GFoyle

Finally, after this and upcoming Truxton, my nostalgia trip is complete as this is the very first shmup I ever played and one of the very first video games I played ever as a I kid back in the -87 (Truxton the second one)

It's a really great game with just amazing soundtrack. I enjoy the arcade original much more than the ports. I have the arcade version on x360 namco collection, but it doesn't run that great with a lot of extra slowdown, so it's great to get a better version of it.

I'm hoping for another patch of CAVE shmup ports by Live Wire (in the japan direct, like they did last summer).

Silksong would be huge for me as well.

Price is well justified here, there is 3 totally new arrange modes, which are all different from each other. This game is a shmup masterpiece.

Developer is a japanese superplayer and currently holding multiple different world records in different shmups, so he definitely knows his stuff and it's obvious.

@YANDMAN I have to disagree with you on this. There are plenty of those shmups out there, which have made by people who don't understand the genre, some pretty horrible ones too, but I wouldn't put this one in that category at all. It's definitely lacks originality, but it copies a lot of the right things well enough what comes to pacing, bullet colors, enemy bullet speeds, overall destruction, length of stages etc.

I tried the demo on Steam and it definitely has issues with the sound mix and it's very different from what the iOS game has (it has some differences to the iOS game, like lack of bomb, but it's still quite close to it). The iOS game has much stronger explosion effect in the mix, but you main shot with that weak fx is mixed really low, so I didn't get bothered at all as it's not in your face. Hopefully they do something about those sounds for the final version of the game. It didn't have the greatest input lag either on Steam, so that's what I'm most worried, especially on Switch.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think it is/going to be anything top tier, more like one of the better mid tier shmups out there on the system (if they get the technical aspects right).

EDIT: shmups don't make money, so if that's you goal, better to select some other genre

@YANDMAN I can only talk about the iOS game Operation Dracula, which seems to be same game re-branded / similar game from same developer. I just tried it on iPad to refresh my memory and I still thought it's pretty good, really frantic action and lot of influences from Cave shooters, especially the first couple DoDonPachi games (not saying it's as good, but the influence is there definitely).

The slower fire rate is not issue on mobile at all, but I think it's because of the touch controls, which means the movement is super fast, almost instant, so you don't really even how fast the ship shoots as you can move at right place to kill things fast anyway. In OP Dracula, the special shot ("charge shot") is very important and you end up using it a ton, which makes the main shot speed less of an issue too.

Anyway, I like the fast paced and relentless action in OP Dracula, there is a lot going on from first seconds. Graphics are decent as well. I haven't played it that much, but from my experience, the bosses take a bit too long to kill and there is not a lot of phases in them, so it becomes a bit boring to after a while (this is also a problem in another Dodonpachi clone, Ghost Blade HD), so that is a minus.

I'm interested to see final version will be on consoles, I wouldn't be surprised if the transfer from mobile to consoles and traditional controls do not work that well. I'm probably going to check it out myself at least.

I think this is just re-branded Operation Dracula from same developer, which is available on iOS (or some spin-off/different take on it). So it has it definitely has mobile roots, which also explains the TATE orientation.

I have that game on my iPad and it's actually quite fun, definitely not some cheap shovelware mobile title. I'm definitely going to check this out when it's released.

Bought and tried it. Not very impressed, slow paced and boring in the beginning, huge hitbox, quite slow movement speed. There are better games from the same era.

It looks pretty nice though.

Like I wrote in the comments in the previous Psikyo collection review from Mark, I definitely disagree with the score, but I can say the same about the score from the other reviewers who fail to mention and even consider the flaws Mark brings up. I would say the score should be somewhere between those. For features and quality of the port, it's closer to the 5 than 10, but games themselves I would rate much higher (well the better ones in these collections).

Mark definitely a hardcore shmup (and fighter) player and reviews the games from that perspective much more than others. To me it's great, because it gives me much better idea about the quality of the release and what to expect if I really dig into it. That has much more value than a casual review. It's the same in sports games, where I would not find any value in a review which is based on too little experience in sport games in general and in the game being reviewed. I find it worse sin if the review or reviewer fail to notice these things, rates it higher and makes me buy the game as a result. It also encourages publishers/developers to continue release more stuff with minimum effort as it seems to be good enough for the audience.

Anyway, if you are a more casual shmup fan and are not too allergic a bit of extra input lag, I would recommend these nevertheless because of the games themselves. There are better much shmup releases on Switch though and I would start with those first

@NinChocolate that genesis/megadrive collection on Switch was horrible with the input lag, one of worst I have seen and that problem was also failed to mention in reviews, which is really bad. For me, that is unplayable, it ruins the experience so badly and I'm not even normally that allergic to input lag than some (way worse than these Psikyo games)

@Kwentn yeah, I'm thinking about getting that wireless brook board myself for the same reason. This wired connection problem was noted already by the smash community when smash ultimate came out I think, maybe some usb polling not being optimal enough or something. Anyway, most of the my gaming time with these switch psikyo releases have been with same setup pretty much, docked, tv (game mode on) + hori rap v. Playable, but far from optimal.

btw. Strikers 1999 is the best of these what comes to input lag, it has 1 frame less I think (I noticed it right away from the feel). Not great, but better. Oh, zero gunner 2- might have less too, but I personally don't care about that game much, especially this "-" version which feels somewhat off (And I haven't played the original), like it's not how it's supposed to be at all, bosses dies really quickly etc.

@JasmineDragon it is! Try Rolling Gunner (still on discount probably!), Thunder Force 4 (and ESPrade if you make the effort to buy from japan eshop).

Unfortunately, Mark is right about that input lag and it's also in the versions you all have. It's usually not so obvious if you don't have better version to compare to or another shmup with less input lag you play one after another.

I have played these versions probalby 50-100 hours in total and actually argued about this subject with Mark probably already year ago in the shmup forums. After I have got used to play shmup with clearly less input lag, both on switch (Thunder Force 4, ESPrade, Rolling Gunner etc.), PS4, X360 and in actual arcade (Tengai is current set up in the arcade close to me), you can feel the difference much easily and notice how much harder it makes things. If I play the game longer, I get used to it on some level, but it's still there making things even more difficult that it should.

Dragon Blaze (and Tengai) I have played the most and if you try and let say try to learn how to get those boss tech bonuses (without a bomb), you notice how much pre-emptive estimation it needs to pull the off and that is mainly due to the input lag, which gives you less precise movement and much less reaction time with the bullets as fast as in those games.

There is no save states, no stage select either. These are really barebones ROMS with less than great emulation.

I personally would still rate them higher than Mark, the games themselves are superb and the input lag doesn't make it impossible (best highscore for Strikers 1999 online leaderboard is from the end of the loop-2 I think, which is crazy with the input lag).

These games just deserve much much better ports.

I know a lot of people complain about the price and say it should cost something like ten dollars as it's old game and all. Unfortunately it's not the reality we live in. M2 probably spends tons of work hours to these release, they actually go and touch the original code and not just run it in a emulator and maybe add some features thru that. They spend tons of effort to make it as close to the original experience as possible, with the slowdown emulation usually as close to perfect as it could get. Then they add new stuff, modes, options, sountracks, which the original didn't have. I doubt the all the combined Zerodiv releases of Psikiyo games combined have took even half of the effort what has been put to a single M2STG release.

All those work hours and effort cost real money, people have to be paid. Unfortunately shmups are really niche, especially outside Japan and do not sell in volumes, not even if they would cost very little. Making the price lower would probably increase the number of copies a bit, but I doubt the increase of sold copies would cover the loss of profit they get selling few copies less, but with higher price.

I'm more than willing to pay what they are asking for such premium quality releases and all the love and effort what has put to these. In my view, greats shmups provide much more replayability than most modern games out there, they just have so much depth that you can spend hundreds or thousands of hours with single one if want to get to the highest level. For most non-hardcore shmup players out there, even getting that 1 credit clear means a lot of playtime, and for more serious players out there, that would be just the first goal.

First of all, nice to see shmup review in NL from Mark MSK, who is definitely somebody who knows his stuff what comes to shmups.

I can also pretty much agree that this is the is the best shmup on Switch, but of course it's also somewhat matter of taste as there are other high quality releases, such as Rolling Gunner (made by former CAVE developer) on the system. I personally like ESPrade the best though, it's probably one of my favourite shmups I have ever played. Highly recommended.

@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).

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.

This is a good shmups, one of the better ones on the system. There is a lot of variety on the characters and fun to figure out how to use them and how to upgrade the weapons during the run. It's hard for sure, but I don't find it out of the ordinary hard compared to the other traditional shmups (for me, I find R-Type style harder)

The graphics are fine, IMO I like them better than on Raiden V, more colourful and more varied.

The fan service / shame breaker aspect is something I find just stupid, totally unnecessary and I don't blame anybody who would be offended of that. I wish it could be turned off for those who don't like that aspect. Ignoring that part, I think it's solid 8/10 shmup.

@NotTelevision Pawarumi doesn't have that "puzzle" aspect, which makes ikaruga difficult. It feels different to me and I'm having a lot of fun with it (Ikaruga I can appreciate, but it's not my favourite shmup)

Have been playing this today a bit, testing both Switch and XBone versions. I really do like the game based on today's experiences with it, the design is great, I like the theme and having fun with it (not too hard either). Switch version is definitely playable, but yeah, I can notice 30fps and greater input lag, which makes the game a bit harder, but at least there is that movement slowdown button making those less precise controls less of an issue.

I believe, hope and keep fingers crossed that @MsK and the team can get it running and patched for 60fps + a bit improvement on input lag. But it really runs steady 30fps now on Switch, which is a big plus. If you run it docked and compared it to xbone using 1080p, there isn't that big of a difference in graphics either, it looks great. IMO it's probably the best looking non-pixel graphics shmup on Switch.

@MsK I don't think Radian Silvergun had that wide aspect ration though and quite often there is still some borders on left and right. I guess my point was that usually those using the full widescreen are horizontal, it's not common for vertical shmups to do that.

@MsK what made you decide to make a vertical shmup with 16/9 ratio, which is not common at all and has a huge impact on the design? I can think only such vertical shmups where this ratio was added later (Under Defeat HD, Sky Force games for example).

@MsK sounds good, I can appreciate Ikaruga, but it's not my cup of tea because of it's puzzle like nature and also how the chaining works if you play for score (too unforgiving, punishes too harshly for smallest of mistake). So I'm glad personally it's not too much like Ikaruga in that regard.

Anyway, game looks great and I'm definitely going to pre-order it already tonight, maybe even twice for both systems.

@MsK We'll here's couple for starters.

I think there is a lot of casual players finding shmups on Switch these days and frankly, a lot of shmups are really hard to compared most modern games especially. How steep is the difficulty curve in Pawarumi, what kind of options is there for less skilled players?

I'm curious to hear about your background in shmups, your favourites and can you beat your own game?

In general, I'm super happy we now indie devs making good shmups and keeping up the tradition! People who like good shmups, please show your support and buy these quality releases!

@MsK this is your game, right... here is your change to advertise it and everybody else to ask questions

@NinChocolate There hasn't been Toaplan port in ages, I have heard rumours it has been impossible or really challenging to get licences This might have changed now, as it seems those have been available since last year, so who knows (http://tatsujin.tokyo/custom.html)

This should be good, people have like it on Steam and some hardcore shmup guys say it's pretty good one.

It's coming also the xbone at the same time.

There is probably something close 100 shmups on Switch already. Last time I counted, I had just under 50 (and didn't have all) and I have bought some more since that. This should be one of the better one's though (same with upcoming Caladrius Blaze and Raiden V which I already own on PS4).

@Yorumi yeah, I really don't see that as a big problem in this game.

@HikaruKitsune

If you come and start describing DE as disappointing, would be also worthwhile to explain why you think that.

Devil Engine is great and very high quality shmup, which has been well received by shmup fans and also in all reviews I have read. One of the top tier shmups on the system for sure.

@Yorumi it's actually not messy or overly flashy at all, especially compared to some bullet hell style shmups. The background and graphics are simple enough. It's probably a bit hard to judge from the pics and especially without playing the game and understanding the mechanics yourself.

It's one of the best shmups on switch, very much like games made by Cave. I have had it few months already as it was release earlier in japan eshop.

It definitely works better docked though, this is because there are tons of small bullets coming at you that you need to dodge, sometimes from very small openings and it's sometimes hard to be accurate on the Switch small screen. No performance issues whatsover (I'm pretty sure that the slowdown happening in some parts is intentional as in a lot of Cave games).

Here is a video review of the original PC release last year I recommend to check https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtHymw6T_gw

@Jokerwolf That is true, but shmups are a niche genre and the sales numbers of DE will never be anywhere near those of something like Shovel Knight or Hollow Knight, which stay on top lists or near it for months. Developers of those games have that luxury to add more content for free as that helps them keep those releases more relevant for longer time and thus increasing sales even further.

I personally do not have any issue paying for a quality shmup or quality dlc for one. I would be willing to pay even more as I can get tens or hundreds of hours of entertainment from one such game (it takes a lot of time and practice to even beat these game with 1 credit).

@LordVal It already had one -20% discount...

@Jokerwolf it's not free, but I wouldn't expect it to be if it pretty much doubles the content of the game.

@John_Deacon yeah, it's not just very common to see any shmup to be mentioned as one of the best games on any system by general audience / game press.

Devil Engine is one of the best shmups on Switch period and sounds like it's getting even better with that huge DLC, which could have even be released as DE2 if they would have wanted to.

it's not free dlc, around 10 euro/dollars or something.

ps. it should have been in the NL's top-15 list easily, especially when there is games on the list like Graceful explosion machine, AngerForce ... which are not bad, but I personally wouldn't consider those are top tier shmups on Switch.

oh, DE was also listed in Eurogamer's top-15 games to play on Switch (alongside games like BOTW, Odyssey etc.).

This is huge news for switch/shmup lovers like me. That they got the M2STG working on Switch in such way that they are pleased was something they have been looking into for a while now and I was starting to lose hope (I have all the previous releases on other consoles, but I wanted these for Switch, which is my favourite console by far). These are as perfect ports as there could be.

After this, it's assumed that they will eventually bring all the previous shot trigger releases to Switch at some point, Battle Garegga, Dangun Feveron, Mahou Daisakusen (Sorcer Striker) and Ketsui.

Their pace of making these ports is quite slow, so I'm not expecting more than 1 totally new M2STG release ...

@NinChocolate

"Nintendo Switch download version "Strikers 1999" will be released August 29, 2019."

It comes in the vol 3 psikyo collection (Korean) earlier than that, but that 29 of August date for digital was mentioned here: https://psikyo-portal.com/shootinglibrary.html#info (which is about the Japanese collections)

I agreed with most on the list, but not all (I have 67 shmups on Switch currently). I would easily put Devil Engine, Rolling Gunner there as well as Neko Navy, which is just pure fun (maybe not the deepest, but tons of fun!).

I found AngerForce and Graceful Explosion Machine quite average myself.

There are already so many good shmups on Switch that this list should be top 20 easily.

Neko Navy is fantastic shmup, one of the best on Switch and I have most of them (over 50). Highly recommended.

For the critique presented in the review I can't relate to at all. It's actually not any more bare bones than most shmups for Switch out there. You have 6 different cats (of which 3 unlockable) to play with, 7 levels, 3 difficulties + infinite mode, training model (stage selection). The enemies are varied, hilarious often, bosses fun and imaginative, great bomb system, secret bosses / other secrets , VERY good music, not overly difficult on hard (=normal) / easy, etc.

It's actually the most CAVE - like shmup I can think of outside Danmaku Unlimited (Neko Navy reminds me of Dangun Feveron the most).

Oh and it's scoring system is not as basic at it sounds at all. There is proximity bonuses it seems and there is tons of room to improve your score depending how well you are able to maximize with your bombs.

The biggest negatives I can think of are lack of online leaderboards and for some, the speed of the cats is too much (much faster than in most shmups, which takes time to adjust to).

Thumps down for this review (made me feel like the writer did just try it shortly and then wrote ... something)

@riccyjay the game didn't even release in all regions last week and it's a PvP shmup, so I wouldn't expect it to have huge following right from the release. There is a discord channel link on their homepage (https://rivalmegagun.com), you probably can find opponents to try it with from there. (I have it too, but we might be too far apart to have reasonable ping for playing it online)

@Anti-Matter we'll they tweeted some days ago that 2 games were approved by Nintendo for switch (announced coming later)... they are also responsible bringing Vasara 1/2 HD collection on switch too, so maybe they meant that and 99Vidas by that.