City Connection, now a fairly prolific shoot-em-up publisher, have been hit-and-miss with its quality control. While some games land fine, others feature severe lag issues, leaderboards that don’t properly differentiate full clears (or disallow auto-fire registries), and usually come devoid of original bonuses. While Layer Section & Galactic Attack S-Tribute floundered with its Steam release — users posting videos of massive input lag combined with dire audio stuttering — thankfully neither of these issues are present on Switch, meaning for once, Nintendo’s console doesn’t get the short end of the stick.
To be clear, this isn’t a port of RayForce the arcade game, but a port of the Sega Saturn port of the arcade game; an odd choice that remains nevertheless sublime, owing to the quality of Taito’s original product; a beautiful, colossal, operatic experience defined by the artistic magic of '90s sci-fi manga, and the uninterrupted segueing nature of its action.
Your ship’s straight laser fire, coupled with a lock-on bracket that can trace over destructible background objects, is a terrific tandem of armaments. The repeated blip-blip-blip sound of your lock-on finding its targets, rifling off intermittent volleys of homing strikes to pepper elements beneath you with satisfying explosions, is wonderfully crunchy.
Display adjustments are sadly limited, with very basic scanlines and anti-aliasing features, but the slow motion and rewind modes, practice features, save states, and parameter modifications are all welcome extras. One interesting addition is a new ‘Super Rapid’ option, increasing the speed of your laser to such a degree that you carve through enemies like butter when you’re at maximum power. It makes things easier, of course, but it’s a fun extra that will eventually receive its own leaderboard in the scheduled June patch, along with new wallpaper, the ability to start as the second player ship, and more detailed button mapping options.
What Layer Section still does better today than almost any other shoot-em-up in the great pantheon of releases post-1994 is cinematic bravado. The Zuntata soundtrack (Taito’s in-house music team) is an impeccably brilliant, infinitely listenable space-jazz fusion that’s perfectly married to the game’s unbroken, filmic journey through asteroid cores and underground city assaults. It’s graphically spectacular, using every special effect trick in the book to form a living, raging galactic war. Gunships tear out of fiery plumes before you veer off into a Star Wars-inspired theatre of war, scores of star destroyers parallax-peeling into the background. The sound effects, too, are award-worthy good, from the heavy grind of parting metal doors to the Inception-horn blare that signals the arrival of the stage two boss.
Its design blueprint is that of an epic, one-woman army against all odds, where the destruction of Gundam-esque space assailants and giant spacecraft elegantly dovetails into the next dramatic set-piece, skimming across planet surfaces and subterranean techno-military strongholds. The difficulty level sits on a comfortable arc, neither too hard or too easy, with a 25-minute runtime of escalating rank, adrenaline, and superior sprite scaling theatrics.
If there’s any single issue, it’s in getting used to certain elements of depth perception. Your craft is on the large side, and when guns on the layer below fire up toward you, judging the trajectory takes some adjustment. It’s a game of mostly slow-moving fire, but that fire is regularly in the form of elongated toothpick lasers, and it’s not always intuitive to navigate your rather large craft between them.
This, however, is a fairly minor gripe that’s easily overcome with practice. For the vast majority, Tatsuo Nakamura’s vision is an enduring masterpiece. For its operatic, voyaging nature, its stunning visual design and compulsive mechanics, there are few '90s arcade games with such exceptional form: a result of the shoot-em-up’s relative simplicity combined with the brilliance of a coding team with something to prove.
Layer Section is a triumph, and one of the genre’s most creative passion projects. Some will prefer the arcade original to the slightly clipped Saturn version, but either way, it’s a remarkable thing to play. These facts make scoring it all the more difficult. Any publisher out there can acquire the license and slap a ROM on a modified version of Shima’s SSF Saturn emulator — which is essentially all this is. In fact, since City Connection’s previous Saturn port, hackers have already reversed engineered the S-Tribute code and used it to add their own games.
There are also no custom modes or musical arrangements — and crucially, no arcade original. It is, simply, a collection of two near-identical Saturn ports from different regions, with a few modern adjustment options for good measure.
Conclusion
Layer Section will always be a high-roller, and if you’ve never played it, you’re in a ride like few others. As a Switch port, on the other hand, the relatively bare-bones production is the only real negative. Notable historical works deserve the gold standard: a bigger, bolder package that offers the best possible representation. To that end, City Connection has failed to do this game the justice it deserves, which makes it very lucky that Layer Section & Galactic Attack S-Tribute is still so damn good.
Comments (32)
Layer cake was James Bond before James Bond xx
Nice review. I'll be adding this at some point.It's a little pricey at the moment for what is a pretty bare bones package. Seems to be a hallmark of City Connection games. I've got a fair few of them. I enjoy them all though and for sure I'll enjoy this.
For now though, I'm trying to focus on Tiger Heli but looking forward to this week's Arcade Archives, Fighting Hawk and will likely get Ultimate Fire Shark, or whatever it's called soon after.
It's nice. Just not enough to justify the asking price. Once you get into the $20 or $30 range, most shmups simply don't hold enough value for me to click "Buy".
I think it is safe to say at this point that if you are a fan of either JRPGs or shoot-em-ups, then you would be crazy not to own a Switch.
This looks grand. I'll probably get it. Most of the shooters I love — whether that's Ikaruga or Star Fox 64 — go heavy on the cinematic flair, and if that's this game's strong point, then I'm in.
Hm... Mobile port of RayForce is based on Sega Saturn version too, I guess? Well, anyway, game is great. But this package... Looks and sounds average. I'm hope that the price tag is not big. For example, price on Konami's G-Darius is really big... No, it's overpriced, imo.
Love this game, worried that Dispatch Games are going to handle a physical version of it down the road though since it's City Connection related.
This is one of my favorite shmups. It never gets old. 30 bucks is a bit much, though...
I have every version of this game. I’m not a fan of this switch port. Game plays way better on the Saturn d pad. Also would like to see M2 like gadgets on the blank screen real estate or it’d just lazy.
@Vyacheslav333 You mean Gradius? G-Darius is another Taito game.
@abrader You can get a pretty accurate Saturn replica controller for Switch.
The Switch appears to be a real quality shmup hub. Thanks for the review.
I'm surprised they used the Saturn version. Most shoot'em-ups just use the acrcade versions to make the porting job easier.
Off-topic but it would be nice to have the Parodius Collection on Switch if Konami can get their rear in gear. But that's a pipe dream.
@DrewBA77 Oh, I forget it... Then... Taito is unchangeable. Overpriced ports of old games is their bad habit, I think.
Love these sort of games but they're not worth €30 though.
@DrewBA77 you just made me realize I already owed that retrobic controller and it has the fast connection. I also have two wired Saturn controllers from retro bit to connect directly with USB I can use with the switch I typically use them with my polymega.
@RubyCarbuncle I’d like layer section 1 / 2 with M2 like screen gadgets.
Holy smokes, $30? The game is fantastic, but that’s rather steep considering the price of the similar arcade archives stuff.
@Vyacheslav333 That's a side effect of being owned by Square-Enix.
Love these City Connection Sega Saturn port, Sega should really give the emulation right to these guys. We really need an Astal, NiGHTS Into Dreams, Virtua Fighter 2, Fighters Megamix, Princess Crown, Burning Ranger, Virtual On, D, Last Bronx, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Shining Force III, and Dragon Force Saturn Tribute port for Switch as well.
@Specter_of-the_OLED DEFINITELY need a port of the Virtual On Masterpiece collection.
Luckily have the original on my Saturn, fantastic game. Play it regularly, along with hyper duel another Technosoft classic. And the Saturn version is superior to the arcade.
Since this is published by City Connection, I have hope ININ / Strictly Limited will serve up physical copies.
I'm looking forward to playing the arcade version of RayForce on my Egret II Mini when it arrives - hopefully soon, as Tom's glowing praise for the game has really piqued my interest.
I saw used copies of Layer Section for the Saturn so often in game shops in Osaka back in the day, but never picked one up. I had no idea it was such a quality title!
Wonder how the input response is. City doesn’t have the best record for it
I had an eye on this one, it's a good thing that there is a demo. I will give it a try later.
It's funny people complaining about the price. I remember when this originally came out for the Saturn and launch price was that of a typical game of the time ($50+ after tax). It was well worth it. Over time the price has inched up for a used copy. Even loose diss are over $27 in poor condition now (plus you need to own a Saturn to play it). the price on the eShop is a bargain.
@NinChocolate No need to wonder: read the review and your questions will be answered.
I'm looking forward to playing the arcade version of RayForce on my Egret II Mini when it arrives
@Teksetter I am officially and intensely jealous of you. Clearly I missed a lot of true gaming experiences back in my "misspent youth". Maybe I can donate blood, or volunteer for a paid vaccination trial or something...
@Tom-Massey I was skimming just for that mention. I missed it, but there it be. Danke schoen
@CANOEberry
Thanks for lifting my spirits tonight!
Really I think most normal people would call my game-obsessed youth (and adulthood) “misspent,” so no need for jealousy!
Fortunately there’s plenty of games out there for reasonably low prices if you feel you need to make up for lost time. I mean, just the games on NSO alone are more than I accumulated as a kid thru college.
And like they all say, it’s better to collect experiences than stuff! I’m sure a well-spoken furball like you can tell some stories worth a dozen Taito Egrets. 😁
@WaveBoy Those boys and these boys are the same boys: City Connection.
@WaveBoy
I think the Saturn version of Bubble Bobble Symphony has been announced at the same time as this version of Layer Section, as well as some other Taito Saturn games City Connection will bring to the Switch.
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