Man, that is one epic shmup haul! Strikers special edition also looking mighty nice.
Tonight’s Sunday Night Shmup is Raiden V for Switch (and of course previously available on PS4, XB1 and Windows) pictured with my Mk.II Red and Blue gashapon figures (not included). Got the LE at Best Buy a few days ago for only $39.99, so saved about 5 bucks off regular retail. Comes with a nice concept art booklet and mini soundtrack CD.
This is the first time in almost 28 years that a Raiden game has been on a Nintendo system since Raiden Trad on SNES in November 1991. The game does away with one hit kills/lives and instead gives your ship a life bar to manage and also features a “cheer” gauge system which occasionally gives your ship a temporary special weapon boost which is earned by in game performance and also can be tapped into from online players. It also features in game cinematic chatter from a remote command staff as they monitor your progress which a little cheesy and a bit annoying but fortunately voices can be turned off completely in the options menu.
Overall I’m really enjoying it so far. Despite the modern polish it’s still good old fashioned Raiden and also has three ship classes and several customizable weapon sets which add some nice variety.
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Oh yeah and I just gotta know, what classic issue of Nintendo Power is that hiding in the upper right of that pic? 
LOL nice catch. There’s actually 2 issues there 33 and 93. I dug them out of my collection to do some test shoots on. I want to start doing some videos and those 2 issues have coverage on games I want to cover. I don’t remember why they ended up down there though, I need to get them moved back away.
I ended up finding my self going back to Psyvariar Delta a lot this weekend. And I forgot the playable area in Raiden V was almost the same as a vertical shooter not-tated. I really, really wish they would add in tate mode, because I don’t care about any of the side info, they’re trying to throw at me.
Psyvariar Delta for some reason just kept tugging at me. I like the close shave mechanics here more than I have in other games that have kind of done a similar thing. Don’t know why, it all just feels better here.
Finally getting to play Strikers 1999 on a console was great too, though the way they set up the Cart is a bit silly. When you put in the cart it doesn’t take you to a like hub game and then pick what you want to play from there, it kind of acts like you just put 5 cartridges in your Switch and all 5 of the games show up at the front of your game list.
All the stuff that came with it though is really nice, and well done. I hadn’t planned on buying the second volume, because I either have the games already downloaded, or I’m not interested in them. The quality of all the bonus stuff though REALLY is tempting me to get it anyway. I was really impressed with it all.
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Classic Nintendo Powers are the best, that magazine was almost too good for the USA. Back in 2005 I used the maps in the Metroid feature from my old Star Trek cover issue from ‘91 to do my first -3 hour run.
Also, that’s weird that the Psikyo collectio cart just loads the games into the system UI, seems kinda lazy, oh well.
Yeah man, I miss old school gaming mags. Well specifically Nintendo Power and Gamefan. They were just so well done, so much information packed into every issue. I could read them cover to cover as a kid over and over again. Most of my issues show that too, with quite a bit of wear and tear on them. I’m subscribed to Nintendo Force now, but it just isn’t the same. Nice on the Gunbird, really good series. Has your Psikyo Collection come in yet?
Ohh for people interested and who missed the really fucking limited pre-orders for it on Strictly Limited Games the other weekend. The Vasara Collection is up for pre-order on the eShop for a mere 4.99 if you pre-order it. https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/vasara-collection-switch/
It’s only going to be 10 bucks at launch (on the 15th). I had enough gold coins though to pre-order it for free so I did. I’ve never played any of the Vasara games so looking forward to checking them out.
The Switch is just becoming a beast of a machine to own if you like shmups. I swear every month there is at least 1 or 2 more Shmups releasing on the system. I was just looking and out of the 80 something Switch games I own (digital and physical) Almost 30 of them are Shmups.
It makes me really hope M2 brings more of their ShotTriggers line to the Switch, and fuck it more to the US in general. I would honestly rebuy most of what they released on the PS4 to have them portable. Specially Battle Garegga.
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Thanks for the heads up on Vasara preorder. With gold coins discount I ended up paying 1.97.
I’m with you on the ShotTriggers releases, although I thought I read somewhere that m2 was having some trouble getting them to run properly on Switch.
I’d love to see Armed Police Batrider brought over. I absolutely love that game.
Gunbird is so much fun because it’s so basic. I can play that over and over again. I haven’t 1CCed it yet, but I feel like eventually I’ll manage that. I have that same stand and it’s awesome. 
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Totally agree on Psikyo shmups, they’re tough but just simple fun and easy to jump into any time when you just want a quick blast. And yeah the Hori stand is great, use that and the Flip Grip pretty equally.
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M2 said in an interview last year that Batrider is one of their most requested titles but so far they can’t get it running as accurately as they want on PS4 so might be waiting for PS5. It’s odd though because ESPRaDe is coming to both PS4 and Switch and that’s a bullet intense game despite being one of Cave’s older titles. I wonder what range of Cave and Raizing shmups PS4 and Switch can actually handle respectively. Guess different games all have their unique porting and emulation issues. @ShinJohnpv
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Still waiting on my Psikyo collection, it was stuck in customs in the Netherlands for about a week (ugh) and latest tracking as of Saturday shows it finally arrived in the U.S. so hoping I get it this week (unless Play Asia’s economy shipping is insanely slow here too).
Funny, speaking of Gamefan and Batrider I was digging through my magazines last night and found a handful of issues I hadn’t read in many years including the October 2000 Cannon Spike cover issue (man do I miss the Dreamcast era) which also has an awesome two page feature on Batrider, will post pics later.
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Wow, had to be an amazing mag to cover Batrider!
Could never find Gamefan in my neck of the woods growing up, so I settled with EGM… 
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One thing I loved about Raizing games: the characters showed up in each other’s games. Batrider has Garegga planes along with Mahou Daisakusen characters, Garegga has the MD characters selectable via code.
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Have at it!
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Many thanks, you’re awesome @DaveLong!
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No problem! I love those old Gamefan mags. I was very happy when they appeared online.
12 hours and 9.7gb later I finally have some new reading material. Gamefan was the best. Thanks @DaveLong
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You’re welcome! Some of the scans are a little shaky and Gamefan’s spelling and grammar, especially in the first few issues, was poor. I adored the magazine though because Halverson and his staff obviously loved games, and not just any games, but the games that gamers loved, even today.
The enthusiasm in those pages was infectious. It was a wonderful foil to the industry focused Next Generation which could often be a total downer when it looked at anything that was not 3D and bleeding edge.
Have a blast! I still re-read those mags!
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