A-Z of Notable Top Down Shooters

 

Alien Breed 2

2 Player

Stand out version - Amiga

Excellent shooter which includes some great action, other nice inclusions such as shops, and, like its predecessor before it, has an atmosphere full of tension and unease permeating it. Getting stuck in a corner with low ammo and masses of aliens coming towards you is never a good feeling!

Alien Breed Tower Assault

2 Player

Stand out version - Amiga

An improvement over it's earlier incarnations, Tower Assault added a much more set-piece focused design as well as improved graphics and presentation, all the best elements still remained such as the adventuring style shops for upgrading weaponry and the great 2-player co-op mode.

Alien Syndrome

2 Player

Stand out version - Amiga

Nice save-the-hostages style shmup from Sega which has you running through corridors shooting aliens and searching for survivors. Alien Syndrome was quite an influential arcade game for the time, and the excellently designed, gruesome bosses are never short of inspiration.

Chaos Engine/Soldiers of Fortune

2 Player

Play it on - Amiga, Mega Drive

Adding some well implemented adventuring elements into the mix was a great idea for the Chaos Engine, with the game giving you loads of incentive to search every nook and cranny of the stages in an effort to get hold of those elusive (and often much needed) upgrades. The two player mode is also especially compulsive stuff.

Commando

1 Player

Stand out versions - Atari ST, NES

The game that pretty much kicked off and popularised the whole genre. Commando is a little bit simple in concept and theme compared to later games (you're essentially just a soldier running through the stages shooting and throwing grenades) but it undeniably has some timeless gameplay with it's pure, uncomplicated action.

 

Crack Down

2 Player

Stand out versions - Mega Drive

Shooter from Sega based on exploring the environments, shooting bad guys and disarming bombs. Some nice elements include the ability to cling to the walls (which give it a mild stealth feeling), and the fact that its multiplayer is split screen, meaning that unlike most games of the genre 2 players can actually go their separate ways to explore and cover ground faster.

Firemen, The

1 Player

Stand out Version - SNES

Take your average shooter and replace all the enemies with spreading fire and malfunctioning robots, and you've probably got a pretty good idea of what The Firemen is all about. The levels here are always full of interesting new takes on established gameplay mechanics, the game is full of charm, and the whole thing is a lot of fun. Definitely a bit of an under-appreciated classic.

Gain Ground

2 Player

Stand out version - Mega Drive, TG-16

Gain Ground is a unique game which fuses top down shooting action with strategy elements. Each level requires you to either kill all the enemies, or get all of your characters to the exit, as the game progresses you get access to a variety of characters each with differing strengths and weaknesses. The large numbers of characters actually give the game a mild Pokemon style collecting feel to it as you really want to find as many of the characters as you can to see what they can do, and build up a huge team.

Gauntlet

4 Players (ST) 2 Players (MS)

Another oldie that along with Commando really kick started the genre. At it's heart Gauntlet is an addictive maze game, you run through the levels shooting at the monsters and searching for the exit whilst solving a few simple puzzles along the way. The game's biggest strength has to be its compulsive multiplayer co-op features, which were loads of fun to play in a group and were pretty much unrivalled at the time.

Granada

1 Player

Play it on - Mega Drive

Nice set-piece levels, great weapons (such as an over the top cannon which pushes you back every time you use it) and power-ups (you can collect option-like little machines that follow you around and fire at the enemy) all help to raise Granada above many of the other shmups out there.

Gremlins 2

1 Player

Stand out version - NES

Anyone who's spent any time on the site probably knows that I love this game, it's a brilliant fusion of shmup and platforming styles which works really well, with you shooting at the multitudes of enemies one second, and doing daring leaps across moving platforms the next. Add some simplified adventuring elements into the mix and you have what I feel is a classic NES game.

Guerilla War

2 Player

Stand out version - NES

Probably the best classic style top down shooter on the NES. Its got a bit of everything really, impressive graphics, controllable vehicles, great action, and 2 player co-op. Best of all though its not hampered by the unresponsive controls found in many of the top down shmups found on NES (Ikari Warriors and Commando I'm looking at you) with Guerilla War you always feel like you can turn on a dime, and are totally in control.