these are always a pleasant surprise 👆👆 ever played a shootemup that is interrupted with an RPG style powerup shop? it happens! sometimes

it's such a charming way to do a little world building while both giving a break in the action and rewarding the player for their performance; certainly not appropriate for every STG but they're so much more interesting and motivating to me than finding powerups on the fly.

these are just off the top of my head but i'd love to see more if you know any!

technically not a shop screen but i really love the weapon select garages in the Battle Mania/Trouble Shooter series for Genesis/Mega Drive