Best 2d shooters of all categories!

[kiwasabi]

Hey everybody. I wanted to start a thread about what everybody thinks are the best shooters from each different category of 2d shooters. I pretty much classify 2d shooters into the following categories:

Top-Down Character Shooter (Commando/Mercs)
Side-Scrolling Platform Shooter (Contra/Metal Slug)
Gallery/ Behind the Back Shooter (Cabal, Nam 1975, Wild Guns)
Space/Plane Shooters (R-Type, Aero Fighters)
Flying Character Shooters (Forgotten Worlds, SCAT, Cotton)

Here are my favorites from each of these categories:

Top-Down Character Shooter:
Commando, Mercs (Mercs is the sequel to Commando)
Shock Troopers
Guerilla War
Smash TV
Pocky and Rocky series
Zombies Ate My Neighbors, Ghoul Patrol
Operation Logic Bomb
Ninja Commando (not as good, but I own it and I like it)

Side-Scrolling Platform Shooter:
Contra, Super C, Contra 3, Contra 4, Contra Hard Corps (my favorite in the Contra series), Contra: Shattered Soldier
Vectorman 1 and 2
Super Turrican 1 and 2, Mega Turrican
Cybernator
Metal Warriors
Bionic Commando
Blackthorne
Sunset Riders
Super Star Wars, Super Empire Strikes Back, Super Return of the Jedi
Metal Slug 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and X
Magician Lord
Caveman Ninja / Joe & Mac (SNES name), Joe & Mac 2
Spin Master
Doom Troopers
Earthworm Jim 1 and 2
Metal Storm

Gallery/Behind the Back Shooter:
Cabal (NES version is better than the arcade version because Rare made it)
Blood Brothers
Nam 1975
Wild Guns (highly recommended along with the NES Cabal)

Space/Plane Shooters (my least knowledgeable 2d shooter catagory):
Pulstar
Blazing Star
R-Type series
Aero Fighters series
Lords of Thunder, Gate of Thunder

Flying Character Shooters:
SCAT
Forgotten Worlds
Cotton series
Abadox
Dragon Breed (Could also go into the plane/space shooter I suppose)

What would you guys recommend I put onto these lists that I missed? I don't want this to just be MY list. I'd like to assemble a huge list of the best 2d shooters of all time so that if someone wants to find a game similar to one of their favorites they can find a lot of different choices easily.

Adam

[Brian Moy]

Hey Adam.

I'm so bad for not replying to this much sooner, just that I haven't had it in me to think that hard of what I think the best of all time shooters are.  I really don't think I can be definative on that, so I'll just say my personal favorites instead.

Top-Down Character Shooters:
Escape From the Planet of the Robot Monsters
(I just can't think of any others right now...)

Side-Scrolling Platform Shooters:
Quartet (arcade version, not the crap ass home version)
Contra
Rolling Thunder (and its variations)
New Zealand Story
Zillion

Behind the Back Shooters:
Missle Command
Blasted!
Xybots

Ship/Character Shooters:
Air Buster/Aero Blasters
Ordyne
R-Type
Space Invaders
Formation Z
Gunbird 2

Driving/Racing Shooters:
Roadblasters (arcade)
Rock N Roll Racing
Re-Volt (PC version preferred)
Vindicators

I'm not thinking of a whole lot...  I'll update it as I go.

[Josh Parr]

I'm not sure if I could fit them into categories but here are some of my faves:

Contra
Zombies ate my Neighbors
Spy Hunter
Space Invaders

[Brian Moy]

I'm not sure if I could fit them into categories but here are some of my faves:

Contra
Zombies ate my Neighbors
Spy Hunter
Space Invaders

Spy Hunter was cool with the Peter Gunn soundtrack music, but the game was hardcore!  I prefer to watch people play it that were good at it, then play myself as I was so bad, was just a waste of my quarter...  I remember the red flashing button in the middle.  What was that for...  smoke screen I think?

[Josh Parr]

It's been so long since I've played that game I'm not really sure.  I'll have to go back and try that.

[dante]

Has anyone here played Kolibri? I believe it's spelt like that. Hummingbird as a protagonist in a shooter? That just sounds amazing to me.

[Brian Moy]

Has anyone here played Kolibri? I believe it's spelt like that. Hummingbird as a protagonist in a shooter? That just sounds amazing to me.

I played it last week!  Or I should say Creston did when he came over to do some trades and I set it up for him to try on my 32X (to test the 32X I traded to him) - and then I traded my extra copy to him!

Its a great game, but its not really a tradional shooter that you'd normally think of.  It reminds me of Ecco the Dolphin in that it has a lot of scenery with things to look at and explore (at has a similar nature conservation theme as well...) and to me its a shooter slash adventure game.

[Captain_Insano16]

How come no one has mentioned the Raiden series (or did I miss it)? I really wish they would bring out the Raiden Fighter series or Raiden 4 out stateside!

[Brian Moy]

How come no one has mentioned the Raiden series (or did I miss it)? I really wish they would bring out the Raiden Fighter series or Raiden 4 out stateside!

I saw one of the Raiden Fighter games at a pizza parlor sort of by my house.  When I think of Raiden, that's what I think - the machines at a pizza parlor.  That's where I tend to see Raiden games.