From the forum question for issue 60

[Darran@Retro Gamer]

For the shoot-em-up special we'd like to know your favourite vertical shooter

[Overheat]

I doubt this will be a popular choice, but I have very fond memories of Battle Squadron for the Amiga. It was the first game I ever owned on the Amiga (my 1500) and I must have played it hundreds of times. Great fun on two-player too!

[HEAVYface]

never understood the allure of verticality, i prefer it hard and horizontal.

[ShadowMan]

I'd have to plump for Axelay for the Snes. It had both vertical and horizontal levels, a killer soundtrack and some of the best bosses ever seen in a Shmup such as the ED209 on level 2 or the Lava Monster in Level 5.

[Havantgottaclue]

Well, you're spoilt for choice if you have a Saturn, but I think I'd go with Dodonpachi, if only because I'm so rubbish at Radiant Silvergun.

[TheDude18]

It's not exactly vertical but my choice is Blue Max on the C64. It had some very clever touches - bombing gound targets as well as dogfighting, adjust the height of your byplane to avoid arial attacks(and avoid tall bulidings!) and landing to repair and re-fuel your aircraft to name a few.

[Bub&Bob]

As it doesn't say scrolling, I will go for Arcadia (C64 or Vic20) - very tough but great fun

[bolda]

As much as I would like to see the comically-named and thoroughly enjoyable "Hotdog Storm" get a mention in the mag, my head says that "DoDonPachi" is vertical shmup perfection - the main reason I bought an X-Arcade stick!

[Mayhem]

Hishou Same aka Flying Shark aka Sky Shark. One of Toaplan's earlier scrolling shooters... unrelenting, punishing, challenging, call it anything but easy. Not bullet hell, but certainly bullet filled as you manoeuvre that blimming biplane to take out giant tanks, planes and ships with massive firepower (if you live that long!) over five levels. There's just something about it that makes me want to beat its face in, rather like Robotron actually.

[thl]

I'd say Power Strike for the Master System. It had a huge range of weapons to choose from whether it's the swing web, pulse ball, or wipe laser. Nicely presented on the 8-bit console, the difficulty level was a pain!

[hydr0x]

gotta think about this...

[Antiriad2097]

Can I have Salamander again? It has vertical stages

[TMR]

i'd have to say Tehkan's Star Force, it had a power-up weapon but you could survive without it if you were fast and there are loads of little things to discover like learning the unique movement pattern of each kind of attacker, knowing what the various bonuses dotted around the landscape did (or indeed where they were in some cases) or working out how to predict the movement of the boss at the end of each level.

Even the presentation was nicely done, apart from looking incredible for the time, the sound was superb with tunes and jingles for just about every situation; getting the top high score earnt a special piece of music and even that had a little "secret", the highscore system would cut the tune off if you just left it, so you had to enter the final character of your name at the right time to get the entire tune.

[The Loafer]

Blazing Lazers for the TG16/PC Engine (I hear it's also out for the Wii's Virtual Console). The game was intense, beautiful, brilliant and challenging. What more can I say?

Honourable mention: Battle Squadron on the Amiga, Axelay on the SNES and if you can accept it as a vertical shoot-em up: Astro Blaster. What can I say? I 'm old .

[Gnome]

Definitely the original Raiden. Preferably played on battered arcade machine, ages ago and on the island of Hydra. T'was illegal to be an underage in the arcades back then, mind.