Your favorite Bullet Hell Shmup / Danmaku Game

Insert standard [I'm surprised there isn't a thread for this yet] response.

Any other bullet hell enthusiasts out there?

Even though its my favorite genre, I know only a handful of bullet hell games. Its my fault to be too lazy and look them up. Honestly, I'm not too good at these games, but I can't stop going at 'em.

I haven't really played too many to have a clear favorite, but so far its Touhou 11. Why? Its adds more functionality than the other Touhou games, and its really fucking hard amongst the Touhou games themselves. Otherwise its either Mushihimesama or Ikaruga, but its a bitch to weave through bullets with a xbox controller.

Highly Responsive to Players. Best soundtrack.

DeathSmiles. It would be Touhou, but I'm not fond of the PC controls for games at all.

My favorite would have to be ESPGaluda II. Other honorable mentions would include

360
Mushihimesama
Deathsmiles IIX
Akai Katana Shin

PC
RefRain
Crimzon Clover
Touhou 6,8,12

Steam tells me I have 82 hours clocked on Hitogata Happa, so I'm going to say that's probably my favorite.
And for a couple other of my tops:
Ikaruga
Gundemonium Recollection

There's also one that's name slips my mind I liked it a lot. It added platform elements to the mix, which sounds terrible on paper, but it was actually executed fairly well.

Between Hitogata Happa and the Touhou games for PC. The rest of the SCHMUPs I play are all arcade-only and have no idea what their names are. xD

Obviously Touhou. I've played a few, but Touhou defined Bullet Hell for me. I only play Imperishable Night. Mystia is a bitch when she does her blindness thing. I have 12.5 , 1-5, and Scarlet Weather Rhapsody though (last one isn't even a danmaku). I can play on hard. Of course I don't even last 2 seconds in Lunatic. I haven't tried all of them yet though. I want to get around to trying 12.5, 11, and 13.

Blue Wish Resurrection. If you want the 'Cave' experience, but don't have the specs or space to run the official HDDs. This is just as good.

The Galshell series is pretty awesome. My only knock against it is that it doesn't really explain the story as well as the main site for it does.

Shoot the Bullet and Double Spoiler. I keep telling people that if they want to get really good in the world of STG's no other game compares to these two.

Second on Crimson Clover.

Touhou series of course!

not to well versed on the genre but Galiga if it counts would be my favorite.

You did not just spell Galaga wrong, did you!?

I have yet to play many danmaku games. Only Touhou 6 and 7, out of which I think I prefer 6, if only because I have 1cc'd it on Normal.

I am also interested in the eXceed series, primarily because the 3rd game's remake has such a nice soundtrack.

I guess no one played Firestorm for N-Gage. It's a phone game but still from my point of view is very addicting and that game is the reason that I still keep my N-Gage phone. Lol

You do know what a bullet hell game is, right? Galaga is not one of those. Its just a standard shmup.

I think you guys are really underexposed to the genre if all you have played is Touhou. Touhou is lightweight in terms of gameplay. Sure, there are a LOT of games and some are quite fun, but in terms of actual gameplay its only the bare minimum. You dodge lots of bullets, you have your lives, you kill stuff, you kill bosses, and you only have one type of bomb. Hell the bosses don't even have hardpoints to strategically destroy. Its just a small sprite with a small hitbox. You can't call those minor tweaks for every other game as mixing it up. Its definitely a bullet hell, but there isn't much to it; its sort of stale. There are just a lot of games. I don't even know why they are so popular; is it just because the characters have frilly dresses or something?

This is why I like Touhou 11 out of all the Touhou games themselves; you get a character with more abilities, like changing your shot-type to many different modes strategically or teleporting across the screen which can really mix things up. Some other bullet hell games I've played, such as Shogun, take a twist on the grazing system and add an entropy feature that rewards the player with more powerful shots and shields for risk. In both these games you are often forced in boss fights to try and combat bosses from the top of the screen down (in reverse) while still dishing out damage at the same time. That makes things quite hectic and fun! Ikaruga is up there of course because of its 2 color bullet and shield system, but I dislike the emphasis on getting an insanely high score in order to get benefits. I've also gotten into Hellsinker and ∀kashicverse -Malicious Wake- as of late. They are less about dodging everything and more about going crazy with many different abilities. Using the right type of "bomb" at the right time, or strategic use of your shielding. Doing well enough rewards you with fantastic abilities, such as transforming into a giant mech and wrecking everything.

I'll have to admit though, Mushihimesama isn't much different from Touhou, but ITS SO DAMN COLORFUL. That's probably why I fail at it, too distracted by the constant rainbows.

TH11 is fucking hard as balls, you got that right. My favourite is TH7-PCB, favourite characters + music. One of my favourite games overall, not just bullethell.