Shmups/STGs/Shoot 'em ups

video games
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Here‘s a rundown of M2’s DOJ Rinne Tensei stream: Wayback Machine tl;dr: they broke down the three additional character-specific arranges, revealed a feature that lets you switch to “ver.2023” with all new doll select/stage-clear/ending illustrations, and revealed that they‘re also throwing in DoDonPachi III, an obscure international-only DOJ revision released between the original and Black Label. (RC Berg’s also putting out new DOJ garage kits, if that’s your thing.)

Touhou Gensou Eclipse, the new Touhou smartphone STG game by Cave, kinda-sorta launched in Japan today—it was supposed to launch at 00:00 but after repeated delays, they finally got the Android version out, but it seems to have login-related issues that are keeping most people from playing, and the iOS version’s stuck in the review queue and still isn’t out, so… yeah, not the most auspicious start:

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@gsk thanks for the write up. Do the ltd eds tend to sell out on launch day if you haven’t pre ordered?

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@Chopemon They tend to go before launch, even, mostly as a consequence of them not printing a ton of them and splitting them between so many vendors who all have their own extra bonus items, so you might have to play whack-a-mole with different sellers until you find one, but I’ve never found it to be too difficult.

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@gsk awesome, cheers!

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This week‘s Arcade Archives release is Taito’s Scramble Formation, a fairly staid vertical STG mostly remembered for being full of pixel-art renditions of Tokyo’s skyline (including Tokyo Disneyland, which had to be yanked out of later versions).

Triangle Service is bringing XIIZEAL ie XI Stag to Switch next week, here’s some background info if you need it Wayback Machine This game came out very close to DOJ in arcade, as it happens, and now it’s dropping the same day as a DOJ reissue.

Retro-Bit’s taking orders for a cartridge reissue of Eliminate Down, an obscure JP/KR-only horizontal STG that’s been one of the most expensive MD games for some twenty years. Unlike some other exorbitantly-priced games, it’s also quite good—If it had more than zero personality, it might sit in the highest tier of MD STG: After 30 years, Eliminate Down finally arrives to Europe and North America!

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There‘s one more DOJ Rinne Tensei stream scheduled for tonight to commemorate the launch, and they’ll also be offering a status report on other M2STG projects going into 2024:

Edia’s released the four games from the Telenet Shooting Collection (Switch) as standalones in Japan, and I imagine they’ll be available globally very soon (and hopefully for cheaper, they’re ¥1980 each in Japan…)

Avenger (PCECD): アヴェンジャー | My Nintendo Store（マイニンテンドーストア）
Gaiares (MD): ガイアレス | My Nintendo Store（マイニンテンドーストア）
Granada (MD): グラナダ | My Nintendo Store（マイニンテンドーストア）
Psychic Storm (PCECD): サイキックストーム | My Nintendo Store（マイニンテンドーストア）

Superdeluxe Games has revealed their Japanese physical versions of Radiant Silvergun for Switch, ETA late June: レイディアント シルバーガン – SUPERDELUXE GAMES I should point out that SDX’s Cave releases have finally started arriving and there’s apparently some issue specific to those physical versions that breaks compatibility between the physical/digital versions, as well as the LRG physical versions, and you can’t just delete/redownload to fix the issue as you can with other games, so you may want to keep that in mind if you’re someone who buys these packages with the intention of actually playing em.

@gsk Here’s a rundown of M2’s DOJ Rinne Tensei stream: Wayback Machine tl;dr: they broke down the three additional character-specific arranges, revealed a feature that lets you switch to “ver.2023” with all new doll select/stage-clear/ending illustrations, and revealed that they’re also throwing in DoDonPachi III, an obscure international-only DOJ revision released between the original and Black Label. (RC Berg’s also putting out new DOJ garage kits, if that’s your thing.)

DOJ Rinne Tensei’s out today in Japan (and maybe never elsewhere, but who knows):

@gsk Irem Collection vol.1’s out now—it contains the arcade and FC versions of Image Fight, the arcade version of X-Multiply and the PCECD-exclusive Image Fight II, and it’s out for PS5 & Switch, with PS4 & Xbox versions coming later:

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it has the same silly button mapping issues that so many of Ratalaika’s reissues tend to have (broken “enhancements”, buttons arbitrarily triggering when they shouldn’t, default bindings making it impossible to properly map everything, etc.) Maybe they’ll fix it, maybe they won’t! Look forward to vols #25, yall

Out today on Xbox S/X (alongside a bunch of other ININ-published games like Pocky & Rocky Reshrined, Panorama Cotton and Cotton 100%): Next Week on Xbox: New Games for December 4 - 8 - Xbox Wire

@gsk Triangle Service is bringing XIIZEAL ie XI Stag to Switch next week, here’s some background info if you need it Wayback Machine This game came out very close to DOJ in arcade, as it happens, and now it’s dropping the same day as a DOJ reissue.

Out now in Japan, and imminently elsewhere (Nintendo’s own listings have it for both December 7 and December 19):

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amiami is finally getting ready to ship out my dodonpachi dai-ou-jou reincarnation!

i always go cheap on the shipping, so see you next year lil guy~

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This week‘s Arcade Archives release: Sonic Wings / Aero Fighters! The latter two games had a far bigger presence overseas due to being Neogeo games, but the original’s a good time, and a true vertical game rather than a kludgy vertizontal.

I forgot to update on the DOJ Rinne Tensei stream, because the devs didn't reveal a whole lot: they played the opening of Aleste Branch and talked about how they threw out and redid a bunch of stuff but they think it might finally be done early-ish next year, unless they decide they want to keep working on it, in which case they'll delay it again without hesitation... so yeah, who knows.

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@gsk This week’s Arcade Archives release: Sonic Wings / Aero Fighters! The latter two games had a far bigger presence overseas due to being Neogeo games, but the original’s a good time, and a true vertical game rather than a kludgy vertizontal.

This is excellent news. I think this is a real under appreciated gem! I’ve probably played more of this one than the others combined (mostly because an arcade down the street from me in the early 90’s had a cabinet that I played almost daily).

This has been a good few weeks for STGs!

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I just saw this Shmup trailer and it‘s bugging me so much because the BGM sounds like a Yousuke Yasui song but I can’t remember which one

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Two questions

1 - What are some other STGs with a “reflect bullets” mechanic similar to Giga Wing? I’ve played Jamestown+ which is a take on that and quite enjoyed it.

2 - What is the best place to get all the M2 ShotTrigger releases on PS4 disc? I have Battle Garegga and Dangun Feveron.

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@tomjonjon

I’m not positive every ShotTrigger release got a physical version-- Mahou Daisakusen in particular, only seems to be available digitally. It looks like Suruga-ya.com has Ketsui for around USD$100 though. I think that’s probably the most expensive one on the second hand market!

On a related subject: I’m having a garbage week and I decided to impulse buy the fancy new Dodonpachi digitally for Switch to help me feel some tiny amount better. I was at a loss to figure out which of the entirely sketchy sites that will sell you a JP region eshop card digitally looked the most reliable/least likely to sell my credit card details immediately (and sweating a bit when I saw that most of said sites have a ‘you pay for it, it’s yours, we won’t help you if you can’t get the code to work, for any reason’ fine print), and I ended up going with shitty old PlayAsia, which worked well at least. I’m extremely excited to play such a nicely curated version of one of my favourite Cave games (and one that I had a serious addiction to back in the mid 2000’s). I’m sure everything will turn out great and buying this has definitely fixed my bad week problem!

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Dodonpachi Dai-Ou-Jou Re: incarnation rocks ass.

I haven't played this Dodonpachi until now. I bought nearly all of the Cave games on X360 (my life was changed by my introduction to shooters when I reviewed Mushihime 360) but skipped this one for whatever reason. I have come to understand that was for the best due to the quality of the port.

ANYWAY, Christmas is a bad time of year for me but this is taking the edge off nicely. I'm not very good at shooters but I'm having a wonderful time seeing how far I can get on a credit.

The glow of the lights around the buildings during the first part of the first stage looks incredible.

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@Chopemon ANYWAY, Christmas is a bad time of year for me but this is taking the edge off nicely.

Same, same, and this game is really helping me too! It’s an absolutely brilliant port of a brilliant game, and I couldn’t be happier. Sorry to hear you also have a hard time at xmas.

Ah, I also sprung for the Gothic wa Mahou Otome DLC for Deathsmiles since it was on sale, and… I didn’t expect it to be a straight up commercially sold rom hack kinda thing! It’s interesting to play through a game like Deathsmiles that I’m utterly familiar with in a different way.

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@tomjonjon A few games that some may say are like GW include: Mars Matrix (Dreamcast), rRootage (free on PC and inexpensive on Switch), Reflex (PC), and ring^-27 (a brilliant hidden PC gem). I’ll check back in if I think of more but these games should tide you over.

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I made it to stage 3. I have just watched a beginners video so now I understand how to gain hypers.

Does anyone know anywhere that does good Cave shirts? I have a pretty worn out Mushihime Futari shirt and would like a nice Cave logo or Dodonpachi shirt. I know there are ones on Red bubble etc but if anyone know a CB (Cool Bootlegger), shout!

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@Chopemon I know someone shared this shirt on a different thread at some point, but it‘s still heckin’ cool:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/908058958/dodonpachi-unisex-t-shirt-cave-stg-shmup

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@ninjapresident that’s a strong shirt, cheers!

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@Chopemon Does anyone know anywhere that does good Cave shirts?

Cave! https://caveonlineshop.booth.pm/ Their range is a lot smaller than it once was and the person running their merch line hasn’t been with them for a minute, so I imagine they’ll probably just stop selling shirts altogether once they sell out of whatever’s left.

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@gsk perfect, thanks!