DANGEN Entertainment is bringing Protoculture's 2D shooter Devil Engine to the Nintendo Switch this week, it has been confirmed.
'Heavily-influenced' by shooters from the 32-bit era of consoles, Devil Engine comprises of six levels with multiple bosses. Three different shot types are promised – each with its own unique smart bomb – and power-ups will make it easier to survive. You'll also be able to use a chargeable 'Burst' power to absorb incoming projectiles.
Eight different game modes will be included, and you'll be able to unlock new features by scoring points during gameplay. These include new graphics shaders, music, stages and ships.
Speaking of music, it's worth noting that the soundtrack is supplied by none other than Thunder Force V composer Hyakutaro Tsukumo. Tsukumo has also worked on the Touhou Project series, and contributed to the soundtrack of Broken Thunder: Project Thunder Force VI, which began life as an official Dreamcast sequel before becoming a fan-made 'doujin' game.
We're certainly getting a strong Thunder Force vibe from the trailer, which is no bad thing at all; while the series isn't dead by any means (Thunder Force VI came out in 2008, and Sega has released Thunder Force IV on the Switch as part of its Sega Ages range), it doesn't look like the franchise is getting a new instalment any time soon.
Devil Engine launches on Switch and Steam on February 21st, and will cost $19.99. Will you be investing?
Comments 45
FIRST
And no, I couldn't think of anything more to say
Don't look fun, looks like a bunch of frustration.
I’m not even a huge shmup guy, but this looks good to me.
Hmmm game looks good but I think I hate the art style.
Looks good, but I'll wait for some reviews
This looks gorgeous. I invite the sheer insanity.
Looks ok but I just wish Sega would do thunder force 3 for their Sega AGES range I know 4 is available but always preferred tf3
I've had my eye on this for a while,love how it looks. I look forward to the review.
Looks great love the Thunder force vibe. Wish Sega would bring us a new Thunder force or a full collection of the series. But Devil Engine looks really good.
Digital only? Then I'll wait for reviews and, of course, a price drop.
@Gs69 Thunderforce AC, an arcade port of TFIII has been confirmed to be part of the AGES line. There are some differences, 2 stages are completely different, level layouts are slightly different, better audio, continues restart you where you died.... . For the most part though, it's the same game.
Looks good. And TOTALLY brutal.
@OorWullie cool didn’t know it was announced is it the same or similar to the version that was released on the Sega Saturn?
Looks good, I'd like to play it. Can anyone confirm the frame rate on this game? One of the most disappointing things is buying a 2D shooter and discovering it runs at less than 60...
@Gs69 I believe the Saturn version is the same but with a couple of minor differences. M2 will likely add their own little extras to it, perhaps there will be an option to switch between AC and 3.
@OorWullie that sounds great to me it’s one of my favourite games ever also wouldn’t mind gynoug/wings of wor on the switch
Get me a sale, I'm in.
Played the two beta's and the bigegst issue in both is that the weapons feel massively underpowered with enemies moving too fast and taking too long to kill. If this has beeen adressed this will be an excellent shooter.
I'm in. But I'll be waiting for the inevitable physical release.
Got my eye on this, waiting for some reviews though as it looks too hard for my old man eyes.
Noooooooo! Just not my style
Classic, love the music and the art. But the bullets are quite confusing since the graphics isn't sharp enough.
But I love these side scrolling shcumps.
Am I getting old or do I just need my morning coffee? Looks hard to follow, so it seems easy to die, even for a shmup. If that's addressed somehow, it could be great.
Hyakutaro~
Hoping for a new "The Justice Ray" in this.
Looks much better in motion than in stills. Looks really good.
Surprised no mention of that one background that looks basically identical to Last Resort level 1 to me.
As Thunder Force is possibly my favorite shmup series, I'll definitely be picking this up--though I will say, this looks significantly more bullet-hell-y than any of the TF games.
The only thing that I can say is that they plagiarized a lot.
The technical part is solid but everything else is, at best, mediocre.
The tune reminds me something but I can't remember what it is exactly.
I think they ripped off a track and modified it. It's clearly what they already did with the visuals.
I was wondering about this one. I might just end up getting it.
Hopefully this is from an earlier build, the sprite work is in between 8 and 16 bit and very jarring, I think they may have been going for a PC Engine look but it misses the mark, from a game play standpoint it looks solid and music sounds kick ass.
@PCkid
hi, i'm the composer for Devil Engine.
a lot of people seem to have got the wrong end of the stick that Tsukumo is the composer of the WHOLE soundtrack.
This isn't true, Tsukumo wrote a number of tracks for the game but it's my tracks that feature primarily.
The track used in the trailer is an arrangement of Tsukumo's "Over-Take!" which Tsukumo himself arranged specially for us and let us use it in the game because he felt it suited, which is where I think you're getting the notion that the music was plagiarised.
Our artist hasn't "ripped off" any assets from other games, they've all been hand drawn from scratch, although the game takes inspiration from a lot of horizontal shooters, so you may notice aesthetic similarities.
I hope this clears up any confusion!
@Kilroy There is an easy mode and an unlockable stage select to help players struggling with the high difficulty.
@60frames-please Runs at 60.
@qwesta awesome, I'll give it a try!
@qwesta I'm not necessarily asking for an easy mode (played many a shmup and look for games that don't hold your hand), but the visuals and possibly the framerate of the video made it slightly hard to follow this morning. After rewatching it now, my opinion changed and I really like it. Also, very glad to hear it runs at 60 fps!
The music kinda sounds more like Syd Mead's Terraforming than Thunder Force. The art style isn't my thing either. For me at least shaded sprites will always look better in games of this type.
I generally love horizontal and vertical SHMUP genre but this looks too chaotic to me, frustration rather then fun.
Hey all I do reviews over at nindienexus.net and my review drops tomorrow! Come check it out and browse the rest of the site while you’re at it. Ad free Nindie game review site by gamers for gamers.
Hi, maybe you're right.
Inspirations from other games could be the reason why I felt that the game was a plagiarism.
There's also a demo on Steam in case anyone is interested
Update: I played it last night and can confirm it is fantastic.
@PCkid In that sense every shooter is.
@PCkid You realise you're talking nonsense right? What game did they steal the visuals from? It's a classic styles shooter released in 2019. it's suppsoed to look like that. People will find literally anything to moan aboput these days. I applaud anyone who is making great games like this.
@AcridSkull Played it last night, it's fantastic.
@60frames-please Silky smooth, i don't know if its 30 or 60, but the switch version plays exactly like the steam version.
@YANDMAN Cool, sounds great!
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