Good side scroller shooters?

#1 Look at some of the classics such as Nemesis/Gradius and R-Type. Some of the graphics and music may be dated, but the game play is still top notch.

#2 Jets n' Guns really has to be one of the best. Awesome weapons, graphics, sound and gameplay.

http://jng.rakeingrass.com/

Demonstar and Raptor are also great.

#3 Radiant Silvergun, R-Type, Ikaruga, 1942, Gradius. Not necessarily side-shooters, but they're great!

#4 R-Type for sure! Best sidescroller spaceship game ever.

#5 Defender...

#6 Ikaruga (Bottom-scrolling, but greatest shooter ever)
Gradius III for the SNES
Bangai-O (More like Robotron, but also great)

One of the things I look for most in a shooter is an uncluttered background. Many shooters (Silpheed PS2, Mars Matrix, Einhander, to name a few) have cluttered backgrounds that just make it harder to see the bullets and enemies coming at you. One of the wonderful things about Ikaruga is that the graphics are good but the bullets stand out from the background so well that you can dodge every one of them if you're good enough.

#7 Gunstar Heroes was the best side-scrolling shooter I've ever played. It had very impressive graphics for the Genesis and there is a lot going on on screen. As for gameplay it was just really simple but fast paced; Hords of guys.

#8 Gaiares on Genesis had some pretty interesting mechanics.
R-Type, gradius and defender are undeniable classics though.

#9 Thanks Guys, you give me enough work for the rest of the year. :)

@Joe Bourrie
Good point there, I didin't think about that before!

#10 Area88/UN Squadron, the Guardian Legend, and if you can find a copy look at Parodius(parody of Gradius with an interesting selection of enemies).

#11 The best ever hands down was thunderforce 3 on sega genesis. Go find yourself a rom.

#12 I really like Jets'n'Guns. Played it just yesterday. :)

Oh and Raptor was totally awesome. :)

#13 What, nobody mentioned Adagio? ;)

Or even my own T2D horizy, Cloudburst?

Heehee.

Shoot The Core is the place to go for all of your PC-based shmups.

#14 I like Cloudburst David ;) Adagio is too big to download from home (i have 56K modem here).

I am working on something similar mostly for my hobby and training so would you mind if in future I send you a mail with few questions? ;)

#15 ROFL.. just googled up something funny..
screenmania.retrogames.com/arcade/05/arcade_0144.html

#16 @Randy - I can remember being 11 years old and riding my bike out to the local KMart with any quarters I could scrounge up to play Kung Fu Master. It was actually a pretty fun game back in the day...times sure change.

#17 Yea would be kewl to see something like that with T2d.