Difficulty tiers for PC Engine/TG-16 shoot-'em-ups

[Bardoly]

I would like to classify the PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 shoot-'em-ups into tiers of difficulty as follows:

(I will go ahead and rate a few myself, but if anyone wishes to contest my ratings, please do so.)

Easy - almost any gamer can beat this game if he just gives it some time

God Panic-Shijyou Saikyu Gundan
Sapphire, Ginga Fukei Densetsu


Moderate - average level of difficulty for shoot-'em-ups - most gamers can beat this game if they really want to

Blazing Lazers
Hellfire S
Steam Heart's


Hard - most average gamers will only be able to beat this level if they dedicate themselves to beating it, and it will be very difficult for them to beat

Aero Blasters
Final Soldier
Nexzr
Nexzr Special - Summer Carnival '92


Extreme - only hardcore shoot-'em-up fans will be able do defeat games at this level

Image Fight
Raiden
Tatsujin


Using this thread about differences between TG-16 & PCE shoot-'em-ups as a guide, this tiers list will only include as separate entries TurboGrafx-16 games which are gameplay-wise different enough to classify them separately.  I'm also using this thread as a guide to the complete list of PC Engine/Turbo Grafx-16 shoot-'em-ups.

So, here is the list of PC Engine shoot-'em-ups which needs to be categorized:

HuCard Horizontal Shoot–‘Em–Ups (includes SuperGrafx)

Aero Blasters
Air Zonk (TG-16)
Aldynes: The Mission Code for Rage Crisis (SuperGrafx)
Atomic Robo-Kid Special (multi-directional)
Barunba (multi-directional)
Bouken Danshaken Don San-Heart Hen / Lost Sunheart, The
Coryoon
Darius Alpha (enhanced for the SuperGrafx)
Darius Plus (enhanced for the SuperGrafx)
Dead Moon-Gessekai No Akumu
Dead Moon (TG-16)
Deep Blue-Kaitei Shinwa
Deep Blue (TG-16)
Download
Fantasy Zone (non-forced-scrolling)
Fantasy Zone (TG-16) (non-forced-scrolling)
Gokuraku Chuka Taisen
Gradius
Hana taakadaka!?
Heavy Unit
Magical Chase (regular and PCE fan release)
Magical Chase (TG-16)
Mr. Heli no Daibôken (multi-directional)
Ordyne
Ordyne (TG-16)
P 47-The Freedom Fighter
Paranoia
Parodius da!!
PC-Denjin-Punkic Cyborgs
Power Gate
Psychosis (TG-16)
Rabio Lepus Special
Rock On
R-Type (TG-16)
R-Type I
R-Type II
*Salamander (also has vertical stages)
Side Arms, Hyper Dyne
Side Arms, Hyper Dyne (TG-16)
Sinistron (TG-16)
Tenseiryû / Saint Dragon
Violent Soldier
W-Ring / Double Ring


CD Horizontal Shoot–‘Em–Ups (includes Super CD and Arcade CD)

Ai Chôaniki
CD-Denjin-Rockabilly Tengoku
Chôaniki
Cotton, Fantastic Night Dreams
Cotton, Fantastic Night Dreams (TG-16)
Download 2
Forgotten Worlds
Forgotten Worlds (TG-16)
Gate of Thunder
Gate of Thunder (TG-16)
Gradius II-Gofer no Yabô
Hawk F-123
Hellfire-S
Kiaiden 00
L-Dis
Legion
Lords of Thunder (TG-16)
Macross 2036
Metamor Jupiter
Rayxanber II
Rayxanber III
R-Type Complete CD
Side Arms Special, Hyper Dyne
Spriggan Mark II - the Terraforming Project
Super Air Zonk (TG-16)
Super Darius
Super Darius 2
Syd Mead’s Terraforming (TG-16)
Terraforming
Winds of Thunder
Wonderboy III-Monster Lair (platformer hybrid)
Zero Wing


HuCard Vertical Shoot–‘Em–Ups (includes SuperGrafx)

1941 Counter Attack (SuperGrafx)
1943 Kai
Blazing Lazers (TG-16)
Burning Angels
Cyber Core
Cyber-Core (TG-16)
Daisenpu
Dragon Saber
Dragon Spirit
Dragon Spirit (TG-16)
Final Blaster
Final Soldier
Final Soldier Special Version
Formation Armed F / Armed Formation F
Galaga ’88
Galaga ’90 (TG-16)
Gunhed
Gunhed Special Version
Hany in the Sky
Image Fight
Kyûkyoku Tiger / Ultimate Tiger
Metal Stoker (multi-directional)
Override
Psycho Chaser
Raiden
Raiden  (TG-16)
*Salamander (also has horizontal stages)
Soldier Blade
Soldier Blade (TG-16)
Soldier Blade Special Version
Space Invaders-Fukkatsu No Hi
Super Star Soldier
Super Star Soldier (TG-16)
Tatsujin
Terra Cresta II
**Thunder Blade (also has into-the-screen stages)
Toilet Kids
Toy Shop Boys
Twin Bee-deta na!!


CD Vertical Shoot–‘Em–Ups (includes Super CD and Arcade CD)

Alzadick - Summer Carnival '93
Avenger
Buster Bros. (TG-16) (static screen)
Daisenpû Custom
Ginga Fukei Densetsu-Sapphire
God Panic-Shijyou Saikyu Gundan
Image Fight II
Nexzr
Nexzr Special - Summer Carnival '92
Pomping World (static screen)
Psychic Storm
Seirei Senshi Spriggan - Summer Carnival '91
Space Invaders - The Original Game
Star Parodier / Fantasy Star Soldier
Steam Hearts
Super Raiden
Sylphia


HuCard Into-the-screen Shoot–‘Em–Ups (includes SuperGrafx)

After Burner II
Battle Ace (SuperGrafx)
Space Harrier
Space Harrier (TG-16)
**Thunder Blade (also includes vertical stages)


CD Into-the-screen Shoot–‘Em–Ups

Space Fantasy Zone (unreleased-but-available-in-CDR-form)



*Note: Salamander is included in both the Vertical and Horizontal lists
**Note: Thunder Blade is included in both the Vertical and Into-the-screen lists

[jperryss]

I'll offer a few.

Easy
Star Parodier
Ordyne
Sylphia

Moderate
Lords/Winds of Thunder
Air Zonk
Super Air Zonk
Magical Chase
Download
Blazing Lazers

Hard
R-Type (all of them I guess)
Deep Blue
Syd Mead's Terraforming

[spenoza]

Gate of Thunder is probably easy by this scale.

I always found Blazing Lazers on the hard side. It starts off nice and casual, but starting with the desert level it really picks up. The final level and final boss are actually pretty challenging. I think it straddles the line between moderate and hard.

[Otaking]

Hard - most average gamers will only be able to beat this level if they dedicate themselves to beating it, and it will be very difficult for them to beat
Final Soldier

Personally my main problem with Final Soldier is I find it's too easy, I wish it was a similar difficulty to Soldier Blade or Super Star Soldier.

[Bardoly]

Hard - most average gamers will only be able to beat this level if they dedicate themselves to beating it, and it will be very difficult for them to beat
Final Soldier

Personally my main problem with Final Soldier is I find it's too easy, I wish it was a similar difficulty to Soldier Blade or Super Star Soldier.

You may be right.  I haven't beaten Super Star Soldier or Soldier Blade yet, so I can't really rate them right now.  I found the first 5 levels of Final Soldier to be rather easy, with the difficulty slowly ramping up, but from level 6 on, it was quite difficult, and the final level was difficult enough to bump the game up a difficulty tier.  I'm wanting to categorize the shoot-'em-ups in difficulty tiers according to being able to beat the game, so some games which may be rather easy for most of the game, but which have very difficult ending levels/bosses will end up being categorized in harder tiers.

[shubibiman]

Sapphire is easy provided you choose the max number of lives and credits. This should be based on the default settings. Final Soldier is easy.

[Black Tiger]

I think that difficulty should be based on 1cc'ing on normal settings. Spamming continues with the lives jacked up has nothing to do with a game's actual difficulty.

[EvilEvoIX]

Image fight I'm actually getting good at, it's a beast for sure.

[roflmao]

Final Soldier, imo, should be in the Easy category along with Star Parodier and Sapphire (on Easy Mode).  I was able to beat all of them the first day I owned them (though they continue to be favorites and I play through them constantly!).  From what I've played, the others seem to be in their proper categories.

[A Black Falcon]

Sapphire on the default settings really should be in Moderate, I think... and R-Type shouldn't be in a lower category than Image Fight or Raiden.  If those two are in Extreme, R-Type should be there too.  As for Image Fight and Raiden, I presume they're a lot harder on TG16 than those two games were on NES and SNES... I know I've heard that, but I haven't played the TG16 versions much myself, only those other ones.  While they were tough, the NES and SNES games were not nearly "Extreme" in challenge.

I think that difficulty should be based on 1cc'ing on normal settings. Spamming continues with the lives jacked up has nothing to do with a game's actual difficulty.

If you're talking about only 1ccs, then you leave out the opinions of anyone who isn't a hardcore (and good) shmup player, I think, and that's not good.

I mean, the continue system in a game is definitely a factor in its difficulty -- for instance, TG16 R-Type is far, FAR harder than Game Boy Color R-Type DX in large part because DX has saved level select and infinite continues while the TG16 game has limited continues, or for another example Blazing Lazers is a massive challenge in comparison to otherwise similar Space Megaforce in large part because the latter game has a much more forgiving continue system and I don't think it limits your continues either -- but how hard it is to 1cc a game is definitely not the only element to its difficulty, no.  That's a different list from an overall "how hard is it" list.

Gate of Thunder is probably easy by this scale.

I always found Blazing Lazers on the hard side. It starts off nice and casual, but starting with the desert level it really picks up. The final level and final boss are actually pretty challenging. I think it straddles the line between moderate and hard.

Yeah, Blazing Lazers is a really tough game.  It seems easy enough at first, but at the desert level it gets harder, and then in the final level... GAH!  If you die too much and run out of continue-where-you-are lives, you're done, just give up and start the whole game over from the beginning, continues are useless (unless you're really good at this game).  I got stuck at Blazing Lazer's final level for years after buying the game in '09... only finally beat the game last week.  It's a really great game, but it's DEFINITELY quite a bit harder than the other 4th gen Compile shmups I've beaten, Robo Aleste and Space Megaforce, both of which are on the easy side.

[EvilEvoIX]

Blazing lasers is tough but fair, no cheapness and when you die it's your fault.

[Black Tiger]

Sapphire on the default settings really should be in Moderate, I think... and R-Type shouldn't be in a lower category than Image Fight or Raiden.  If those two are in Extreme, R-Type should be there too.  As for Image Fight and Raiden, I presume they're a lot harder on TG16 than those two games were on NES and SNES... I know I've heard that, but I haven't played the TG16 versions much myself, only those other ones.  While they were tough, the NES and SNES games were not nearly "Extreme" in challenge.

I think that difficulty should be based on 1cc'ing on normal settings. Spamming continues with the lives jacked up has nothing to do with a game's actual difficulty.

If you're talking about only 1ccs, then you leave out the opinions of anyone who isn't a hardcore (and good) shmup player, I think, and that's not good.

I mean, the continue system in a game is definitely a factor in its difficulty -- for instance, TG16 R-Type is far, FAR harder than Game Boy Color R-Type DX in large part because DX has saved level select and infinite continues while the TG16 game has limited continues, or for another example Blazing Lazers is a massive challenge in comparison to otherwise similar Space Megaforce in large part because the latter game has a much more forgiving continue system and I don't think it limits your continues either -- but how hard it is to 1cc a game is definitely not the only element to its difficulty, no.  That's a different list from an overall "how hard is it" list.

Gate of Thunder is probably easy by this scale.

I always found Blazing Lazers on the hard side. It starts off nice and casual, but starting with the desert level it really picks up. The final level and final boss are actually pretty challenging. I think it straddles the line between moderate and hard.

Yeah, Blazing Lazers is a really tough game.  It seems easy enough at first, but at the desert level it gets harder, and then in the final level... GAH!  If you die too much and run out of continue-where-you-are lives, you're done, just give up and start the whole game over from the beginning, continues are useless (unless you're really good at this game).  I got stuck at Blazing Lazer's final level for years after buying the game in '09... only finally beat the game last week.  It's a really great game, but it's DEFINITELY quite a bit harder than the other 4th gen Compile shmups I've beaten, Robo Aleste and Space Megaforce, both of which are on the easy side.

If you're not going to rank games by their genuine difficulty (factoring in play style), then this kind of list is pointless and should be replaced by a gathering of available options and cheats for each game (a "How easy you can make a game" ranking). 3 stages of Magical Chase does not define its difficulty.

[spenoza]

If you're not going to rank games by their genuine difficulty (factoring in play style), then this kind of list is pointless and should be replaced by a gathering of available options and cheats for each game (a "How easy you can make a game" ranking). 3 stages of Magical Chase does not define its difficulty.

I think the list should be done by default difficulty and settings (lives, continues, bonus lives score), unless the default difficulty is not the full game. In that case, the lowest difficulty level above default that includes all the levels should be ranked.

I do not think this list should cater to the 1cc. I wouldn't be opposed to having a 1cc difficulty ranking, but that would be a different beast from what is being proposed, here.

Hell, if you're going ranking/list crazy, you could also make one that compares various games hardest challenge settings to see which ones are truly the most evil.

[Black Tiger]

If you're not going to rank games by their genuine difficulty (factoring in play style), then this kind of list is pointless and should be replaced by a gathering of available options and cheats for each game (a "How easy you can make a game" ranking). 3 stages of Magical Chase does not define its difficulty.

I think the list should be done by default difficulty and settings (lives, continues, bonus lives score), unless the default difficulty is not the full game. In that case, the lowest difficulty level above default that includes all the levels should be ranked.

I do not think this list should cater to the 1cc. I wouldn't be opposed to having a 1cc difficulty ranking, but that would be a different beast from what is being proposed, here.

Hell, if you're going ranking/list crazy, you could also make one that compares various games hardest challenge settings to see which ones are truly the most evil.

By "1cc'ing", I don't mean how hard it is to finish the game on a single credit, I mean how challenging is the actual game overall. Instead of thinking about all the ways to alter the game to make it easier, we should be thinking about it from the perspective of 1cc'ing, which is essentially playing through a game under normal settings. Arcade ports will often be cheap or unreasonably difficult in places in order to eat quarters. It is not unreasonable to use continues in those games, but doing so is admitting that the game is difficult for you.

Too many people spam bombs and continue like crazy in Sapphire and then call the game easy, when in fact they are sidestepping most of the game altogether. To this day too many people parrot EGM in saying that Strider 2 is too easy and over too quick, simply because they button mash while not paying full attention and just use infinite continues. It's not far off from watching a longplay on youtube and saying a game is too easy.

[A Black Falcon]

Blazing lasers is tough but fair, no cheapness and when you die it's your fault.

I don't know, I love the game, but the shield system can be confusing... I mean, telling when bullets will kill you, versus just level-down your weapons (or bounce off the shield) is not exactly intuitive.

Sapphire on the default settings really should be in Moderate, I think... and R-Type shouldn't be in a lower category than Image Fight or Raiden.  If those two are in Extreme, R-Type should be there too.  As for Image Fight and Raiden, I presume they're a lot harder on TG16 than those two games were on NES and SNES... I know I've heard that, but I haven't played the TG16 versions much myself, only those other ones.  While they were tough, the NES and SNES games were not nearly "Extreme" in challenge.

I think that difficulty should be based on 1cc'ing on normal settings. Spamming continues with the lives jacked up has nothing to do with a game's actual difficulty.

If you're talking about only 1ccs, then you leave out the opinions of anyone who isn't a hardcore (and good) shmup player, I think, and that's not good.

I mean, the continue system in a game is definitely a factor in its difficulty -- for instance, TG16 R-Type is far, FAR harder than Game Boy Color R-Type DX in large part because DX has saved level select and infinite continues while the TG16 game has limited continues, or for another example Blazing Lazers is a massive challenge in comparison to otherwise similar Space Megaforce in large part because the latter game has a much more forgiving continue system and I don't think it limits your continues either -- but how hard it is to 1cc a game is definitely not the only element to its difficulty, no.  That's a different list from an overall "how hard is it" list.

Gate of Thunder is probably easy by this scale.

I always found Blazing Lazers on the hard side. It starts off nice and casual, but starting with the desert level it really picks up. The final level and final boss are actually pretty challenging. I think it straddles the line between moderate and hard.

Yeah, Blazing Lazers is a really tough game.  It seems easy enough at first, but at the desert level it gets harder, and then in the final level... GAH!  If you die too much and run out of continue-where-you-are lives, you're done, just give up and start the whole game over from the beginning, continues are useless (unless you're really good at this game).  I got stuck at Blazing Lazer's final level for years after buying the game in '09... only finally beat the game last week.  It's a really great game, but it's DEFINITELY quite a bit harder than the other 4th gen Compile shmups I've beaten, Robo Aleste and Space Megaforce, both of which are on the easy side.

If you're not going to rank games by their genuine difficulty (factoring in play style), then this kind of list is pointless and should be replaced by a gathering of available options and cheats for each game (a "How easy you can make a game" ranking). 3 stages of Magical Chase does not define its difficulty.

Looking only at 1ccs and not anything else is not "their genuine difficulty", though.  That's something only for the hardcore, unless it's a game so hard that you MUST 1cc it if you want to actually win, such as Blazing Lazers.  And that's one of the major reasons why that game's so tough, continues are useless.  So yeah, no.

If you're not going to rank games by their genuine difficulty (factoring in play style), then this kind of list is pointless and should be replaced by a gathering of available options and cheats for each game (a "How easy you can make a game" ranking). 3 stages of Magical Chase does not define its difficulty.

I think the list should be done by default difficulty and settings (lives, continues, bonus lives score), unless the default difficulty is not the full game. In that case, the lowest difficulty level above default that includes all the levels should be ranked.

I do not think this list should cater to the 1cc. I wouldn't be opposed to having a 1cc difficulty ranking, but that would be a different beast from what is being proposed, here.

Hell, if you're going ranking/list crazy, you could also make one that compares various games hardest challenge settings to see which ones are truly the most evil.

I agree entirely.

If you're not going to rank games by their genuine difficulty (factoring in play style), then this kind of list is pointless and should be replaced by a gathering of available options and cheats for each game (a "How easy you can make a game" ranking). 3 stages of Magical Chase does not define its difficulty.

I think the list should be done by default difficulty and settings (lives, continues, bonus lives score), unless the default difficulty is not the full game. In that case, the lowest difficulty level above default that includes all the levels should be ranked.

I do not think this list should cater to the 1cc. I wouldn't be opposed to having a 1cc difficulty ranking, but that would be a different beast from what is being proposed, here.

Hell, if you're going ranking/list crazy, you could also make one that compares various games hardest challenge settings to see which ones are truly the most evil.

By "1cc'ing", I don't mean how hard it is to finish the game on a single credit, I mean how challenging is the actual game overall. Instead of thinking about all the ways to alter the game to make it easier, we should be thinking about it from the perspective of 1cc'ing, which is essentially playing through a game under normal settings. Arcade ports will often be cheap or unreasonably difficult in places in order to eat quarters. It is not unreasonable to use continues in those games, but doing so is admitting that the game is difficult for you.

Too many people spam bombs and continue like crazy in Sapphire and then call the game easy, when in fact they are sidestepping most of the game altogether. To this day too many people parrot EGM in saying that Strider 2 is too easy and over too quick, simply because they button mash while not paying full attention and just use infinite continues. It's not far off from watching a longplay on youtube and saying a game is too easy.

I'm sorry, but if the game allows you to play another way, playing the game "right" is not the only thing you should consider.

As for difficulty levels though I do agree that it should mostly be based off of playing games on their default difficulty, but if one game has no difficulty settings and another one lets you play it in an easier setting, that IS something worth considering, perhaps...