Batsugun mini-review

Resurrected in a moderately priced, feature-rich arcade port, is the projectile-packed pioneer.

Batsugun
Platform: PC
Developer: Toaplan, Bitwave Games
Publisher: Bitwave Games
Release date: February 1st, 2024
Price: $7.99 via digital download
Availability: Steam

Toaplan produced a variety of games, including platformers (1990’s Snow Bros.) and eroge mahjong (1986’s Mahjong Sisters), but their groundbreaking shoot ’em ups are what made the studio most famous. Bitwave Games, based in Gothenburg, has been gradually releasing these beloved shooters on Steam, complete with almost all the latest updates one could desire. Now that Toaplan’s final shooter, 1993’s Batsugun, has been given the treatment, lovers of the genre should be pleased.

Yes, Batsugun has been around for a while; City Connection’s Saturn edition was just released for PC and consoles. However, it can be challenging to replicate SEGA’s multi CPU configuration, and one result was some disappointing lag. Bitwave’s decision to port the arcade original was a pleasant one, since it allowed for a simulation of sitting in a 20th-century arcade.

Schneider of Flying Shark Returns

In the opening moments of Batsugun, one or two players can choose from three distinct ship types, each of which can launch wave projectiles, lightning, or spread shots as its offensive armament. You can power up your ship in two distinct methods. As you take down foes, you’ll acquire experience that feeds into an RPG-style system that steadily increases the power of your weapon.

Amazingly, this modifies your offensive output by providing several sorts of fire with button hits and holds. Secondly, certain defeated opponents occasionally release “P” icons. These give your weapons more penetration power. Ship-specific explosives, which deliver a strong blow or a defensive screen that deters projectiles, complete your armament.

Influences Before the Cave

You’ll definitely need to take advantage of every edge at your disposal because Batsugun was among the first shooters to consistently flood the screen with projectiles. Not surprisingly, co-producers Tsuneki Ikeda and Junya Inoue would carry on working on the bullet-hell title at Cave. The fifth stage of Batsugun quickly becomes difficult, requiring players to misdirect bosses’ shooting in order to survive.

Bitwave Games does not cut corners when it comes to bonuses. In addition to playing the somewhat simpler Special Version that debuted at the Japan Amusement Expo in 1994, you can adjust the difficulty, the number of ships that start out, and the additional life thresholds by interacting with the simulated DIP switches. There are lots of visual options, including the ability to rotate the screen and change the aspect ratio.

Personalize the Sound and Appearance

Granular options are available to mimic the appearance of various monitors, including saturation, vignetting, ghosting, and virtual scanlines. Because of its complexity, presets would have to be helpful. In a similar vein, you can adjust the FM synthesis audio in the game by include effects like reverb, echo, and low- and high-pass filtering.Batsugun even allows you to change the borders with various overlays and borders that can show everything from simple instructions, scoring information, to statistics, if you choose not to play in tate mode. That’s rather remarkable considering the game just costs $8 and there isn’t any lag. An enthusiast of the past could not ask for more, save from a front-end that combines Bitwave’s Toaplan ports.

On a PC, Batsugun was played using a review code that the publisher sent.

Review Overview

Gameplay – 85%

Controls – 75%

Aesthetics – 80%

Content – 75%

Accessibility – 65%

Value – 100%

80%

VERY GOOD

Summary :For less than $8, a feature-rich, pixel-perfect port of Toaplan’s final shooter? Fans of Shoot ’em should be happy.