Shoot'Em Up

"" Sometime in the future, Earth will be menaced by hordes of alien spacecraft that fly in predictable patterns and can be killed in one hit. The logical course of action will be to dispatch one brave hero in an untested plane/tank/spaceship to take them all on without help.""

- Games Radar, "101 things we've learned from games"

A classic staple of The Golden Age of Video Games that has fallen out of favor in recent years. Everything is trying to kill you, and you have unlimited ammunition and a license to shoot first and ask questions later. Frequently, you're flying a spaceship or some other small craft, but other examples of the genre involve abstract shapes, people walking around with guns or bows and arrows, and so forth.

So popular were Shoot Em Ups (and their close-combat cousin the Beat'Em Up) that many computer games magazines of the mid-late 80s took to jokingly appending "'em up" to whatever genre of game they were reviewing--Puzzle 'em ups, platform 'em ups, Quiz 'em ups and so on.

The term shmup is an abbreviation of "shoot 'em up", but is typically used by the fans who coined it to refer specifically to fixed-scrolling shooters that are not three-dimensional. For instance, 1943 would fit this description, whereas Geometry Wars would not (it is free-scrolling according to player movement), and neither would After Burner (it scrolls into/out of the screen in 3D). This kind of restrictive use is, however, debated among shoot 'em up fans.

Power Ups typically increase the power and spread pattern of the primary weapon, which is usually fired continuously from the start of play until the end. Usually, a limited number of screen-clearing Smart Bombs are included to get the player out of a jam in a hurry. Many later games end their levels with a giant Boss Battle.

The actual shooting part can vary in complexity. It can be as simple as holding down the fire button and never letting go or it can be more complex either due to ship's low firepower (e.g. Space Invaders), scoring systems required to watch what and when to shoot (e.g. Radiant Silvergun) or other reasons.

The Ur Example is possibly Space War (although it's more of a one-on-one shooter rather than a shoot 'em up), the Trope Maker is Space Invaders, and the Trope Codifier is Galaga.

Like the Platform Game, Shoot em ups have become popular with amateur game developers for their relative ease of development. While very few professional examples of the genre have been developed recently - for example Gradius V, which wasn't developed by series creator Konami--the "Bullet Hell" subgenre, characterised by very large numbers of slow-moving enemy projectiles and seen in Radiant Silvergun, Ikaruga and the entire works of CAVE has become relatively popular, along with the Cute'Em Up sub-genre.

Today, Shoot Em Ups suffer from terminal It's Short, So It Sucks-itis. Worsening the decline is the redefinition of the term "shooter"--no longer used to refer to shoot-em-ups, they now refer to the distantly-related First-Person Shooter genre, or (merely) closer-related Third-Person Shooter.

Life in A Game spoofs them, specifically Star Fox, in Episode 4-2. Not to be confused with either the action film of the same name, or the other video game genre focused on shooting.


 * Asteroids and sequel Asteroids Deluxe
 * Beat Hazard
 * Bubble Tanks
 * Computer Space
 * Gravitar
 * Omega Race
 * Solar Jetman
 * Space Duel
 * Star Castle
 * Star Control
 * Star Control II (aka The Ur-Quan Masters)
 * Space Pirates and Zombies
 * X Pilot
 * Yars Revenge


 * Commando and sequel Mercs
 * Front Line
 * Guerrilla War
 * Heavy Barrel
 * Ikari Warriors
 * Jackal


 * Air-Sea Battle (one of the Atari 2600 launch games)
 * Alien Breed
 * Alien Shooter
 * Aqua Naval Warfare
 * ASP Air Strike Patrol (also known as Desert Fighter)
 * Berzerk and sequel Frenzy
 * Big Bang Mini
 * Bosconian
 * Choplifter
 * Clean Asia
 * Combat
 * Crystal Quest and sequel Crystal Crazy
 * Defender and sequel Stargate (no, not that Stargate)
 * Dead Nation
 * Desert Strike
 * Fantasy Zone
 * Fire Fight
 * Frantic Frigates
 * Fraxy (notable for its editor)
 * Geometry Wars and its million clones
 * Granada
 * Grobda
 * Gun Bros
 * Gunroar
 * I Made a Game With Zombies In It
 * Nation Red
 * Project Starfighter
 * Raid on Bungeling Bay
 * Real Space
 * Renegade Ops
 * Robotron2084
 * Llamatron: 2112
 * Seek and Destroy
 * Shadowgrounds
 * Sinistar
 * Smash TV
 * Star Trek (the arcade game, not the computer Strategy Game)
 * Tank
 * Time Pilot and sequel Time Pilot '84
 * Total Carnage (it uses auto-scrolling)
 * Vector Vendetta
 * Zone 66


 * A.E.
 * Centipede
 * Millipede
 * Galaga
 * Galaxian
 * Gorf
 * Gyruss (also an "into-the-screen" shooter)
 * Juno First
 * King & Balloon
 * Megamania
 * Phoenix and sequel Pleiads
 * Space Invaders
 * Super Crossfire
 * Titanion
 * Wave 15 (aka Astro)


 * Akai Katana
 * Air Zonk and sequel
 * Apidya
 * Air Fortress (half of it)
 * Area 88 (based on an anime/manga series; the game was renamed U.N. Squadron in the US.)
 * Bio-Hazard Battle
 * BIOMETAL (notable for its US version's soundtrack being 2 Unlimited techno music)
 * Bioship Paladin
 * Blast Works/TUMIKI Fighters
 * Blazing Star
 * Border Down
 * Chariot: Adventures Through the Sky
 * Chimera Beast (unreleased)
 * Cho Aniki
 * Cotton and sequels
 * Darius
 * Death Smiles and DeathSmiles II X
 * Einhander
 * Eliminate Down
 * Forgotten Worlds
 * Gaiares
 * Gradius
 * Otomedius (Gradius spinoff with a lot of Fan Service)
 * Parodius (Simply put: Parody-Gradius)
 * Gundemonium, Gundeadligne and Gundemonium Recollection from the Gundemonium Series
 * Heavy Weapon
 * Hellfire
 * Hydorah
 * In the Hunt
 * Iwanaga
 * Jets'n'Guns
 * Lords of Thunder
 * Magical Chase
 * Metal Black
 * Parsec
 * Phalanx
 * Prehistoric Isle
 * Progear
 * Pulstar (an R-Type clone) and sequel Blazing Star (not an R-Type clone)
 * Revenge Of The Mutant Camels
 * Robot Dinosaurs That Shoot Beams When They Roar
 * RPG Shooter Starwish
 * R-Type
 * Samurai Zombie Nation
 * Scramble and Super Cobra
 * Silkworm
 * Sky Gunner
 * Sol-Feace
 * Soldner X
 * Space Manbow
 * Stargunner
 * Steel Empire
 * Steel Saviour
 * Submarine Attack
 * Suguri
 * Sora
 * Thunder Cross and Thunder Cross II
 * Thunder Force (I and II include top down multi-direction levels)
 * Trouble Witches series
 * Vacant Ark
 * Vanguard (which also had some vertical and diagonal scrolling)
 * Wasteland Angel
 * Zero Wing


 * Nineteen Forty Two series
 * Aero Fighters/Sonic Wings series
 * Air Duel
 * Air Assault (a.k.a. Fire Barrel)
 * Aleste/Power Strike series
 * M.U.S.H.A.
 * Super Aleste (a.k.a. Space Megaforce)
 * Armed Police Batrider
 * Astro Assembler
 * Astro Blaster
 * Battle Garegga and sequel Battle Bakraid
 * Blazing Lazers
 * Blue Wish Resurrection
 * Cho Ren Sha 68k
 * Crimzon Clover
 * Dangun Feveron
 * Demon Star
 * Dogyuun
 * Don Pachi/Dodonpachi series
 * Dragon Spirit
 * Enigmata and sequel.
 * Esp Galuda and sequel
 * Esp Ra De
 * E Xceed
 * Fighter & Attacker (F/A in Japan; generic 1992 Namco shmup better known for its God Tier soundtrack)
 * Fire Barrel
 * Flying Shark and sequel Fire Shark
 * Giga Wing
 * The Guardian Legend
 * Hitogata Happa from the Gundemonium Series
 * Gun Nac
 * Gun.Smoke
 * Guwange
 * Guxt
 * Hellsinker
 * Highway Hunter
 * Hi no Tori (the MSX game)
 * Ibara
 * Ikaruga
 * Ikaruga
 * Jamestown Legend of the Lost Colony
 * Ketsui
 * Kings Knight
 * Kiloblaster
 * Knightmare
 * Legendary Wings
 * Lethal Thunder
 * Mahou Daisakusen series (Sorcer Striker, Kingdom Grandprix, Dimahoo)
 * Mars Matrix
 * Minubeat
 * Muchi Muchi Pork
 * Mushihime-sama
 * Noiz2sa
 * Parsec47
 * Psyvariar
 * Prismatic Solid
 * Radiant Silvergun
 * Raiden
 * Raiden Fighters
 * Raptor: Call of the Shadows
 * Ray Series: RayForce, RayStorm, and RayCrisis
 * Recca (Summer Carnival '92)
 * River Raid
 * rRootage
 * Seihou
 * Sentimental Shooting
 * Shikigami no Shiro
 * Silpheed series
 * Soukyugurentai
 * Spy Hunter
 * Star Force
 * Star Soldier series
 * Strania the Stella Machina
 * Strikers 1945
 * Sugar Shooter
 * SWIV
 * Mega SWIV (a.k.a Firepower 2000)
 * The Tale of Alltynex
 * Kamui
 * RefleX
 * Alltynex Second
 * Tiger Heli
 * Touhou series
 * Triggerheart Exelica
 * TWAIN series
 * Twilight Insanity
 * Twilight Refrain
 * Twinbee series (Moero!! Twinbee/Stinger has horizontal scrolling in alternate stages)
 * Twin Cobra
 * Twin Cobra II
 * Twinkle Star Sprites
 * Tyrian
 * Under Defeat
 * Upgrade Complete
 * Xevious
 * XOP
 * Zanac


 * Abadox (scrolled horizontally and vertically on alternate stages)
 * A-Jax (alternates vertical scrolling and 3d scrolling stages)
 * Axelay (scrolled horizontally and vertically on alternate stages)
 * Ether Vapor (scrolled horizontally and vertically on alternate stages)
 * Salamander/Life Force (spinoff of the Gradius series; scrolled horizontally and vertically on alternate stages)
 * Silver Surfer (scrolled horizontally and vertically on alternate stages)
 * Starship Hector (spinoff of the Star Soldier series; scrolled horizontally and vertically on alternate stages)
 * Thunder Blade (scrolled vertically and into-the-screen on alternate stages)
 * Viewpoint (scrolled diagonally and had isometric graphics)
 * Warning Forever (vertical Boss Rush variant with ever evolving boss encounters)
 * Zaxxon (scrolled diagonally in Isometric Projection)


 * After Burner
 * Buck Rogers Planet of Zoom
 * Feedback
 * G.I.Joe
 * Gyruss (also a Space Invaders derivative)
 * Mission Starlight
 * Night Striker
 * Iridion/Nanostray series
 * Panzer Dragoon
 * Polybius
 * Rez
 * Space Harrier and sequels
 * Star Fox (with the exception of Star Fox Adventures.)
 * Star Fox
 * Star Fox 2
 * Star Fox 64
 * Star Fox Assault
 * Star Fox Command
 * Star Wars
 * Tailgunner
 * Tempest (stylized craft at the top of a well)
 * Tempest 2000
 * Torus Trooper


 * Change Air Blade (Cross between a Fighting Game and a shmup, but both players are on one screen)
 * Escape Velocity series (Wide Open Sandbox RPG with Asteroids-like combat)
 * Colosseum
 * Naev
 * Gauntlet (mix of Shoot'Em Up and Adventure Game)
 * Liberator (Missile Command in reverse)
 * Missile Command (defending immobile targets while immobile yourself)
 * Red Baron (early attempt at 3D fighter combat)
 * The Red Star (mix of Shoot'Em Up and Beat'Em Up)
 * Philosoma, an obscure PS 1 shooting game known for its shift in perspectives (top-down, side-scrolling, into-the-screen, bottom-up, and diagonal).
 * Senko no Ronde (mix of Shoot'Em Up and Fighting Game)
 * Space Zap (defending a fixed fortification)
 * Sigma Star Saga (An RPG with the battle system being Shoot'Em Up segments.)
 * Sin and Punishment (Ground-based rail shooter with some platforming elements)
 * Sin and Punishment Star Successor (Removed the platforming elements and added flight, making it even more shmup-like)
 * Star Raiders (early mix of Shoot Em Ups and Real Time Strategy)
 * Thexder and Fire Hawk: Thexder the Second Contact (cross between shooting and exploring)
 * Tron (four separate minigames, three of which involved shooting)
 * Wizard of Wor (maze shooter)
 * Valkyrie Sky (MMO Shoot 'em up)
 * Venture (maze shooter with an Adventure Game theme)