Hong Kong 1997 is the most Bad Game that it loops, like, 74% circle to become absolutely hilarious.

Lots of great games on here! I am a bit of a newcomer to shmups, too. For an older title, I'd recommend In The Hunt, a submarine shmup with some great spritework and some unique mechanics. Nostradamus is also pretty fun if you can find a way to play it. Also, R-Type is a genre icon!

For a modern game, I highly recommend Risk System. Heavy epilepsy warning for that game! I frankly think it is one of the best shmups ever made and got criminally overlooked. Phenomenal design and feel. One of my all time faves.

Gotta have the Fantasy Zone games for cute-em-up cred

also Einhander, the Square Enix one.

What few shmups I've played are already on here but definitely spare Gunbird 1+2 and Progear a thought! Also, Warning Forever is eternal.

really grateful for the comments feature so people can actually leave suggestions, thank you all!!!
@vehemently had no idea risk system existed but it looks gorgeous

Anything from the Darius series! Gaiden is a great starting point and Darius Cozmic Revelation is out this year!

I haven’t played it yet but everyone seems to really like RayForce too. I’d recommend throwing that on here

Also you probably already considered this but the Touhou games might be worth throwing on here too

the touhou games are in my peripheral vision with regards to this list, theres like 14 of those bad boys i dont really know the names of. but that said im excited to play them one day. i love reimu already

Just remembered, you are missing some Neo Geo ludo, Blazing Star and Pulstar

Also dunno how far you are willing to go back to, but there's the big Grandpa games like Xevious, Galaga, Sinistar and Asteroids

its the only one of these i put serious time into and its mostly out of onion games brand loyalty, but black bird is a horizontally scrolling fantasy zone-like shmup built around its soundtrack that i'd recommend.

this list alone is such a nice resource for a genre I've wanted to explore more myself for a while now! New space invaders games are masterclasses of sight/sound, Infinity Gene is my fave and maybe the most experimental and abrasive

Sexy Parodius and The Game Paradise are some great ones with a whacky atmosphere and the Cotton series might be worth checking out too; it's a little witch on a broomstick bubblegum shmup series that isnt the deepest thing ever but with a lot of charm and truly beautiful pixel art, in the sequel especially

Also idk if you're including tempest-style 3d tunnel shmups here but always gotta rep "is: internal section" as an extremely cool underdiscussed rez precursor

Most things I can think of have been listed/suggested but
Blue Revolver is the other big Steam shmup (ZeroRanger is already here), I still need to play it more personally but I know a lot of people love it, the music and art are excellent and it's been very fun so far.

eXceed 3rd is a fairly humble indie one that's by no means the best shmup ever but it scratches the Touhou itch for me, since it's pretty similar. It's pretty basic all things considered, but the soundtrack is cool synth metal and I just find it fun. Maybe save it for if you're done with Touhou and want more (and aren't just going to go into fangames), I'm mainly recommending this one for the soundtrack tbh

Hope you have fun with Sora