Side Scrolling Shoot'em Ups

I always have high hopes that some game designer at some big company will randomly stumble across my blog and say "that's a good idea!". This then allows me to play games that I would like to play. That's it. I don't want anything else other than to play games.

Joystiq had an article today about a game coming to Xbox Live Arcade that seems very much akin to classic side scrolling shoot'em ups. I love these games. The game, Undertow, is compared to Geometry Wars, which is another XBLA game that I spent hours and hours on. There's no real point to the game, you just shoot things and stay alive. Think asteroids with updated graphics.

But what happened to classic shoot'em ups? Contra? 1942? Aero Fighters? These are all great games. I know Metal Slug is a recent game, but it's really just a continuation of an old game with classic graphics.

With systems like XBOX 360 and Playstation 3, there is insane potential to create a side scrolling game with intense graphics. And enough processing power for 4 players at the same time.

Imagine this, a space shooter with crazy explosions, realistically lit models as fusion blasters rip through enemy gunnercopters. Super powers that rip through the fabric of time, summon demons, or implode molecules. The potential for eye candy is insane, and the gameplay doesn't need to be extravagant.

Just make it easy to play, hard to stay alive, and extremely rewarding to beat.