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Vertical Scrolling Shoot'em Ups

The Shoot'em Up Genre is pretty old. One could say as one of the first Video Games Spacewar! was a Shmup they are the root of videogaming. Over time the Shoot'em Up Genre splitted up into multiple Genres. In this small article i wanna talk about vertical Scrollers.

The Genre has seen alot of great Games from the early Arcades, to Homecomputers up to modern PCs and Consoles.

Vertical shooters evolved from fixed shooters. One famous fixed shooter is Space Invaders. As the name implies the playfield is fixed without any scrolling. Out of this Niche came Xevious in 1982 and 1942 in 1984 and many other.

Vertical Shooters have also been popular during the "Home Computer Age" and the "2nd Console Boom" maybe from 1984 up to 1994. There have been memorable releases like MUSHA Aleste for the Sega Mega Drive and Tiger Heli for the Arcades. Also Raiden made his appearance in the Arcades. This age is often also referred to as the Golden Age (1980-1995). After that Period several great releases for the Sony Playstation (Psx), Gamecube , the Sega Consoles and the Arcades have been following. The DonPachi Series and the excellent Zanac Neo (2001 Psx) are some examples.

Flash Vertical Shmups

One of the first V-Shooters for Flash was Gorlog 2002 released in 2002.

V-Shooters have never been really booming in Flash Gaming. Apart from a flood of indipendent mostly Japanese Developers for the Pc the Genre in general seems to have passed its peak. But still there are alot of Shmup Fans and also some great V-Shmups for Flash. Iam gonna introduce some of them below.

Raiden X

Here we have one Big Name in Shmup History. This is an inofficial release that finally brings the Raiden Series to Flash.

The Game itself is a mix of the official Raiden 1 and Raiden 2 Games with some custom elements.

Everything is there. Multiple Weapons, Bombs and great Boss fights. Raiden X consists of 8 Levels. Every level has is own boss and units. Some weapons are more powerful vs certain enemies. If you use them smart life will be alot easier. Raiden X also offers different modes so there is also a chance for beginners.

All in all a good inofficial appearance of this Series for Flash.

Play Raiden X here at Ragingmouse.com

Arcanacra

Here we have Arcanacra. It is one of these stunning Japanese Indie-Games.

It offers multiple Weapons which can also be upgraded. There is a main and a secondary weapon. The secondary weapon are Homing-Missiles.

The games has 6 Levels all with End Bosses. The graphics arnt that colorfull but they look very atmospheric. The music is awesome. The game creates a kindof hypnotic gaming experience. Really a great Shooter, give it a try!

Play Arcanacra here at Ragingmouse.com

Pararalyzer

Now this is a great one: Pararalyzer. Another Japanese Indie-Game and this is really a Gem.

In Pararalyzer you can choose from 3 different fighters each with different weapons. Its of course a vertical scrolling shooter. There are masses of sprites and bullets on the screen. The Endbosses are big and they switch to different states after you have beaten one form of them. The Music is good too. This issnt a new Game and it has been overseen by many over the years. Lets change this now and try Pararalyzer you will not regret it!

Play Pararalyzer here at Ragingmouse.com