Features
Doujin Shmups: An Introduction
By Postman
Edited by Derek Yu
March 6, 2007
So you've heard about this Kenta Cho guy, or maybe you've even heard about Warning Forever and gave it a download. "Not bad," you think. "I wonder what else is out there in the doujin shmup scene." Well, there's plenty, and it can be quite intimidating. Even if you look past the language barrier (assuming you're not Japanese), the sheer amount of material and difficulty in finding the right games can be enough to scare even the most curiousest Shmup Hunter (tm) away. Fear not, indie gamer, we're here to hold your hand and guide you through the bullet barrage of confusion when it comes to understanding the basics about Japanese homebrew shooters.
First, let's back up a bit. Shmup is short for "shoot 'em up", which applies mainly to spaceships blasting away other flying objects on a technical 2-D playing field (I say technical because some games like Ikaruga use 3-D graphics). Doujin is a Japanese term used for small publishers, somewhat similar to the word "indie" in English-speaking sections of the world. So a doujin shmup is generally a 2-D flying shooter made by a just a few people or a small software house. Pretty simple so far, right?
Types of Doujin Shmups
Doujin shmups encompass a very wide gambit of styles and categories of games. The most popular of categories is the Danmaku shmup, a.k.a the "manic", "curtain fire", or "bullet hell" shooter. The games are just like the names imply: chocked full of bullets and intricate patterns that force the player to creatively weave through them or crash and burn in flames of failure. Sometimes it's the sheer challenge and sense of accomplishment that addict certain people to manic shmups, or maybe we're just a bit crazy.
Cute 'em ups are just regular shmups which feature much lighter characters, such as animals or teddy bears. These games often poke fun at the entire genre.
Versus shmups pit two players against each other in a Street Fighter-style brawl. This can pan out well in some cases, or be a total disaster in others.
Hentai shmups (hentai meaning "perverted" in Japanese)... well, they manage to work sex into the genre, either directly through gameplay (!) or via pictures after beating a level.
Abstract shooters have a style all their own, and often combine vector graphics with an eccentric color scheme as a form of expression.
There's even a group of shooters called the Touhou games, which are all chapters from the Shanghai Alice software house, mainly produced by the shmup-master Zun. He's given the community such masterpieces as Perfect Cherry Blossom and more recently, Shoot the Bullet.
Shmups can even combine other genres to create a hybrid, such as the RPG/shmup and the puzzle/shmup.
The Ladder of Doujin Games
That's a quick rundown on the mechanics of shmups! Now we need to move on and examine the different levels of game production, which I call the "Ladder of Doujin Games."
The bottom rung is our the starting point - the simplest of games. These are often "one hit wonders" by a single author. Game Maker, the popular game making program, and "Hot Soup Processor," a Japanese-based application, are frequently used to make these types of games. Bottom rung shmups are relatively simple to manipulate, and allow amateur programmers access to the shmup world. Some examples of games on this rung would be Beyond the Line and Rinne Tensho. (Note that just because a game is on the "first rung", it doesn't necessarily mean it's a poorly made game.)
The second rung is all about the game portals and freeware sites that churn out rip-offs of Space Invader and Galaga like there's no tomorrow. These usually sell for $9.95 - $19.95 and it's like playing the same game over and over. Sometimes you'll stumble across one that has slightly more impressive graphics or a new twist on gameplay, such as Alien Stars. You'll find a large portion of the indie shmup scene gobbled up into this category, and I must warn people: DON'T form your opinion of doujin/indie shooters on these games alone. They flood the market and playing them is like eating too much sugar: they'll get you hyper at first but eventually you're going to crash. Move on to something with more creative bullet patterns!
Futher up the ladder on the third rung you get to the clone games. The most popular games in this section are the Gradius clones. This can be a good thing if the original game is worth cloning, and it's really amazing to see what the indie developers can add to an already good game. One of my favorites is G-Type, which is a combination of Gradius and R-Type. In most cases, the graphics and music of the game matches the original so closely you would swear it was made by the real company. These work great for fans dying for a sequel to a game that has no hope of ever having having an offical one released (*cough* Thunderforce).
Now, for the final two rungs of the ladder you are playing with the big dogs. These titles come from developers that are small enough to still be considered doujin, but with larger teams and more resources then the weekend coder who just whipped up a shooter in a few months. Many of these titles have a high enough production value to be distributed at events such as Comiket, a haven for doujin shmup fans.
Rung four of our ladder will be for the "amateur" software houses, such as Artesneit, Twinkle Soft, Platine Dispositif, and ABA Games (Kenta Cho). Many of these companies have several shooters in their resume, and you can see the continual progress as the quality of each game improves over time. This is a very large portion of the doujin shmup scene, and features such classics as Rally Raid, Warning Forever, and Ether Vapor.
And finally, on the fifth rung, standing above all others and gazing down upon them are the "professional" software houses. They crank out the best shmups with the highest production value. After playing one of these babies, you are either instantly hooked on the genre or so sickened by the insane bullet patterns that you will never play another danmaku game again. Steel Saviour has some incredible visuals, and it's hard to believe that games from Shanghai Alice (Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, Imperashible Night) are mainly the work of one person (the aforementioned Zun). And Kamui, from Siter Skain, still stands as one of my favorite doujin shmups of all time.
As you can see, there is a doujin shmup existing for just about anyone, from a Geometry Wars clone seeker to a hardcore bullet-eater who wants to rank first on a global score chart! You just need to figure out what kind of shmups you're interested in and then dive in.
Postman's Top 10!
So now that you've got a bit more information about doujin shmups, your curiousity has been peaked, and you want to try some out. But where do you start? Here's my personal top 10 doujin shmups:
10. Steel Saviour (Atlanteq) - SS takes the route of Einhander, with the ability to switch a few different weapons around on the fly. What makes this game stand out though are the beautiful graphics and the top notch difficulty. The eye candy will more than make up for all the curses that will be hurled at the screen.
9. G-Type (CnC Darkside) - Gradius and R-Type had a love child, and this is the result. Picture the R-9 with a Gradius power up bar, and levels that feature the best of both games. 3 difficulty modes with different levels each, and a bonus boss parade that randomly appears... classic.
8. Bike Banditz (Hot Pulse) - Another graphical showcase makes the list, only this time it's done in cartoon style/cell shading. Add to that selectable characters and great gameplay and you've got a winner.
7. Rally Raid (Twinklesoft) - The bomb/combo system of RR is the hook for this one. Collect enough powerups to fire a stream weapon, then "eat" as many bullets as you can, because if you hit the quota you get a free refill and can start streaming again. You also have the choice to "break" the stream and turn it into a large circular bomb. Brilliant system.
6. Syu-So-Gyoku (Syunsatu Sare Do) - SSG is a very basic shmup, but it covers the groundwork almost perfectly. It starts out slow, but before you know it you're facing crazy bullet patterns, dual boss fights, and a brutal end boss. Great fun.
5. Ether Vapor (Edelwiss) - Even though this game isn't finished yet, the demo was impressive enough to make the list. EV switches perspective constantly in the game, so expect some horizontal sections, some vertical, and even a bonus round in 3-D.
4. Warning Forever (Hikoza) - Since boss fights are so much fun, why not skip the levels and make an enitre game a boss encounter? WF does that, and you need to destroy the boss before time runs out. The game analyzes how you attack, and creates the next version of the boss stronger and more adapted to your style.
3. Cho Ren Sha (Famibe No Yosshin) - Another simple yet stunning shooter, CRS cranks it up a notch in bullet speed and volume. A unique power up in the form of a rotating triangle lets you try to skillfully grab one, or stand in the center and try to get all three (expert player manuever only!).
2. The Touhou games (Shanghai Alice) - I must include all of Zun's games together, otherwise they would have hogged up the whole list. The Touhou style is "curtain fire" and requires the player to weave pinpoint paths through crazy bullet storms. The music has a sound all its own, and the visuals have been copied in many clone games.
1. Kamui (Siter Skain) - A Raystorm clone at heart, Kamui is identified by shmuppers as one of the best doujin games available. Fire "lock-on" lasers at enemies below you, or normal shots at eye-level ships. Hold both buttons down for a powerful super-laser for massive destruction.
Addendum
By William Swaney
Western Shooters
Japan is not alone with its indie shooter scene, however. The "Western" landscape seems dominated currently by European developers such as Moonpod, Pom Pom and PuppyGames. Pom Pom are the crew responsible for the side-scroller Space Tripper, and Mutant Storm, an excellent arena shooter (read: updated Robotron) which was subsequently released on XBox Live. Keep an eye out for Mutant Storm Reloaded on the XBox 360. Moonpod have had great success with Starscape, an overhead shooter blended with a storyline. PuppyGames started off years ago with Alien Flux, but finally found their sweet spot with Titan Attacks and Ultratron. They've managed to both update some classics while keeping a retro feel, no easy task.
Shmup Technology
Development of homebrew shmups has been led by a number of diverse technologies. A lot of the Japanese developers use the D language, perhaps inspired in part by Kenta Cho's games and the D source included with many of them. Developers such as Isshiki, HIZ, and Kenmo all use D, and ABA games' influence is apparent. Game Maker is more dominant in the west, with very active forums and many good shmups being created. However, a wide variety of technologies are being used, as witnessed by the volume of threads and visitors at Shmup-Dev, a site dedicated to shooter development and help. One of the more interesting, and useful technologies helping out shmup developers is Kenta Cho's BulletML. Created as an XML markup to describe bullet behaviour, there have been numerous bindings to programming languages such as D, C/C++, Java, and even Flash.
Links
Shoot the Core - Postman's Massive PC shmup database.
the2bears - William Swaney's shmup development and news site.
Independent Gaming - Tim W.'s awesome indie gaming news site which covers a lot of shmups.
Shmups - The ultimate shmups review site.
Shmuptacular - Shmup community fan site.
Shooting Glossary - Insomnia.ac's shoot 'em up glossary.
Shoot 'em up Wikipedia Entry - History of shoot 'em ups.
The Independent Gaming Source © 2007 Derek Yu
All screenshots belong to their respective creators.
Non-screenshot graphics are taken from Zanac, The Guardian Legend, and Idinaloq.