Many of my friends have told me they're interested in shoot-em-ups, but are deterred by their ubiquitous difficulty. It's true that the legacy of the shoot-em-up is predicated on its difficulty, but that doesn't mean they're unapproachable! The games listed here either have a low difficulty as a baseline, or have options/modes that effectively communicate the conventions of the genre while still being enjoyable and accessible (without being too watered-down to become pointless). These entries are my recommended gateways to appreciating the shockingly diverse mechanical landscape of the shoot-em-up, and developing the hunger to dive into the rest of the genre's challenges.