Vanguard

Vanguard II was produced by SNK in 1984. SNK released 156 different machines in our database under this trade name, starting in 1979. Other machines made by SNK during the time period Vanguard II was produced include Gladiator 1984, Jumping Cross, Main Event, Mad Crasher, Alpha Mission, Joyful Road, Marvin's Maze, Lasso, Satan Of Saturn, and Sasuke Vs. Commander. Vanguard 2 defends the planet from an attacking alien space platform that is defended by enemy spacecraft. The Fire button handles air-to-air combat but it takes the Missile button to destroy the continually moving space platform below.

Vanguard is a shoot 'em up game which leads the player through five different zones to the City of Mystery where the creature Gond awaits him which he has to kill. The five zones run horizontally as well as vertically and are filled with different enemies for each zone. Being hit by an enemy, a projectile or the walls results in losing a life. There are, however, collectable items which grant the player a short time of invincibility. Shooting differs somewhat from other shoot 'em ups: The player's ship is able to fire in all four directions depending on the direction the player steers his ship. However, in doing so, the ship flies in that direrction as well which may result in crashing into an obstacle. The ship is constantly running out of fuel which can be replenished by killing enemies. After defeating Gond the game starts anew on a higher difficulty level.

R-Type Final 3 Evolved serves simultaneously as a sequel to R-Type Final 2, offering a whole new 7-stage campaign made in the engine of Final 2, whilst also serving as a compilation of most of content released for R-Type Final 2. Additional features such as R-Park, an online area where one can interact with other players.

In Astrosmash you control a laser canon at the bottom of the screen; your goal is to earn as many points as possible by destroying the various incoming meteors, bombs, and other objects. Points are earned for destroying objects, while points are lost for letting them get past you. Meteors are the most common item you need to defend yourself against. They come in various sizes and colors, and some even split into two smaller meteors when shot. Mixed in with the meteors are white spinning bombs. While letting a meteor get past you will only lower your score, you have to shoot the spinners. If one gets past, you will lose a life. On the more difficult levels, ufo's and guided missiles will also appear occasionally and attempt to destroy your canon.

There are many scrolling shooters but none of them is like "Sky Force". This stunning shoot ‘em up game combines the classic arcade elements with the new possibilities offered by current technology. The new installment in the series just came out in a spectacular style. "Sky Force 2014" was a huge success, acclaimed by gamers and critics. "Reloaded" gives players more of what they loved in the previous "Sky Force". Get ready for your device getting hot and your finger getting sore. Prepare yourself for exciting new missions, more powerful enemies and breathtaking boss battles! "Sky Force Reloaded" offers gorgeous 3D graphics, intense gameplay and a lot of new features. The options to boost up your planes are incredible. Yes, that’s right, PLANES! There’s a satisfying number of planes to choose from. Each with different strengths and weaknesses. Cater to your inner collector by hunting in-game buff cards and unlocking a number of achievements.

In Megamania, the gameplay resembles that of Space Invaders. Rather than being aliens or spaceships, however, the enemies in this game are various objects such as hamburgers, bow ties, and steam irons. The object is to shoot them down before the energy bar at the bottom of screen is depleted, all while avoiding the oncoming enemies and their own projectiles attacks. Each of the enemies fly in select patterns and as soon as they hit the bottom of the screen, they re-appear at the top until shot by the player. The player's spacecraft depicted in the game is a cross between the U.S.S. Enterprise and Klingon battlecruiser from the Star Trek universe. Gameplay-wise and in terms of graphics, MegaMania bears a very strong resemblance to Sega's 1981 arcade title "Astro Blaster". Both games feature nearly identical patterns of approaching enemies with the player relying on an "Energy" meter. Also, the player's ship bears a remarkable similarity in both games. When Megamania was originally sold, anyone who scored above 45,000 points could send Activision a picture of their screen and become an official Megamaniac. They also would receive an Official Megamaniac emblem.[2] If a player exceeds a score of 999,999 the game ends.

R-Type Leo is a horizontally scrolling shooter arcade game. It is a spin-off of the R-Type series and the last entry to be released in Arcades. R-Type Leo was initially an original shoot 'em up game in development by Nanao before Irem retooled it into an R-Type project instead. It is also the first R-Type game to feature simultaneous two player gameplay.

The game is the sequel to R-Type, which was first released as an arcade game in 1987 and profoundly influenced later shooting games with its charge shots, unique weaponry, and grotesque enemies. Hudson Soft ported the later 4 levels of the original R-Type to the PC Engine with the title R-Type II, but the Hudson release is unrelated to the game described in this article. The player controls a ship called the R-9C (or R-9 Custom), which is an improved version of its predecessor game's ship; the R-9. The ship's design was changed slightly, and the wave cannon was given homing capabilities. Two new types of weapons (the Search Laser and Shotgun Laser) were added, bringing the total number of weapon types up to five. A new anti-ground unit bomb was also added to the missile inventory. Though the number of levels was decreased from the prequel, the number of enemies, their durability, and the number of bullets they shoot were greatly increased. Enemy movements and terrain were also made trickier, bringing the game's difficulty up considerably. The same revival system is used as in the prequel, where the player is brought back to a checkpoint whenever their ship is destroyed. The controls are mostly unchanged from R-Type, where the 8-way joystick controls the ship's movement, and the shot button fires the ship's main beam. The other button is used to equip or unequip Force; the series' most unusual innovation. Pressing down the shot button causes the blue beam gauge to fill up, and releasing the button causes a wave beam to travel a certain distance depending on the length of time the button was pressed down. If the button is pressed down until the blue gauge is fully charged, a red gauge appears and fills up quickly. Filling up the red gauge causes it to flash blue and red, releasing the shot button at this point shoots an even more powerful beam. Unlike the normal beam that only travels in a straight line, the newly added Shotgun Laser beam explodes in multiple directions after traveling a short distance. This shot causes heavy damage if the player can target a single enemy with it. However, holding the button down after the gauge is flashing causes the beam to return to the normal transverse beam (the gauge alternates between flashing and returning to the normal state while the button is held down), so the player must release the button at the right timing in order to successfully target enemies. The other newly added beam, the Search Laser, is semi-homing, and can bend at angles up to 45°.

The game of Astro Fighter consists of 4 waves and a refueling stage, which are then repeated with increasingly higher difficulty. The player's task is to eliminate the four successive waves of different types of attacking craft, while avoiding being hit by missiles and bombs, and then refuel by shooting the 'GS' ship before repeating the process. The player starts with 3 lives and receives a bonus life on reaching a score of 5000. 300 bonus points are received for shooting each 6 falling bombs and for 950 for hitting the GS ship accurately on the first shot. A very large bonus of 10,000 is given for getting through 4 waves and refueling by using exactly 2 shots more than the minimum needed. As the higher levels of Astro Fighter are difficult to survive consistently, even for the best players, the highest scores have been achieved by the achieving the 10,000 bonus deliberately.

Truxton is a 1988 vertically scrolling, shoot 'em up arcade game developed by Toaplan, later ported to the Mega Drive (worldwide) and the PC Engine (Japan-only). Like many other scrolling shooters, the game is set in outer space, where the player takes control of a small spaceship across several planets. The game is played with an eight-way joystick and two buttons (a shot and a bomb button) through five large levels and their bosses (which then loop forever, at higher difficulties).

Take to the skies once again as the last defender of humanity against overwhelming odds! Lovingly built to be enjoyed by newcomers and genre veterans alike, Danmaku Unlimited 3 is a perfect medley of the best aspects of classic bullet hell shooters wrapped up in a modern and approachable package.

Fast Striker is a Shoot-'Em-Up game, developed and published by NG:DEV.TEAM, which was released in Japan in 2012D arcade shooting game with emphasis on scoring originally developed for NEO·GEO. The game lets the player choose between 3 game modes with different scoring systems. Novice Mode for beginners, Original Mode for classic Shoot’ em Up players and Maniac for very experienced players. It features six stages of excellent 2D arcade game play with over 40 unique enemy types, super smooth 3D scrolling backgrounds, huge CGI bosses and it features the biggest megabit count ever since the beginning of NEO·GEO games0.