Gwange Dash

GwangeDash is to shmups what Capcom vs. Whatever is to fighting games.

An indie game that combines elements from many different shooters, mainly CAVE games, and with an impressive amount of playable ships from various games: DON-8D A-Type, DON-8D B-Type, DON-8Z, DON-8Z Replica, Hibachi, ]-[|/34<#!, G&G ESP Stream, Tiger Schwert, Rain, Red Wasp, Twin Cobra, Solvalou, Gemini Wing, XII Stag, Spirit & Saber, Vic Viper, Ikaruga, Mu-Tron, Raijin and Blaster Mk-VI. The scoring system is lifted right out of DoDonPachi Dai-Oh-Jou, and a lot of other shmups are represented via enemies and bosses.

GwangeDash contains examples of:

 * Awesome but Impractical: Solvalou has one of the most powerful shots in the game, and its ground attack will eliminate nearly any ground-based enemy in one hit. The catch is that the standard shot cannot hit enemies on the ground, and just as in the original game, the ground attack is only useable at a fixed absolute distance from the ship itself.
 * Awesome for playing but impractical for scoring is ]-[|/34<#!, which plays like a very powerful version of the normal DDP ships, but has a hard time scoring well as building a lasting hit chain with it is very difficult. Hibachi is similar, as while it can spray continuous death all day long, it only has two speeds: Insanely fast and painfully slow, and to uncover bees with it you need to be right on top of them.
 * Battle Garegga: Black Heart, albeit depowered, makes an appearance as the boss of stage four.
 * Boss Rush: Death Label.
 * Continuing Is Painful: With Vic Viper, dying on later stages and thus losing all your powerups means the game is essentially over for you... in other words, exactly like how it is in Gradius!
 * Degraded Boss: The first stage boss of DoDonPachi appears as a midboss on the final stage.
 * Dual Boss: On higher difficulties, you fight two Radiant Silvergun fighters rather than one at the end of stage three.
 * Expy: G&G ESP Stream is Kotaroh Kuga in ship form, Rain is Kosame and Spirit & Saber is the dragon from... well, Dragon Spirit and Dragon Saber.
 * A robotic enemy that behaves similarily to the high school stage boss of Esp Ra De makes an appearance in stage 4.
 * Flunky Boss: Black Heart to an extent, but the final boss takes it to the extreme by using enemies, hostile player ships and finally Force units as projectiles, all firing shots of their own as well.
 * Game Breaker: Intentional with Hibachi, who can fire a Bullet Hell of its own.
 * Homage: To the genre in general, and to CAVE in particular.
 * Joke Character: Mu-Tron, an alien (?) who isn't even from a shmup originally. Has a multicoloured Eye Beam with short range, but can get a very high chain if used properly.
 * Keep Circulating the Tapes: The creator has taken down the official download and asked for people to not publically share it anymore, which might have been due to issues with Cave.
 * Someone claiming to be on the dev team is also going around telling people who've posted videos on Youtube to remove them.
 * Loads and Loads of Characters: When compared to what you normally get in a shooter. 20 ships from 15 different games.
 * Massive Multiplayer Crossover
 * Mondegreen: What do the bosses of this game have to do with Detroit? And why is the female announcer throwing up?
 * Nostalgia Level: Stage 1 is quite reminiscent of Ketsui stage 1, with the same midboss, and the boss is the stage 1 boss from DoDonPachi Dai-Oh-Jou. The first half of stage 2 is also similar to Ketsui stage 2, and the boss is the boss from stage 3.
 * Sdrawkcab Name: EVAC Industries.
 * Smart Bomb: Most of the crafts have their own variety of it. Not all, though.