Not a bad thing mind you, I adore Cave (not as familiar with Toaplan) but I think Japanese players have a bit more ennui with shmups aping those styles, to the extent that Radiant Silvergun was a conscious attempt to subvert it, as per Hiroshi Iuchi:

shmuplations.com/radiantsilve...

Wow Splatterworld was that good? I wanted to try it but I get kinda intimidated by Famicom RPG's and how much grinding they require

Earnest Evans (1991, Genesis)

Jarring and hilarious as it may be, the Rumble Fish-esque animations are pretty damn impressive for the time, and it doesn't play that bad either, aside from a bit of jank. The highlight are the cutscenes by Madhouse, I'm a real sucker for Sega CD anime visuals

I'm probably wrong but the artstyle looks like this was drawn by the Utsurun Desu mangaka

The Outfoxies (1995, Arcade)

I'd say it lives up to the hype; the combat's fun with some nuanced differences between each fighter, and stylistically it's really cool and creative. Though of course, being an arcade game, it's absolutely awful in single player with opponents taking reduced damage

it’d be hard to pull off but i’d be in tears if they did it, i played it all the time at my local laser tag as a kid

me

Yeah I had fun with it and I’m patient to a fault with tech demo-like games but those levels where you had to grind enemies were such a drag

Milano’s Odd Job Collection (2025, Switch)

Just as adorable and charming as I’d hoped; kinda Tron Bonne-esque? The minigames actually caught me off-guard with how unique and tricky the control schemes are. Also really great to see hobbyist translators getting official work, kudos to Hilltop

The PS2 version comes with a DVD that shows the highest ranked players' gameplay which is nice too

Ouuugghhh he lickin his chops

Uninstall them, that's what got me to kick the Dota habit

One of my all time faves, I'm really glad you liked it 👏

Pinobee: Wings of Adventure (2001, GBA)

Wow, there's a lot more going on here mechanically than I figured there'd be, including a karma system with multiple endings? It's a fun, unique platformer altogether, though I'm more interested to check out the Japan-only sequel which is supposedly better

Stuffed animal lookin ass 🥺💞

Have you tried the EGGCONSOLE ports for Switch? I got hooked on the original version of Silpheed last year, that thing's insane for an 8-bit computer

Oh no, hope you're okay :C

I guess the AI art contributes to the intentionally awful aesthetic in a modern kinda way but we can do that without using tech that burns down rainforests