8. radio allergy/radilgy (dreamcast/wii) - Another underrated game, from the creators of Chaos Field. Instead of flying through space, you kinda explore similar territory as the Raiden games, in a sense, with vast colorful cityscapes that you can destroy.. this has the coolest graphics of any shooter ever, a unique soundtrack, and, yep, a sword. Just a supremely fun game.
7. raycrisis (psx/ps2) - RayStorm is fun, but this game is amazing! Man, it's really hard to write good descriptions for these things... "duh, like.. ya shoot stuff, man."
6. g darius (psx) - One epic, insane shooter! Kinda scary too -- all those fucking fish.
5. recca summer carnival (nes) - One of the rarest games ever, unfortunately, but do yourself a favor and get a ROM of this. AMAZING high-speed trance techno tracks (on the NES!) and some of the fastest gameplay ever. Pure brilliance.