For quite a bit now Bitwave Games has been releasing awesome ports of Toaplan’s arcade shoot em up catalog on Steam. So far the first volume gave us horizontal scroller Zero Wing, overhead run-n-gun Outzone, vertical scrolling Twin Cobra, and the much-loved genre classic Truxton. The second volume gave us Slap Fight, Hellfire, Flying Shark, and its sequel Fire Shark. Volume 3 here has some serious bangers. We have Batsugun which is widely considered by genre enthusiasts to be the first bullet hell shmup. The long overdue inclusion of Tiger-Heli which is Twin Cobra’s prequel. The real treat in this compilation though is the inclusion of Fixeight and Vimana. Both of which never had any ports outside of arcade PCBs since the early 90s. So how do all these games stack up on Steam? Is the emulation any good? Are they worth playing at all? Let us take a deep dive on these four shooters!
Batsugun released back in 1993 is considered to be the very first game in the bullet hell subgenre and was Toaplan’s final shmup before members of the company split up and formed other hardcore shmup developers such as Cave, Raizing, and Takumi. It got a Japan-only Sega Saturn home port back in 1996 and most recently a PS4 and Switch port of the Saturn version last year. Bitwave’s port is 100% the arcade original. No crunched-up screen in
horizontal mode. No arranged soundtrack. No exclusive special version with shields and multiple loops of gameplay. Despite not having all the bells and whistles of the home game console ports the Steam version still holds up. You start out with three different ships to choose from each with different attributes. One has wide shots, the other has a rapid thunder beam and the 3rd one has a rapid wave shot which becomes a wide shot if you tap the fire button.
As you destroy enemies and bosses you get experience points and your experience gauge on the bottom fills up. Once the meter reaches max you gain a level and your main weapon becomes stronger. The items you collect are medals for bonuses at each stage if you somehow don’t lose a life/ P icons that strengthen your gun until you level up, B icons that increase bomb stock which are best used whenever you feel overwhelmed with enemy projectiles.
The graphics are absolutely beautiful. Very detailed sprite work as usual with Toaplan’s games. The music is extremely catchy. My favorite track is one from the 4th stage. It really fits in with fast-paced adrenaline madness during that part. This game will most definitely keep you on your toes because the stages and bosses get more relentless with enemy fire as you progress. It is never unfair though. As you keep grinding through the game you will eventually memorize the levels and the bullet patterns. You’ll even discover some hidden bonuses too! Batsugun is an absolute masterpiece and I think everyone who is into shmups should most definitely give that a shot.
Tiger-Heli released back in 1985 is the dinosaur of the bunch here. After playing the bullet hell madness of the Batsugun it feels like I went from driving a car to riding a horse and carriage. This is Toaplan’s debut shmup and was the very game that put Toaplan on the map back in the mid 80s. It was ported on NES and got a sequel 2 years later called Twin Cobra which is on the original Toaplan Arcade Shoot Em Ups collection. Tiger-Heli is extremely basic. You’re a slow-moving chopper that only shoots up tanks and other ground-based vehicles. No planes in sight. Just tanks.
Your gun is short-range. and you’re equipped with only 2 bombs at a time which is best used if you’re either in danger or want to get rid of a stronger enemy tank. Be careful though if an enemy shoots one of your bombs it’ll automatically ignite. Power-ups are very limited. You will see boxes with crosses that will give you small choppers on the side that’ll either shoot vertically or by the side.
Tanks and boats absolutely love to snip you from the rear so you definitely need to stay in the middle of the screen to dodge enemy fire coming from all directions as the bullets move really fast. It may not be a bullet hell where you see a bunch of pink dots filling up the screen but it has its rage inducing moments.
This game will loop on forever until you die. You just play to receive the highest score. The graphics are what you expect from a 1985 arcade game and the music that is there is a bit repetitive. In my opinion, this isn’t really my favorite game in Toaplan’s catalog. It’s just too archaic for my liking. I would rather play the much-improved sequel Twin Cobra over this one. I only consider this a footnote in Toaplan’s shmups history.
1992’s Fixeight is a new one for me. It is the spiritual sequel to Out Zone which is on the original Steam collection. Just like that game it never had a proper home port prior and is also an overhead run n gun like Commando, Ikari Warriors, and its ilk. What sets this apart from Out Zone is the crazy amount of commandos you choose from at the start. There are a grand total of 8 playable characters each with their own weapons!
Unlike Outzone during the game, you step on panels to switch to your alt fixed weapon and back to your free way one which adds a layer of strategy. You collect P icons to strengthen whatever weapon you’re using. B icons for your screen-clearing bombs. You also collect bonus point items. The sprites are absolutely gorgeous and the music is disappointingly unmemorable. I think Out Zone’s soundtrack is absolutely better.
The replay value is very high here. You’ll want to try out every character as they all are very distinct gameplay-wise. Overall I think this is a very solid overhead run n gun and a worthy follow-up to Out Zone.
1991’s Vimana is the only one out of this collection I didn’t have much experience with prior. This is yet another rarity from Toaplan’s shooter catalogue that never got ported elsewhere for decades. This one totally reeks of Truxton presentation-wise. The graphics are highly reminiscent of that game and the music…wow…talk about an underrated gem!
I guarantee you’ll be humming the Stage 1 theme as you play. The gameplay is rather basic. You just have your main gun which gets upgraded with wave beams as you collect P icons. You also have a charge shot which fires bullets in several directions. Without rapid this one is sure to hurt your hand so definitely use that auto-shot button unless you want to use those charge shots.
The bombs here are not your usual Twin Cobra or Truxton bombs. Instead, you create a barrier and you press the button again to fire homing projectiles towards an enemy. I think this game is pretty mid-tier. It’s not Truxton, Fire Shark, or Batsugun but it’s a decent game in its own right.
Every game here has the usual bells and whistles the other Steam Toaplan compilations have. In-game achievements, multiple video modes, a choice of different wallpapers and gadgets, the ability to change the game’s region from Western to Japanese, and practice modes for beginners. I am happy to say input lag is so minimal that you will not notice it at all. So if you want to play Batsugun competitively this is most definitely the version to play. Toaplan Arcade Shoot Em Collection 3 is highly recommended to fans of the genre. If you just want one game out of this to play then I would definitely recommend Batsugun. It is just too good and I pity any shmup fan who has never touched it.
As of this review, Bitwave has just announced Toaplan Arcade Shoot Em Ups 4 with Dogyuun, Truxton II, Twin Hawk, and Grind Stormer due out on Steam in April. I am very much looking forward to covering that as well. Stay tuned!
*A review code was used for the purpose of this review.
