Visco Corporation may be best known for making 'unremarkable' games. We don’t mention this in a derogatory fashion; the games under their belt are far from bad, just arguably derivative and somewhat “safe”. Most of their arcade games were never given home conversions to begin with, making their original output even more obscure. For the first time released on any home format, can a bundle of both Vasara titles make a dent in the impressive Switch shmup library?
Manic shooters, bullet hells, ‘danmaku’ - love them or hate them, we can’t deny they have certainly become one of the most proficient shmup sub-genres on the Switch. Yet ask about the very best of them among aficionados and its unlikely any will yell out “Vasara!” as their first choice. Things might be about to change thanks to this overdue (the original title was released 19 years ago!) compilation by QUByte Interactive shining a spotlight in what was undoubtedly Visco’s finest hour... and sadly also their last in the video game industry.
It is hard to believe this game was not made by Psikyo. From the similar steam-punk feudal Japan aesthetics to the tight controls and 2-button scheme, both Vasara titles seem straight out of the Samurai Aces series. But upon closer inspection, we do find some unique features that will most certainly warrant your time, namely the melee system.
Riding on steampunk versions of “Return of the Jedi” hover-bikes, each of your playable characters (very loosely based on Japanese historical figures) can chose to charge up a melee strike instead of the traditional shooting, a skill that is mandatory for survival since it not only takes nice chunks of damage from enemies, but also deflects all incoming orange bullets. It is a compelling risk/reward mechanic most bullet hell veterans will certainly welcome. You can’t die from physical contact with enemies, you just harmlessly bump into them. Some bosses however will do their finest to bump you into their bullet patterns, so don’t mistake this feature as a green light to run up to everyone and melee them to oblivion unscathed – this is a thinking man’s bullet hell… unless you turn on ‘Freeplay’ and just mash away at the buttons.
Presentation and graphics hold up extremely well for both original titles in the collection. The impressive amount of on screen enemies and bullets are nicely complemented with a Donkey Kong Country style CGI-to-2D sprite aesthetic along with some really nice portraits of enemy commanders and generals, whose ships usually display extra banners in order for the player to better distinguish them from regular enemies among the frantic action. High score runs depend on how efficiently you get all of these while collecting as many dropped gems as possible. It is hectic, but manageable, more so with two players fighting co-operatively to better manage the screen.
Vasara 2 is the slightly more challenging game of the two, doing away with the second button for the screen-clearing, lifesaving smart bomb and introducing sneaky purple enemy bullets that you can not deflect with your melee attack. With the provided infinite credits it will probably not take you much time to clear both games in a few sessions, but the real depth here is trying to achieve the highest possible score on all stages, a compelling gimmick that ensures you'll be coming back to both titles often. In case you are wondering: Yes, you can indeed chose to rotate the screen and play them in TATE orientation, a little extra we all appreciate.
Having both Vasara titles on this collection is great value, but QUByte went the extra mile and reimagined how the series would have evolved in the polygonal age. Vasara Timeless ditches the 3:4 screen ratio for full widescreen support, increasing the gameplay area. This proves slightly too hard for a single player to handle, even with the new rechargeable dash function. Find a few friends (up to 3) and this brand new game really shines the brightest, with enemies, bullets and your own characters bringing some smooth scrolling light shows to life at every moment. The new polygonal graphics are a bit hit and miss – the terrain looks amazing, specifically the water surface, but some of the regular enemies do feel a bit generic when compared to their original sprite counterparts. This mode retains the enemy general pre-boss fight presentations, now showcasing the boss contraptions in full 3D. Full online leaderboards, no continues and stage order randomisation ensure that this is a proper third Vasara game option and not just some cheap extra added to the package for the sake of it.
Conclusion
Vasara Collection jumps from obscurity into the top tier of bullet hells on the Switch by offering both original brilliant titles without any technical hiccups and supporting the ever popular TATE option along with a whole new game that proves to be one of the few proper four-player options of the genre on the system. The zany characters and plot just make things sweeter, and make up for the somewhat derivative origin of the series. Considering the relative obscurity of the original releases, for a reasonable asking price you might just end up with three quality, 'brand new' manic shooters in your collection.
Comments 27
The pre-order price was only 5 bucks, so I thought I'd give them a chance. At 2.50 a pop it seemed like a great deal and I'm a sucker for Collections. Can't wait to actually try them out
Nice review and very well deserved score. At the price, this is an absolute no-brainer.
I'll wait for the sale.
@YANDMAN But...it was already on 50% off
ooh.... good game!!
Strictly Limited were offering this a physical release also with a Collector's edition. So yeah had to grab that. I can wait for it to turn up in September.
I picked this up on the pre-order discount, if some of you read this soon enough and act fast you might be able to get it still. Anyways even at $10 I think this is a great deal, I love arcade shoot-em-ups from this era.
@Mach_Rider it was a joke.
When does the pre-order discount expire? I’m assuming it’s today but hoping otherwise. I was very tempted but couldn’t find any decent previews.
@JayJ
Thanks for the tip, as of 30 seconds ago the pre-order price is still available !
@YANDMAN No it wasn't.
Still on offer here in the UK
@WrongChops It says the discount ends today, it's probably available until today's download update goes live.
It is still up for pre-order in the NA eshop.... 3 more hours....
Do these run at 60 fps?
Preorder was cheap so that was nice
IMO Shmup review should mention about total lack for quality of life improvements missing, such as no support for practicing such as stage select or save/interruption points support. It's really time consuming and difficult to do it the old fashioned arcade way, which means starting from beginning every time and perhaps using continues when you need to practice some later levels. Such features are usually present one way or another with quality ports from M2, Hamster and others.
The original games are barebone arcade ports. Seem like great games though and for the price, definitely recommended. Still disappointed that such things are left out from ports of quality games (especially shmups, which are really hard and player really benefits from those features if they want to get better in any reasonable time)
oh and no button re-mapping either.
Pre-ordered for $5 and happy to see the nice review! Can’t wait to give it a go after work. ‘Twill be my first shmup on Switch.
@OorWullie still there dude. Might have to dabble.
@GFoyle wut. For $5 you get two awesome arcade games plus the timeless mode. You can choose to input ‘coins’ or freeplay, Tate mode, change the difficulty/lives/bombs, change the screen filter, online rankings, and the button mapping is perfect as is
My thinking is that I NEVER use a continue in a shootemup.
@Stargazer I don't have problem with paying more or problem what you get with the price. Shmups are generally really really hard and it's super time consuming and difficult to learn the later stages / bosses if you need to start from the beginning every single time. It's multiple times more effective when you are able to select at least a stage you want to start you run and makes the process more enjoyable because you see progress in your skill faster. When I need to learn a song on guitar, I learn and drill the parts separately and not just play from the beginning of the song every single time.
So yeah, this is pretty much the only change we had to get Vasara for consoles/widely available (I don't count MAME, illegal ROMs) so it would have nice to see at least some of those features included with that release.
Same with the Psikyo ports. I love the games and have played them quite a bit, but it's sad that those are missing such features too. I'm at a point I would need to put way too many hours to progress any further with those, it's too time consuming without any way to start from the later stage or save point. Now I don't play those much at all and play shmups with some stage select or save point support instead.
I think Hamster made it smart by building the interruption point support in their framework that they use in all of their releases I think. That's not a stage select, but it's at least one save point which much better than nothing.
as for the button re-mapping, I play shmups mainly with a arcade stick and I would much rather be able to define such setup, which feels comfortable to me and matches other shmups I play. It's so basic and easy to implement feature that there is no good excuse to leave it out.
Anyway, the original Vasara games are great (haven't played timeless mode yet) and definitely recommend this collection, especially for the that price. I already bought the collection 3 times (digital and physical on switch, physical for PS4).
@C0NNERS Yes. I've seen some hitches with Timeless, but it almost locks to 60fps like the other two included games. Looks great!
These are three fun games for $5! Pretty amazing deal. Even at $10 it's much better than almost any other 2D shooter. $3.33 U.S. for each game is a steal. I've been enjoying them, but most of my time has been spent with Psyvariar. What an addictive game! Also been playing the Darius collection. Why is it only in Japan? What company could own the rights to Darius in other countries and not want to sell this incredible collection? The cartridge is so perfect it destroys any thought of wanting any Darius game available on any other system. Switch is absolute shooter heaven, and ESP RaDe and The Game Paradise aren't even out yet!
@jobvd You wouldn't know.
Can't wait to try these, but i'm pretty busy these days. I wonder how they stack up compared to Psikyo's shmups.
@YANDMAN hi5
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...