I've been working on Wings of Aetos for a while now, and I wanted to know what people out there have enjoyed in shoot-em ups and which shmups they've enjoyed the most in the past.

For my part:

Likes
A variety of weapon/upgrades.
Building up power/weapon levels.
Risk/reward while grabbing power-ups.
Small hit-box for the player.

Hates
One-hit kills.
Overly difficult levels.
Restarting from the beginning.
Accidentally grabbing a new weapon, when I preferred my old one.

Favorites
Stinger - Interesting power up mechanic and whimsical levels
Airzonk - Not too difficult, lots of weapons, interesting character designs, the ability to gain helpers and merge with them
Fantasy Zone - Nice backgrounds, memorable music, freedom to move in multiple directions, in-level shopping
Space Harrier (is this a shmup?) - Amazing music and level and enemy design
Guardian Legend - Nice amount of health/shield, top-down exploration segments, great music, but high difficulty
Blazing Lasers - Great power-up system, not-too-difficult, weapon/sub-weapon combos

I've played...
Fantasy Zone
Twinbee
Flying Tigers
Tyrian
Touhou
Jamestown
Solarwinds
Sigma Star Saga
Iridion
(Probably more that I can't remember)

What I like really about them depends from game to game. Jamestown and Touhou for example are bullet hells, the "1 hit you die" games.



If you're going to aim for a bullet hell crowd the important thing to add is replayability value.

For other type of games customization options are really great. Something like Tyrian and Solarwinds does a really great job at that.

I think I had more to say but by the time I found that picture I got completely derailed. XD