The NES had Some Pretty Good Shmups

Despite hardware limitations, intrepid NES developers were able to make a massive variety of epic shoot-em-ups with gobs of enemies loosing salvoes of missiles and bullets at a hero and—magically—the system handled it all like a champ. Shmups on the NES rarely even experience any slowdown. Amazing!

[darthv72]

tiger heli is still one of my favorites.

[P_Bomb]

Memories of Life Force!

[jznrpg]

I played that one a LOT

[specialguest]

Yes! That game brings back childhood memories. I didn't have an NES at that time, but a kid who lived at the same apartment complex did and he was pretty stingy with his video games. On a good day he would let me play some of his NES games at his place and Life Force was one I enjoyed playing. My brother and I had an Atari 7800 then a TG16 shortly after

[XbladeTeddy]

Gun.Smoke was what I always played. Became too much at times with all the enemies and things flying at you from every direction, fun game though.

[Einhander1971]

Crisis force, Gradius 2, over horizon, the three best shooters on the NES for me personally.

[BrainSyphoned]

Jackal and Guerilla War

[SyntheticForm]

Commando - NES.

Think I was four when I first played it but I was very good at it.