Over 2017, the Neo Geo ACA range raked in big bucks for SNK, as many a '90s arcade found itself ported to modern platforms. The trend continues this week as horizontal shmup Pulstar is now available on the Nintendo Switch.Featuring impressi...

Locomalito's Super Hydorah lands on PlayStation 4 and Vita next Wednesday, December 13. This is a touched-up version of Hydorah, a great freeware shoot-'em-up in the vein of Gradius and R-Type. The PS4 version of Super Hydorah has local co-...

Speaking to Engadget, Helsinki-based developers Housemarque announced that they are moving on from their trademark arcade shmup shooters, due to the genre not being financially viable in today's gaming climate.The company have put out sever...

'member Cave? If you're a '90s kid there's no way you wouldn't recall some of their hits, like DoDonPachi, Espgaluda, and Mushihimesama. Even if you don't know them by name you've probably played their brand of bullet hell in an arcade befo...

Man, Virtual On seems to be getting everywhere these days! Senko no Ronde 2 was never going to set the scene aflame but it's carving a niche for itself and its good to see that the developers are still very keen to keep it updated and healt...

THQ Nordic have announced that their time-based Euro-shmup Sine Mora EX will be getting a Switch release in North America this month, with a European launch to follow in October.The bullet-hell shooter, in which time is both the ultimate we...

Selling an original game is hard! Trying to convince players why they should try something new without being able to compare it to an existing property is tough at the best of times and with a huge marketing budget and even then, the possib...

We first heard about Spry Fox's Steambirds Alliance two years ago, just before PAX Prime 2015. At PAX West 2017, I got to sit down and play a bit of the massively multiplayer online shoot-'em-up, and it was a cool playground for cooperative...

Xbox 360 owners with a taste for the more niche titles on that system may remember a game called Wartech: Senko no Ronde. It was published in the west by Ubisoft and was a rather unique title. Taking elements of a shmup and a 1v1 vs fightin...

For a good while, I've been interested in going to Japan's Comiket convention, since it's dedicated to people selling their fan works and/or original indie creations. Luckily, Edelweiss (Astebreed, Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin) uploaded a ...

When Sine Mora EX hits on August 8, it'll sport 4K60FPS visuals, at least on the PC and PS4 Pro platforms. The Xbox One and the Switch will be the odd ones out on that front, and the latter doesn't even have a confirmed date yet as it'...

Almost nothing recalls the halcyon days of the arcade quite like a shmup. The twitchy, reactive and often infuriating genre swamped game rooms the world over, ensnaring a community of masochistic fans who are still dedicated to the genre to...

I don't know if I'm being selfish when it comes to what I want to see on the Switch. The fact that so many indie developers flocked to the Wii U and not enough big studios is what ultimately led to its demise (among other Nintendo related r...

I sort of remember the long and convoluted history of the first Castle of Shikigami game, but I had to stare at a few sources for several minutes just to be sure I had it right. Years back, a publisher named XS Games licensed Gunbird a...

Earlier this month, Polybius finally stopped being an urban legend and became a game on PS4. While there is more than likely not an actual arcade cabinet that drove people insane, the story behind the legend is a cool bit of urban mythology...

Sometime this fall, UFO Interactive Games will be bringing Raiden V to PS4 and PC (via Steam) as Raiden V: Director's Cut. In an effort to entice fans to double dip (or sweeten the deal for people who don't own an Xbox One), Director's Cut ...

A few months ago a developer named Climax Studios introduced their newest project, Riftstar Raiders, to the world. As a four player shoot 'em up I figured it would get more buzz, but I haven't really seen anyone talking about it. That may c...

Just a mere month ago THQ Nordic announced Sine Mora EX, a re-release/enhanced version of the 2012 shoot 'em up. They shared that it was coming to the PC, PS4, and Xbox One, but now, rather than be left out in the cold like the Wii U was ma...

Thanks to its simple but eye-catching art direction, Graceful Explosion Machine stood out to me among Nintendo's big list of Switch indies. We've known that it would be one of the early non-port eShop titles with its planned April launch, ...

"There are only so many shmups I can play before I get sick of them," is something I've never said in my life. So without further ado, here's a review of Bullet Soul, which is gearing up for a Steam release after a debut on Xbox 360, t...

What's going on, I can't hold all these shmups! With the rise of digital distribution, more and more developers are able to get their previously super niche bodies of work into the hands of more folks, which subsequently results in more shm...

Not enough people played Sine Mora. A lot of you probably don't even remember it exists. But this fantastic Digital Reality/Grasshopper Manufacture shoot 'em up from 2012 is getting a new lease on life, in the form of a patented "EX" editio...

There's a soft spot in my heart for SHMUPS, right next to the hardened part where I want all birds to be deep-fried in canola. Though still very much a work in progress, I enjoyed a few ridiculous rounds of Flappin Nutz: A game a...

There's nothing quite like returning to a leaderboard-centric game after a long absence only to find out that all of your unstoppable high scores have been trounced by some jabroni. This is how grudges form! Housemarque is giving Resogun pl...

It's been a while since we've spoken about Locomalito, but some of you surely know the cherished freeware developer for its familiar but fresh-feeling games like Maldita Castilla (a veritable must-play for Ghosts 'n Goblins fans) and The Cu...