![]() In an autoscroller by definition you don't get much time to wait around and consider your options, so in this sense good BGM has to compliment whatever is going on, even sync right up to it at times. ![]() You even get individual boss BGMs! What other arcade game does this?! And they're all great! Music in a shmup is extremely important this can't be overstated. It's bright and poppy like Tatsujin Ou and sometimes has kind of a metal edge to it, and it really drives the action forward in a way very complimentary to the aformentioned quick pace. The hitbox being smaller was likely to accomodate the revenge bullets for later loops and I don't have much reason to bemoan the improved bomb, but the shield seems egregious and the original game, being fairly well balanced, could have easily slotted in for this game's first loop without the bullet speed reduction.Īnyways structural and balance nitpicks aside, damn, the music rules! Fuck, I don't know what Yoshitatsu Sakai went on to do after this, if anything, but he killed it here. This has the unfortunate effect of making the first loop a bit of a slog after a while, and even faster if you're already well acquainted with the original game. A 1-ALL in this game is often recommended to those new to shmups for the fact that it's pretty easy, and I would go so far as to say a 2-ALL is roughly equivalent in difficulty to a 1CC of the original game (however you would ascertain that a subject for a future essay maybe). This would seem to provide the substance that its predecessor was only sorta lacking, and with the additional game length also comes new mechanics: a shield, replenishable over time, that allows you to sustain a hit without dying, a more powerful bomb that now fills the screen when detonated, a smaller player hitbox, and a first loop with slower bullets. In the end I can't consider a game's being exciting but short too much of a knock against it I reckon a tight, fun-as-hell 15 minutes beats an additional 15 minutes of boring filler.īatsugun Special appends loops in a rather strange fashion: loop 2 omits stage 1, loop 3 omits stages 1 and 2, and loop 4 omits stages 1-3 before the game ends (in other words, the last loop is just two stages), and you get an interesting progression of revenge bullet types for each one. Unless you want to learn its wacked out scoring tricks ("trick" really) then there's not a whole lot to do once you've no-missed the game, which, while far from trivial, is still a fair bit easier than even just a basic one loop clear of many of Toaplan's previous shmups. An additional stage would have done a lot to round it out, but even just a second loop suffices to provide more longevity. With the pace and the short length of the game, the original version of Batsugun is a rambunctious burst of action that, while lots of fun and never boring, doesn't feel quite as substantial and epic as previous Toaplan outings in terms of raw level design. Toaplan shmups are typically quite deliberate, with lots of spaced out zako fights (In Tatsujin Ou we see probably the most extreme example of this style), but in Batsugun the dead space is shortened significantly and the enemy patterns are perhaps a tad less repetitive than usual. There are no loops and the game is over after just 5 fairly brief stages.Īnother feature that DonPachi would subsequently walk back is the absolutely blistering pace the stages and game overall may be short, but they're packed. Checkpoints are gone and you instead respawn instantly on death, you get 1 extend for a total maximum of 4 lives for a credit, and the final boss is over and done with about 15 minutes after you start. ![]() ![]() If V-V, after Toaplan's traditional line of games that both loop and award extends infinitely, shows an acknowledgement that maybe players shouldn't be able to hog the machine at the game center all day for 100 yen by limiting the number of loops and extends, the original version of Batsugun could perhaps be considered an overcorrection. With the first two Cave outings DonPachi and DoDonPachi, we see a similar setup sans-checkpoints. With his first known entry into the shmup canon, V-V, we see his near-standard 2 medium length loops with his favored revenge bullets mechanic showing up in loop 2, albeit all with checkpoints, and a limited number of extends. Whether in its original or Special version, Batsugun represents an interesting structural detour within the first four Tsuneki Ikeda-led shmups.
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