SHMUPS!

man gradius was one of my fave nes games, took me a while to master though

Hitogata Happa

demo (PC):

http://zenjohost.com/~hunty/platine/happatr1.zip

On the subject of PC games that are SHMUPS, I completely forgot Gridwars, a "New age" SHMUP http://gridwars.marune.de/

OMG THE ENTIRE R-TYPE SERIES!
and my fave in the arcade is metel slug and DoDonPachi

I liked r-type but it was just too hard for me :(

R-Type III 4th level, i never got passed it.

Ikaruga is a great game.

Super R-Type. Jesus H. Christ, was that game hard. I can't even get past the third level.

Life Force: Salamander was awesome just because you could play it with two players simultaneously.

Einhander by Square

Warning Forever: fight against a boss that literally evolves against your playing style. it's a pretty good time killer, though it gets quite hard later on.

http://www18.big.or.jp/~hikoza/Prod/


I remember Life Force (Gradius 2)! Stealing lives on co-op was a great touch on Konami's behalf!

geometry wars

I meant to say:
http://www18.big.or.jp/~hikoza/Prod/dlcount.cgi?product=wf

obviously.

mailmerge: thanks for the link I had incidentally stumbled across that just last night, ... i actually like the shooters solitude system 4 on that same site ALOT =)

1943 :D

Dodonpachi, of course.