Hi! I'm Malc and this is shmups.com, launched on 26th May 1997 as the very first website dedicated to shoot-em-up games, mostly of the 2D scrolling variety. (If you're looking for FPS shooters, you're in the wrong place!)

I'd also like to welcome Akira and Bloodflowers along as co-owners of the site, together we will be providing you with the very best shmup reviews ever, a definitive listing of shmups on all platforms, great links to other shmup sites and lastly - the forum. In there you can join in the shmups main chat for news, views and lots of varied and occasionally heated shmup discussions, post your hi-scores, and also trade shmups.

 I consider shmups to be the last real classic game genre still alive - games in which score, skill, technique, replayability, and finely honed 2-dimensional gameplay are all-important.

Shmups can be picked up for 10 minutes, and enjoyed fully in that space of time. They can literally last for decades - I'm still trying to complete Flying Shark today. Perfect for modern busy lifestyles I reckon - a short, intense burst of pure gameplay. But they're often severely misunderstood by today's gamers ("repetitive, easy to credit feed to the end, all you do is shoot!"). Well, their loss!

Longstanding shmups.com veterans will have seen this site go through a few changes over the years. What you see here is is a step towards simplicity and ease of updating, and bringing some life and regular posting of reviews back into it. I'm extremely indebted to everyone involved in contributing to the site so far with reviews and tons of information, especially Akira!

Well, there's also a how to submit reviews page up now, have a look. Get busy - writing about shmups should be a labour of love... that's how I started, and that's what I want to bring back into it.

Lastly, if you hate what I'm doing here, or you despise the word "shmup", I don't care. I'm living in the past, I can't hear you... Long live shmups :) Malc