

A shooter like many others. Shoot planes, tanks and a train. Very large bosses at the end of each level. Many power-ups like smartbombs, missiles and lasers. There is also some speech in the game.

Shooter / Arcade / Action / Science fiction
Lightning Fighters, released in Japan as Trigon, is a 1990 scrolling shooter arcade game by Konami. It is commonly compared to Raiden, though the two games were released very close to each other, and they were both meant to compete with the works of Toaplan. Though Lightning Fighters has become an obscure arcade-only title, Konami has referenced it multiple times over the years. Gradius Gaiden features a boss modeled after the ship and weapons from the game, and Yu-Gi-Oh! cards such as "Trigon", "Delta Tri" (based on the mentioned Gradius Gaiden boss), and "Dragon Laser" also represent the game.

Shooter / Adventure / Arcade / Action / Science fiction
As in many other vertical scrolling shooters (including Namco's own Xevious), the player controls a ship, facing the top of the screen, that can move freely while the background scrolls down, bringing enemies in to view; the player may destroy enemies for points. The game uses two buttons - one is used to make the ship fire circular lasers, while the other is used to cycle through its four firing patterns. The red pattern is two lasers in a spiral pattern, while the blue one is one laser straight ahead and one behind, the yellow one is one laser straight ahead, one left, and one right and the green one is two lasers diagonally forward (one to the left and one to the right), and one straight behind; by holding down the button, the ship fires more powerful, spherical lasers. Even though the game is the sequel to Bosconian (which used a synthesized, DAC-generated voice saying "Blast off!" at the beginning of every round), Blast Off had more in common gameplay-wise with Namco's own Dragon Spirit than with Bosconian; this is especially noticeable in the third area of every world, where the player's ship undergoes an increase in size, and must destroy a boss. Despite several gameplay differences, the connection with Bosconian was emphasized in the marketing of the game, with the hexagonal space stations from Bosconian appearing in Namco's press literature, and on the game's title screen, and also making appearances in the game itself - and the game is also worth noting for its usages of various Engrish phrases, such as "To push start only 1 player button" (on title screen), "Go next" (at end of world), "Congraturations" (at end of game) and "Entry your name" (on high score table). There are a total of six worlds in this game, and each one has three areas (so there are a total of eighteen "stages" to play through).

Shooter / Puzzle / Indie / Action / Science fiction
In this vertical scrolling spaceship shooter, you control a ship that can change its polarity at will. As blue/white, the ship can easily destroy red/black enemies, and vice versa. Bullets of your polarity can be collected to fuel your energy gauge, but those opposite will kill you. Destroying an enemy ship causes them to fire revenge bullets which can be absorbed and fired back by the player. Different difficulties exist to change exactly how you interact with polarized points, or how they appear. It is the spiritual successor to Radiant Silvergun, featuring similar level and boss design, as well as it's buddhism inspired themes and aesthetics. Both are directed by Hiroshi Iuchi, who also composed Ikaruga's soundtrack.

Shooter / Arcade / Action / Science fiction
DonPachi is a 1995 vertical manic shoot-'em-up originally in arcades and was the first game from the developer Cave. Settings are mainly woodland and enemies are military vehicles and robots, culminating in the final boss, a huge robotic bee. One of three weapon configurations is chosen at start and then leveled up through dropped power-ups. DonPachi was ported to the Sega Saturn and Sony Playstation in 1996.

Castle of Shikigami is a dark, supernatural shoot-'em-up classic. Choose one of six characters and utilize their unique abilities to defeat the demons infesting modern-day Tokyo in this vertically scrolling shooting game. Use each character's shot, special Shikigami attack and bomb to conquer each stage and it's boss to ultimately discover who or what is behind "The Castle of Shikigami Incident".

Shooter / Adventure / Arcade / Action / Science fiction
Conceived as an entry for a game development competition, this game would later be published by Naxat Soft in 1992. This frenetic shoot-'em-up taxes the Famicom system and the player's reflexes with huge quantities of enemies while maintaining smooth, fast gameplay! In addition to a single player campaign, there are also score attack and time attack modes available.

Continuing where the last game ended, the forces of CANY had been demolished by the previous Strikers' line-up. However, a small group known as the FGR stole the sources and technology responsible for the last events and planned to continue CANYs work by initiating world-warfare with massive mech technology. Once again, the Strikers are called into action.