You are a pure celebration of hobbyist passion. Don't stop, it rules. I'm stoked every time you upload something, it gives me the warm fuzzies to just dive into something I love so much.

I can’t even imagine the amount of work you put into this videos. They’re so tightly edited. No fat whatsoever. Amazing work.

To this day Lords of Thunder is still my favorite shmup of all time. Probably not the most popular choice but it gets my vote. Can’t wait to see your video though. You have some of the highest quality content on KZfaq imo.

For me this is your best video yet. The uplifting energy and your love for the shooter genre of that era really reignited my desire to play and experience them all once again! Thank you ShmupJunkie

This must have been a massive amount of work to put together. Thanks for this, S.J. Will keep watching as long as you keep making them.

This was a remarkable showing, very well put together! Personally, it doesn't matter how many Shmups any console has, TF4 defined the entire genre and is still IMO the greatest Shmup of all time but it's fantastic to see all these gems on all consoles, perfectly in time for summer 😊.

I love your thorough and infectious enthusiasm for these games, Junkie. You are so respectful, fair, positive about these developers' great work.

I just paid $200 for a five terabyte hard drive with all the games throughout the years up to PlayStation 2. Im gonna play every game you talked about today

Mega Drive shmup fans gotta try Elemental Master and Atomic Runner. Hidden gems!

Thunder Force 4 in european version (less slow down), no doubt about it. Its presentation, its graphics, its nervousness, its music, 10 levels, crazy parallaxes, a beautiful end, a well-balanced armament with the possibility of switching between weapons... In 92/93, we almost had the impression of being on NeoGeo. Knowing that the cartridge is only an 8 meg, that makes it the craziest 16 Bit shooter.

PC Engine. We had no chance here in the forgotten southern hemisphere loserscape. Not enough population to justify a realease. Thank you, much love brother.

It's nice to hear when 2023 there are still Thunder Force series enthusiasts. Thank you to all of you !

Parodius Da! is engraved in my soul at this point. So happy to have taken part in this voting. Great video, so much info I'm so watching this several times. Thank you for making us shootemup fans so happy with your passionate work.

I'm always researching the 16-bt generation for what I have missed growing up, and this compilation is amazing❗ I've been going down a rabbit hole on shmups and this has informed me very well across this whole generation. Thanks!

To me, the Genesis/Mega Drive had the best shooters. TG16/PCE is a very close second. It took a while for programmers to get used to the SNES. Early shooters had crazy slowdown. Had some definite classics later on though. And I agree with TF4 overall. It's just so damn hard to top. Gameplay and soundtrack are incredible. Damn near perfect. I sometimes listen to the soundtrack on the way to work to get me hyped for the day.

I'm still blown away by Soldier Blade's music, especially when you consider it coming from a HuCard, not CD.

Wow, I am only 15 min in and I can't stop seeing how much of a labor of love this video is. If I could ever make a video half this great.... that be amazing! Great work, great passion.

Now the dust has settled on yesterdays amazing premiere, I’d like to offer a huge congratulations on this culmination of 3 awesome videos over the past 1 1/2 years showcasing all the shmups the 16bit era had to offer! A massive undertaking and one done with so much dedication and attention to detail that they will stand out for years to come. As a fellow chilled of this era, It means so much to me personally to see these games return to the limelight giving a whole new generation the chance to try out the games that shaped a generation!! As for the winners? I couldn’t agree more with the results but the real winners are the players, having a library of over 200 games to enjoy anytime we want. Now the door has closed on the 16bit era, what’s next?? 8bit? 32bit? Arcade through the decades?

DON'T MISS the EARLY SATURDAY LIVE PREMIERE! Join me LIVE this Saturday, July 1st at 9AM Pacific Time and find out whether the Mega Drive, Super Nintendo, or the PC Engine rules supreme as the all time 16-bit Shooting King! This is going to be ONE SPICY CHATROOM! Hit that notification if you don't want to miss it.

For me it always was the most sought console when I was young. The PC Engine was a jewel in 16bit gaming that was not relatively known in the UK. Playing Lords of thunder for the first time was a true jaw dropping experience and one that hooked me to the NEC machine to this day. Brilliant video, just ordered the bitmap book of PC Engine box art to get a feel for the nostalgia once again. They don't make them like this today.

Thunderforce 4 hands down over everything else. That game was just on another level untouched by anything on the PC Engine or SNES. Love your videos and good job, but we all knew what system you wanted to win from the beginning LMAO. Can't wait to see your next PC Engine video...oops I meant to say fair comparison video.(wink) lol Keep up the awesome work!!

"The Sky Line" From TFIV and "Stand Up Against Myself" are prolly my fav's. The whole OST is God Tier but those are my fav picks. The FLAC Remaster is AMAZING! It sounds so crisp and clean and Bass heavy. The Opening to "The Sky Line" sounds so good!

R-Type 3 is my fave. I like its depth, and it's up there with the rest in terms of presentation, level design, and sound.

This is perfect timing!! Setting up a Miyoo Mini + for a 8 hour flight and this guide will help me pick some killer games out!!

Said it before when you were asking for votes on this, and I’ll say it again: I can NOT wait for the 32-bit version of this! I can already feel my brain frying trying to decide on best music alone😳

The amount of times ive paused the video to look up an OST is nutty. Thanks for making this video it's giving me tons of inspo to get kinda sorta not trash at STGs

Your videos are always a joy to watch! You deserve so many more subscribers. Thanks for helping to keep this genre of video games alive.

Im playing shmups and loving the genre for the first time in my life as a gamer all because of your guidance man. Thanks. Amazing channel.

All your base are belong to us. - Zero Wing, Megadrive

Nice, being older with more money means I can just have all three consoles and forget the fanboys stuff but it's still cool seeing all these love for these shooter games.

Honestly a banger list, and it's tough competition considering so many shooters in this era were absolute bangers. I'm happy with all the acknowledgement

I remember losing my hecking mind when I got GAIARES. I really loved almost all of those RENOVATION games.

Musha Aleste is the best shooters overall, the soundtrack is top notch and very memorable, it has a feel to it that you are fighting to save the world. Been playing it regularly till now

TF4 FOR THE WIN!!!! 🤘 it has a superb presentation, magnificent soundtrack, interesting, non-trivial levels etc. etc. and yet it feels like your classic horizontal shmup we all know and love^^ As for the 16-bit console that had most of great shmups? Well, I guess it will be either Genesis/Mega Drive or PCE, and the later has more chances solely 'cause of it's CD extention. But I'm still by the Genesis side, SEGA FOR LIFE! 🤘🤘🤘🤘

Fantastic video as usual...ur editing skills are godly and ur contribution to the the shmup community is immense..keep up, bro ^^

As far as home shooters go, 8-bit systems had some greats... but the 16-bit home shooters is when they really got great. Awesome video.

Oh hell yeah! Not going to lie, I have watched your 3 16-bit shmup library videos all the way through, several times each and have made an Excel spreadsheet with notes on each game, so I already know before watching what the best games are going to be. Still going to watch this from end to end. I hope these are generating enough engagement for you to make doing Saturn and PlayStation videos worth the huge effort I know these videos take. Would of course love to see Dreamcast, PS2, and Xbox 360 videos in the future. Your channel, almost single handedly, has gotten me into shmups.

Man, the music of these games makes me want to RUN home and dive in to these games again and again. Thanks to this channel and Mark over at Electric Underground, I've spent hundreds of hours and dollars playing pretty much nothing but STGs for over a year. Damn Solider Blade soundtrack has been stuck in my head for months. I'm so glade I found these type of channels. Saved my from AAA bordem and now I spend most of my free time playing STGs or spending hours looking for for what new shumps are coming. Thanks Junkie for such a awesome job of selling me on this awesome genre. Every single game in this video I have played thanks to you guys. That's crazy going from who cares about STGs to OMG I love Toaplan type games. Biggest change in my gaming habits ever.

I'm not even a video editor, but I can't imagine what this video's timeline looks like. So many video clips from so many sources, your voice clips for every single game, tons of illustrative music, and let's not forget extra effects. All of that in addition to your original script that must have taken a lot of time to write as well. Even if this weren't an interesting video, all of that would be an incredible accomplishment, but it is interesting to boot. Thanks for your hard work!

A fantastic piece you've created here Shmup Junkie, S tier all the way and the time flew by like when you used to watch a 80's crappy action flick as a kid. As a mission to educate and entertain you've knocked it out the park and I can't wait to get in the garage and play some Soldier Blade.

⬅⬅Thunder Force IV

I personally find Pop'n TwinBee to be the most gorgeous looking shoot-em-up on the 16-bit systems (with TwinBee Yahho! looking even more beautiful).

Come on indie devs. We need shmup junkie as a playable character in a shooter. Imagine him in Gunvein

I don't even know how to connect on this content. Some of the very best retro gaming content bar none. Your videos are like watching a great documentary on BBC or PBS. You really need to be on tv. Love your channel brother... You truly deserve even more subs. Thank You 🎉

What a beautifully crafted video, my goodness! I wont even speak about the core subject of the video (which is great obviously) but about the form. Gosh everything is prefect from the added animation , graphic perfect space editing, what a marvel of video you did (again). Dear Junkie thank you so much for your hard work and for sharing it! Warm regards.

I was SO hooked on Air Zonk back in the day…

ThunderForce IV was doing some heavy lifting in this competition!

THANK YOU SO MUCH for doing this. I respect THE GRIND good sir! May you never lose your passion for shmups!

Now I see why this took two months...another labour of love, top quality video that spoils us shmup fans rotten! Thanks for all the hard work Junkie!

Incredible video as always, one of the ones I'm going to watch many times more. Thank you very much for the content, from a fan of yours from Brasil.

When I played Sonic 3D Blast on the Mega Drive back in 1996, the bonus stage backgrounds have a very similar effect like the Axelay and Spriggan for the SNES/SFC. Even as a kid I thought that effect was really out of place, like a homebrew effort or something, the perspective is broken and the effect is just a simple melting of the background. This is probably not a popular opinion for those who enjoy these games, and I think the rest of Sonic 3D Blast is a showpiece visually for the Genesis, it looks great, better than the supposed 32-bit upgrades for the Saturn and PC, which lost all color and charm in comparison, but those bonuses backgrounds and the bridge Sonic runs on, they're weird effects. As for music, I find Biohazard Battle to be one of the most unique soundtracks on any system, it's so alien, dreary, wonderous, menacing, moody and atmosferic it's hard to find similar composition and instruments selection quite like it. So for visuals and sound, art direction and composition should be contemplated as very important aspects of the evaluation as well. Many games have unique bestiaries, weaponry, scenery and so on and so forth, it's not always about sprite sizes, background layers/effects, amount of colors, these are important too, but they're not whole by themselves.

The 4th gen had TONS of amazing shooters! Also, I love the intro, it was hilarious! 😂

What an immense video that was, watched the whole thing in one sitting, great job, I’ll be sharing this across a load of Facebook groups

I think Super SWIV (Firepower 2000) should be considered as one of the best SNES soundtracks ever. Fantastic work, as always!

This was such an awesome video, and I'm really glad I got to vote and participate. I know this is said in ignorance, as I haven't played every game that's discussed in this video, but my personal top 3 favorites would be MUSHA, Super Aleste, and Soldier Blade, although I do want to make time to play Star Parodier more. Air Buster was my first SHMUP ever so I have a place in my heart for Kaneko. When I found out they made other SHMUPs on the PC Engine Mini I had to get it. No regrets there. I know there's so much love for Thunder Force 4, but gosh darn is it such a tough and unforgiving game, right off the bat! I love how Compile shmups at least wine and dine you before they F you in the final two levels. 🤣🤣

what about Bio Hazard Battle and Empire of Steel on the Sega Mega Drive? Good 16bit graphics and cool soundtracks. Thunder force 4 is one of my all time favourite shot em ups. Awesome video by the way.

Battle Mania 1 and 2 feels so underrated, I always loved them tho! Especially 2!

Man this was insane!! big respects for your hard work, excellent video, already added to my favorites! 🔥

There are so many good ones, but Thunder Force IV is king!

This is an awesome video Shmup Junkie. Thank you for all your work. The PC Engine/Turbo16 seems like it was designed for shooters and it is a deserving champion. Question though, the Genesis/Mega Drive also has a massive collection of run and guns. Does the Turbo16 also do those well? I only know of Last Alert and Bloody Wolf so maybe they don't offer a lot in that category? I appreciate any answers anyone might have. Thanks.

That was awesome. Great work again! Love the community which has built up here. Genuine gamers.

Gradius 3 with SA1 Hack!! A blast on all Fronts for me! And i have a soft Spot for Super R-Type (preferable with SA1 Hack,too) On PC Engine i love Soldier Blade (Soldier Series in general) And the port of Gradius 2! Thunderforce 3 and 4 of course! And a maybe Eliminate Down!

Amazing video and dedication, keeps me entertained and learning about shmups

Been a while since we've seen Timmy. It was nice to see him for a second in the intro. Amazing video as always, man. I'm always blown away by your videos.

COME ON THUNDER FORCE IV!

Awesome video man! This just lets me know that I have plenty of shumps to play catch up on that I didn't know about.

definitely some great selections in all categories! yeah I think Genesis/MD might have been my go-to system for shmups, SNES a very close second. Unfortunately don't have enough experience with more of the PCE shmups to rate it fairly (although Lords of Thunder may be far and away my favorite of the ones I DID try... hard AF, but so was the soundtrack so it all works out, haha.) should've guessed parodius winning for cute-em-up I think Jikkyou is my all time favorite there. (although that one, I would go with the Playstation port so IDK if it counts.)

Cannot wait to see how this plays out, every vid you put up is top tier. Many thanks.

Great video as always SJ. It will seemed like the Sega Genesis and PC Engine was neck n neck in most categories. It was great to see Soldier Blade get lots of recognition.

Thunder force IV!

I just finished watching the video, congrats on another top notch and accurate ranking! I love how Parodius Da was very well recognized, also the special mention for Salamander and how strong TFIV and the MD began in your video!! I have yet to explore more of the PCE library so in the meantime my vote will still be for the Genny/MD 😊. Also, I would have loved to see the killer soundtrack from Hellfire featured…man I love it!

Love your videos thanks for another great one.

As someone who also had a Neo Geo in the '90s, I'd say that out of all these games Thunder Force 4 is the only one that wouldn't have felt out of place on the Neo Geo. Overall though, Mega Drive vs. PC Engine is a battle between two shmup titans. My heart said MD, but I still voted for PCE. I generally owned way more games for the MD, as the PCE wasn't officially released here in Europe, so I had to rely on expensive grey imports. The Konami shooters, R-Type and the Star Soldier series give the PCE an edge, despite the MD having the Technosoft and Toaplan games. As for the SNES, I feel like UN Squadron once again got a bit sidelined. For me it's top-tier in every way - visuals, music and gameplay.

Been waiting on this one...16-bit systems and arcade have some of the best shmups I've played!

this is a perfect video, wow, so much effort put in, very neutral reviews, that's what we love! love all the shmups on all of the 16bit consoles

Awesome video bro, as I always say, your content gets better and better with each new one. Aside from the results let's be honest here, if anyone happen to skip any of these consoles they'll miss some great games, sure we all have our favourite systems but all of them have something unique the others didn't and that's great! In the end and as cheesy as it sounds lol we all are the real winners here ;D

I still think the Genesis Thunder Force III was graphically beautiful. Gameplay was great! The underwater level was insane! Man, the bubbles! Lawrence Welk would have been impressed.

phalanx was kinda fun on the snes. weapon selection worked decently, plus each weapon had a one time use that helped. music was atmospheric...

I'm a Big fan of Shooters game. And I can say I love all the games in this video. Great review sir ❤❤❤❤

Awesome video. You reminded me why I loved the old consoles so much. There were so many shooters and the music and intensity of some of these games pulled me in. This is such a detailed and focused review. Definitely going to have pull out some of these games and reply them. They sure don't make em like they used to,. Thank you.

These videos always get me so excited to turn on my retro systems or MiSTer!

Thunder… Thunder… Thunder Force Foooooouuuuuurrrrrr!!!

Best Shmup video I've ever seen. Great job putting that together . Old man loves Shmups 🚀

This is going to be so much fun. Go Sega!!!

You deserve a lot more subscribers ❤

This was a blast to watch! Had all three consoles but barely touched this apparently deep rabbit hole of shooters 😂

There can be only one. Parodius Da! (SNES)

Overall if I had to pick two favorites (one vertical, one horizontal) from each system it would be Gate of Thunder and Spriggan for the PC Engine/Super CD, Thunder Force IV and MUSHA for the Genesis/Sega CD, and R-Type III and Super Aleste for the SNES. That being said there are still plenty of shmups on these consoles that I have not gotten to; mainly the ones that didn't get released outside of Japan and were too much hassle and expense for me to seek out back then, so when I do get to them I know that there are a plethora of other games right up there with the aforementioned ones. The 16-bit era was just incomparable, but of course the 32-bit shmup haul was great too. Edit after watching 70% of video; so you pretty much made the same picks for the most part, but these games are truly undeniable and should all be played and replayed.

You’re killing it, Junkie. Your knowledge, enthusiasm, editing, and presentation skills are all top notch. If this wasn’t a niche topic, you’d be getting millions of views. You, Game Sack and Sega Lord X are my favorite retro gaming KZfaqrs and watching your videos is always a treat. I actually waited to watch this true shmup extravaganza, so that I could savor it at the right time. Wasn’t disappointed! Sega of America pretty much killed TF4 by giving it a stupid name and zero advertising. Here was a Genesis game that looked and sounded like a period Neo-Geo game, and they buried it! I remember looking at the box at Software Etc. and having no idea what it was, despite enjoying TF3 and the screenshots looking cool. It didn't take it long for it to get to the discount bin. That's when I finally picked it up for $20. Brought it home, put it in, had my mind blown and it became the first shooter that I bothered to master enough to beat on hard. It's pretty much responsible for truly starting my shooter fandom. They also had MUSHA for $20 but that one looked "too weird and Japanese” to me. Another game that had zero fanfare on release. I didn’t get to play it until the 00s, when it too became one of my all-time favorites. While I drooled over the screenshots of PCE game in magazines like Game Fan, I never even seen a PCE game in motion until 00s. While I’m a Sega fanboy, I totally agree that PCE slays it at shooters overall. I tend to love Compile and Compile-influenced (like the Soldier series) shooters with the most consistency. Replaying them is always awesome. By the way, can you imagine if Sega of America gave TF4 the love it deserved, and we then got a TF5 on a 16 or even 24 Mb cart?!? Or maybe even a Sega CD game that took advantage of the extra horsepower!

Literally clicked on this so that you could tell me what the name of that SNES game I played all those years ago was. Axelay! I was 90% sure it would show up here, for the music if not for other reasons.

Wow, great upload. Thanks very much 🙏

Awesome stuff mate. Looking forward to Sunday, hopefully I can stay awake. I still need to catch up with the best of SNES but will soon.

I don't play a lot of shumps but I think they look, sound, and seem cool. I play a few random ones. When I was young I was really into Gunbird 2 on Dreamcast. I don't know if I have the fortitude for precise evasion and memorization some of these titles require but I'd like to still play more in the genre.

Great video with some great twists!

I've been playing Soldier Blade, and holy cow is it fun! Its music made my top 5 of the greatest 16-bit shmup tunes. I'm addicted to the 5 min run and the hard mode as well.

Bravo on such a thorough, well conceived, and expertly executed video. I feel very grateful to have grown up owning MUSHA (an under $10 flea market find) and TF4, while still having some exposure to several of the flagships on SNES and PCE. I'd like to give one personal nod to Katsumi Tanaka for his work on the Robo Alesta (1992) OST which included elements of rave/techno and traditional Japanese drums and melodies blended seamlessly. I feel the OST is extremely underrated and it's simply mind blowing to think that it pre-dates Platypus Records' debut release Union Jack 'Art of Trance' (1993).

Excellent work and research as always!

Thank you for another awesome video my friend! The love you put into this and the rest of your videos, is just great! Here's to you! hip-hip, hooray! 👏👏🍻🎉

Im looking forward to new shmup junkie vids almost as much as i would a new killer retro shmup

Air Zonk was so much fun. I owned a Turbo Duo and they had a ton of great shmups. I still listen to the Lords of Thunder soundtrack from time to time.