Ａ ＨＵＧＥ ＥＮＥＭＹ ＳＴＡＮＤＳ ＩＮ ＹＯＵＲ ＷＡＹ． ＢＥ ＰＲＡＹＩＮＧ．

[Kinsie]

Oh no! You expected another boring "WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE X" thread! But instead you got hit in the face with a million bullets at once. Such is the way of the shmup. Or the STG, if you want to be all weird about it.

Other cool arcade-y shooty-games are welcome here too, it's not all bullet hell hilarity.

WHAT ARE THESE SHMUPS YOU SPEAK OF? I ONLY PLAY VIDEOGAMES WHERE RUSSIAN CHILDREN BRAG ABOUT SLEEPING WITH MY ENTIRE EXTENDED FAMILY
They're 2D auto-scrolling games where you pilot a ship (well, a "ship" - it might be a small child in a frilly dress. Shmups are weird) shooting the crap out of things, collecting powerups and score items and generally laying waste to all you see while not getting hit. If you've played Gradius, R-Type or that kind of thing, you know what I'm talking about.

Over the years, shmups have grown, evolved and mutated, partially to try and grab the attention of the rapidly decreasing arcade audience, partially under the influence of indies that typically sell their wares at comic book conventions. As a result, the clouds of enemy fire have grown denser, the scoring systems more detailed, and the ships more prone to screaming in high-pitched Japanese when they explode. And the end results are typically beautifully addictive arcade romps of a genre that, paradoxically, seems to be becoming rarer and rarer in this day and age while simultaneously becoming more and more visible and available outside of Japan.

I AM SCARED OF LASERS AND WISH TO BE WEANED FROM MY FEAR. PLEASE SHOW ME HOW TO DO SO FOR FREE
First hit's free, kid.

OpenTyrian
Hydorah
ChoRenSha68k
XOP Ultra
Warning Forever

MY WILL IS STRONG, MY CAUSE IS JUST, MY HITBOX IS ONE PIXEL LARGE AND MY SPACESHIP IS CONFUSINGLY KAWAII. WHERE CAN I LEGALLY ATTAIN THESE THINGS WITHOUT SPENDING SEVENTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS ON SHIPPING THEM ACROSS THE GODDAMN PLANET
Here are some games I've either played and liked, or heard good things about from people I trust to not tell me lies in hope that I'm fooled into recommending crap in a big effortpost, so that they can point and go "Ha! I convinced that guy to recommend horse turds to a dude! Laugh at his haircut!"

Gundemonium Collection
The Tale of ALLTYNEX
Jamestown (Enhanced PS4 Version)
Crimson Clover WORLD IGNITION (GOG ver.)
CAVE on Steam and iOS
Summer Carnival '92 RECCA for 3DS Virtual Console
Ikaruga (also on Xbox 360)
The Touhou Project 14: Double Dealing Character (DRM-Free, Untranslated)
JUDGEMENT SILVERSWORD -Resurrection-

There are probably other games that you have very strong opinions about. Tell me. Caress my soul with your stories of weaving through tornadoes of steaming hot plasma.

DIDN'T SOMEBODY WHO POSTS HERE MAKE SOME GAMES LIKE THIS
Alterworldruler does! Xenohell is on Steam and Xenodyne R is in development and on Greenlight.

There's also Doommaku, a small birthday present TerminusEst13 made for Kurashiki. Not really the same thing, but it's worth pointing out, right? Shoot the oni until it dies.

Now, let's egg each other on into higher scores and 1CCing shit!
I'm really bad at these, and odds are you probably are too. Let's be bad together and improve together!

[Project Shadowcat]

Add XOP Ultra to the Free list. It's classified as a Bullet Hell shmup and was probably my first of the sub-genre. I found it pretty fun.

EDIT: Game in action:

[Kinsie]

I'll get right on that, chief.

And while I'm here: Why isn't Shmupulations in your bookmarks list? Don't lie and say it is - I know the truth.

[Sgt. Shivers]

I'm a huge fan of "WW2" Shmups like 1944: The Loop Master and the Strikers series. Are there any official ports of those to pc?

[Beed28]

Does Warning Forever count?

[Kinsie]

Does Warning Forever count?

Oh man, I haven't played that in ages! Sure it does!

[Naniyue]

Wow, you posted a LOT of what I would have!

I'd like to add, though, Gate of Thunder and Lords of Thunder for the Turbografx 16 Super CD. Genesis and SNES got nuttin on these! Sapphire as well, at least for its technical showcase (Polygon enemies on the Turbo?!?!?!)

Harmful Park for Playstation One.

Open Tyrian is also available for the DS.

RAPTOR - CALL OF THE SHADOWS! Get it from GOG! NOW!

GOSH! How could I forget about Toy Robo Force for the GBA? I've mentioned it enough times online.

OTOCKY for Famicom Disk System, and Fuzzical Fighter for Famicom/NES.

EDIT:
@ Sgt. Shivers: Second thumbs up for 1944 The Loop Master! No ports that I'm aware of, though, besides emulation (oooh I said a bad word!) Or you could buy the main board and build or buy a supergun: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SuperGun

[wildweasel]

I'm a big fan of the Raiden games, Raiden DX in particular (Toothpaste Laser forever!). Raiden Fighters Aces for X360 is a solid compilation and probably not overly expensive now (comes with Raiden Fighters 1, 2, and Jet), and 3 and 4 are available via Steam and are constantly on sale.

[Kinsie]

There's also a compilation on Steam, GOG, iOS and Android that has Raiden and Fighters 1/2/Jet. Reactions seem pretty mixed, though - at least to the Steam release.

A new Raiden game came out recently, but it's an Xbox One exclusive that's only available in Japan. I've heard mixed reactions to it, even beyond those initial hurdles.

[wildweasel]

Ah, Raiden Legacy...yeah, sadly, that's a DotEmu work, and their emulation quality is not always very good (the sound in the original Raiden is pretty awful, in the Android version). Aces was done without them, and it's quite a bit more solid in that respect. Sadly, the only way you can get at Raiden 2 and DX is either via emulation or purchasing the old Playstation versions (Raiden Project contains 1 and 2 and is available in English, but it's a long-box game and is a little expensive; Raiden DX's Playstation port wasn't released outside of Japan).

[Naniyue]

Raiden II also came out for PC in the late 1990's. It's pretty faithful as far as I can remember, but the music is CD based.

Raiden III was on PC, Playstation 2, and I think a couple of other systems.

[Kinsie]

I beat the Stage 2 boss of DoDonPachi without getting hit and it felt great! Like I was approaching competence!

Baby steps, but steps regardless. The Get Good At Shmups Project Starts Now.

[jdredalert]

A noob question from someone that never played shmups: how you're supposed to evade something like this? And how many shots you can take before you're dead?

[Kinsie]

A noob question from someone that never played shmups: how you're supposed to evade something like this? And how many shots you can take before you're dead?

How You Evade It: Your hitbox is like 1 pixel big.
How Many Shots: Depends. Sometimes there's an "auto-bomb" system that'll automatically use a bomb if you have one when hit. Otherwise? Flat dead in one shot.

[wildweasel]

A noob question from someone that never played shmups: how you're supposed to evade something like this? And how many shots you can take before you're dead?

Most bullet-hell-type games do not have a full-size hitbox on the player; it is usually an extremely small dot somewhere in the center of your player sprite.Some games are nice and show the dot, while others hide it. I know of a couple that offer a barrier or dodge button that renders you indestructible for a split-second but must charge between uses.

Which reminds me: Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth for Nintendo 64 is a surprisingly good game; in keeping with the point above, it offers a "Rolling" button that lets you pass through bullets for a quarter of a second.

[edit] Actually, if you want to "train" yourself on bullet-hell tactics, I highly recommend rRootage by Kenta Cho, which has settings that mimic 4 other shooters (including Giga Wing and Ikaruga settings) and basically just sends boss after boss at you. Also cool abstract graphics and music.