A subgenre of the Shoot 'Em Up genre.
As the name suggests, the game's playfield constantly scrolls vertically over the course of a level, giving a top-down view of the action. The most common use of such an engine has been for games with some kind of spacecraft or plane, although a number of games were based on roads with the player controlling a car.
Most such games had the player collect health, lives and weapons as powerups in the levels, although some allowed the player to make purchases with their points between levels.
Complexity varies by having different numbers of layers of parallax and in some cases, transparency effects, such as translucent explosions.
Many vertical scrolling shooters were designed for arcade machines with screens taller than they are wide, which causes technical problems when playing them on home systems where TV screens/monitors are invariably wider than they are tall. To accommodate this difference, some home versions have an option to alter the orientation of the video output, requiring the display to be tilted 90 degrees, or, failing that, the player's head; this is known as "tate" mode (not short for "rotate" but the Japanese word for vertical). The alternative, "yoko" (horizontal) mode, allows the display to retain its usual orientation at the expense of having the playing field truncated, zoomed out, squashed or scrolled back and forth.
Compare Horizontal Scrolling Shooter.
Examples:
- 1917 - The Alien Invasion DX
- The 194X series
- Aces of the Luftwaffe - Squadron
- Acrobat Mission
- Adventures of Dino Riki
- The Aero Fighters/Sonic Wings series
- Aero Star (unique that your plane only moves on land but can hover to platforms)
- Air Assault a.k.a. Fire Barrel
- Air Attack
- Air Gallet
- Aka to Blue
- The Aleste/Power Strike series
- M.U.S.H.A. (a.k.a. Musha Aleste)
- Super Aleste (released in the US as Space Megaforce)
- Alien Wars
- Alligator Hunt
- Angel at Dusk
- Angry Laser Space
- The PC game Archmage, with the player being a witch riding a Pegasus or a wizard on a dragon.
- Area Flat series
- Armed Police Batrider
- ASO: Armored Scrum Object (AKA: Alpha Mission), and its sequel
- Astro Blaster
- Astro Assembler
- Axelay
- Baryon
- Batsugun
- Battle Garegga and sequel Battle Bakraid
- Blast Off, a semi-sequel to Bosconian, a multi-diractional shooter
- Blazing Lazers
- Bloons Super Monkey
- BLUE REVOLVER
- Blue Wish Resurrection
- Brood Star
- Bullet Hell Monday
- Bullet Hell Monday Black
- Bullet Hell Monday Finale
- Captain Tomaday
- Caladrius
- The Castle of Shikigami trilogy
- The Chaste Full-metal Maiden -Leiria- and it's remake
- Chaos Field
- Cho Ren Sha 68k
- Cloud Cutter
- Crimzon Clover
- Crisis Force
- Cybattler — it's interesting to note that your default equipment is a Laser Blade instead of a laser cannon, for once
- Dangar UFO Robo
- Dangerous Seed
- Dangun Feveron
- Danmaku Unlimited
- Danmaku Unlimited 2
- Danmaku Unlimited 3
- Storm Strikers
- Darwin 4078
- DemonStar
- Devil Blade and its remake, Devil Blade Reboot
- Dogyuun
- The DonPachi/DoDonPachi series
- Dragon Blaze
- Dragon Spirit
- It's sequel Dragon Saber
- DownWell
- Enigmata and sequel
- Every Extend is a subversion; you move freely on a top-down plane, and enemies will fire attacks, but your only method of attacking is blowing yourself up.
- Espgaluda and sequel
- ESP Ra.De.
- eXceed
- Exed Exes (AKA: Savage Bees)
- Explosive Breaker
- Fixeight
- Final Blaster
- Flutter Bombs - one of the oddest examples, where you're a butterfly shooting at assorted enemy insects!
- Flying Red Barrel
- Flying Shark
- The sequel, Fire Shark
- Flying Tigers
- Formation Armed F
- Garyo Retsuden - a Romance of the Three Kingdoms shooter, because why not?
- Gemini Wing
- Ghost Pilots
- Giga Wing and its sequel
- Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire
- Go Beryllium!
- Gondomania
- Some sections of Salamander/Life Force (internationally) and its sequel.
- Graze Counter
- Grind Stormer / V-V
- The Guardian Legend
- Gunbird and its sequel
- Gun Nac
- Gundhara
- Guwange
- Highway Hunter is a powerups-only example that uses a car. Classification as Nintendo Hard is quite likely, especially given the fact that you can't save your game.
- Hitogata Happa from the Gundemonium Series
- Hot Dog Storm
- Gun Frontier
- Gunsmoke
- Hellsinker
- Ibara
- Ikaruga
- Image Fight
- Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony
- Judgement Silversword (and its spinoff, Cardinal Sins)
- Eschatos, the sequel to Judgement Silversword
- Ginga Force, the Spiritual Successor to Eschatos
- Jigoku Kisetsukan
- Juuni Jumon
- Karous
- Ketsui
- Kiloblaster
- KOF Sky Stage
- Last Duel
- ''Legendary Wings is this for most of the game, the "DANGER", "LUCKY", and "palace" stages are horizontal.
- Lethal Thunder/Thunder Blaster
- Lightning Fighters
- Magical Cannon Wars
- Mahou Daisakusen (a.k.a. Sorcer Striker)
- Shippu Mahou Daisakusen (a.k.a. Kingdom Grandprix)
- Great Mahou Daisakusen (a.k.a. Dimahoo)
- Len'en
- Major Stryker
- Mamorukun Curse
- Mars Matrix
- Metal Hawk - one notable trait is that you can change the elevation of your helicopter during gameplay to avoid attacks.
- Muchi-Muchi Pork
- Mushihime-sama
- Nexzr
- Night Raid
- Noiz2sa
- Not August
- Omega Fighter
- Out Zone
- Overkill
- Parsec 47
- Pawarumi
- Phelios, in which you ride a Pegasus.
- Philosoma
- Prismatic Solid
- Psycho Chaser
- QP Shooting
- Radiant Silvergun
- Radirgy
- The Raiden series
- Raiden V
- The Raiden Fighters series
- Rapid Hero - also known in some ports as Arcadia
- Raptor: Call of the Shadows
- The RAY Series: RayForce, RayStorm, and RayCrisis
- Recca
- Rival Megagun
- River Raid, one of the first
- rRootage
- Seihou
- Seirei Senshi Spriggan
- Sengoku Ace (AKA Samurai Aces)
- Shienryu (AKA Geki-oh: Shooting King)
- Shoot1up
- Shock Troopers
- Shmups Skill Test
- Silpheed
- Skull Fang
- SPACESHIPS
- Spark & Sparkle
- Solar Striker
- Soukyugurentai (AKA Terra Diver)
- Stahlfeder Tetsukou Hikuudan
- Star Force
- Star Gagnant
- Star Soldier
- Strania -The Stella Machina-
- Strikers 1945 and its sequels
- Spy Hunter
- "StarCannon" from FunOrb
- Sylphia
- The Tale of ALLTYNEX series:
- Kamui (1999)
- RefleX (2008)
- ALLTYNEX Second (2010)
- Tasac
- Terra Cresta (It's In Name Only predecessor Moon Cresta)
- Thunder Dragon
- Tiger Heli
- Touhou Project
- Touhou Fuumaroku ~ the Story of Eastern Wonderland
- Touhou Yumejikuu ~ Phantasmagoria of Dim. Dream
- Touhou Gensokyo ~ Lotus Land Story
- Touhou Kaikidan ~ Mystic Square
- Touhou Koumakyou ~ the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil
- Touhou Youyoumu ~ Perfect Cherry Blossom
- Touhou Eiyashou ~ Imperishable Night
- Touhou Kaeidzuka ~ Phantasmagoria of Flower View
- Touhou Bunkachou ~ Shoot the Bullet
- Touhou Fuujinroku ~ Mountain of Faith
- Touhou Chireiden ~ Subterranean Animism
- Touhou Seirensen ~ Undefined Fantastic Object
- Double Spoiler ~ Touhou Bunkachou
- Yousei Daisensou ~ Touhou Sangetsusei
- Touhou Shinreibyou ~ Ten Desires
- Touhou Kishinjou ~ Double Dealing Character
- Danmaku Amanojaku ~ Impossible Spell Card
- Touhou Kanjuden ~ Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom
- Touhou Tenkuushou ~ Hidden Star in Four Seasons
- Hifuu Nightmare Diary ~ Violet Detector
- Touhou Kikeijuu ~ Wily Beast and Weakest Creature
- Triggerheart Exelica
- Truxton
- The TwinBee series (for the most part), including the NES game known as "Stinger" in the U.S..
- Twin Cobra and sequel
- The TWINS / TWAIN series
- Twinkle Tale
- Tyrian
- UFO Robot Dangar
- Ultra X Weapons - the Ultra Series spinoff where the Defense Team pilots get the spotlight for once
- Undead Line
- Under Defeat
- Vasara
- Vapor Trail
- Verytex
- Vimana
- Vulgus, Capcom's very first video game
- Warning Forever
- Xeno Fighters
- Xevious
- XOP
- Yurukill: The Calumniation Games
- Zanac and It's spiritual sequel GUN*NAC''.
- ZeroRanger