A quickie post here. Apparently the PS2 was launched in the U.S. 10 years ago this week and in honor of that b'day I want to mention a PS2 post I saw on the excellent blog Retrogaming with Racketboy - "the PS2 Shmups Library" - mostly to bookmark it here for my own purposes because I am a big shooter fan and would like to try out some of the games mentioned in the post one of these days. I've never played a PS2 shooter.
One other thing. I used it because it is in the title of the blog post, but I absolutely hate the term "shmup". I see it fairly often online these days so apparently it is fairly common - at least among the younger crowd I'm guessing, but I'm 41 so I'll just stick with the good ol' generic "shooter". And if I want to get more specific to avoid confusion I'll just add a word - for example, "River Raid on the Atari is a great vertical shooter, but if you like horizontal shooters you gotta check out Chopper Command" - see what I did there kids?
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| I would love this t-shirt except for that ridiculous word across the top |
I'm a little more comfortable with the unabbreviated version of the word - "shoot 'em up" - which clearly has entirely too many syllables to bother saying in toto, but even that term feels kind of stupid to me and essentially adds nothing. At first I thought this was just an age thing - old dog and new tricks and all that, but I just learned the term "bullet hell" not too long ago and I'm fine with that one. So I concluded that I am only resistant to those new video game terms that just sound fucking stupid - like shmup.
Hmm - I didn't realize I had a rant in me tonight. Must be sleepy. Don't even get me started on the idiotic term "pwned"...
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4 comments:
Amen Madplanet! I hear Shmup used all the time on podcasts and it grates on my last nerve. Such a stupid term.
Glad to hear I'm not alone on this. Not only is it stupid but it is entirely unnecessary.
It reminds me of that episode of Seinfeld where George was getting all annoyed with Jerry and his girlfriend sickeningly calling each other "Shmoopy" all the time. Let's just face it - that particular configuration of vowels and consonants is just annoying.
Yeah. I'm 36 and I never heard 'shmup' before a year or two ago. I was like "what the hell? Shmup??" I must be old-skool because I always called them shooters. Still do. Shmup sounds dumb and forced.
Absolutely - dumb and forced. I had the same reaction when I first heard it a couple of years back too. Damn kids! Get off my lawn with your shmups! I salute your old-skoolness 5318008, if that is indeed your real name.
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