Shmups

Little bit of nerdcore fun!

from the album WE WILL FREE YOU FROM YOUR BODY TONIGHT and featuring Swamp Thing, More or Les, and Wordburglar

From the description:

NMK brings us a horizontal shooter from 1994 on the NeoGeo: with various weaponry, and a scoring system focused on shooting non destructible targets and objects. This is what we call "Tic" points. Our host, ggmaximo is an expert this time, along with our guest expert in Prickly_Angler.

As a big fan of Compile and Aleste in particular, I was happy to see this!

Exa Arcadia hardware is really intended for arcade operators, but some of these games may show up in your local gamecenter, if you're lucky enough to have one.

Games mentioned in the article (shmups in bold):

1. Bunny Bomber Blast
2. Earthion Exa Label
3. Triggerheart Exelica Exa Label
4. Asura The Striker
5. Jamjam’n Jelly EXA LENTE
6. Dragon Blaze Exa Label
7. Mugendan Infinity Bullets
8. Truxton II Exa Label

Day 1 stream is up on YT.

Footage from some recent and upcoming games available on these streams. I don't speak Japanese but it is good to see some additional gameplay footage.

YES! AT LAST!

ETA: Time Extension has more info: looks like the Mega Drive/Genesis cartridge will be delayed to 2026; and there will also be a limited edition 8bitdo controller with Earthion art on it.

TL:DR: Perfectly serviceable, but overpriced at $59.

I found a copy of the Japanese Switch cartridge release on eBay for around $46, and I figured I'd take a chance on it. Overall, I'm pretty happy with it, but I am a long time Sonic Wings/Aero Fighters fan.

Graphics are serviceable, but hardly breathtaking. The 2D character portraits are as cute as ever though.

In terms of gameplay it nails the feel of Sonic Wings pretty well -- on hard mode. Normal is a pretty gentle experience: slower bullets, fewer enemies, and bosses that go down quick. I haven't tried Easy yet.

For newcomers it's worth pointing out that the levels in the game are very short. You'll spend more time taking apart the stage boss than you will getting to them (at least on Hard mode). So that's pretty similar to the old school games.

A highlight for me was the "wingman" feature. You can pick a 2nd character, which allows you to use their bomb-type in addition to your own, and gives you a little dialog exchange between them at the end of each leve. (They aren't like a 2nd AI player or anything, thank goodness.)

The game has online leaderboards and a highly configurable training mode, which is all to the good.

Fun over all, but feels less like a glorious celebration of the franchise, and more like a basic installment, a "Sonic Wings 4" made for modern platforms.

Should have been budget priced in my opinion, though!

Whoops, not sure how I missed this when it first dropped.

City Connection and Clear River Games have announced R-Type Delta: HD Boosted, a remastered version of the 1998 PlayStation title. It will launch in 2025.

I kind of missed out on the whole *zeal franchise. While this has already been out for a while on Steam, this is the remix version's first appearance on Switch.

I'm really enjoying this series of YouTube videos.

While this game has a mixed reputation as a "gooner-shooter" it sounds like there's some mechanical problems hindering the gameplay:

While the graphics are much improved in the Saturn version and the music is pretty good, the locations remain fairly uninteresting and bosses tend to lack any distinct personality outside of their cutscene appearances. The one thing about Steam-Heart’s that jars most is that it’s almost impossible to know when your ship has been hit unless you check the life gauge. There’s no clear audio or visual feedback, which just means you kind of glide through things not realising you’ve taken damage until it’s too late. This, if we remember correctly, was an issue in the PC-98 original, too, and by 2025 should really have been rectified.

Tube shooters? An interesting sub-genre, but one I don't have ton of familiarity with. I have played Gyruss a few times on NES, and maybe a little bit of Tempest... good games, but not my wheelhouse.

Shmups were born in arcades, and remain their natural habitat. Happy to see new venues are still springing up!

Are any of y'all running this on Linux or the Steam Deck? It's 10% off but $53 is a lot to spend to find out whether or not it works. I suppose I'll wait on reviews.

More Toaplan stuff -- and if you've ever wanted a shirt with a picture of the Truxton skull-bomb, you're going to get your chance!

From the description:

Eight Legendary Shmups, One Explosive Bundle! The Toaplan Shooting Collection Vol. 2 truly puts the blast in "Blast from the Past"! Coming to Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X | S and Xbox One on August 14, 2025!

This collection includes:

• Zero Wing
• Hell Fire
• Slap Fight / Alcon
• Grind Stormer / V.V
• Truxton / Tatsujin
• Truxton 2 / Tatsujin Oh
• Vimana
• Twin Hawk

The Toaplan Arcade Shoot 'em up Collection Vol 1&2 will also release in explosive new physical editions!