Once an arcade mainstay, the side-scrolling shooter seems to be dwindling from existence.
Ryan looks back at a sadly neglected genre…
So what went wrong?
Just one year afterDefenderappeared in arcades, along came KonamisScramble.
Less mind-bogglingly fast thanDefender,Scramblewas clearly derived from the same DNA as Williams earlier hit.
That same year saw also saw the release ofStargate Jarvis and Larry DeMars sequel toDefender.
Later levels were set among metal chambers, or grotesque, organic caverns.
For the youths crowding into arcades back in 1985, this was thrilling stuff.
Then there was the innovation inGradius ingenious power-up system.
Its worth pausing here to giveGradius music a special mention.
Full of imagination and deliciously strange humour, theParodiusgames were classics in their own right.
At the time,R-Typelooked like something sent back from the future.
Others, such asWhip RushandInsector X,were largely forgettable.
This will be the lastR-Typegame Irem releases, producer Kujo Kazuma said in a 2003 interview.
If we didnt add Final to the title this time, players would be waiting expectantly forever.
Initially, the team dedicated to makingR-pop in Finalmet some resistance from the bosses at Irem.
If you think that way, youve lost before youve begun, and its an insult to theR-Typename.
So when we started the project, I was very determined.
Also, the requests from players to make anotherR-Typekept gradually coming in, and that was another motivator.
As forR-key in,Irem remained true to its word.
At its best, the side-scrolling shooter presented us with a slowly-unfolding adventure full of colour and movement.
There were rarely any words or characters, because there didnt need to be any.
There was just our lone space craft and a strange alien world stretching out before us.
The side-scrolling shooter offered nothing less than a pulse-pounding journey into the unknown.
In its simplicity lay a wonderful, timeless purity.
