Over on the shmups forum (I don’t have an account there anymore) they run an annual vote to rank shmups.
Here are the results (I truncated the voting details to just the rankings):
- Battle Garegga (ARC/SAT/PS4/XB1)
- Mushihimesama (ARC/PS2/360/PC/SWI)
- DoDonPachi (ARC/SAT/PSX)
- Ketsui ~Kizuna Jigoku Tachi~ (ARC/360/PS3/PS4)
- Mushihimesama Futari / 1.5 / Black Label (ARC/360)
- DoDonPachi Dai-Ou-Jou/Black Label/etc. (ARC/etc.)
- Armed Police Batrider (ARC)
- Batsugun / Batsugun Special (ARC/SAT/PC/etc.)
- Darius Gaiden (ARC/SAT/PSX/PS2/etc.)
- RayForce / Layer Section / etc. (ARC/PS2/SAT/etc.)
- Crimzon Clover / World Ignition / etc. (PC/etc.)
- R-Type (ARC/PCE/PSX/etc.)
- ESP Ra.De. / Psi (ARC/PS4/SWI)
- DoDonPachi Daifukkatsu/1.5/Resurrection (ARC/etc.)
- Progear no Arashi (ARC/SWI/PC/PS4/XB1)
- Ikaruga (ARC/DC/GC/360/PC/SWI/PS4)
- Radiant Silvergun (ARC/SAT/360/SWI/PC)
- Flying Shark / Hishouzame / Sky Shark (ARC/etc.)
- G-Darius (ARC/PS2/PSX/etc.)
- Gunbird 2 (ARC/DC/SWI/PC/etc.)
- Dangun Feveron / Fever SOS (ARC/PS4/XB1)
- Thunder Dragon 2 (ARC/PS4/SWI)
- Mahou Daisakusen / Sorcer Striker
- Gradius Gaiden (PSX/PSP)
- Cho Ren Sha 68K (PC/X68)
I haven’t even played half of these, but the ones that I have are excellent games.


They do love their Cave games it seems.