I liked G-Darius...by Mischief Makers 04/09/2008, 5:43pm PDT
...but for the most part, yeah. I never was a huge shmup fan when I was a kid because they were all memory shmups. Game hardware back in the day couldn't handle the sheer number of sprites a proper manic shmup throws on the screen. I do not like playing an action game where it is not theoretically possible to win on your first try. Dying in Gradius because I took the corridor that happened to dead end is fucking bullshit and I will have no part of it.
Sadly Dodonpachi was cancelled for XBLA so I don't know where you'd be able to see an example of the awesomeness that is modern manic shmups, but for those of you who have a computer that is not powered by a hand crank give Blue Wish Resurrection Plus a try. It's freeware, it won't threaten your sexuality like the Shanghai Alice games, and it's the ultimate expression of a manic shmup: a fast-moving ship with a tiny hitbox and a wide range weapon that can concentrate into a focused beam, taking on hundreds of enemies who die in seconds but manage to throw huge masses of bullets at you before they do, and bosses blasting gigantic patterns of bullets that are as much meant to distract you as kill you. It's the purest form of action game, to me.
Here's a youtube video so you can watch, too, Jerry (Playing on Accelerated Heaven Mode):
