Poll of the Day > What would you say are the worst shmups?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Gotta be autoscrollers (for the most part), so Ikari Warriors doesn't count. But I'll allow rail shooters and pathed flight games (Afterburner/Starfox) as well, just for freedom. (Of course, you don't HAVE to use these guidelines... they're just guidelines)

Dont have to respect the context of the time either. Galaga still holds up, Galaxian does not. (not that either are scrolling shmups, just a good example of context. Galaxian was considered revolutionary, but it's crap... it's the Hydlide of shmups to Galaga's Zelda)

Anyways:

To find out why the good shmups are good, gunna need some crap to compare them to. Even the arcade game in Stardew Valley is better than Galaxian.

But ya, Galaxian is my par for crap.
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https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/758719-blast-em/reviews
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I think the extreme end of bullet hell makes a game absolute garbage. But I'm willing to admit that maybe I'm just trash at those games....
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I don't know if there's a such thing as a bad one, but some mediocre ones might be:

Phalanx on SNES
Transbot on SMS

and BTW, a good one that might not qualify but I didn't think of mentioning last time would be Fantasy Zone games.

one I'm not sure of is Blazing Lasers on TGFX16. it was kind of amazing at the time, but playing it these days it doesn't seem all that great.
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i might call Air Fortress (NES) one of the worst shmups...
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Phalanx is a shmup? But it's just on old guy playing a banjo on the cover!?
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Galaxian is better than Galaga, so your analogy is actually correct.

I understand Hong Kong '97 is pretty bad.
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