I’m excited to show it either this Sunday or next soon as it’s done.
When I discovered Super Hydorah on the switch I was blown away by how good it is. The music for that worm stage is so bizarrely awesome! Keep up the good work, your content is S tier!
I think all of Locomalito's games are pretty much top tier and he certainly deserves some compensation, so I'm glad to see Super Hydorah do well on Switch and some paid platforms. Even the early free version here is a complete, top tier 16bit style shooter and I really dug it.
Speaking of music themes that’s the video I’m working on next, the music of shoot em ups. No doubt something from all three of these games will be in there.
Really is so so good. One of many Sharp 68K games I never knew or played until more recently. That Mister core coming for the Sharp and being able to play some of the rare, killer shooters on that system is going to be a dream come true.
@@ShmupJunkie By the way, why wait for x68k, when the author himself made a great windows port long time ago? Sure, it was a great technical achievement for aging x68k, but.. Edit: Oops, sorry. You are talking about other shooters that weren’t ported..
Very nice video, thanks, I was looking forward to it. Don't hesitate to propose even more of these... There are so many, one could never find the good ones by trying them one by one, so it's very useful. More beginner shmups video would be a treat too. What about video about shmups on steam, as they are easy to grab? Keep on the good work, I really like your content.
If this video does well and there is demand for more, I will certainly make more you can count on it. There are so many great free games it's impossible to cover enough of them. I did try a few Steam games this time, but they didn't quite make the list. Like tadpole tales which seemed well made but very short and simplistic. Free Steam games is definitely something there is lots of interest in.
Great recent vid you did with Electric Underground. I downloaded all 229 shooters off that page, and last month played through about 60 of them, tried maybe 170 so far. Great list. Really appreciate the resource.
I was and still am in many ways a total noob to a lot of free to play games. So this was a great experience for me, playing so many and putting this together. Even I didn't realize how good so many of these games are.
Dude, I really love your content. Quite a few times I subbed to a gaming channel when they had a few k subscribers and then happily watched them blow up to 100k or more. I really hope you get there because I could say you're next level, God tier, or whatever, and it's all true. I just want many many others to see what your fans see in you, I hope you rule the world one day. You give me that watching a great gaming channel in their prime feeling, very few channels make me feel that way in 2021.
I’d love nothing more than to blow up as it’d mean shmups are getting a ton more attention than any time in recent memory. That and I’d be able to justify keeping at it for a long time with it being more sustainable to put so much time into it. For now I’m just having a great time making them and really glad to hear you and others enjoying them so much.
I played a ton of shoot-Em-ups on the Genesis/Megadrive and in the arcades, and always preferred them. Thanks for giving me dozens of new, free, excellent games
You’re welcome! And the free wiki has really grown with a ton more games in there. Of course not every game is gold, but it’s amazing how good some of them are. Better than many paid games out there and some outstanding. I’m glad I could get more of these games played and enjoyed.
I actually remember buying a boxed copy of Bike Banditz over a decade and a half ago at an anime convention and being blown away about how much fun the game was. I was obsessed with shooters ever since, especially small projects like that one!
It may be part of why it’s been taken down from the free wiki. It’s easily found of course but it wasn’t always free or meant to be. It’s certainly a fantastic game.
Great video! There are so many games that I want to play here and so few time after work to play... But really, these games look much more polished than many commercial games out there.
I'm happy to see Kaikan in there, I first played that in a score tournament a bunch of years back and absolutely fell in love with it. It's got my #1 favorite scoring system in the genre, it's like Battle Garegga trick bombing and medal chaining on crack with just the right amount of canceling
I put that game up front because of how much damn fun it was. Just blew me away. And I haven't even really scratched the surface of it and just played for survival a few times. They made a hell of a fun game that I'll be playing again a hundred percent. I'd read the music was taken from free to use sources which is pretty crazy too, as I thought it suited the game so well and they all worked.
It looks great at least. Does it have ranking difficulty/suiciding like Garegga? I never truly understood Ikeda's signature rank system... I'm too stupid for it.🤦♂
im amazed at the quality on those they all seem like such great games. i specially liked paro paro as i like the parodius asthetic and how well drawn it all is
It could absolutely be a brand new official Parodius game and had it been marketed that way, I bet anyone would believe it. I didn't realize until later how recent it was just coming out this year!
You got me at Spolous and Hydora, wow!! Wonderful video and recommendations my friend, I am absolutely hyped!! Fantastic opening with Kaiken, Biker Bandits near the end and Paro Paro in between was brilliant!! “I love Parodius” in that stage was the highlight of this sunday!! 👍🏻👍🏻 congrats once again!
I'm glad you enjoyed it so much my friend and I know you will enjoy them. All three, Spolous, Hydorah and Paro are great games and feel like Gradius classic. Modern and well made. It's crazy they are free. Once I am done with Hydorah I will likely buy Super Hydorah and play that too, to support the developer. His games are fantastic. He also made a ghosts n goblins style game called cursed castilla that is excellent.
Nice video, some awesome entries here! I never heard of Kaikan before, I'll definitely give it a try! Isn't it amazing that some free games show a level of quality that surpasses some commercial releases (not making a stealthy reference to R-Type Final 2, of course not!)?
hahaha, nooo of course not. But without a doubt, in terms of stage and game design, some of these games certainly surpass it among other even better games. They're just that good. I wasn't expecting Kaikan to be my favorite to replay of the bunch going in, but there it is.
Oooooh baby! We are gaming tonight! I never knew about any of these so thank you for spreading them to a wider audience. Great video and an early congratulations on the 10k (I am sure you will get it in the next day or two haha)
Haha thanks, hopefully I get there soon too in a week or less. Will see how the algo treats me and this last video. You really have some awesome gaming ahead if you've never played any of these. Some are just absolute bangers and full games you could spend plenty of time on. I'll be going back myself to the last few I didn't finish yet either to seem them through.
Thanks for bringing some of these awesome shmups to my attention. You're so right about Kaikan.. that game is almost impossible to stop playing once you get started!
Spectacular video, as always. The ones I liked best are Kaikan, Blue Wish Resurrection Plus, Paro Paro and Bike Bandits (I already knew Cho Ren Sha 68k). I really wish some of these were ported to consoles, that would be amazing.
The problem with free games on paid consoles is they can’t sell it and profit from freeware. Probably why you never see it. A collection like that portable on switch would be amazingly cool.
@@ShmupJunkie good point. I was just basing myself on the amazing Megadrive conversion of the original Cave Story, but it IS an exception rather than the rule.
@@Myako It’s the same reason Capcom had to emulate their own sound for the latest stadium as the MAME emulation they are using has a license free audio implementation. So it can be used freely but never charged for. So oddly it ends up worse on the Capcom release then if used on MAME.
This is the second time I view this video man, it would be so awesome that you make more reviews of free shmups games! thankss a lot for the awesome content!
You're welcome. At least the wiki is there for now to look up new free shmups to play. I am going to show a new game in my next video that is free called Zakesta. Very cool new game and also now listed on the free shmups wiki.
Thanks for your work bro! This is great seeing as how I really don't have money to dump on games for a while. There's a few here I haven't heard of at all. I think I'll start with warning forever. What a great concept.
I think a lot of folks wallets needed a break after all the game hyping lately and new releases. So this was perfect for everyone not up for buying right now but wanting something new. You'll definitely find games to love in here, some are awesome.
Colonel Campbell from Metal Gear Solid told me that if you want to continue on Biker Banditz, you should press the continue button. I hope this information is useful, lol. Again thanks for another great video.
haha, yeah me goofing around in photoshop one evening. Maybe I'll use it for a while at the end of videos. Next step editing it so the ships are slowly flying outward
Amazing video! I have played Blue Wish the last souple of days and was looking for some more indie shooters. Kaikan, Spolous, Radio Zonde and Bike Banditz looked especially intriguing :)
Wow, didn't knew that there were so many good and free shmups out there! Really nice presentation! I recently made a "Cho Ren Sha 68K" video... played on my Atari Falcon 030! 😃
So a great free shumps video for people who want to discover new games after finishing all traditional arcade shumps games!!!! Thanks so much. You have a new follower for that.!!!! 😁👍 Kiss from France...
I'm behind on everything but finally was able to sit down and watch this. Just awesome dude. Need to download some of these and check them out. Specially the Gradius looking ones 🥰
What a sick video! Paro Paro and Bike Banditz look right up my alley. Go ahead and give me some time to play these games then make a sequel video please!
Can’t go wrong with either one they’re both easy to get into and fun. Who knows how many more games the wiki will have by the time I make another one of these. It’s already over 200 games I think.
Fantastic video as usual! Would love to see more videos like this, there's just so much good stuff out there. One game I'd definitely recommend checking out is VASTYNEX, from the same dev as Kaikan. It's a massive love letter to 16-bit shmups (especially Thunder Force) and has an *incredible* soundtrack (which, fun fact, is somehow all just royalty-free stuff?? Same goes for Kaikan and like a million other freeware shmups, by the way).
hahaha, I didn't think about that. I need to be careful using that transition effect it does look like your phone screwed up on you. Hydorah is brilliant you won't regret it. And the game is free, insane.
Oh I know it, I've had several new subs come in saying bithead sent me. That was more than a shout out, it was insane I'm still kind of shocked by it. Been following him for over a couple years now and it was really cool of him.
Wow, this was an amazing video (with equally awesome links!) That's very cool of you to share such a new and amazing Wiki with so many accessibly great games on it, thank you! Also, I am so glad _The Flying Pancake Space Octopus in a Black Hole_ made the list because Vagues Games is such an amazing developer, and _XOP Black Ultra_ looks like my jam!
Speaking of Vagues I plan to play Cambria Sword and explore it next chance I get. After playing Octopus I checked it out more and Cambria looks super fun, even if it's also super long. I like the creativity and the music. If there is anyone to thank it's all the people that put the wiki together. And I was happy to try and hype it here. The wiki will help insure many of these games don't get forgotten.
Cho Ren Sha and particularly Blue Wish Resurrection were my teen years in a nutshell. The developer of Blue Wish Resurrection (X.X) is working on a sequel, Blue Desire which has a beta already up for the first 3 stages. On the topic of Bike Banditz, it even has music by Namiki for which he is credited (stage 3 music iirc). It was made by French Bread iirc who later went on to develop other doujin darlings. The developer of Paro Paro has just released a Switch/Steam sequel with a dog theme that's very good, check it out sometime if possible. These are all great picks, glad you have attention to these particular 4 which are some of the ones I've liked the best. Happy to see the shout-outs to stand out members of the community. While on the topic of Bike Banditz, the scoring system is simple but fun, it encourages perfection. Take care Junkie
Thanks buddy and for the extra info. Bike Banditz seems to have been taken down from the wiki, so I wonder if there is question whether it's actually free or meant to be. Though it was there earlier and why I used it. I didn't know Namiki was involved that's crazy. They must have had some connections. What's the name of that dog themed game? As that sounds familiar and one I was actually meaning to check out as I think someone sent me a link on it long ago when it was still in development.
@@ShmupJunkie Bike Banditz was not supposed to be freeware, but it is abandonware by now so don't feel bad. Even the Japanese people can't find anywhere to buy it anymore. The dog game from the developer of Paro Paro is called Rangerdog and it's amazing. More of that lost Konami flavor that everyone will love.
You mean these games are free!? I downloaded them 2 weeks ago and thought I was stealing them. Wheww! Now I don't have to worry about the Video Game Police coming to get me. Thank you for another great video, your videos never disappoint.
The police only show up when you download kusoge shmups, especially the ones you choose to pay for haha. For violation of taste and good judgement. None of these good ones qualify. Although now I'm getting requests to do a video on worst kusoge 😂
@@ShmupJunkie I may or may not have paid a lot of money for Action 52 on the NES, does that count? If it does, I plead the fifth, F-I-F-T-H, fifth. A kusoge shmup video would be be great, Timmy would get plenty of screen time.
It’s bound to happen sooner or later I have to do a top favorite list. I’ve had requests for a list on top switch shmups as well. Most of my favs are the older games for sure during the 90s.
@@ShmupJunkie What is it that you think makes the 90's era pf shmups so timeless? I'm the same, I enjoy a lot of new shooters, but always seem to find myself returning to the 90's ones to invest more play-time in. Thunderforce 3 is a game which I return to constantly lol.
It's crazy how certain games just speak to different people. For whatever reason, it was recommended to me before, but I wasn't feeling it and didn't play it until this week. Now that I did it was a heck of a lot of fun. And if you like a psychedelic mega drive vibe you'll definitely dig it. You can't go wrong and let me know if it ended up as cool as you expected.
Oh my god! i decided to try out all games while watching the video. I'm at pancake space octopus and i love it so much. I'm gonna share it around with the world
You're a god if you can try every one of these games while watching the video at the same time haha. It took me a couple days to play them all. The Space Octopus is a weird one, so unusual yet so cool and addicting.
@@ShmupJunkie Thank you^^ of course it took a lot of pausing, downloading on japanese sites and just do some stages here and there. btw, I wasn't able to run Radio Zonde, some direct3d error, can you help a bro out? i'm also gonna ask on mark's server and see if anyone can help me out
@@claudiomonteverdi847 I’ll try to look it up. I think it was missing a free dll file I had to download. Then it just worked. Don’t feel too bad if you can’t play it though. Even when you can play it you really can’t play it ahaha 🤣
@@ShmupJunkie I was able to make it run! it was just a file to download plus a sprite repository. thanks, junkie. on it, i can say, this is definitely a gem for someone with very peculiar taste (aka not me, not yet at least) the ships are all great and feel so unique, the impossible danmakus are sure to appeal to someone who will be willing to put in the time so double thanks junkie for showing it to the world. Of the batch my favourite is totally pancake octopus, so unique and trippy. I wonder why there arent more Galaga clones. I hope to see a sequel of this video because it is a topic that benefits everyone both new and hardcore
Please do, and I hope you found at least a few worth downloading. Most are really exceptional and shouldn't be missed. I had a good time last week playing them.
Hydorah and pancake is something i dont know and now i really wanna play them! Specially pancake. That music gameplay and aesthetic is soo unique! Thanks junkie!
Man you can't go wrong with either one. Hydorah is as good as most new games to come out during the 16bit days. There is a paid Super Hydorah, but the free version is pretty kick ass itself. Octopus is like a crazy Galaga taken to another level. It just feels so weird and basic at first but really gets going pretty quickly.
Right? I didn't know about it until friends on my discord told me about the game. And it was as unique as anything, pretty addicting too. Once you set it up with your choice of music.
It was soooo close to coming out last Sunday, I was already almost done, but just needed some more time. Glad to finally have it out as the algo was starting to crap on me for not posting a video last Sunday haha
Awesome video! Thanks for this! When I subscribed to your channel a couple of years ago, I knew I made the right decision!! Quick question: When I tried to find BIKE BANDITZ on the download list you provided, it wasn't there. Has it been removed? Any idea where I can find it? Again, great job on creating this video. Bravo!!!
Thanks I’m really glad you found this one useful. And that you’ve been with me so long. It was around March 2020 where I made my first official vid with that mini review, just over a year ago. Really does feel like it’s been longer. I think they removed Bike Banditz as it was in question whether it was always free or not. But it’s easy enough to find just google it and pc download and a bunch of links seem to pop up.
Another game which is not an STG but in this case is has lots of their spirit is Every Extend for PC: the precursor of Every Extend Extra. Ultra elegant. Full action. Poetic.
The backlog is real and I don’t know if I’ll ever catch up haha. But for those not looking for any more wallet busters that wiki will be really helpful.
One of my favorites has to be Genetos. Your ship starts like a very basic Space Invaders-like one then it evolves through severa eras of SHMUP based on your gameplay decisions/style.
And honorable mention could have been Fraxy. It's not so much a Shmup as it is basically MUGEN for the genre. It's free and incredibly flexible. Though it is no longer updated, it is amazing what some have managed to create in it. And man was really surprised to see Radio Zonde here, not a title many know of. And to think that game lead to Hellsinker.
Throwing in my recommendation for Dokkingan. Sick danmaku with a unique mechanic of riding explosions as a scoring method. That game shreds like a heavy metal album.
2:00 what ost did you use on that part? That's one of my favorite ost in QP shooting Dangerous. If the ost really isnt from QP, where did you get that ost?
No, that's the actual OST from the game I'm showing Kaikan. I know it was a free game, so the dev did use royalty free music for all the stages (and sure did a damn good job picking them too). But it's from the game.
Thank you. FYI I just put up a new community post yesterday too giving away a couple good games in relation to this video (paid games free key), so if you’re interested in getting in at all, just check my last community post.
Thanks! I felt this one to be very important especially the free shmups wiki that’s now updated by the community for everyone to enjoy. Too many great games out there at no cost that are more easy to find and play. I’ll make another one of these someday.
Have you ever played Genetos? You actually play through the history of shmups! For example, you start out in Space Invaders, and eventually move up to scrolling levels, bullet hell levels, etc. I thought this was brilliant, and had never seen anything like it before. I remember it being short, but free and very original.
I haven’t. But I just looked it up and it’s even on the free shmups wiki already! So I’ll definitely have to check it out as that’s a pretty cool concept. Of all the generations I think I suck most at the earliest 2d plane space invaders type games.
I have been thinking about doing that for a while, especially some of the later systems. The PS1 had a lot of really good ones I could do a video on. Probably one for pc engine and mega drive as well.
Amazing video once more! I recognize alot of cool name(i...didn't knew we could do the release attack button thingy in kaikan, it would had made my life WAY easier! XD) and discovered many new ones! ^^ One of them is paro paro...i LOVED parodius so i want to play that one of course! ^^ However, when trying to download it from the author side, the donload doesn't work, it's a empty file...is it only happening to me? Is there another location to find this game?
I just tried and it does still work. You may be clicking the wrong link, as it takes like 3 silly pages to finally get to it. The first is easy as it's right near the top and says DL here. After clicking that it opens another tab. Below the blue button is a download page url link. That's what you want to click on. That takes you to the final page, and you want to click the orange button that says Download 83mb. I just did and that works. But there are tons of other buttons in japanese that make it confusing. I hope that works for you as I just tested it.
@@ShmupJunkie It worked! My problem was at the first level, the initial download link send you to a non-existing parpparo.zip once you reach the 3rd page, but the second one just bbelow it send to one that still exist. Thanks alot for your help! :)
I had no idea any of these existed. I played all my free shmups on Newgrounds and Kongregate, and there were some on Steam I was going to try soon. Thanks for such a great video. Just out of curiosity, do you play any other genre of games?
You’re welcome and I’m really glad you found some you didn’t know and maybe check out too. For games very much so, I play pretty much everything aside from much sports or puzzle stuff. I’m probably best at platformers followed by shmups, but I spend as much time in the evenings playing popular titles and two player with the wife as anything else. I occasionally throw in other stuff in my videos like the Capcom arcade stadium and other games I like. I’m mainly focusing on STGs since the genre needs the most exposure to new audiences and getting out of the small niche it’s become. But I love and play anything really that’s worth it. Bloodborne was my favorite PS4 game the entire generation.
@@kelp7060 I’m just here to be part of a community and help grow it. I wish I could always get to all my comments but I do my best. Want everyone here to feel like it’s a cool place to comment and chat with others.
I had someone tell me about that on the discord yeah, but it was after I finished that segment to try it. I didn't know it either. I guess it's not that easy to pull off but worth it when you do.
I've been wanting to see a new Parodius game for a long time after Sexy Parodius (which came out in 1996), & luckily Paro Paro is as close as we can get. I've even dreamed to play an R9-like ship in a Parodius world, and my dream has come true!
I was pleasantly surprised when I randomly chose to try the Seal next, or I never would have known. It was a brilliant idea and the game even has the RType battleship stage. All of the ships are fun and worth trying. Definitely going to play it again too and explore the other ships more.
Another great video! I was familiar with a couple of these, but there are lots of excellent looking games here that I had no idea existed! I only wish I had time to play them all. Guess as they're all free I could just quit my job. Who needs money, right?! :)
Aegis Wing, a free shmup available on the Xbox Live Arcade, is probably the game that got me into shooters. It's not on the Free Shmup wiki, but it's fun and has a cool co-op feature where you can attach your ship to your friend's ship as an extra gun. Supports up to 4 players as well.
That sounds familiar actually. You should totally add it to the wiki if you get a chance. It’s there for the community to add to and improve. Can’t download it there but can at least mention it and that it’s Xbox live arcade. Or is it no longer available?
@@ShmupJunkie I'm pretty sure it's still available even on the modern Xbox consoles through backwards compatibility as it is a Microsoft developed/owned property. I considered adding it to the wiki myself, but tbh I'm not really sure how to.
Anyone who loves 80s or 90s horizontal shoot em ups needs to try Hydorah. And then one you've tried it, buy Super Hydorah because the developer is too generous releasing most of his games for free.
Absolutely, Hydorah was so damn good. I am going to finish up this one, the last few stages, then buy it myself. He deserves the support and I'd love to see more. So supporting is the best way to do it.
There is a game from Locomalito that I totally respect which is Abbaye des Morts. It is full 8 bit Spectrum platform experience but with the fluidity from nowadays
dude yes! flying pancake octopus is amazing. that guy's work is just phenomenal, Cambria Sword is one of my favorites of all time. great to see mecha ritz, too. it and dezatopia are just way way way too good. [edit] and bike banditz! i played it back when i was still running windows xp and i've always recommended it, it's wild to me that it's not more popular. that namiki soundtrack bangs like hell
I'm going to be checking out Cambria Sword next chance I get as it looks right up my alley too. Love the design and music. Read it's a crazy long game too. Either way it looked like something I want to play and will enjoy.
Man, Paro Paro looks really good, definitely downloading that. I have played most of Spolous, just need to beat the C route and its higher difficulties. Almost all these games look sick though, great list. 👍
Paro Paro is a must especially that you're into Gradius types anyway. And I've only played it once so far so I'm sure there is lots more to discover I may not have yet. There's still a few of these I will definitely be going back to and playing more to finish too.
Perfect video for a stingy guy like me! Thanks for the info on all these games! The only one I kinda knew about was Hydora. I can’t wait to try them out, especially the Parodius-like and the bike game. It might be a while because I’ll have to upgrade from my now 14-year-old computer. (I said I was stingy.)
Whoa I just looked up the trailer. Reminds me of Touhou in a way but the bullet patterns had some really creative stuff going on. And it's free so I definitely have to check it out. Thanks for the heads up!
I'll be out enjoying that day myself soon enough in about an hour once the video gets going and I hit up as many comments as I can. Hope you enjoy it man, this one is good to chill and relax to.
Paro Paro and Bike Banditz are the ones that hooked me. I also want that Gradius inspired game cuz its browser friendly. And also got a question about free shmups. Are there any melee oriented shmups that like Radirgy, Karous and Suguri in that wiki list? I kinda want something abit abit more similar with those 3.
That would actually be a really good question on my discord server, as a bunch of folks who know so many of the wiki games are even more familiar. I'm still discovering so many of them myself I never played, and with like 200 on the list, haven't even scratched the surface. I would be surprised if there wasn't, but not any of them that I got to try yet. There are a couple with some melee elements but nothing I would say is integral like the games you mentioned. Not yet that I played.
Cho Ren Sha 68K is amazing, I have played it a lot, but in my opinion the best free shooter (and not only but it is one of my absolute favorites) is Eden's Aegis, the anime style, the colors and the music are fantastic, I love shooters and I've played a lot of them but I'm not very strong (stuff like Tatsujin is out of my league), but I liked Eden's Aegis so much that a few years ago when I was playing it every night I was able to finish it at normal difficulty without never be hit, it's not very difficult but for me it remains a record to be proud of, I expected to find it in this video because it is really beautiful, of course I saw that you talked about Blue wish resurrection and I played all the xxxgameroom shooters even the most archaic and unknown (like Green wind or Eden's edge) but in my opinion Eden's Aegis is by far his best work.
@@ShmupJunkie Nice. Didnt realise it was an older video. I just got a steam account and have rarely played any PC games, so its a great resource. Already completed a few of the games on this list and looks to be many other great games. Appreciate you posting it up.
Shout out to Radiozonde! Love that game to death. I find it interesting that you found this game to be nearly unplayably hard. I think there may be different groups of shmuppers with very different styles of play and strengths. I sucked at checkpoint shooters like R-Type. In fact I have never finished any R-types, but I got pretty decent at Radiozonde and games similar to it.
I was just playing Super Hydorah the other night. Excellent game. I haven't seen the "Better Not" level yet though. I'm going to have to go back and try it. :) Bike Banditz looks like a cross between Ordyne and Airzonk. Might give it a whirl.
Tip.. the google translate smartphone app with camera function works pretty well to translate bike banditz menu in real time on your phone for you. Give it a go if, like me, the menus confused you!
It's been better, right now that's around 5th place all time. But I'm not complaining! haha. We gotta keep this train rolling and bring shooters back. 🤘
Man, thanks for this Video, i was searching for Cho Ren Sha 68K for years, but i forgot the name and didn't have a clue how to find it. Well, the answer was so simple: just watch your video!
Yep! And I'm glad you did as that free shmup wiki is awesome. I was really stoked to be part of that happening and getting the word out. So these games can get a lot more play.
Not yet but I know it, as some on my discord recommended it. So it's near the top of my list of the games I didn't get to play yet and try. I already watched some video and am definitely going to try it.
I dont know if you also like europshmups/computer games but tyrian and stargunner are free on gog. They are a lot of fun for something different. I know some people scoff at them but I've always had fun with them too. They have more a capcom forgotten worlds feel than a typical shmup from toaplan, compile or whoever.
I like all kinds I am not that picky, long as it's fun. I remember Tyrian well and even played it too way back in the day. I couldn't fit it this time even though I wanted to mention it. I'm just not super familiar with GOG yet and haven't used it, but I keep hearing it mentioned around. So I am going to have to check it out sooner or later.
@@ShmupJunkie dude its the best online storefront for old pc games. Blows steam out of the water and no drm. You can download the installer on any pc and play. Highly recommend run by CD projekt👌. I cant believe I only discovered this channel yesterday I hate the youtube algorithm shoulda seen ya months ago.
@@SevenCompleted Well the good part of just finding a new channel is now you have a lot of great content to check out that interests you. Once you’ve seen what you like no more binging haha. I will definitely check it out. I read it’s basically free to use with ads which is fair. Or no ads for a monthly fee.
@@ShmupJunkie its actually a storefront. You just make a free account there are no ads or subscriptions. Just buy games and they're yours to download on whatever pc you want all legally. They also include pdf scans of the manuals and all sorts of bonus content. They also give away a lot of free games I got duke nukem 3d for free years ago, fallout 1 and 2, aliens vs predator (1999), elder scrolls 1 and 2, that cel shaded fps XIII was free a couple weeks ago. All games are updated and patches to work on modern operating systems as well. I cant recommend them enough.
Thank you so much for showing me these cool free shooting games! No money to spent to download them just download and enjoy! (I'm trying to save my money to get my favorite SEGA Saturn shmup games so wish me luck for getting them!)
FAN-MADE PARODIUS THAT HAS THE R-SEAL OF QUALITY?!! OK INSTANT DOWNLOAD! XD My wallet will be happy today now that I'm aware of these games and that list of freeware shmups! Thanks for the vid Junkie!
You won’t be disappointed it’s a great game. Easier than the typical Parodius without the mean rank but fun and in the spirit of the series. It’s so much better than if Konami had to make one today 😅.
@@ShmupJunkie The game definitely got the Parodius spirit. It had me giggling at every level. Haven't had time to finish it yet, but I really had to up the difficulty. R-Seal really shows that R-type is too easy with Gradius style levels lol
Radio Zonde... ah, yes. Tonnor/Ranyon is a GENIUS who made HellSinker which was already quite hard to approach, but Radio Zonde is something completely else. i can only dream of clearing it one day
What are the Best FREE Shoot Em Ups you can play right now? My 12 picks for must free-to-play games
and some are so good, you won't believe they're free. Check them out in the video, then head over to
the free-to-play shmups wiki here and try them out: shmups.wiki/library/Free_to_Play
And if you see any good ones missing, please contribute and add to the list!
✅ Subscribe To My Channel ➡️
Support me on PATREON
www.patreon.com/shmupjunkieslushfund
HUGE thanks to HAUSER, who came up with the idea of creating this Free Shmups Wiki, and all the other
awesome community members who have been contributing and compiled over 200 games. And none of it would
be possible without Charlene (CHA-STG) for maintaining the overall Shmups Wiki for the community.
The main page is here: shmups.wiki/library/Main_Page and you can follow her on Twitter
here: twitter.com/CHARLENEMAXIMUM
CHAPTERS
00:00 - Timmay wants Flappy Bird
00:23 - Celebrating FREE Shoot Em Ups
01:44 - Kaikan
05:33 - Cho Ren Sha 68K
08:26 - Blue Wish Resurrection Plus
11:19 - Spolous if you love Gradius
13:27 - Hydorah by Locomalito
16:26 - Paro Paro if you love Parodius
18:57 - Warning Forever
21:29 - The Flying Pancake Space Octopus in a Black Hole
25:17 - Mecha Ritz for that Mega Drive sound
27:36 - Radio Zonde "Hardest Shmup Ever?"
30:21 - Bike Banditz
33:11 - XOP Black Ultra
36:17 - Even more Shmups!
All of these great Shmups are FREE and linked in the Free to Play Shmups Wiki, so check them out and enjoy.
Shump Junkie is there a way to contact you directly? I've got a special version of Lords Of Thunder I'd like to send your way.
so....when you'll touch the tip of the Thunder Force iceberg?^^
@@AstarOfDavid really? Oh yeah of course. If you use discord you can use this link to DM me there. discord.gg/xeqcfSBf. Or email shmupjunkie@gmail.com I’ll get it there. That sounds intriguing!
@@ShmupJunkie Message sent to your e-mail! (if you do not see it check your junk mail folder)
Sky force on switch is good, you aimed that ad litter and smashed it my face!
Thanks so much for the shout outs my dude ❤️ The games are free, so no excuse not to play some shmups today everyone ;-)
Of course man, every chance I get. I hope some people go check out your very good longer reviews of those two games. I just barely scratched the surface.
That IS If you got a PC lol haha
You guys both rule. Thoroughly appreciate your content!
Man this was a SHMUP video we definitely needed. Not just boasting about "Free" games but giving them the well deserve praise and promotions. Gotta say I watched the whole thing (along with 2 beers) and enjoyed every minute. I already downloaded 3 of them!!!
That’s awesome man I love hearing that. It was the community that made it happen and I did my part to get it out there and generate some hype. Now anytime you or others need a break from the wallet busters this will be there and growing. I’d be downloading even more to try now if I wasn’t busy grinding the next video. But when I get free time I’m on it!
What a great public service, I don't think I'd heard of a single one of these before this past week. Great job demonstrating them too, seeing the R-Type Walrus sold Paro Paro for me and I will definitely be checking it out. Really cool to see the community come together and compile this list of games, many of which may have been lost to time otherwise.
I really couldn't have even done this video without the discord and the group this time. I didn't have a lot of experience with most of these free games except for the big names, and wouldn't have known where to start. Everyone else did the legwork and my job was to get it some exposure. So I hope it does well long term and the games live on for the foreseeable future. I didn't expect some of these games to be as great as they were either.
"Oh that one looks cool I'll play it. Oh that one looks cool too I'll also play it. Oh that one a looks cool too, I'll also play it....." etc etc.
Yup, hope you set aside a lot of free after hours time to play with yourself on these. I been doing it since 1987 😂
wow man seriously your channel means im NEVER bored in my life. so much to check out after this episode. ty so much for this!
Making these videos means I am never bored either ahaha. But seriously thanks and I'm glad it's so useful for you. With that free shmups wiki we've all got enough to play on no budget for a long time.
Glad to see you included Warning Forever, it's underrated. Also, thanks for mentioning the music thing! I completely forgot to mention that, when I covered it on my podcast a couple years ago, so I'm glad you included that tidbit. A couple of the games you mentioned haven't crossed my radar yet, and Paro Paro looks awesome! Will have to give that a go.
It's a pretty cool touch to use whatever you want and it makes total sense for that game in particular. To be able to change it up too if you are replaying it a lot. Definitely give Paro Paro a go later it's so well made and could easily be mistaken for a Parodius entry. And in 2021 no less it's brand spanking new.
Considering I have probably bought $300 worth of games in the last few days by binging your channel, this was a really nice change of pace :) also with so many free games in the wiki, I can't help but think there must be many more good ones. So I would love for you to do a follow up series, or even make this a regular as long as you can find a good feed of games say a monthly video for "Top 5 Free Games" and if material gets thin, maybe throw a demo or something in there.
Glad you found this as yes, the Free Shmups Wiki is an awesome resource. There’s hundreds of games there and many very good. I can barely keep up producing a video or two every month with my schedule so a regular Free Shmups episode wouldn’t likely happen until the cloning machines come back in stock at Amazon. Been back ordered for years 🤣. But seriously I try to push good ones every chance I get into other videos I do. In fact this next one coming up called Best Action Games you never played has a completely amazing one that’s from the Free Shmups Wiki. I don’t want to give it away because it’s going to blow people away it exists and they never heard of it. A PC DOS game that time forgot and is actually the best PC based shooter I think I’ve ever played. I’m excited to show it either this Sunday or next soon as it’s done.
Did someone say free ??? These are great. Hats off to the shmup community for the wiki page dedicated to this!
When I discovered Super Hydorah on the switch I was blown away by how good it is. The music for that worm stage is so bizarrely awesome! Keep up the good work, your content is S tier!
I think all of Locomalito's games are pretty much top tier and he certainly deserves some compensation, so I'm glad to see Super Hydorah do well on Switch and some paid platforms. Even the early free version here is a complete, top tier 16bit style shooter and I really dug it.
Nothing gets me hyped like that cho ren sha 68k level 1 theme, truly one of the great first stage shmup themes, up there with Raiden II and Area 88
Speaking of music themes that’s the video I’m working on next, the music of shoot em ups. No doubt something from all three of these games will be in there.
Cho Ren Sha, one of the best shmups, it changed my life forever!
Really is so so good. One of many Sharp 68K games I never knew or played until more recently. That Mister core coming for the Sharp and being able to play some of the rare, killer shooters on that system is going to be a dream come true.
@@ShmupJunkie By the way, why wait for x68k, when the author himself made a great windows port long time ago?
Sure, it was a great technical achievement for aging x68k, but..
Edit:
Oops, sorry. You are talking about other shooters that weren’t ported..
Very nice video, thanks, I was looking forward to it. Don't hesitate to propose even more of these... There are so many, one could never find the good ones by trying them one by one, so it's very useful. More beginner shmups video would be a treat too. What about video about shmups on steam, as they are easy to grab? Keep on the good work, I really like your content.
If this video does well and there is demand for more, I will certainly make more you can count on it. There are so many great free games it's impossible to cover enough of them. I did try a few Steam games this time, but they didn't quite make the list. Like tadpole tales which seemed well made but very short and simplistic. Free Steam games is definitely something there is lots of interest in.
Great recent vid you did with Electric Underground. I downloaded all 229 shooters off that page, and last month played through about 60 of them, tried maybe 170 so far. Great list. Really appreciate the resource.
incredible video. ive been recently addicted to free shmups myself, there are so many of them, its hard to keep track of!
I was and still am in many ways a total noob to a lot of free to play games. So this was a great experience for me, playing so many and putting this together. Even I didn't realize how good so many of these games are.
Dude, I really love your content. Quite a few times I subbed to a gaming channel when they had a few k subscribers and then happily watched them blow up to 100k or more. I really hope you get there because I could say you're next level, God tier, or whatever, and it's all true.
I just want many many others to see what your fans see in you, I hope you rule the world one day. You give me that watching a great gaming channel in their prime feeling, very few channels make me feel that way in 2021.
I’d love nothing more than to blow up as it’d mean shmups are getting a ton more attention than any time in recent memory. That and I’d be able to justify keeping at it for a long time with it being more sustainable to put so much time into it. For now I’m just having a great time making them and really glad to hear you and others enjoying them so much.
I played a ton of shoot-Em-ups on the Genesis/Megadrive and in the arcades, and always preferred them. Thanks for giving me dozens of new, free, excellent games
You’re welcome! And the free wiki has really grown with a ton more games in there. Of course not every game is gold, but it’s amazing how good some of them are. Better than many paid games out there and some outstanding. I’m glad I could get more of these games played and enjoyed.
I actually remember buying a boxed copy of Bike Banditz over a decade and a half ago at an anime convention and being blown away about how much fun the game was. I was obsessed with shooters ever since, especially small projects like that one!
It may be part of why it’s been taken down from the free wiki. It’s easily found of course but it wasn’t always free or meant to be. It’s certainly a fantastic game.
Great video! There are so many games that I want to play here and so few time after work to play...
But really, these games look much more polished than many commercial games out there.
I'm happy to see Kaikan in there, I first played that in a score tournament a bunch of years back and absolutely fell in love with it. It's got my #1 favorite scoring system in the genre, it's like Battle Garegga trick bombing and medal chaining on crack with just the right amount of canceling
I put that game up front because of how much damn fun it was. Just blew me away. And I haven't even really scratched the surface of it and just played for survival a few times. They made a hell of a fun game that I'll be playing again a hundred percent. I'd read the music was taken from free to use sources which is pretty crazy too, as I thought it suited the game so well and they all worked.
It looks great at least. Does it have ranking difficulty/suiciding like Garegga? I never truly understood Ikeda's signature rank system... I'm too stupid for it.🤦♂
im amazed at the quality on those they all seem like such great games. i specially liked paro paro as i like the parodius asthetic and how well drawn it all is
It could absolutely be a brand new official Parodius game and had it been marketed that way, I bet anyone would believe it. I didn't realize until later how recent it was just coming out this year!
You got me at Spolous and Hydora, wow!! Wonderful video and recommendations my friend, I am absolutely hyped!! Fantastic opening with Kaiken, Biker Bandits near the end and Paro Paro in between was brilliant!! “I love Parodius” in that stage was the highlight of this sunday!! 👍🏻👍🏻 congrats once again!
I'm glad you enjoyed it so much my friend and I know you will enjoy them. All three, Spolous, Hydorah and Paro are great games and feel like Gradius classic. Modern and well made. It's crazy they are free. Once I am done with Hydorah I will likely buy Super Hydorah and play that too, to support the developer. His games are fantastic. He also made a ghosts n goblins style game called cursed castilla that is excellent.
@@ShmupJunkie oh, will def check that one out as well. Thanks.
Nice video, some awesome entries here! I never heard of Kaikan before, I'll definitely give it a try! Isn't it amazing that some free games show a level of quality that surpasses some commercial releases (not making a stealthy reference to R-Type Final 2, of course not!)?
hahaha, nooo of course not. But without a doubt, in terms of stage and game design, some of these games certainly surpass it among other even better games. They're just that good. I wasn't expecting Kaikan to be my favorite to replay of the bunch going in, but there it is.
thank you so much for this video! the flying pancake octopus in blackhole had became one of my favorite shmups (:
At first, it's super weird and you don't get it. Then once you get it, it's addicting and really cool. I feel you on that, I got into it too.
Oooooh baby! We are gaming tonight!
I never knew about any of these so thank you for spreading them to a wider audience.
Great video and an early congratulations on the 10k (I am sure you will get it in the next day or two haha)
Haha thanks, hopefully I get there soon too in a week or less. Will see how the algo treats me and this last video. You really have some awesome gaming ahead if you've never played any of these. Some are just absolute bangers and full games you could spend plenty of time on. I'll be going back myself to the last few I didn't finish yet either to seem them through.
Thanks for bringing some of these awesome shmups to my attention. You're so right about Kaikan.. that game is almost impossible to stop playing once you get started!
I'm glad I finally played it. Now I have to work on the next video or I would be playing it again right now haha
Spectacular video, as always. The ones I liked best are Kaikan, Blue Wish Resurrection Plus, Paro Paro and Bike Bandits (I already knew Cho Ren Sha 68k).
I really wish some of these were ported to consoles, that would be amazing.
The problem with free games on paid consoles is they can’t sell it and profit from freeware. Probably why you never see it. A collection like that portable on switch would be amazingly cool.
@@ShmupJunkie good point. I was just basing myself on the amazing Megadrive conversion of the original Cave Story, but it IS an exception rather than the rule.
@@Myako It’s the same reason Capcom had to emulate their own sound for the latest stadium as the MAME emulation they are using has a license free audio implementation. So it can be used freely but never charged for. So oddly it ends up worse on the Capcom release then if used on MAME.
This is the second time I view this video man, it would be so awesome that you make more reviews of free shmups games! thankss a lot for the awesome content!
You're welcome. At least the wiki is there for now to look up new free shmups to play. I am going to show a new game in my next video that is free called Zakesta. Very cool new game and also now listed on the free shmups wiki.
Thanks for your work bro! This is great seeing as how I really don't have money to dump on games for a while. There's a few here I haven't heard of at all. I think I'll start with warning forever. What a great concept.
I think a lot of folks wallets needed a break after all the game hyping lately and new releases. So this was perfect for everyone not up for buying right now but wanting something new. You'll definitely find games to love in here, some are awesome.
Colonel Campbell from Metal Gear Solid told me that if you want to continue on Biker Banditz, you should press the continue button. I hope this information is useful, lol. Again thanks for another great video.
hahaha, oh yeah. Completely correct yet utterly useless answer as expected from him and also Microsoft tech support. I will take it under advisement.
Shmup's all folks! Great video, Junkie!
haha, yeah me goofing around in photoshop one evening. Maybe I'll use it for a while at the end of videos. Next step editing it so the ships are slowly flying outward
Amazing video! I have played Blue Wish the last souple of days and was looking for some more indie shooters. Kaikan, Spolous, Radio Zonde and Bike Banditz looked especially intriguing :)
Wow, didn't knew that there were so many good and free shmups out there! Really nice presentation!
I recently made a "Cho Ren Sha 68K" video... played on my Atari Falcon 030! 😃
Thanks. And I'm glad we now have free shmups wiki resource for anyone to use in the future. Makes finding these games so much easier for everyone.
Awesome vid.. more games to give a go. The music is always sick on this genre !
Hell yeah! In fact guess what video I am working on next? The Music of Shoot Em Ups haha
@@ShmupJunkie that's awesome literally crossed my mind. Darius gaiden would be my mention just for the close your eyes track
So a great free shumps video for people who want to discover new games after finishing all traditional arcade shumps games!!!! Thanks so much. You have a new follower for that.!!!! 😁👍 Kiss from France...
You're welcome! And yes, please enjoy some of these free games and the list. Many are very, very good.
I'm behind on everything but finally was able to sit down and watch this. Just awesome dude. Need to download some of these and check them out. Specially the Gradius looking ones 🥰
Heck yeah dude. Try Hydorah that game is great. And the Parodius parody is easy to play and fun. You'd dig both of them for sure!
What a sick video! Paro Paro and Bike Banditz look right up my alley. Go ahead and give me some time to play these games then make a sequel video please!
Can’t go wrong with either one they’re both easy to get into and fun. Who knows how many more games the wiki will have by the time I make another one of these. It’s already over 200 games I think.
Parodying Parodius is very meta. I love the idea!
It's such a great game too. Really it could be an official Parodius. Konami ain't making games like that anymore.
Fantastic video as usual! Would love to see more videos like this, there's just so much good stuff out there. One game I'd definitely recommend checking out is VASTYNEX, from the same dev as Kaikan. It's a massive love letter to 16-bit shmups (especially Thunder Force) and has an *incredible* soundtrack (which, fun fact, is somehow all just royalty-free stuff?? Same goes for Kaikan and like a million other freeware shmups, by the way).
Dude, I paused the video to go play Kaikan and I almost forgot I was watching this video. Man, that is a good one! Now for the rest of the video.
At 36:17, I thought my phone rotated lol. I'm definitely playing Hydorah, the resemblance to Gradius very appreciated.
hahaha, I didn't think about that. I need to be careful using that transition effect it does look like your phone screwed up on you. Hydorah is brilliant you won't regret it. And the game is free, insane.
Loving the hard work. Bithead1000 also gave you a great shout out
Oh I know it, I've had several new subs come in saying bithead sent me. That was more than a shout out, it was insane I'm still kind of shocked by it. Been following him for over a couple years now and it was really cool of him.
Wow, this was an amazing video (with equally awesome links!) That's very cool of you to share such a new and amazing Wiki with so many accessibly great games on it, thank you! Also, I am so glad _The Flying Pancake Space Octopus in a Black Hole_ made the list because Vagues Games is such an amazing developer, and _XOP Black Ultra_ looks like my jam!
Speaking of Vagues I plan to play Cambria Sword and explore it next chance I get. After playing Octopus I checked it out more and Cambria looks super fun, even if it's also super long. I like the creativity and the music. If there is anyone to thank it's all the people that put the wiki together. And I was happy to try and hype it here. The wiki will help insure many of these games don't get forgotten.
@@ShmupJunkie Great to hear! Keep up the phenomenal work Shmup Junkie!
Cho Ren Sha and particularly Blue Wish Resurrection were my teen years in a nutshell. The developer of Blue Wish Resurrection (X.X) is working on a sequel, Blue Desire which has a beta already up for the first 3 stages. On the topic of Bike Banditz, it even has music by Namiki for which he is credited (stage 3 music iirc). It was made by French Bread iirc who later went on to develop other doujin darlings. The developer of Paro Paro has just released a Switch/Steam sequel with a dog theme that's very good, check it out sometime if possible. These are all great picks, glad you have attention to these particular 4 which are some of the ones I've liked the best. Happy to see the shout-outs to stand out members of the community. While on the topic of Bike Banditz, the scoring system is simple but fun, it encourages perfection. Take care Junkie
Thanks buddy and for the extra info. Bike Banditz seems to have been taken down from the wiki, so I wonder if there is question whether it's actually free or meant to be. Though it was there earlier and why I used it. I didn't know Namiki was involved that's crazy. They must have had some connections. What's the name of that dog themed game? As that sounds familiar and one I was actually meaning to check out as I think someone sent me a link on it long ago when it was still in development.
@@ShmupJunkie Bike Banditz was not supposed to be freeware, but it is abandonware by now so don't feel bad. Even the Japanese people can't find anywhere to buy it anymore. The dog game from the developer of Paro Paro is called Rangerdog and it's amazing. More of that lost Konami flavor that everyone will love.
Cool, never knew about the wiki. Will check it out 👍
The wiki is brand new! Literally less than two weeks old, so I wanted to push it a little with this video for everyone.
You mean these games are free!? I downloaded them 2 weeks ago and thought I was stealing them. Wheww! Now I don't have to worry about the Video Game Police coming to get me. Thank you for another great video, your videos never disappoint.
The police only show up when you download kusoge shmups, especially the ones you choose to pay for haha. For violation of taste and good judgement. None of these good ones qualify. Although now I'm getting requests to do a video on worst kusoge 😂
@@ShmupJunkie I may or may not have paid a lot of money for Action 52 on the NES, does that count? If it does, I plead the fifth, F-I-F-T-H, fifth. A kusoge shmup video would be be great, Timmy would get plenty of screen time.
Another brill vid. I know you're not a reviewer, but I'd love to see your own personal list of favourite shooters.
It’s bound to happen sooner or later I have to do a top favorite list. I’ve had requests for a list on top switch shmups as well. Most of my favs are the older games for sure during the 90s.
@@ShmupJunkie What is it that you think makes the 90's era pf shmups so timeless? I'm the same, I enjoy a lot of new shooters, but always seem to find myself returning to the 90's ones to invest more play-time in. Thunderforce 3 is a game which I return to constantly lol.
I don't think I've ever vibed with a game as hard as what you've shown of Mecha Ritz. Instantly checking it out
It's crazy how certain games just speak to different people. For whatever reason, it was recommended to me before, but I wasn't feeling it and didn't play it until this week. Now that I did it was a heck of a lot of fun. And if you like a psychedelic mega drive vibe you'll definitely dig it. You can't go wrong and let me know if it ended up as cool as you expected.
ya its really good 😭💖
Oh my god! i decided to try out all games while watching the video. I'm at pancake space octopus and i love it so much. I'm gonna share it around with the world
You're a god if you can try every one of these games while watching the video at the same time haha. It took me a couple days to play them all. The Space Octopus is a weird one, so unusual yet so cool and addicting.
@@ShmupJunkie Thank you^^ of course it took a lot of pausing, downloading on japanese sites and just do some stages here and there. btw, I wasn't able to run Radio Zonde, some direct3d error, can you help a bro out? i'm also gonna ask on mark's server and see if anyone can help me out
@@claudiomonteverdi847 I’ll try to look it up. I think it was missing a free dll file I had to download. Then it just worked. Don’t feel too bad if you can’t play it though. Even when you can play it you really can’t play it ahaha 🤣
@@ShmupJunkie I was able to make it run! it was just a file to download plus a sprite repository. thanks, junkie.
on it, i can say, this is definitely a gem for someone with very peculiar taste (aka not me, not yet at least) the ships are all great and feel so unique, the impossible danmakus are sure to appeal to someone who will be willing to put in the time so double thanks junkie for showing it to the world.
Of the batch my favourite is totally pancake octopus, so unique and trippy. I wonder why there arent more Galaga clones.
I hope to see a sequel of this video because it is a topic that benefits everyone both new and hardcore
Great video. Looking forward to checking some of these out.
Please do, and I hope you found at least a few worth downloading. Most are really exceptional and shouldn't be missed. I had a good time last week playing them.
Hydorah and pancake is something i dont know and now i really wanna play them! Specially pancake. That music gameplay and aesthetic is soo unique! Thanks junkie!
Man you can't go wrong with either one. Hydorah is as good as most new games to come out during the 16bit days. There is a paid Super Hydorah, but the free version is pretty kick ass itself. Octopus is like a crazy Galaga taken to another level. It just feels so weird and basic at first but really gets going pretty quickly.
@@ShmupJunkie theyre totally games i wish i would have thought of and made
I was so happy when Warning Forever came up!!! I got it on a freeware disc so long ago and it was the most played of anything on there!
Right? I didn't know about it until friends on my discord told me about the game. And it was as unique as anything, pretty addicting too. Once you set it up with your choice of music.
Love all your awesome videos
Thanks! It’s crazy to see how well this Free Shmups wiki has grown. I should do an updated “more free shmups” video in the future.
HELL YEAH!!! BEEIN WAITING FOT THIS VIDEO FOR A WEEK!
It was soooo close to coming out last Sunday, I was already almost done, but just needed some more time. Glad to finally have it out as the algo was starting to crap on me for not posting a video last Sunday haha
Awesome video! Thanks for this! When I subscribed to your channel a couple of years ago, I knew I made the right decision!!
Quick question: When I tried to find BIKE BANDITZ on the download list you provided, it wasn't there. Has it been removed? Any idea where I can find it?
Again, great job on creating this video. Bravo!!!
Thanks I’m really glad you found this one useful. And that you’ve been with me so long. It was around March 2020 where I made my first official vid with that mini review, just over a year ago. Really does feel like it’s been longer. I think they removed Bike Banditz as it was in question whether it was always free or not. But it’s easy enough to find just google it and pc download and a bunch of links seem to pop up.
Another game which is not an STG but in this case is has lots of their spirit is Every Extend for PC: the precursor of Every Extend Extra. Ultra elegant. Full action. Poetic.
This list is excellent! Now all I have to do is get through all the games I have paid for in my collection and then I can get on to these!
The backlog is real and I don’t know if I’ll ever catch up haha. But for those not looking for any more wallet busters that wiki will be really helpful.
I remember finding Cho Ren Sha 68K and Warning Forever way way back. They were awesome. I especially loved Warning Forever.
I’d never even heard of Warning Forever until I was making this video. And it was a pleasant surprise for sure.
@@ShmupJunkie I think it inspired one or two games, but it remains one of the most unique shooters or just game in general I've played.
One of my favorites has to be Genetos. Your ship starts like a very basic Space Invaders-like one then it evolves through severa eras of SHMUP based on your gameplay decisions/style.
And honorable mention could have been Fraxy. It's not so much a Shmup as it is basically MUGEN for the genre. It's free and incredibly flexible. Though it is no longer updated, it is amazing what some have managed to create in it.
And man was really surprised to see Radio Zonde here, not a title many know of. And to think that game lead to Hellsinker.
Throwing in my recommendation for Dokkingan. Sick danmaku with a unique mechanic of riding explosions as a scoring method. That game shreds like a heavy metal album.
2:00 what ost did you use on that part? That's one of my favorite ost in QP shooting Dangerous.
If the ost really isnt from QP, where did you get that ost?
No, that's the actual OST from the game I'm showing Kaikan. I know it was a free game, so the dev did use royalty free music for all the stages (and sure did a damn good job picking them too). But it's from the game.
@@ShmupJunkie ahh, so its a royalty free music. I just didnt know the term but I am kinda aware that it can be anywhere.
Great video as always, Junkie!
Thank you. FYI I just put up a new community post yesterday too giving away a couple good games in relation to this video (paid games free key), so if you’re interested in getting in at all, just check my last community post.
@@ShmupJunkie I sure will!
Great video. Had a blast watching!
Thanks! I felt this one to be very important especially the free shmups wiki that’s now updated by the community for everyone to enjoy. Too many great games out there at no cost that are more easy to find and play. I’ll make another one of these someday.
Have you ever played Genetos? You actually play through the history of shmups! For example, you start out in Space Invaders, and eventually move up to scrolling levels, bullet hell levels, etc. I thought this was brilliant, and had never seen anything like it before. I remember it being short, but free and very original.
I haven’t. But I just looked it up and it’s even on the free shmups wiki already! So I’ll definitely have to check it out as that’s a pretty cool concept. Of all the generations I think I suck most at the earliest 2d plane space invaders type games.
It would be amazing if you make a video choosing your favourite shumps of each system and why are special for you. GREAT work!
I have been thinking about doing that for a while, especially some of the later systems. The PS1 had a lot of really good ones I could do a video on. Probably one for pc engine and mega drive as well.
@@ShmupJunkie 😍🙏🤩
Amazing video once more! I recognize alot of cool name(i...didn't knew we could do the release attack button thingy in kaikan, it would had made my life WAY easier! XD) and discovered many new ones! ^^
One of them is paro paro...i LOVED parodius so i want to play that one of course! ^^
However, when trying to download it from the author side, the donload doesn't work, it's a empty file...is it only happening to me? Is there another location to find this game?
I just tried and it does still work. You may be clicking the wrong link, as it takes like 3 silly pages to finally get to it. The first is easy as it's right near the top and says DL here. After clicking that it opens another tab. Below the blue button is a download page url link. That's what you want to click on. That takes you to the final page, and you want to click the orange button that says Download 83mb. I just did and that works. But there are tons of other buttons in japanese that make it confusing. I hope that works for you as I just tested it.
@@ShmupJunkie It worked! My problem was at the first level, the initial download link send you to a non-existing parpparo.zip once you reach the 3rd page, but the second one just bbelow it send to one that still exist. Thanks alot for your help! :)
Awesome video! Thank you!
Of course, you're welcome and glad you found it useful.
I had no idea any of these existed. I played all my free shmups on Newgrounds and Kongregate, and there were some on Steam I was going to try soon. Thanks for such a great video.
Just out of curiosity, do you play any other genre of games?
You’re welcome and I’m really glad you found some you didn’t know and maybe check out too. For games very much so, I play pretty much everything aside from much sports or puzzle stuff. I’m probably best at platformers followed by shmups, but I spend as much time in the evenings playing popular titles and two player with the wife as anything else. I occasionally throw in other stuff in my videos like the Capcom arcade stadium and other games I like. I’m mainly focusing on STGs since the genre needs the most exposure to new audiences and getting out of the small niche it’s become. But I love and play anything really that’s worth it. Bloodborne was my favorite PS4 game the entire generation.
@@ShmupJunkie Wow. Thanks for such a detailed answer. You're a cool guy.
@@kelp7060 I’m just here to be part of a community and help grow it. I wish I could always get to all my comments but I do my best. Want everyone here to feel like it’s a cool place to comment and chat with others.
FREE! That's my favourite price range!!!! :D
That's how they get you. First few times is free...then BAM, too late your addicted. Nah these will always be free.
Fun fact about ChoRenSha. If you can fly into the middle of all three powerups and stay there as they spin faster, you'll get *all* of them at once.
I had someone tell me about that on the discord yeah, but it was after I finished that segment to try it. I didn't know it either. I guess it's not that easy to pull off but worth it when you do.
@@ShmupJunkie Getting a bomb, shield, and shot powerup all at once is a heck of a drug, yeah.
I've been wanting to see a new Parodius game for a long time after Sexy Parodius
(which came out in 1996), & luckily Paro Paro is as close as we can get. I've even
dreamed to play an R9-like ship in a Parodius world, and my dream has come true!
I was pleasantly surprised when I randomly chose to try the Seal next, or I never would have known. It was a brilliant idea and the game even has the RType battleship stage. All of the ships are fun and worth trying. Definitely going to play it again too and explore the other ships more.
Another great video! I was familiar with a couple of these, but there are lots of excellent looking games here that I had no idea existed! I only wish I had time to play them all. Guess as they're all free I could just quit my job. Who needs money, right?! :)
Aegis Wing, a free shmup available on the Xbox Live Arcade, is probably the game that got me into shooters. It's not on the Free Shmup wiki, but it's fun and has a cool co-op feature where you can attach your ship to your friend's ship as an extra gun. Supports up to 4 players as well.
That sounds familiar actually. You should totally add it to the wiki if you get a chance. It’s there for the community to add to and improve. Can’t download it there but can at least mention it and that it’s Xbox live arcade. Or is it no longer available?
@@ShmupJunkie I'm pretty sure it's still available even on the modern Xbox consoles through backwards compatibility as it is a Microsoft developed/owned property. I considered adding it to the wiki myself, but tbh I'm not really sure how to.
Anyone who loves 80s or 90s horizontal shoot em ups needs to try Hydorah. And then one you've tried it, buy Super Hydorah because the developer is too generous releasing most of his games for free.
Absolutely, Hydorah was so damn good. I am going to finish up this one, the last few stages, then buy it myself. He deserves the support and I'd love to see more. So supporting is the best way to do it.
Yessssssss very glad to see XOP in here. Outstanding game
I had a friend of mine recommend that one and explain the versions. And glad he did it was a really cool set of games I’d never heard of before.
There is a game from Locomalito that I totally respect which is Abbaye des Morts. It is full 8 bit Spectrum platform experience but with the fluidity from nowadays
Oh yeah? I've only played two of his games so far and both awesome. So I'm up for checking out anything he has done before.
dude yes! flying pancake octopus is amazing. that guy's work is just phenomenal, Cambria Sword is one of my favorites of all time. great to see mecha ritz, too. it and dezatopia are just way way way too good.
[edit] and bike banditz! i played it back when i was still running windows xp and i've always recommended it, it's wild to me that it's not more popular. that namiki soundtrack bangs like hell
I'm going to be checking out Cambria Sword next chance I get as it looks right up my alley too. Love the design and music. Read it's a crazy long game too. Either way it looked like something I want to play and will enjoy.
Oh man this makes me nostalgic for Back in the day when I found Doujin style!
This free shmup list just keeps growing and growing. Amazing how many free games are out there and so good they can easily be paid releases.
Man, Paro Paro looks really good, definitely downloading that. I have played most of Spolous, just need to beat the C route and its higher difficulties. Almost all these games look sick though, great list. 👍
Paro Paro is a must especially that you're into Gradius types anyway. And I've only played it once so far so I'm sure there is lots more to discover I may not have yet. There's still a few of these I will definitely be going back to and playing more to finish too.
Perfect video for a stingy guy like me!
Thanks for the info on all these games!
The only one I kinda knew about was Hydora. I can’t wait to try them out, especially the Parodius-like and the bike game. It might be a while because I’ll have to upgrade from my now 14-year-old computer. (I said I was stingy.)
a very cool shmup that i recommend as well is Terra Feminarum, it also comes along with an awesome soundtrack!
Whoa I just looked up the trailer. Reminds me of Touhou in a way but the bullet patterns had some really creative stuff going on. And it's free so I definitely have to check it out. Thanks for the heads up!
@@ShmupJunkie nice! the art is kinda an acquired taste tho xD, but it is an awesome shmup for sure!
Kickass. Have you ever played space phallus?
I haven't! But just that name alone makes me curious haha. If it's truly free and not on the wiki yet we should totally add it to the list!
Beer ✅ snacks✅ sun is out ✅ and Shmup Junkies video. the day just got better
I'll be out enjoying that day myself soon enough in about an hour once the video gets going and I hit up as many comments as I can. Hope you enjoy it man, this one is good to chill and relax to.
Yet another amazing video. Thank you
great video as usual. Any additions to the list ever since the video was released?
Oh a ton! Check out the wiki, people keep adding to it. Really a ridiculous amount of games to explore.
Paro Paro and Bike Banditz are the ones that hooked me. I also want that Gradius inspired game cuz its browser friendly.
And also got a question about free shmups. Are there any melee oriented shmups that like Radirgy, Karous and Suguri in that wiki list? I kinda want something abit abit more similar with those 3.
That would actually be a really good question on my discord server, as a bunch of folks who know so many of the wiki games are even more familiar. I'm still discovering so many of them myself I never played, and with like 200 on the list, haven't even scratched the surface. I would be surprised if there wasn't, but not any of them that I got to try yet. There are a couple with some melee elements but nothing I would say is integral like the games you mentioned. Not yet that I played.
@@ShmupJunkie Thats good enough. I just dont want something like Brave Blade where melee weapon aint good against boss fights.
*brave
I would say the upcoming Remote Weapon Gunfencer by M.Knight, heavily influenced by the Milestone games.
Cho Ren Sha 68K is amazing, I have played it a lot, but in my opinion the best free shooter (and not only but it is one of my absolute favorites) is Eden's Aegis, the anime style, the colors and the music are fantastic, I love shooters and I've played a lot of them but I'm not very strong (stuff like Tatsujin is out of my league), but I liked Eden's Aegis so much that a few years ago when I was playing it every night I was able to finish it at normal difficulty without never be hit, it's not very difficult but for me it remains a record to be proud of, I expected to find it in this video because it is really beautiful, of course I saw that you talked about Blue wish resurrection and I played all the xxxgameroom shooters even the most archaic and unknown (like Green wind or Eden's edge) but in my opinion Eden's Aegis is by far his best work.
These look great and unique. Will definately check all of these out.
The FREE wiki has grown so much since I made this video and it just keeps expanding. Really proud of how it's come along.
@@ShmupJunkie Nice. Didnt realise it was an older video. I just got a steam account and have rarely played any PC games, so its a great resource. Already completed a few of the games on this list and looks to be many other great games. Appreciate you posting it up.
Shout out to Radiozonde! Love that game to death. I find it interesting that you found this game to be nearly unplayably hard. I think there may be different groups of shmuppers with very different styles of play and strengths. I sucked at checkpoint shooters like R-Type. In fact I have never finished any R-types, but I got pretty decent at Radiozonde and games similar to it.
I was just playing Super Hydorah the other night. Excellent game. I haven't seen the "Better Not" level yet though. I'm going to have to go back and try it. :)
Bike Banditz looks like a cross between Ordyne and Airzonk. Might give it a whirl.
Tip.. the google translate smartphone app with camera function works pretty well to translate bike banditz menu in real time on your phone for you. Give it a go if, like me, the menus confused you!
Released 6 hours ago, over 2k views. What a boss dude!
It's been better, right now that's around 5th place all time. But I'm not complaining! haha. We gotta keep this train rolling and bring shooters back. 🤘
@@ShmupJunkie You’re doing a great job of advocating for that bro. I’m all for the cause!
Man, thanks for this Video, i was searching for Cho Ren Sha 68K for years, but i forgot the name and didn't have a clue how to find it. Well, the answer was so simple: just watch your video!
Yep! And I'm glad you did as that free shmup wiki is awesome. I was really stoked to be part of that happening and getting the word out. So these games can get a lot more play.
@@ShmupJunkie The Shmup Wiki definitely will be the next rabbit hole I am going down - after finishing the other games on my pile of shame
Have you tried Xeno Fighters R? It's one of the few games able recreate raiden plasma laser and the game is made in Game Maker Studio.
Not yet but I know it, as some on my discord recommended it. So it's near the top of my list of the games I didn't get to play yet and try. I already watched some video and am definitely going to try it.
I dont know if you also like europshmups/computer games but tyrian and stargunner are free on gog. They are a lot of fun for something different. I know some people scoff at them but I've always had fun with them too. They have more a capcom forgotten worlds feel than a typical shmup from toaplan, compile or whoever.
I like all kinds I am not that picky, long as it's fun. I remember Tyrian well and even played it too way back in the day. I couldn't fit it this time even though I wanted to mention it. I'm just not super familiar with GOG yet and haven't used it, but I keep hearing it mentioned around. So I am going to have to check it out sooner or later.
@@ShmupJunkie dude its the best online storefront for old pc games. Blows steam out of the water and no drm. You can download the installer on any pc and play. Highly recommend run by CD projekt👌. I cant believe I only discovered this channel yesterday I hate the youtube algorithm shoulda seen ya months ago.
@@SevenCompleted Well the good part of just finding a new channel is now you have a lot of great content to check out that interests you. Once you’ve seen what you like no more binging haha. I will definitely check it out. I read it’s basically free to use with ads which is fair. Or no ads for a monthly fee.
@@ShmupJunkie its actually a storefront. You just make a free account there are no ads or subscriptions. Just buy games and they're yours to download on whatever pc you want all legally. They also include pdf scans of the manuals and all sorts of bonus content. They also give away a lot of free games I got duke nukem 3d for free years ago, fallout 1 and 2, aliens vs predator (1999), elder scrolls 1 and 2, that cel shaded fps XIII was free a couple weeks ago. All games are updated and patches to work on modern operating systems as well. I cant recommend them enough.
Thank you so much for showing me these cool free shooting games! No money to spent to download them just download and enjoy! (I'm trying to save my money to get my favorite SEGA Saturn shmup games so wish me luck for getting them!)
You’re welcome! The free shmups wiki is a fantastic resource.
@@ShmupJunkie Again wish me luck for getting my favorite SEGA Saturn shmup games!
FAN-MADE PARODIUS THAT HAS THE R-SEAL OF QUALITY?!! OK INSTANT DOWNLOAD! XD
My wallet will be happy today now that I'm aware of these games and that list of freeware shmups! Thanks for the vid Junkie!
You won’t be disappointed it’s a great game. Easier than the typical Parodius without the mean rank but fun and in the spirit of the series. It’s so much better than if Konami had to make one today 😅.
@@ShmupJunkie The game definitely got the Parodius spirit. It had me giggling at every level. Haven't had time to finish it yet, but I really had to up the difficulty. R-Seal really shows that R-type is too easy with Gradius style levels lol
Radio Zonde... ah, yes. Tonnor/Ranyon is a GENIUS who made HellSinker which was already quite hard to approach, but Radio Zonde is something completely else. i can only dream of clearing it one day
Thank you for these
I am sooo checking out Bike Banditz and ParoParo