God i hate this term but, whats your favorite "cute- em' up?"

[bullethell666]

Been filling up on shooters lately and wanted to pick one up. Any suggestions? Twin Bee is pretty fun and cheap as well. Also, how many titles are there all together?

[o.pwuaioc]

No idea about total numbers, but I've had fun with Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams. My wife likes it, too.

[CGQuarterly]

Does Fantasy Zone count as a Cute-em-Up?  If so, then that.

Or Fantasy Zone II...

[CrackTiger]

There's got to be at least a hundred of them for consoles.

Some of my favorite include:

Fantasy Zone II SMS
Super Fantasy Zone
Keio Flying Squadron
Star Parodier
Magical Chase Turbo
Air Zonk

[WoodyXP]

My favorite is "Jikkyō Oshaberi Parodius" .

Honorable Mentions:

Sexy Parodius
Star Parodier

[schweaty]

some of these aren't cheap, but here's a few:

Star Parodier
Parodius Da
Air Zonk (PC Denjin)
Super Air Zonk (CD Denjin)
Cotton
Magical Chase
Coryoon
Ordyne
Fantasy Zone
Mr. Heli
Cloud Master

[esteban]

L-Dis (not really)

I love too many cute-me-ups....Parodius (series) is so charming (so many little details).

Stinger (NES) was the first one I ever owned, I think...so, that gets a special mention.

Fantasy Zone was first one I ever played, though.  Hmmmm....I think it must have been.




UPDATE:

Ha! I feel like there is never a bad time to promote this:

Horizontal cute-em-ups:
https://archives.tg-16.com/complete_list_of_tg16_pce_shooters.htm?col=type&val=hc

Vertical cute-em-ups:
https://archives.tg-16.com/complete_list_of_tg16_pce_shooters.htm?col=type&val=vc


Brought to you by the Nulltard school of self-promotion

To be fair to Nulltard, I am guilty of promoting my stuff long before he arrived here

[wildfruit]

I only have one. Ordyne. So I'll say ordyne.
I did rent fantasy zone for master system back in the day though. Very enjoyable.

[PunkCryborg]

cotton

[CGQuarterly]

If you guys haven't tried 3D Fantasy Zone II for the 3DS, you should.

[Pokun]

Sexy Parodius and Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius are my favourites. All Parodius games are great shooters with fantastic humour.

Star Parodier is cool and have great graphics but I expected it to have as hilarious jokes as the Parodius series has and was a bit disappointed. Not a bad shooter or anything though.

[MotherGunner]

Coryoon and Star Parodier for me!

[ClodBusted]

All the Parodius games on the PlayStation, with more emphasis on Gokujou Parodius
and Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius, and less on Parodius Da and Sexy Parodius.

I like Star Parodier. And Pop 'N Twinbee.

I did try to like the other Twinbee games on the PS1, but I couldn't really get into them, which is on the one hand due to their high difficulty, and on the other hand due the bell power-up system that I have a hard time with.

I remember having played Fantasy Zone on the Game Gear twenty years ago, but I can't really judge it.

[EvilEvoIX]

Keio Flying Squadron for me, Sega CD Goodness!

[Digi.k]

My favorite is "Jikkyō Oshaberi Parodius" .

Sexy Parodius

some of these aren't cheap, but here's a few:
Parodius Da
Magical Chase
Ordyne

My faves too.  Also Cotton 2 is beautiful to look at andddd Three Wonders.

Game Tengoku, Twin Bee Yahho and Prikura Daisakusen on the Sega saturn also have cute and colorful graphics.

[jtucci31]

If you guys haven't tried 3D Fantasy Zone II for the 3DS, you should.

I've been tempted to buy that for the 3DS, didn't know if it was worth it. Though the 3DS ports of Thunder Blade and Outrun have satisfied me greatly, so I could have guessed that this would be good too.

I'll give it a try tonight!

[Mercutio]

Magical Chase (JPN Ver, it's more colorful) by a long shot.

But Air Zonk and Ordyne are pretty good too. Coryoon is also fun.

[csgx1]

Shooters are probably my favorite game genre, but I'm not a big fan of "cute-em-ups".  Something about shooting/destroying cute things just doesn't seem as satisfying to me as traditional shooters, but they are still fun.

Favorite would be Air Zonk.  A great addition/spin-off to the Bonk series.   

Star Parodier is cool and have great graphics but I expected it to have as hilarious jokes as the Parodius series has and was a bit disappointed. Not a bad shooter or anything though.

I too was a bit disappointed. Game has nice colorful graphics, good music and great controls but seems a little boring at certain points.  Maybe its the challenge since Star Parodier seems way too easy on the default difficulty setting.

[DragonmasterDan]

The two Air Zonk, PC Denjin games.
Coryoon,
Magical Chase
Cotton
Parodius
Star Parodier
And though it's towing the line a bit Monster Lair

all great cute em ups.

[esteban]

The two Air Zonk, PC Denjin games.
Coryoon,
Magical Chase
Cotton
Parodius
Star Parodier
And though it's towing the line a bit Monster Lair

all great cute em ups.

I accept Monster Lair as both a cute-me-up and a "cute run-n-gun"

[Mzo]

cute-me-up

Secret desire unveiled.

[NecroPhile]

Air Zonk and Magical Chase for me, as much because they're not all that hard (and I suck) as because they look, play, and sound great.

[Arkhan Asylum]

STEAM HEARTS


the end.

[Dicer]

Star Parodier is far and away my favorite, it's cute as all fuck, but it's not a slouch in the difficulty department later on...

[ccovell]

Near the top of my list is L-Dis.  It's cute, weird, but gets damn tough.

[imparanoic]

if you can call cartoon/cute character shoot em up to become a cute em up

what do you call a 超兄貴Cho Aniki? any suggestions

[o.pwuaioc]

if you can call cartoon/cute character shoot em up to become a cute em up

what do you call a 超兄貴Cho Aniki? any suggestions

Fruit-em-up.

[CrackTiger]

if you can call cartoon/cute character shoot em up to become a cute em up

what do you call a 超兄貴Cho Aniki? any suggestions

Fruit-em-up.

Aside from the egg plants, there's nothing fruity about the Cho Aniki games for PCE. Just the opposite.

You could perhaps call Ai Cho Aniki an "Oil 'em Up".

[InfraMan]

My favorite will always be Keio Flying Squadron on Sega CD. Everything about that game just clicks for me... the art style, the music, the characters, the gameplay. It all comes together into a big 'ol ball of happy times!

[Arkhan Asylum]

My favorite will always be Keio Flying Squadron on Sega CD. Everything about that game just clicks for me... the art style, the music, the characters, the gameplay. It all comes together into a big 'ol ball of happy times!

WERE IN A PC ENGINE SUBFORUM. STOP THIS NONSENSERYYYYYY

[esteban]

Keio Flying Turd is worse than Turrican. Get over it, folks.

Now, a real cute-em-up like Toilet Kids flushes Keio Flying Turd down where it belongs.

[PukeSter]

Parodius Da is still fantastic.

I've only beat Fantasy Zone on PC Engine. The turtle boss in the Master System version is impossible.

Fantasy Zone II is way too hard, with very long levels.

[CrackTiger]

Star Parodier excells as fan service, which celebrates the PC Engine and Hudson Soft instead of just trying to be wacky or funny. The game content is rock solid, even if it isn't too difficult or cheap. Being a great tech demo, doing so many of the "impossible on PCE" things which so many PCE games do, is just a nice bonus.

[InfraMan]

My favorite will always be Keio Flying Squadron on Sega CD. Everything about that game just clicks for me... the art style, the music, the characters, the gameplay. It all comes together into a big 'ol ball of happy times!

WERE IN A PC ENGINE SUBFORUM. STOP THIS NONSENSERYYYYYY

Never, sir! I will defend Keio until my dying breath. Have at you!

We should settle this with a fiddle contest!  

[o.pwuaioc]

You can defend it in console chat. 

[NecroPhile]

Somebody sell me a Star Parodier, dammit!  It's also one of my favorites (duh, it's on the easy side), but I sadly don't own a real copy yet.

[Gredler]

I grew up playing Fantasy Zone and have not played a better version elsewhere on actual hardware - the SMS and NES versions were a major disappointment when played after the PCE version (I played it on Turbo back in the day.) I've never played it in arcades, so I can't compare to that, nor any of the spinoff/sequels.

PC Denjin has been a amazing blast since I've picked it up about a month ago. I've played through to King Drool but have yet to defeat him on the easiest difficulty - a shameful welp of a rookie I may be, I still enjoy it

I would say if you have not picked up either of those, you wont be disappointed. I had my copy of Fantasy Zone stolen in middle school, but I will hopefully replace it eventually as I have with the rest of my turbo games.

[esteban]

I grew up playing Fantasy Zone and have not played a better version elsewhere on actual hardware - the SMS and NES versions were a major disappointment when played after the PCE version (I played it on Turbo back in the day.) I've never played it in arcades, so I can't compare to that, nor any of the spinoff/sequels.

PC Denjin has been a amazing blast since I've picked it up about a month ago. I've played through to King Drool but have yet to defeat him on the easiest difficulty - a shameful welp of a rookie I may be, I still enjoy it

I would say if you have not picked up either of those, you wont be disappointed. I had my copy of Fantasy Zone stolen in middle school, but I will hopefully replace it eventually as I have with the rest of my turbo games.

Yes, Fantasy Zone is a game that you can probably trade for here (or get it cheap)...start a WTB/WTT thread and see what happens.

PC Denjin =

[Gredler]

I grew up playing Fantasy Zone and have not played a better version elsewhere on actual hardware - the SMS and NES versions were a major disappointment when played after the PCE version (I played it on Turbo back in the day.) I've never played it in arcades, so I can't compare to that, nor any of the spinoff/sequels.

PC Denjin has been a amazing blast since I've picked it up about a month ago. I've played through to King Drool but have yet to defeat him on the easiest difficulty - a shameful welp of a rookie I may be, I still enjoy it

I would say if you have not picked up either of those, you wont be disappointed. I had my copy of Fantasy Zone stolen in middle school, but I will hopefully replace it eventually as I have with the rest of my turbo games.

Yes, Fantasy Zone is a game that you can probably trade for here (or get it cheap)...start a WTB/WTT thread and see what happens.

PC Denjin =

Thanks Esteban, I will certainly reach out to the community when I am ready to pick it up. For now it's so much fun experiencing all that I had missed with the other games I've tried, and I've flooded my backlog with titles thanks to threads like this and a trigger finger on ebay, that I am forcing myself into a "play what I got" freeze. Fantasy Zone on TGPC16E - great game!

[seieienbu]

Gonna have to go with Cotton as it's the game in this genre that I've played the most.

[Pokun]

Star Parodier excells as fan service, which celebrates the PC Engine and Hudson Soft instead of just trying to be wacky or funny. The game content is rock solid, even if it isn't too difficult or cheap. Being a great tech demo, doing so many of the "impossible on PCE" things which so many PCE games do, is just a nice bonus.

The problem is that it does try to be funny and fails doing so. Or maybe I just expected it be to Star Soldier that Parodius is to Gradius. The PC Engine character is funny and some bosses but mostly it's just cute not funny.

On a side not it is incredibly easy on easy mode. I suck at shoot em ups and I still didn't loose a life until the final stage the first time I played. I died a lot on the mother brain but you get so many extra lives so there's no risk for Game Over. Graphically it's brilliant!

[Jinxed]

Hana taka daka(long nose goblin) is another cool cute em up.

[munchiaz]

There are a lot of great ones on the PCE. Star Parodier is really fun and cute. But a bit easy. I really enjoy the snake boss, when he yells out "yellow snake...come on, redo snake....come on".
Cotton is really good, and its a good challenge. I haven't beaten this one yet.
Can't for get Air Zonk. One of the best cute em ups ever

[Grandiloquence]

So far only played Twinbee. Unless Rabio Lepus counts? Just been trying to get past the first level. Damn this game is hard!

[esteban]

Ha! I feel like there is never a bad time to promote this:

Horizontal cute-em-ups:
https://archives.tg-16.com/complete_list_of_tg16_pce_shooters.htm?col=type&val=hc

Vertical cute-em-ups:
https://archives.tg-16.com/complete_list_of_tg16_pce_shooters.htm?col=type&val=vc


Brought to you by the Nulltard school of self-promotion

To be fair to Nulltard, I am guilty of promoting my stuff long before he arrived here

[ShadowKitty777]

I really like Cotton and Sexy Parodius Best!
Fantasy Zone and Twin Bee in second.

I think these count, but for next gen I like Muchi Muchi Pork, Death Smiles (1) and Mushihimesama Futari quite a bit.

[HailingTheThings]

^ Death Smilesu!!!

Also Cotton. Yeh.