All Shoot Em Ups Coming to the Astro City V

[Music] toa plan rising cave the unholy trinity of arcade shooting in the 80s and 90s toa plan laid the foundation with games that defined the vertical shooter from their ashes rose rising a team of former compile staff that with the help of toaplan carried the torch forward with their own classics that have stood the test of time building blocks that would later form cave the bullet hell future of the genre major players like psycho brought their own flavor of brutally fast bullet speeds and gameplay along with other legends like title konami and iron all creating some of the greatest arcade shooters of the time it was truly the golden age of shooting games enter the astro city mini vertical on your dedicated shmup machine from sega that celebrates some of their greatest releases exclusive arcade games like armed police bat rider battle back raid truxxton 2 and dog yoon never ported or released 22 games from toa plan rising psycho and more are you kidding me look yes you can play every one of these games already emulated on pc no big revelation there this mini is a step in the right direction and potentially a sign of things to come so in this video find out about the incredible games being released on the astro city v and why the lineup is one for the ages and we're getting started right now welcome to violin city of all the great shmoops on this astro v none are likely more anticipated than armed police batrider one of rising's most beloved and unusual games it just can't seem to get a home port to save its life never released on any console or collection it's been an arcade exclusive since with fans please falling on deaf ears batrider is known as the king of fighters of shmups for its huge roster of fun characters and ships and how you play as a team with each new character taking over when the previous dies not only does it change up how you approach the game but it can also alter the stage orders you play similar to some psycho games like strikers hot on the heels of battleground it has a ton of similarities so fans of that game will feel right at home here however for those that didn't jive with the more drab forties wore aesthetic that rider may be right up their alley with more fantastic and whimsical design compared to the very realistic garega that includes the bullets which are easier to see now though still not perfect and sometimes get unfairly obscured by so much happening on screen and while gorega is clearly more popular and well known with tons of ports many players prefer batrider and it has a large cult following in the genre like gorega picking up bomb fragments and metals are a thing and so is the brutal rank system that makes the game nearly impossible if not managed from the start to help ease the pain before it gets out of control this is a yagawa game after all the man who drinks the tears of poor defeated players and make no mistake that rider becomes a very hard painful game instead of starting at the lowest rank like most games and building up it actually starts you at the highest forcing you to manage it down with deaths and a new bullet grazing mechanic that helps keep it down talk about a game that doesn't want you to finish it you also now get a chart shot by simply not firing which functions as a weapon to get up close and personal and certain characters have options and features that others don't so there's a lot to explore that rider is also known for its large amount of menu options and ways to play truly unique for an arcade game you get a training normal and advanced mode with each adding more stages to the game for a total of seven along with a special boss rush mode and a mode that lets you make your own team including guest characters that you unlock the variety on tap is exceptional where if you aren't getting anywhere or like the characters you can pick and choose and try out others just like a fighting game really and a big part of its appeal but what also separates it from grega for me is the rising fan service i just really enjoy all the homages to their earlier games in the library batrider and garega always had great bullet patterns more psycho than bullet hell and an endless depth that appeals to higher level players and scorers it really isn't for entry-level players or even experienced but not expert players like myself who just play it for fun casually but have little hope of ever truly mastering it but batrider has been in massive demand for decades with pc emulation the only way to play and while it likely won't perform fast enough on a mini console like the astro v it's an opportunity for the rest of us who haven't played it to see what it's all about batrider may be a mean son of a but it's also as cool as advertised and something everyone should check out even if it's not long before you're crying along with the rest of us making the legend of yagawa grow ever stronger and if you really want to get good at this game i can't recommend pearl's channel and gameplay enough most of this footage is from his one cc's with all these ships and is a great place to learn strategy for the game check out the links to his gameplay in my description and give him a sub as he's one of the best legit players out there [Music] if you want to talk about rising hidden gems battle back raid is it the true sequel to battle grego yet reminds me more of an accessible bat rider it's been doomed to obscurity despite being the most playable of the three and for many the most fun if i had to guess why it became obscure it's because it didn't leave the best first impression it doesn't have the great style of bat rider or the gritty war aesthetic of grega that many liked it's not as interesting visually as either despite being solid and colorful the stages in general are super short especially early on with a boss that just shows up before you even had a chance to settle in barely five minutes into the game and you're already on stage four and it's all by design as the stages do get longer and cooler as you progress making it a brisk get proper arcade shmup at just under 30 minutes to complete all stages so it's easier to quickly practice the early levels before things get serious the final stages take as long to complete as all that came before with stage six being an onslaught of bosses that never seems to end and the final advanced stages are where back grade gets nuts so enjoy the few early ones up front that don't overstay their welcome you have a game that's fair at the start on normal and really just becomes ruthless on advanced or for those trying to seriously score which requires a combination of regular bombing and deaths while grabbing enough extends to keep going and maxing your points and it's on a manic level even grega never approached but for us mere mortals playing to survive starting more reasonable and working its way up your hitbox is even smaller making it easier to dodge and graze bullets helping you keep the rank in check now it's still a yagawa game so don't expect a walk in the park especially on advanced mode but compared to the last two games it somehow feels more approachable while simultaneously being manic overall i also have to give a shout out to the music which is super catchy and old school versus the more progressive and electronic vibes of garega almost like batgrade went back in time pre-grega to rising's older games in the end does bakery live up to its predecessors depends on who you ask absolutely yes in some ways and no in others but it's no doubt another brilliant game that never had a single home port until now with the astro v coming soon and reason number two that the game's lineup is so anticipated the scoring in back raid is completely insane and if you want to see the best strats in gameplay on youtube for this game you can check out the full runs on icarus page linked in my description and follow his channel too or his twitch for some incredible gameplay in general [Music] travel back in time to one of rising's first ever games a time before yagawa took the reigns there was a sequel to sorcerer striker with a racing twist called kingdom grand prix it took what was cool about the first game and upped the pacing and speed by mixing it with a race against others to the end of the stage the mahou daisakusen series in japan this sequel feels like iron's armed police unit gallop in vertical form where you go faster by moving closer to the top of the screen and like a good arcade racer you can bump into other racers and backgrounds mario kart style and not take damage as you complete levels you can choose your next course from a list with a good dozen stages in total as despite the racing motif and features this is first and foremost the shmuck with plenty of dodging and bullets along the way the racing elements while cool aren't always fair and occasionally clunky taking a back seat to the all more important shmupping at some point one has to be the star of the show and in this case it's the shooting side the graphics are bright colorful and fantasy themed just like the first game with new and old characters making a return as popular as the later rising games made by yagawa were especially with the hardcore crowd i was always a fan of rising's early games as they felt more like the old compile reborn for arcades so much little detail put into the backgrounds and art design making some stages feel like a real world you clearly see the evolution of games like spriggan on the pc engine and how that art style was brought into this series some levels feel like you're flying around through an unreleased warcraft game with hordes of tiny beasts attacking from below or running for cover the stages and effects are just so visually interesting it's a joy to explore all the levels through multiple playthroughs to see everything they designed the compiled dna extends to the game's sense of speed with fast scrolling backgrounds and a pace befitting a racer hybrid being an arcade release it's certainly harder than what you're used to from the compile games made for home consoles but it's also about as accessible as arcade shooters come not even close to the brutality of many toll clan games or the later rising games made by yagawa another standout is the music which is pretty sensational composed by the duo of hitoshi sakamoto and masaharu iwata both of final fantasy tactics fame along with the older battle series [Music] kingdom grand prix could have been a standard shooter without the racing elements and been a winner in fact the only home port on the saturn had a shooting mode which stripped the racing elements and let you take your time through the stages so while the racing gimmick is unique a bit hit and miss it's a solid shooter in its own right worthy of the compile name and if you're a fan of that company and those games both this and the original sorcerer striker are a must play and if you're looking for a bunch of skilled playthroughs with many of the characters from this game check out channopolis and his 1cc's he's a big fan and has tons of other great gameplay on his channel as well [Music] rising wasn't the only big time shmup dev of the 90s as another player arguably even more successful in terms of sales and popularity was pumping out consistently great games yes psycho produced some of the most awesome and loved shooters of the time of the four psycho games included what jumps out at me in this collection is how accessible all the games are before they upped the wild factor with insanely fast bullets in later games people forget that their earliest games were quite reasonable maybe they didn't have the same level of polish as any of the sequels but they also didn't hand you your ass in short order it starts with the original sonic wings aka aero fighters and while it's not technically a psycho game released prior by video system it's clearly the same team involved and welcome here this series was always far more accessible than some of saikyo's later games and it's always made for a great two-player rod it is a shame they couldn't get part 2 and 3 on the astro as well but given those were snk neo geo games i can understand why the original is still a very solid shooter with some cool cameos from their other games like raviolis and the first space monkey shmup boss that i know the remaining psycho games on the astro are even more easily played on modern consoles starting off with the original sengoku ace which introduced koyori to the world their most popular character for uh reasons but more than that it quickly established psycho as a major player in the genre with its cool art style and their signature fast oblong bullets ace is very similar to sonic wings actually so if you like that game you'll feel right at home here it's still of the earlier games that didn't up the difficulty factor to 11. and it's short and sweet making it a great psycho one cc the same can be said for the original gunbird which is also one of psychio's easier games making it a lot of fun for more casual players it again has a whimsical fantasy-oriented theme and is equally short to master in one cc the stages are short no-nonsense affairs with nearly zero downtime typical all killer no filler psycho gameplay psycho has always had a thing of making insanely difficult second loops and even these early games are guilty shown here via expert gameplay by jamers the second loops on these games are multiple times harder than the first and a serious challenge for even the most veteran players so these original psycho games hold a little something for everyone [Music] and the final game is the original strikers 1945 likely the hardest of this set but still not as nuts as what came after in part 2 also completed in around 50 minutes and sporting randomized early stages it was a way for psycho to continue in the footsteps of aero fighters with their own property minus the more comedic nature of the former um okay i take that back there's some weirdness to be had who came up with this stuff the most unique aspect of strikers for me was the variety of special weapons for each plane and how drastically it affected your gameplay with completely different offensive and defensive strategies depending on your choice something about the striker series was always satisfying to play and probably what made them so popular so you get four early psycho games if you've only ever played the later sequels you may be pleasantly surprised how good all these first games in the series were and they'll all be on the astro v to enjoy before getting into the crazy tour plan machine that the astro v is with nearly a third of the games included from the historic developer it's important to mention the few other classics as well and it doesn't get much more popular than the original writing whether you love its presentation or hate its brutality few don't remember this cabinet in arcades it was literally everywhere influenced heavily by torplan's early games ryden struck a chord and blew up in popularity known for its unforgiving gameplay absolutely awesome music and the sexy toothpaste laser it attracted all of us to the cabinet like moths to a flame no matter how difficult it nailed the presentation with great graphics for its time media explosions and effects and had that intangible quality of replayability well you just couldn't help but give it another go every time you came across it port it to nearly every console known to man and with several sequels to its name the original is undoubtedly still one of the best and it certainly belongs here on the astro v [Music] you have the arcade cresta series by nichibitsu both moon and tara cresta virtually unknown internationally but quite popular in japan the first was obviously one of many galaxian clones and to be honest it was really before my time in 1980 when i was three years old and not the kind of game that i can spend a ton of time with but it did introduce the unique docking mechanic that the series would become known for allowing you to stack your ship and expand your firepower as you progressed and nostalgia is a hell of a drug so i totally get those who grew up playing it in arcades and will welcome it here even if it's not my bag now the sequel terracresta releasing later in 85 and a faster paced scrolling shooter aside from the clearly improved vibrant graphics and really nice tunes it's the overall game speed and expanded docking mechanic that makes it a very worthy play almost like the old thunderbirds cartoon you keep docking your ships and increasing your firepower tail guns and even a rear shield you can also split into various formations further increasing firepower at the risk of death if your main ship gets hit and after docking all five ships you get access to the invincible phoenix now a staple of the series if you watched my recent review of the new soulcresta by platinumgames you'll see how much it was influenced and playing this arcade original will give you a greater appreciation of the new game a quick shout out to my friend schmuppsbr who did a full cresta series review a while back on his channel so if you wanted to know a lot more on the series you can check it out in his video to round out the classics we have zaxon and despite its age i can definitely dig it the isometric view was revolutionary and while the style never quite caught on we did get some awesome games that followed in its footsteps like viewpoint on the neogeo except zaxon took it even farther with you also controlling your height to fly over obstacles and using your shadow to gauge position given this is the sega astro city v it makes sense that they include one of their innovative classics and to be honest i find it more engaging than playing something like the og space invaders so i think zaxon was a really cool inclusion but now the moment you've been waiting for [Music] if these rare and arcade exclusive schmops from rising weren't enough to make the astro v a hot item you've got a whopping seven games from toa plan represented three of which have yet to ever see a home release until now you already know i recently did a super in-depth video of every tour plan shooter ranked and reviewed which you should definitely check out after this video if you've yet to see it as it's an awesome look into all of their games with a lot of exclusive info and history and of all the classics included on this astro city v none are more anticipated than tatsujino the original truxton is a beloved game seeing two solid ports on both mega drive and pc engine as well as recently being released on the egret mini that i reviewed but the sequel despite being both a visual and oral tour de force never saw the light of day outside arcades aside from the very obscure fm townsport and if you haven't experienced it yet boy are you missing out [Music] on both a feast for the senses and an exercise in sheer brutality tatsujino or truxton truxxton2 is the hardest game in a tour plan library known for hardest games it'll dazzle you with its incredible art design then slap you sideways and call you sally for being distracted the music is sensational and some of composer masahiro yuge's best work [Music] tatsujino is like that gorgeous but masochistic ex-girlfriend that you kept coming back to despite knowing that she'll just bind and ball gag you again then cut you with razors while you ride in glorious agony if you want to see more of how awesome this game is check it out in my toe plan video after this one but suffice to say it's a must play for any fan of shmups and exciting to come to the astro v even if it's a flawed and brutal game you may not see very far into it's very worth playing and the safe states on the astro will help you see a bit farther than any mere mortal normally would and if you didn't think that an old school shooter could look any cooler then you haven't seen dog yoon [Music] arcade exclusive number two from toe plant dog yoon has got to have some of the most incredible art design in any shmup like ever it's simply breathtaking and never lets up until the end and unlike tatsujino it's not unfair in terms of difficulty and a lot of fun to play your weapon is always powered up to full so you never get stuck in a checkpoint hell of being underpowered it's very much a modern playing shmup compared to the classics and easy to pick up and play even if it's not overly creative in terms of mechanics and gameplay you pick up differing pairs of satellites that either can give your ship a crazy speed boost really useful for some parts of the game and bosses or for an ultra powerful bomb that takes out some mid bosses in a single shot it also has a cool two-player mode where you can dock ships and create a super weapon for as long as you're connected if you're playing with a friend and the music this time composed by tatsuya uemora of kyukyoku tiger fame is uniformly excellent with some great tunes on tap [Music] dog yoon is one of the least known tower plan games gorgeous highly underrated and a must play and finally arcade exclusive number three out zone one of my personal top three tour plan games and favorite running guns of all time where most games of this type are slower and plotting outzone just screams along and never lets up the tatsujin like graphics by same artist ogie wadasan are outstanding the music again by tatsuya mora is some of his best work since q tiger and the two player mode has some great cooperative play for dealing with trickier segments but the star of the show is definitely the gameplay with perfectly designed bite-sized segments breaking up each level some requiring patience and strategy while others a relentless shmup-like push forward to stay in the flow and keep from getting overwhelmed tatsuya uemora really outdid himself in programming this game and created a masterpiece i rated outzone as one of my s-tier games of the toa plan library it's that good and going to be on the astro v these five games right here tatsujino dagun and out zone along with rising's bat rider and batgrade are reason enough for me to hype the astro city v five arcade exclusives that are absolutely smashing i'd buy it for these five games alone and if you've been waiting to play any or all of these outside of pc emulation this is going to be the ticket for the foreseeable future but i've not yet even mentioned what i also consider an arcade exclusive and another on my top 5 list of toy plan games coming to the astro v yes v5 got a single port back on the mega drive and while a solid impressive port for the time it's not nearly on the level and missing a ton of detail gameplay and musical nuance of the arcade original this is again the first time the arcade accurate original is getting a home release and i couldn't be more thrilled because v5 is outstanding and another one of my toe plan tier games unlike the international version grindstormer v5 implements a gradius-like power-up system making the game far more engaging for me something that was removed to make grindstormer in favor of more typical pickups but it's everything else that makes v5 special for starters it's the programming debut a famous tsuneki ikeda who would go on to become a legendary designer for cave and his signature is all over this game with often slower but more numerous bullets then you have art design by naora yusuke a final fantasy fame incredibly unique and varied visuals unlike anything i'd seen in a shmup at the time the music by masahiro yuge is raw yet brilliant with that yamaha fm sound of the older generation games the checkpoint system mixed with very challenging gameplay make v5 a really tough game but it's always fair and incredibly well designed once i fell in love with v5 there was no going back and it's always held a place in my personal tour plan top 5. [Music] the remaining three toll plan games coming to the astro aren't as exclusive having had some nice home ports but that doesn't make them any less cool and a welcome inclusion of course the original tatsujin is included as it's pretty much a no-brainer for any collection at this point it's just too good and masahiro yuge's masterwork with some of the tightest and most precise ship control to this day along with a mesmerizing float to the gameplay amplified by his brilliant musical compositions [Music] you have sami sami sami aka fire shark another awesome game and while the definitive version is coming soon to switch and ps4 courtesy of m2 with gadgets easy modes challenges and more something on a level beyond what's offered here it's also going to cost a lot more with all the extras but the base game will be included on the astro v and likely as brutally difficult as it ever was you'll get that killer soundtrack iconic flame weapon and brutalizing gameplay that only a super player could love no frills if you're looking to get your ass kicked by the arcade original and finally bots a gun [Music] toa plans swan song and what many shmup players who grew up during a later time find to be their favorite it had a phenomenal port on the saturn vatsugan special and i'm hoping that that mode is included on the astro v as it's really my favorite version to play of what's already a top tier shmup ikeda-san's final game for toe plan before forming cave it's as accessible and fun to play as our cage shmups get with colorful graphics and good music no overly complex mechanics brisk easy to memorize and replay stages huge impressive firepower compared to anything that came before tons of bullets yet somehow dodgeable due to a perfect ship speed and tiny hitbox just an all-around well-designed game that rightfully remains a favorite of many really these seven games included show how eclectic a library toll plan had how most of their games differed from each other had unique styles and signatures each a creative work of art that stood on its own without seeming like a slightly improved version of a previous game aside from maybe fire shark vs flying shark say what you will about the awesome shinobu yagawa games or how consistently good the psycho releases were but you can't deny that many felt very similar in terms of gameplay mechanics with mostly changed up visuals and music they built on what worked and continuously improved upon it same for most developers really and that makes sense but with toa plan you'd not even guess that some of these games were by the same developer they constantly pushed for new concepts and ideas without recycling much old at all sometimes it worked wonderfully and others not as well but that's the process of discovery in trying something new and it's just a small part of what made them special so if you really do want a deep dive into their incredibly diverse library check out every toll plan shooter ranked and reviewed if you haven't it has a sneak peek into the tour plan documentary that i'm working on and it even has tatsuya umura himself ranking his personal top 5 tour plan games it's a can't miss episode for anyone that hasn't seen it and then look forward to the astro cd v which is quite the tour plan machine with a total of 7 out of 22 games

Channel: Shmup Junkie

Views: 25,028

Keywords: All Shoot Em Ups Coming to the Astro City V, sega astro city mini, astro city mini v, sega, arcade, shoot em ups, shmups, sega saturn, playstation, toaplan, truxton, armed police batrider, shmup junkie, bullet hell, STG, raizing, psikyo, gunbird, strikers 1945, retro gaming, taito, taito egret 2 mini, astro city, sega astro city mini review, astro city mini, retro gaming console, sega saturn unboxing, cave

Id: _JYSuGtIKoo

Length: 31min 50sec (1910 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 24 2022