Vertical scrolling games sorted by release date

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).

Most popular vertical-scroller games

Tyrian 2000

Star Goose!

Mad TV

Sort by:

Donkey BAS

DOS1981 Microsoft

Fleet Sweep

DOS1983 Mirror Images Software

Space Miner

DOS1983

Spy Hunter

DOS1984 Midway Manufacturing Company

Knightmare

DOS1986 Konami

Guerrilla War

DOS1987 SNK Corporation

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...

Ikari Warriors 2: Victory Road

DOS1988 SNK Corporation

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...

Silpheed

DOS1988 Game 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

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...

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...

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 ...

Ajax

DOS1989 Konami

Ajax (1989) is like an arcade fever dream: vertical shooter, transforming vehicles, lasers everywhere, and a soundtrack that yells “blast stuff!” every few seconds. One minute you’re flying a helicopter, the next...

Ballistix

DOS1989 Reflections Interactive

Ballistix asks: “What if air hockey was controlled by futuristic cannons?” The answer: chaos. You frantically shoot pucks with directional blasts while the physics engine does whatever it wants. It’s fast, it&rsq...

Heavy Barrel

DOS1989 Data East

If It Moves, Shoot It!

DOS1989 Emerald Software

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

DOS1989 Atari

Jackal

DOS1989 Konami

Last Duel: Inter Planet War 2012

DOS1989 Capcom

Sky Shark

DOS1989 Toaplan

Star Wars 2

DOS1989

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...

Dawn Raider

DOS1990 Softstar Entertainment

Ikari III: The Rescue

DOS1990 SNK Corporation

Mystical

DOS1990protected Infogrames

Night Shift

DOS1990 LucasArts

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 ...