I was on the fence about Fighting Hawk, so thanks for sharing your thoughts. Too bad the game isn’t up to snuff.
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Got the BEEP edition of Flying Shark/Same Same Same for Switch, can’t wait to dig into this, will actually be my first time playing Flying Shark. As a bonus the dealer also included a really nice R-TYPE magnet/decal, issued by City Connection so appears to be official but not sure what it’s from.
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For tonight’s Sunday Night Shmup I’m enjoying Fire Shark on the Switch. My first time playing the game, absolutely love it and can see why it’s an all time classic:
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Capcom Arcade Second Stadium is coming soon, what sort of picks is everyone hoping for?
For me, it’d be great to see Mars Matrix on there. The Dreamcast version is the only home port to date and even it commits a few sins - namely only supporting 480i output, turning its 240p visuals into a bit of a blur-fest. Hopefully they’ll include it here with 240p rendering and good scanlines.
Cannon Spike would be great too, though expecting Sega Naomi stuff is probably a fool’s errand!
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On a Toaplan Beep kick, got the Tiger Heli box set this week. This is my first time playing the arcade version of Kyuukyoku Tiger and am really enjoying it, up until now have only played the PC Engine port (which is also included in this collection).
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Not retro, but I finished Sky Force Reloaded tonight.
It’s honestly a really basic shmup, but it’s got a style to it that’s really enjoyable. The stage movement is slow and plodding, and it’s got some bullet hell elements to it.
The main draw is that there are 4 criteria to meet before completing a stage. Kill 70% enemies, kill 100% enemies, rescue all the hostages, and finish the stage without getting hit. It leads to a lot of replayability of stages to try and get that next goal, and once you complete all four on a stage, it unlocks the next difficulty.
As you go through the game you collect stars that you use to spend on upgrades for your ship. Weapons, health, special powers etc.
When I first booted it up I was a little put off because it didn’t support my arcade stick, and it felt really laggy. I forced vsync off with the Nvidia control panel and used an xbone controller, and ended up having a blast with this game. Would recommend. It’s been a ton of fun.
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Beautiful!
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Publisher TAITO and developer M2 have announced shoot ’em up collection Ray’z Arcade Chronology for PlayStation 4 and Switch. It will launch in 2023 in Japan.
Ray’z Arcade Chronology includes the following titles:
- RayForce (1994)
- RayStorm (1996)
- RayStorm NEO-HD (2023) – A remaster of the arcadeversion of RayStorm. RayStorm HD launched in 2010 with additional elements and a 16:9 aspect ratio, but RayStorm NEO-HD includes the same content as the arcade version and retains a 4:3 aspect ratio.
- RayCrisis (1998)
- RayCrisis HD (2023) – A remaster of RayCrisis.
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I’m glad I didn’t pick up the Saturn Tribute last year now!
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After being announced by Hamster about a year ago (that sounds familiar), Rabio Lepus is finally releasing on ACA tomorrow. Been wanting to try it on and off for years (almost bought the PC Engine version once) and I’m a huge fan of Video System (there’s just something about their pre-Psikyo work) so am really looking forward to this. Plus it’s a nice bit of variety after all the recent ACA Namco titles (not that those haven’t been great):
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I’m probably in on that one.
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I sat down this morning before work for a quick game of Darius on Genesis. Figured I’d try Tiat (easy) mode. Biggest benefit to this mode is that your weapon levels don’t reset upon death. This makes for a nice casual playthrough. I ended up going A-V route, which wasn’t too bad at all. In fact, the final boss went down super quick thanks to my powered up wave shot. Overall, an enjoyable easy clear and a good way to learn the game.
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For tonight’s Sunday Night Shmup I’m thoroughly enjoying Armed Police Batrider on the Astro City Mini V, one of my all time favorite shooters. Love the team based gameplay, incredible variety of fighters and overall Garegga style madness of this game. Have an external speaker hooked up to the 3.5 mm port so I can also enjoy the excellent soundtrack in all its bass heavy glory. Welcome to Violent City!
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Gun Frontier releases this Friday on ACA a day later due to Thurs being a holiday in Japan:
According to this the Saturn port was badly compromised and very inaccurate so the ACA release will be even more welcome due to that:
Btw I highly recommend following ohfivepro on Twitter, he has a wealth of knowledge regarding arcade games and his posts are just in general fun to read. He also posts a lot of arcade game magazine scans and other archival material.
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Pretty sure I have this on Taito Legends 2 on one of the PS2/Xbox era consoles.
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Been playing Battle Bakraid a lot this weekend on the Astro City Mini V, unlocked all the secret fighters and am having fun experimenting with them. I’d have to say after all these years I still prefer Battle Garegga but really enjoy the Raiden Fighters’esque feel the game has. Trying to collect and chain the medals is great fun.
Pretty insane that the PCB can go upwards of $2,300 now when I only paid $175 for the PCB back in 2001 which came packaged in a Raizing company box and instruction/operator manual.
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I haven’t made enough time for shmups this year since I got the Shikigami no Shiro 2 port way back in January, but I have recently been playing Gun.Smoke (Gan Sumoku as it appears on the store listing!) in Capcom Arcade Stadium - what a deliciously addictive slice of pure shooting action!
Being able to shoot in three core directions really captures the frantic feeling of having to fend off enemies on all sides, a very different atmosphere to some of the other wild west shooters of the era.
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You got in at the right time. I didn’t even know you could get PCBs back then. I don’t even think I had internet yet.
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