Shmups

For those who don't know, shmups is short for Shoot 'Em Ups. Its a type of game that used to be very popular back in the 8 and 16 bit era. The games usually featured planes or spaceships blasting the crap out of other planes and spaceships. There defining features were lots of power ups and one hit lives. I haven't played a lot of shmups mostly because of when I was born, but I encountered a few in arcades. I do have a ROM of a shmup from the NES that I am rather fond of. The game is called Metal Storm, and it hails from the twilight years of the NES.

pretty standard Japanese robots

The game boasted rather advanced graphics for the NES. The screen shot doesn't really show it, but the background moved with you in a layered effect in this game, which was pretty advanced for the time. Not a lot of powerups in this game, but the gameplay is very clever, the levels are varied as are the enemies. But what really set this game apart was the gravity switching. Pressing up or down while jumping would reverse the direction of gravity for you and some enemies.

like this

This mechanic is most intriguing and should really be included in more games. You almost feel sorry for poor Mario being stuck with only one gravity. I have never gotten past level six in this game because of the sparse supply of lives. I could save state, but that feels like cheating. So good luck to any readers who give this game a whirl.