We've seen a lot of inventive takes on the decades-old shoot'em up genre lately -- Broken Garden's Bible-inspired ships, Lose/Lose's "feature" that deletes your files, Boss Rush's premise allowing you play as an end-stage boss, Retro/Grade's reverse rhythm-based levels, Zeit²'s time-traveling mechanics, etc.

Nathan Fouts of Mommy's Best Games, the developer behind Weapon of Choice and the upcoming Grapple Buggy, added a new titles to that list, Shoot 1UP, a shmup that treats 1UPs as power-ups, immediately giving you an extra ship to control, Galaga-style, whenever you grab an extra life.

As you earn more and more 1UPs and expand your fleet, your weapons will upgrade, too. You can also pick up other kinds of power-ups, like "Ghost", which temporarily doubles your on-screen fighters. If that's still not enough ships for you, Shoot1UP also feature a two-player cooperative mode that allows you and a friend to command up to 60 crafts at a time.

Mommy's Best Games expects to release Shoot 1UP to Xbox Live Indie Games in January 2010. You can watch a trailer for the title after the break: