Christmas Comes Early With ESP Ra.De. Psi's Limited Edition Package For Switch

Seems more like a piece of coal in my stocking,

Really tempted to buy the digital version. Does it have an English option?

@Zidentia

Only if you hate shmups.

@RushDawg
It is one of my favorite types but this looks horrible.

The version I got also came with a Christmas-themed replacement case art. I wasn't expecting that!

Even the standard is just too much for me, right now.

And by the time I think about giving in, it will cost 3 times as much.

@OorWullie Japanese eshop only lists it as being in Japanese.
With that said though I don't know how much of it is in Japanese just from looking at the screenshots.

I need this limited edition in my life. Somebody tell Cave just to dump all their shooters on the Switch!

@Dunan Yep, I was thinking the same but I might hang off to see if there's any word on a western release.

@Zidentia This game is regarded as one of the classics in the genre.

@OorWullie
I have played Cave games and the tops down perspective is not my thing. I disagree with the legendary adjective but to each its own.

@OorWullie Considering that Ketsui Kizunajigokutachi (the previous Cave M2 ShotTrigGer, even though that was PS4) got passed up, I'd expect this one to get passed up, too.

I was excited for this, until it was confirmed to be Japanese language only. You can play the game without English, no problem. But there are text-heavy game modes outside of the base game that will be difficult to understand without a translation.

Definitely going to check this out. Anything by Cave garners interest!

@Magician If you have an Android, you can do rough translations on the fly with Google Translate and your camera. It certainly wouldn't stand up against a professional localisation effort, but the gist of a lot of words and phrases can still be deciphered.

@Zidentia Almost every shmup is top-down... How can this be one of your favourite "types"?

I was stoked to download this game, love Cave shmups, but $50!? Damn that's way too expensive for a Cave shooter, should be $20 tops.

@Kilroy - True enough, but not everyone owns a smart phone.

@TheGameTutor I wouldn't say that. Some of the best/most popular shmups are horizontal or twin-stick. R-Type, Gradius, Geometry Wars, Darius...

@OorWullie I bought the digital version. It does not have english but lots of it is in english such as commands. Its very playable but wish it was fully in english.

@Kilroy I just downloaded that app and it works great. Wish i knew about it sooner!

@sarethums Glad to hear it! Think the game is with the digital price? Physical is a bit steep.

@TheGameTutor
You would be completely wrong as the genre started primarily with side scrolling games. The tops down perspective came in later.

@Zidentia

You're the one who is wrong. Shmups started with Space Invaders; a top down game. The genre evolved further with top down titles like Galaxian and Galaga. Side scrolling games like Defender and Scramble didn't come until later. Gradius was MUCH later, all the way in 1985.

@RushDawg
Maybe school yourself some before you check Wiki. Space invaders is not a tops down. It is a vertical scroller, which is a big difference and most of the games that came before it were similar. Space war and the Spacewars games were vector based horizontal and they also came out before Space invaders.

@Zidentia "Space Invaders" "vertical scroller"

Yup. OG Space Invaders with its solid black background and stationary environment objects. Lots of scrolling in that.

Also, it's "top-down," not "tops," and SI is a top-down shooter.

@Kilroy
It has been stated both ways Top or Tops down, as in the plural. Space Invaders is a vertical scroller not a Top(s) down because we see the invaders from head on, hence it cannot be from the top.

@Zidentia Never in 35 years have I heard anyone say "tops". It doesn't even make sense because what is plural about a single camera angle? It's referencing your view, of which you only have one.

Enemies are moving down from the top and do not get larger as they approach, so no, you're not seeing them from head on.

That description also doesn't relate to vertical scrollers; it relates to first-person or behind-the-person views.

@Kilroy
Please try to stay on topic. The argument was whether Space Invaders is a Top(s) down game which it is not. Originally this game was classified as a vertical scrolling game because the enemy sprites refresh vertically towards the player. Then in the early 90's they reclassified it a fixed shooter due to the volume of games that did not anchor the player to one spot. In Space Invaders you seeing the enemy sprite characters "head on" otherwise there would nothing but a clump of pixels. The player looks up towards the sprites.

Additionally the term Top(s) down does not refer to the players perspective in the game but the over view of the game. We are not discussing FPS versus other types here. When I competed in tournaments most players referred to the style of game where the action field was viewed from an overhead view as Tops down as in plural for the category of game not the perspective. If we are comparing the length of our video game manhood you would also lose here.

@Kilroy Yeah defo!

@Zidentia

Maybe school yourself before posting nonsense.

Space Invaders isn't a vertical scrolling game. What a stupid thing to say. There is NO scrolling in Space Invaders. Secondly, it is played from a top-down perspective which is obvious to anyone who looks at it for 2-seconds.

With that said, topdown shmups and vertical scrolling shmups are essentially the same things as both are played from a top down perspective. Said I have to spell this out.

Regarding Space War, it came out in 1978 for the Atari 2600, the same year as Space Invaders and did not have a Japanese release. It's also not really a horizontal shmup and looks more like Asteroids. You're probably referring to Spacewar!, which came out in 1962 and isn't really a horizontal shmup either.

The first real horizontal shmup was Defender, which came out in 1982, several years after early vertical shmups like Space Invaders and Galaxian.

In conclusion, I am right and you are wrong