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[JavyOO7]

Just got my brand-spankin' new GBA NES SP the other day, and the thing is great! I have a nice collection of games for the handheld (over 10), and I realized in the shooter genre, I have nothing.

So any good shooters to recommend? I heard R-Type 3 (was it?) was horrible for the system, so anything you guys can recommend?

 

[Fularu]

Gradius Galaxies
Phalanx
Iridion II

All available in the US

There are more in japan though

 

[Baron]

I highly recommend Iridion II. It is, believe it or not, an incredibly well done shooter. The music has to be heard to be believed, and some of the backgrounds are so cool they almost could be FMV. Evokes images of Silpheed on Sega CD.

 

[BenT]

... And it plays about as well as Silpheed on Sega CD.

naysayer++

 

[type9]

Does anyone know how that port of Steel Empire turned out?

 

[GDGF]

Was a version of Parodius ever released for the GBA? That would be nice.

 

[Mejilan]

Bump for Iridion II love. GORGEOUS graphics (to the point of looping FMV backgrounds, occasionally) pimping soundrack (I bought the OST), and some VERY fine gameplay and power up mechanics... variable weapons too!

 

[Lyte Edge]

Another bump for Iridion II. By far the best shooter for the GBA, period.

 

[Mejilan]

Only missing a battery save. That would have been almost too perfect, however, sadly.

 

[Nester]

Iridion II rocks. Battery save would have made it that much better, but I guess passwords aren't a big deal.

 

[BenT]

Um ... eh, I'll just link my review.

http://archive.gamespy.com/reviews/july03/iridion2gba/

Iridion II is hardly the flawless gem some of you guys say. ^_^;;

 

[jett]

I download some Iridion music...and damn, it's GREAT!! Who composed this stuff? It seems like straight out of the C64 days.

 

[Culex]

Silpheed rocks. I'm so glad I own that game.

 

[Jonnyboy117]

Iridion's developer, Shin'en, is a German company which, in addition to developing a few GBA games, also composes music for other GBA developers. They write their own audio tools for the system, which are very impressive.

 

[Soul4ger]

If you get Iridion II, make sure you crank up the difficulty. For some folks, that might sound obvious, but if you play it on Normal or anything but the hardest setting, really, it's not that intense. It's wonderful at its worst.

 

[callous]

Steel Empire didn't turn out so great. Basically the only shoot 'em up worth bothering with on GBA is Nemesis/Gradius, and even that's not super great. I don't understand how this genre can be so poorly represented on a 2D system. IT PAINS MY SOUL. No really, it does.

There's Darius, too, but frankly the GBA game has taken trial and error pattern memorization to a level that just isn't worth anyone's time.

Looks like I'll have to try out Iridion II. I didn't even give it a second glance because of the first game.

 

[type9]

Damn too bad. I had high hopes for Steel Empire cause I adore the Genny game. Not being better then Gradius Galaxies is really disappointing. I'll still try to check it out if it's a cheap import. I liked Iridion 2 also, it's miles ahead of the first one. But yea the genre seems dead especially if they can't get decent ports of Steel Empire and R-Type 3 made.

 

[ChrisReid]

Wing Commander Prophecy for the Advance is a great 3d space shooter.
http://www.wcnews.com/wcpgba.shtml

 

[callous]

It's not that Steel Empire is bad, it just feels a little too floaty for my liking. If you really liked the Megadrive version so much you'd probably enjoy the GBA version too. So go for it