As regular readers will know, I do like a list and I do like a shoot ‘em up, so I thought it was high-time I combined these two passions and came up with my top ten shoot ‘em ups, although as I write we’re not quite there yet! Number one and two are clear, and we’ll get to at least one of those later on here, but enjoying a list as much as I do, what I’ve done is come up with four different top ten shoot ‘em up lists, of which one is currently still a top five and one a top six! Therefore, to avoid forcing the matter – as well as delay having to make any difficult decisions about overall rankings – I’m going to drag things out, starting here with my top ten horizontal shoot ‘em ups, then at some point in the future we’ll do vertical, then we’ll do single-screen (think Space Invaders, although that’s not likely to be in the list!), and then we’ll look at everything else (3D, on-rails, gallery…), before finally combining them all for a definitive countdown of the genre – buying me loads of time to happily procrastinate about how forty becomes ten! Actually, I need to decide if 3D, into the screen stuff needs its own list, but that’s also a thought for another day…

And it’s potentially years away too, so for the time being, we’re going to tackle the horizontally scrolling shoot ‘em up or schmup or stg or even shooter as they used to be known, and what we’re going to do is follow the same format as my ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 top ten loading screen countdowns, for example, where we’ll go in reverse order and then for each game have a look at what it’s all about followed by my own thoughts on why it’s where it is in the list, and I’ll limit those to a paragraph each so we’re not here all day! I’ll also list where I’ve played the version I’m talking about, but apart from that, I’ve not imposed any rules whatsoever – as long as it mostly moves left or right or both and you’re shooting stuff from something that’s flying one way or another it’s fair game, so let’s see what we’ve got!

10. Prehistoric Isle 2 (Arcade / Nintendo Switch)

We’re kicking off with a game from 1999 that I didn’t even know existed until I came upon its 1989 predecessor in the SNK 40thAnniversary Collection on Nintendo Switch in 2018. Just to throw in even more dates, the first Prehistoric Isle is set in 1930, and while out in your plane looking for missing ships, you’ve discovered the probable cause in a previously unknown place in the Bahamas known as Greenhell Isle, which turns out to be full of dinosaurs out for your blood too! Fast-forward to the future and in Prehistoric Isle 2 we find ourselves in a helicopter over a city where “various types of dinosaurs which are large, small, or even those with wings have emerged! Your mission is to eliminate these primeval beasts from the city. Help all the trapped citizens escape!”

The blurb then goes on to tell us to “enjoy a variety of stages and colorful settings!” and that is precisely what I did when I eventually picked up the ACA NEOGEO version on Switch! Proper love at first sight too, and I just clicked with it in a literal instant – the first twenty seconds, to be precise, as you’re flung into a high-speed 3D thrill-ride through a load of skyscrapers and then it’s suddenly 2D and you’re in the thick of it, with a huge dinosaur terrifyingly teasing you and just enough time to work out which button is fire before two massive colour-swept birds rip an entire building to shreds and you try to catch the human falling out of its explosion as you’re guided down into a crater in the street and the screen instantly fills with all kinds of danger! It’s this concentration of vibrant exhilaration that hooked me, but then it keeps coming back throughout the six stages, daring you to the edge of control, with these gorgeous enemy sprites on beautifully-lit pre-rendered backgrounds and a superb Castlevania meets Indiana Jones soundtrack, and the densest, tensest sound effects! Why’s this only at number ten?

9. Metal Black (Arcade / PlayStation 2 / Taito Egret II Mini)

The working title for this 1991 shoot ‘em up was Project Gun Frontier 2, and I know that because it still says that on the pre-title screen on my Taito Egret II Mini, even if it ended up with the loosest of connections to the fantastic 1990 vertical shooter, Gun Frontier! Does have a lovely description on there though… “Shoot with the A button and collect Newalones to charge the Black Fly’s ‘ultimate weapon for peace’: an energy beam with enormous destructive power.” There’s also a big, fully translated story on the Mini that scrolls by way too fast, but it’s something along the lines of asteroids being pushed towards Earth by a Jupiter companion star, whatever that is, and while we’re weakened from the barrage some ne’er-do-well aliens have decided to take advantage.

Doesn’t matter – it’s stunning and it’s a delight to play… At least until it gets too hard for me! I actually know Metal Black best from Taito Legends 2 on the PlayStation 2, but since the little Taito arcade machine came along with its chunky mini arcade stick, that’s been the place to play! The detail and colour in both the backgrounds and a lot of the bigger enemies especially is incredible (and the stage two boss is particularly impressive), and there’s some great psychedelic special effects, devastating set pieces and one of the great schmup soundtracks.

8. Super Fantasy Zone (Sega Mega Drive / Genesis Mini)

Not sure if the arrival of the Mega Drive Mini back in 2019 was my first taste of Super Fantasy Zone because it certainly wasn’t my first taste of the series over the years and I’ve totally lost track! Uniquely in this list, we’re free-scrolling right to left as well as the regular left to right with this one from 1992, kind of like Defender, you might say! You play as Opa-Opa, avenging the death of his father, O-Papa, during the invasion of the Fantasy Zone by Dark Menon, and once again you’re flying back and forth shooting down enemy generators while also taking out his minions, all for coins which you can use to get some crazy upgrades for your ship. Shoot them all down on each level and you’ll face off against its madcap boss before moving to the next.

Some time ago here, I narrowly decided that 3D Fantasy Zone II W, the 16-bit arcade hardware remake of Fantasy Zone II: The Tears of Opa-Opa, was my favourite in the series, with the proviso that I’d been playing an awful lot of it in a short space of time at the time of writing but on any given day I could also say the same for PC-Engine Fantasy Zone or the Mega Drive version we’re talking here… And today is obviously the latter’s given day! This is the perfect next-gen console upgrade on the original, with great graphics, wild colours and the most joyful music you’ll ever hear in a video game! If the original game pioneered the cute ‘em up genre then I reckon this defined it, and, together with Road Rash II, it’s what I’d also define as my own gaming comfort food, and always my go-to when I’ve got a football match on the telly and half-time to kill!

7. Saint Dragon (Arcade / Evercade)

If humanity is being attacked by a seemingly invincible cyborg army, it needs to build a big cyborg dragon to fight back with! Saint Dragon came from Jaleco in 1989, and the gameplay is almost as straightforward as the plot – shoot stuff and collect tokens to upgrade your weapons through five levels and their big bosses. There is a literal sting in the tail though because you can control the placement of your own tail through the movement of your ship, and with a bit of practice you’ll not only be using it as a shield, but also to dish out a bit of damage too. On top of that, those tokens let you beef up your offence with pulse torpedoes, lasers, bombs and turrets, as well as upgrade your speed and firepower. Cool hyper mode too!

I spent more than thirty years doing this game a huge disservice! If love and hate are two sides of the same coin, then their opposite is indifference, and from the very first time I saw screenshots in Computer & Video Games magazine, which evolved into adverts and then reviews for the Spectrum and Commodore 64 conversions, then Atari ST and Amiga, then PC-Engine, I’ve been totally indifferent to Saint Dragon! Just didn’t look like it was for me so I totally ignored it. But let me tell you something, brother… It’s absolutely fantastic! A beautiful game with great variety in settings and enemies from the outset, including a lovely new sunset for me to swoon over and a vivid cosmic forest. All of that is full of subtle animated life and fantastic parallax scrolling, and it’s backed by a superb, vaguely gothic and vaguely industrial eighties synth rock soundtrack that’s close to the best we’ll see here! And even without that unique tail mechanic, it’s a hell of a shooter, but once you master that on top then it’s out of this world. And I’m almost as blown away every time I play it now as I am by having passed it by for more than three decades!

6. Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams (Arcade / Sega Astro City Mini)

While it took me a some time to know I needed Saint Dragon, I spent just as long waiting to get my hands on Cotton; I always knew though! A single screenshot was all it took this time too, right back around when it was first created by Success for Sega arcade machines back in 1991, but it took the arrival of the Sega Astro City Mini in 2021 for me to finally experience this witchy cute ‘em. Anyway, you’re a witch on the hunt for candy, and by taking down the supernatural anime masses standing between you and it, you’ll also be returning light to the Halloween world… Sorry but I’ve still got PTSD from the last time I tried to explain a Cotton storyline so that’s all you’re getting here! As well as assistance from your lovely, lovely bikini-clad fairy friend, Silk, you’ve got crystals to collect to power-up your weapons, massive magic spells and bombs, and a kind of RPG-lite system for levelling up your attacks. And, of course, the iconic end-of level boss tea-time celebration!

Over the past few years I’ve become a huge Cotton fan, playing and completing most of the series, spending a fortune on Collector’s Editions of the newer ones, and just loving the evolution of its systems, complexities and often stunningly gothic graphical and musical prowess. And if Cotton 2 wasn’t so damned hard, you might well be reading about that here now instead, because I could live in that gorgeous place, but I wouldn’t say no to an overnight stay in this original game either… The vibe is very much old-school Scooby Doo scary – vibrant sprites and detailed foreground decoration on muted but characterful gothic backgrounds, with some big, fun bosses and wild for the time screen-effects too! Music has been a constant through the series so what’s here is going to be nostalgically familiar to anyone that’s heard it since, and the same for the contemporary but always bonkers cutscenes. And it’s a joy to play, with surprising depth behind those two buttons and a bunch of coloured crystals, and a fairness to its challenge that keeps you coming back. Glad I finally found my Cotton!

5. Progear (Arcade / Nintendo Switch)

Halfway and time for our first entry from legendary shoot ‘em up machine Cave, from whence Progear emerged into the arcades in 2001. I’d dabbled with it on MAME (as was the case for a lot of what’s here) long before it appeared on Capcom Arcade Stadium on Switch in 2021 but that’s where I properly got to know its steampunk take on an alternate anime World War II kind of punishing bullet-hell. The story actually involves a bunch of children in a plane trying to overthrow some new world order though, and you’ll get a choice of which pilot and gunner combination suits your play style best. These represent your two firing modes, with “Pilot” offering a strong attack with the gunner shooting without locking onto a target, while “Gunner” has weaker fire and its movement speed becomes slower but with locked on, concentrated fire. And those also alternate to hoover up each type of the mass of jewels created when you destroy enemies! Way more instinctive than I’ve just badly described too!

I recently went back to Progear after a few months, and while some games are like riding a bike, this one is way too brutal for that prosaic nonsense! The first three stages come back fairly quickly, and sweeping and picking your way around those insane bullet curtains becomes the same joy it’s always been pretty quickly, but stages four and five are virtually impenetrable! Except they’re not really, and that’s the thrill of bullet-hell – leaving your comfort zone, plotting new routes, experimenting, trying the impossible, dying and trying it again. The bullet-patterns here are mesmerising, and while some are all about methodically picking your way through, even more are intense, semi-screen filling bursts, and there are few greater exhilarations in gaming than learning to ride these, like a surfer learning to ride a wave, then throwing yourself around and in-between in the face of relentless and ridiculously intense danger! Absolutely classic Cave and why I love their games so much! Maybe not the most memorable of soundtracks but I love the art style too – a kind of military pixel-realism that feels a bit like an anime Metal Slug, without overpowering the bullets as the stars of the show. As we’ll still see, there’s more welcoming entry points into the genre but few more spectacular or downright exciting!

4. P-47: The Phantom Fighter (Arcade / Evercade)

P-47 is an arcade game by Jaleco in 1988 that got ported everywhere, which is how first encountered it on the ZX Spectrum, but it was the PC-Engine version where I’d eventually get to know it best, at least until we came full-circle back to original on Nintendo Switch and then Evercade. It’s a World War II affair but was designed to be a celebration of freedom rather than a gritty, unsettling depiction of war, which might explain it’s upbeat soundtrack (although nothing will explain the bizarre music you encounter in the otherwise excellent Amiga conversion)! None of that really makes much difference to the gameplay though – you’re flying your Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter plane through eight stages in the skies over eight countries, shooting and bombing and missiling (depending on your current power-up) everything that moves to bring down the Nazis.

It’s one of those games I just clicked with the very first time I played it – I’ve been an avid amateur World War II historian since I was a kid so the setting was right, the challenge was right, there’s plenty of variety… And I’d play it forever just to experience one of my favourite sights in all of gaming, that glorious sunset on that gorgeous second level! As well as learning enemy patterns, knowing which power-up you’re going to need next and when to pick it up has a huge impact on success, especially when it comes to the huge bosses – that second stage is a good example of where it’s easy to get stuck with a missile that splits into three in the air that looks cool but is completely useless against this giant bomber, and it takes a lifetime to bring it down with it, where a bomb will finish it off in seconds! That’s about the point where the challenge really picks up too, and you’ll be doing very well to loop all eight stages! Apart from the best sunset ever, it’s very much of its time graphically, meaning detailed and attractive but more functional than spectacular. Similar sound-wise too. Wow, that was way too objective… Gorgeous game in all respects!

3. G-Darius (Arcade / PlayStation / Nintendo Switch)

G-Darius finds itself in an exclusive club, together with Silent Hill, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Destruction Derby 2 and In the Hunt that still has me regularly firing up my original PlayStation. I’m also going to mention that one day I’ll have played enough of Darius Gaiden to know if that should be here instead! Anyway, until then, this was the fourth game in the series (although I think story-wise it’s a prequel) and had some innovations up its sleeve with those 3D polygons and refined enemy capture mechanics, though it should be noted that there were a few dissenting voices about this horizontal shooter stuff still being wheeled out into the arcades by Taito in 1997! You’re caught up in the ongoing conflict between the humanoid Amnelia Kingdom and the merciless cyborg bio-vessels of the Thiima Empire, meaning shoot everything in sight, gradually powering up and creating your own strategies with the game’s unique capture ball system, which allows you to electro-reel in enemies then use them to your own violent advantage, as well as its familiar branching path progression through its total fifteen stages.

This was originally a purely back of the box buy back in 1998, when I was instantly blown away by those huge 3D polygons in the midst of all that under- and over-water chaos. And then, once I’d been sold by pretty pictures, it was the sheer thrill ride of the massed waves of marine-inspired robot enemies, and that unforgettable first encounter with Eclipse Eye, the iconic giant yellow mechanical broadmouth gibberfish stage one boss! Darius bosses are always something else, and what you’ve got here is as nuts as you could wish for, with not just screen filling insanity, but mecha-monstrosities that couldn’t be contained by about ten screens! And if it was a stunning sight on the PlayStation, you should check out the HD remaster on Switch! Hell of a soundtrack too – unpredictably spanning diverse genres and equally beautiful and terrifying all at once, which also applies to the sound effects! Rock hard but very rewarding, even after all these years!

2. Thunder Force AC (Arcade / Nintendo Switch / Sega Astro City Mini)

I’ve been a fan of most of the Mega Drive Thunder Forces forever, but it took the 2020 Sega Ages rerelease on Nintendo Switch to introduce me to this 1990 arcade reworking of Thunder Force III on there. This version also includes unlockable ships from the other games for series nerds, as well as online leaderboards that are totally meaningless to someone as useless as me, although Kids Mode and save states are more useful because blasting your way through the armada of the evil ORN Empire across five alien planets is no mean feat! Actually, those environments are almost as dangerous as their inhabitants, so you need to make use of being able to alter your ship’s speed, although your biggest assist is the ability to switch through weapons you’ve collected on the fly, so one second you can be firing front and back and the next you’ve got this huge pulse wave firing up and down and forwards. Loads of weapons to find and other perks to pick up, and you’ll want to hang on to the lot for as long as possible!

A bit like Super Fantasy Zone earlier, I’ve got my Astro City Mini on my desk where I work and when I fancy a break with a bit of gaming comfort food, it’s generally this I’ll fire up on there for a few minutes. It really feels good on the perfectly proportioned and even more perfectly weighted arcade stick on there, even if you are compromising a bit on hearing its excellent soundtrack; not quite Thunder Force IV great, although there’s so much sound and speech going on over the top you won’t be comparing the two as you play! So much going on is what I love about this one though – as well as the sound, there’s graphics everywhere! It’s like the best-looking Mega Drive game ever, built on those foundations but full of multi-layered tricks and flourishes that machine could only dream of, and so much diversity too, from organic forest worlds to psychedelic lava caves to gorgeous star-fields and beyond! So much gameplay too – it gets frantic fast, but learnable frantic, and a lot of what’s going on is often from your screen-filling weapons, or some really cool big bosses! Love everything about this one!

1. Deathsmiles (Arcade / Nintendo Switch)

Back when I unboxed the Deathsmiles I+II Collector’s Edition here previously, I didn’t go into much detail on this one because it deserved its own deep-dive. And it’s still coming, I promise! In the meantime, it’s another from Cave in 2007, heavy on the gothic vibe and heavy on the bullets. You take the role of one (or two with a friend) of four thematically questionable “Angels” defending the magical land of Gilverado from an invasion by hell itself across eight nightmarish (but in an almost-cute anime kind of way) stages. This is where Deathsmiles brings a few of its own tricks to the party too, with a choice of where to begin, from Port Town, Forest of the Lost or Lake Shore. Beat the first level of choice and you’ll get another batch of stages to choose from – Graveyard, Swamp Wastes and Volcano, and then you choose from first lot again and so on until you’ve beaten all six, when you can either enter the hellish Gorge or go straight to the finale in Hades Castle. Things then get really unique because each of these stages has three levels of difficulty, and in the original game you can only choose each one twice before it’s locked out, so as accessible as this initially makes it, you’ll soon have some decisions to make about where it gets harder, or, indeed, where you’ll score biggest.

Console rereleases over the years loosened things up though, letting you choose whatever level you want, when you want, and once I got hold of the 2021 Switch version and could play legitimately, shall we say, for the first time, I must admit I do like to play it casual like this. Not that it’s especially casual, but for a bullet-hell shooter there’s no better entry point into the genre, with or without the difficulty gates. And while it might be (relatively) accessible, that’s not to say Cave’s trademark exhilaration isn’t also here in spades, with those majestic, breathless sweeps across the face of a wall of bullets and enemies we saw in Progear equally evident here, and likewise some of the boss bullet patterns, which are as insane as their character designs! And such aesthetic design elsewhere too, where every single aspect could have been made just for me! Again, visually they’re everything great about Cave shooters in terms of detail, animation and creativity, but here that’s all running wild through a haunted house, and the soundtrack is equally Hammer Horror, albeit with what’s sounds more like Rambo running wild with a machine gun over a supernatural cacophony on top! And all of that adds up to why it gets top spot here!

And with Deathsmiles in place as the horizontal champion, we’ll have to see where it stacks up against the future kings of the vertical and single-screen and 3D and so on shoot ‘em ups. Eventually! For context though, it currently sits in the number twenty spot of my huge list of all-time favourite games, right behind Winter Games on Commodore 64 but I’m not saying what’s the other side here! Apart from G-Darius versus Darius Gaiden or Super Fantasy Zone versus Fantasy Zone II-type conundrums, this particular list pretty much wrote itself, albeit admittedly over the course of several months. I do just want to finish with a few honourable mentions though, in no particular order, that very nearly made the cut… Andes Attack on the Commodore VIC-20, a wonderful game of Defender by Jeff Minter and his llamas; Chopper Command on Atari 2600, another wonderful game of Defender; Apidya on Amiga, with its insect-scale art style and some of the best music on the system; Psikyo’s 1996 Feudal Japan beast Tengai; Einhänder, the polygon-based original PlayStation shooter with the best set of neon signs you’ll ever see in a game; the spectacular Last Resort, Pulstar and Blazing Star on Neo Geo; Lords of Thunder on PC- Engine; and finally (because otherwise I’ll be listing stuff here all day!) Scramble, whether the arcade original or the Grandstand handheld, or even Skramble! or plain old Skramble on the VIC-20… I salute you all! With that, see you whenever it is we go vertical for more of the same!