The most popular vertical-scroller games

A vertical-scroller is a video game in which the action is shown in a top down perspective and the environment scrolls from top to bottom. Characters usually don't have to move to scroll the screen (expecially in shoot'em ups).

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Raiden

DOS1994 Seibu Kaihatsu Inc.

Raiden is a vertically scrolling shoot 'em up game developed by Seibu Kaihatsu and first released in arcades in 1990 and later for many home computers and consoles. Raiden follows the classic vertical scrolling shoot 'em up f...

Tyrian 2000

DOS1999freeware Eclipse Software

Tyrian 2000 is an old DOS science fiction classic shoot'em up, developed by Eclipse Software and designed by Alexander Brandon, Jason Emery, Daniel Cook. Tyrian 2000 is one of the most popular shoot'em ups ever published for ...

Xenon 2: Megablast

DOS1990 Bitmap Brothers

Xenon 2: Megablast is a classic shoot'em up developed by Bitmap Brothers and released by Image Works in 1990 for DOS and for a plethora of other systems. Xenon was good, Xenon 2 was far better. Compared to today standards Xenon 2 ...

Fury of the Furries

DOS1993 Kalisto Entertainment

River Raid remake

DOS1995freewareremake

Nebulus

DOS1988 Hewson Consultants

Nebulus, also known as Tower Toppler in some regions, is a classic video game released in the 1980s. It was developed by John M. Phillips and published by Hewson Consultants. The game was initially released for various home comput...

007: License to Kill

DOS1989 Quixel

Before James Bond was saving the world with cinematic flair, he was crashing pixelated helicopters in 007: License to Kill. This top-down action game takes the movie and crams it into six bite-sized missions of explosions, awkward...

Spy Hunter

DOS1984 Midway Manufacturing Company

Mad TV

DOS1991freeware Rainbow Arts

Star Goose!

DOS1988 Logotron

Star Goose is a classic video game developed by Logotron and released in 1988 for various home computer systems of that era, including the Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, and Amstrad CPC. It is a top-down, vertically scrolling shoo...

Xenon 2000: Project PCF

Windows XP/98/952000remake Bitmap Brothers

Xenon 2000: Project PCF is a vertical-scrolling shoot 'em up video game and originally released in 2000. It is a sequel to the earlier game "Xenon 2: Megablast," which was developed by The Bitmap Brothers and released in 1989.In X...

Silpheed

DOS1988 Game Arts

Invasion of the Mutant Space Bats of Doom

DOS1995 Pop Software

OverKill

DOS1992freeware Tech-Noir

Knightmare

DOS1986 Konami

Night Shift

DOS1990 LucasArts

Action Fighter

DOS1989 Sega

Action Fighter (1989, DOS) is Sega’s way of saying, “Why choose between car chases and aerial dogfights when you can have both?” You start in a motorcycle, grab some power-ups, and suddenly you’re flying a ...

Xenon

DOS1988 Bitmap Brothers

Xenon, released in 1988, was a vertically scrolling shoot 'em up video game developed by The Bitmap Brothers. Xenon was initially released for the Commodore 64, and later, it was ported to other platforms, including DOS, the ZX Sp...

Airborne Ranger

DOS1988 MicroProse Software

Strap in and crawl through the mud - Airborne Ranger (1988) is here to chew bubblegum and infiltrate enemy lines. And it's all out of bubblegum. This tactical action game lets you drop behind enemy territory, blow things up, and l...

Raptor: Call of the Shadows

DOSWindows XP/98/95Mac OS1994protecteddemo Cygnus Studios

Raptor: Call of the Shadows is a vertically scrolling shoot 'em up video game developed by Cygnus Studios and published by Apogee Software. The game was first released in 1994 for MS-DOS and later ported to other platforms. In Rap...

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

DOS1989 Atari

International Soccer

DOS1994 Zeppelin Games

Highway Hunter

DOS1994 Safari Software

Ikari Warriors 2: Victory Road

DOS1988 SNK Corporation

Highway Fighter

DOS1995 Safari Software

Star Wars 2

DOS1989

Sink or Swim

DOS1993 Zeppelin Games

Dawn Raider

DOS1990 Softstar Entertainment

Released in 1990, Dawn Raider is one of those obscure DOS shooters that probably spent more time in floppy disk boxes than in actual computers. It’s a vertical shoot-’em-up where you pilot a jet and blow up anything th...

Toobin

DOS1989 Domark Software

Toobin is an abandoned action game developed by Domark Software and released in 1989. Toobin runs on DOS but was also published for Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Game Boy Color, MSX, NES, ZX Spectrum. It's a conversi...