<\/p>\n
Shmps or shoot ’em ups are a very difficult genre. Not challenging difficult (although in most cases this is also true) but difficult in that from a distance it is hard to see the appeal. Shmps are a genre whose bread is buttered on traditional, two dimensional gameplay, that is; you either shoot or dodge or do them both at the same time. Unfortunately this simple natured foundation has been a anchor restricting shmps from returning to the mainstream. While shmps use to be the best in its league unfortunately as game mechanics have advanced, shmps haven’t, they simply can’t! So in the current gaming environment shmps, particularly for younger players, are difficult to break into compared to the more successful genres.<\/p>\n
Like a lot of gamers I never really made shmps a priority. Sure I’d played Space Invaders and some R-Type on the Commodore 64 but it was a genre that I couldn’t really care about. In the past year though I have slowly turned this around and have adopted several top tier shmps into my gaming collection. I have already discussed how incredible Ikaruga is<\/a> so today I want to talk about another inspiring shmp; Gradius.<\/p>\n
So now that the obligatory press release is over lets break into why I love shmps and particularly this shmp so much. There isn’t much to say about what is presented in front of you, shmps are usually very bare bones (Nanostray 2<\/a> being a possible exception) and Gradius is the same; you have your ship (plus respective power ups) and a series of incoming enemy units each moving in their preset patterns.<\/p>\n