10 Best PC Engine Shoot 'Em Ups

Super Star Soldier is the sequel to Star Soldier, the vertical shooter Hudson first put out on the NES. Kaneko did the actual work, with Hudson publishing. It was the first of Hudson's shooters on the console to include a Caravan Mode, which lets you play the timed score attack from Hudson's tournaments at home. Collecting colored orbs picks one of four blasters, a flamethrower among them, and grabbing more of the same color makes it stronger. Your power-ups also work a bit like a health bar, so every hit costs you some firepower.

Players tend to name the later Soldier games, so this spot comes from the guides that cover the console. One calls it an obvious choice for shooter fans, and another praises it as a colorful, high-quality shooter with some really cool firepower. It came to the Wii Virtual Console in North America in 2006.

Magical Chase is the only PC Engine game made by Quest, the studio behind Ogre Battle. Palsoft published it in Japan in November 1991, and it reached North America in July 1993. You play Ripple, an apprentice witch who has to catch the demons she let out of a forbidden book. Two star maidens fly with her as options, and you can move them around to aim their shots. Enemies drop crystals that you spend at shops run by the same pumpkin head guy every time. Hitoshi Sakimoto and Masaharu Iwata wrote the music.

Critics liked the graphics and the lack of slowdown, though some found it short. Retro writers point at its scrolling: the hardware only supports a single background layer, and the game fakes several anyway. It is also a pretty easy game. Think of it as a vacation with explosions.

Sapphire was published by Hudson in 1995, only in Japan, as the final Arcade Card game. That means it needs the Arcade Card RAM expansion NEC made for the system. CAProduction, the former Red team behind Gate of Thunder and Lords of Thunder, was working on a third Thunder game when Hudson asked for this one instead, and Mika Akitaka came on board for the characters. The story is about a police force made up only of women, chasing criminals who hide weapons in the past.

At the time, critics found the shooting itself average but said the graphics and sound made up for it. Today it is considered one of the best PC Engine shoot 'em ups, mostly because the backgrounds change layers dynamically and its pre-rendered sprites look almost 3D. In 2008 it came back on a PSP compilation sold only in Japan.

Air Zonk was made by Red Company, the people who created Bonk and later Gate of Thunder. Zonk is a futuristic Bonk with a rad pair of sunglasses and a lightning bolt on his head, and in Japan he is called PC Denjin. Most of your weapons come from pairing with cartoon companions, and sometimes you merge with them for even more firepower. The difficulty settings are named after flavors, from sweet all the way up to bitter.

The guides that cover the console agree it is one of the best shooters on the platform and one of the more accessible ones, and the music kicks to boot. It throws big sprites and fleets of enemies at you, only slowing down when you drop a bomb. A sequel, Super Air Zonk: Rockabilly-Paradise, followed on the TurboDuo in 1993.

Blazing Lazers came out in 1989 and was one of the first games released for the TurboGrafx-16. In Japan it was called Gunhed, a tie-in with a movie of the same name. Hudson co-produced it with Compile, and it plays like the Aleste series with a different name on the box. You can change your ship's speed at any time: a faster ship is more agile, while a slower one is easier to steer precisely.

Coming from the NES, where shooters flickered, this one looked unreal, with no slowdown or flicker at all. Kotaku called it the "best damn shooter on the TurboGrafx, if not best game overall". Players still recommend it to anyone setting up a TurboGrafx for the first time.

Gate of Thunder was the first game in North America for the Super CD-ROM² format, and it came packed in with the TurboDuo, on one disc with two Bonk games and Bomberman. It was made at Red by former Technosoft staff who had worked on Thunder Force. Being one of the first shooters built for the Super CD meant more memory for more detailed graphics. Nick Wood of Syn Sound Design wrote the soundtrack, and it is some of the best shooting rock/metal of the era.

Critics loved its large bosses and its CD-quality heavy metal soundtrack. It arrived in time to give the Turbografx a temporary shot in the arm against Sega's arcade-heavy lineup. Players who owned the CD system remember it as one of the games worth having, and the ones who sold theirs still wish they had it back.

Irem released R-Type in arcades in 1987, and it became one of the most important games in the genre. The TurboGrafx-16 version is almost identical to the arcade version, with only some minor loss in graphic detail and a slightly scrolling playfield to make up for the lower resolution. In Japan the game was split into 2 parts. It stayed the most faithful home version of the game until the Playstation came along. In 1994, Irem also put the whole thing on one disc as R-Type Complete CD, with narrated cutscenes.

It is a slower game than most shooters of its time, and it asks you to memorize enemy patterns. The levels themselves are the most dangerous opponent. One player called it "a top-notch R-Type port", and that is how most players see it: one of the best arcade ports the console got.

Lords of Thunder is a sequel in name only to Gate of Thunder, made by the same ex-Technosoft group at Red. This time it is fantasy, and you control a flying warrior in elemental armor. You pick the level you want to play first, then choose wind, water, fire or earth armor. Get close to an enemy and you start swinging your sword instead of shooting. Satoshi Miyashita of T's Music wrote the hard rock soundtrack. A Sega CD port arrived in 1995, and reviewers said it was worse than the original.

Critics praised the stylish and sharp visuals and the large, detailed bosses, though the difficulty got a mixed response. One reviewer summed up the music as "rip-roaring guitar rock". Players who recommend the CD shooters almost always put this one on the list.

Seirei Senshi Spriggan was made by Compile staff who had worked on the Aleste series, for an event Naxat Soft held called Summer Carnival. It was first meant for the Mega Drive, but players wanted Compile to make a shooter for the PC Engine. Its world mixes sci-fi with a feudal Japanese setting. Enemies drop orbs for fire, water, earth and wind, and each gives you its own power. Working Designs planned an English version that never came out, so its first official release in the West was on the PC Engine Mini.

Critics, most of them reviewing it as an import, praised the presentation and the variety of stages. It has been called a cult classic of the PC Engine, and players agree it is one of their favorite shooters on the console.

Soldier Blade is the fourth Star Soldier game, and it is all about speed. Hudson designer Uriko Uribo came up with it for the company's Caravan tournament, with the event only six months away. Stacked power-ups can be used as smart bombs, and the first one you grab brings in a second ship that swoops in and adds to your firepower while also blocking incoming fire. The bosses come apart piece by piece, and one of the later ones uses the weapons of the bosses you already beat. It even includes the 2 and 5 minute tournament scoring modes.

Some critics at the time thought it lacked originality next to Blazing Lazers. Retrospective reviews were much kinder, calling it one of the console's definitive shooters for its fast pace and easy learning curve. Players keep it on their lists of PC Engine games everyone should play.