Imagine if they took Trouble Shooter and somehow made a better version of it somehow. Like imagine Trouble Shooter is a brand of sake you like. And maybe somehow somewhere, someone found like a much older and rarer version of that sake, and opened it up and poured it for you, and when you tasted it, it was at once familiar to you yet somehow much more refined and fulfilled, that much closer to actualizing its potential into exactly what it was supposed to be all along. It’s kind of like that, a much higher quality bottling of sake, a vintage even.
It has a basketball robot. Goated
People'll gas up Gleylancer like it's the second coming of Christ where this is like...infinitely more impressive in every regard. Takes everything from the first game, adds a bunch of polish, humor, and a BANGER of a soundtrack that just brings it up to a near perfect shmup package.
Last year I played Battle Mania for the Mega Drive and I really liked it even though it feels like a lot of people aren’t the biggest fans of it. I liked it so much I went and dived into the sequel immediately after. I loved the sequel so much, being one of my favorite games of that year. Now I’ll be honest. I said in my Sailor Moon Mega Drive review that “To this day it is still my favorite Mega Drive game and I expect it to stay that way.” and that was a goddamn lie because this game is my favorite! I really don’t know how I didn’t give this a 10/10 last year.
This game is a shmup where you control a girl named Mania. You can shoot forward or back depending on the direction you’re facing and you can even fire in 8 directions if you choose to do that setting. You also got your partner Maria who will either shoot the other way or the same way with you depending on your settings. Never worry about her getting hit or anything as she can’t get hurt. Unlike most shmups, you have HP and can have as much as you want as you can collect hearts for more of it and getting 20,000 points gives you 1 HP. You will go through 9 stages in this one filled with lots of action and nonsensical wonders.
Mania also has access to 4 different special weapons. Sure you got your normal default weapon that can be powered up by collecting P icons but you also can choose a special weapon at the beginning of most stages. The first is Neo-Thunder which will send two powerful bolts of lightning to hurt enemies. Second is Eraser which has two lasers with one above and one below Mania as they shoot horizontally. Third is Chainsaw which has two chainsaw blades that extend vertically. Lastly there is the Benten Bomb which will have explosions happen around you. All of these moves can be used as long as they are charged up. Keep in mind the less you use them, the more points and higher rank you get.
Now the stages is where this game hits its strides. There’s so much variety to the levels and aesthetics and it’s all top notch. I adore all the levels so much and there isn’t a single bad one in the game. I really like the level where you’re driving in your car and it’s also the only time you’re forced to use an 8 way shot. I should point out that a lot of people say this game is easy and they would be right but I could care less because my god I have so much fun playing them. There’s never a dull moment and they all look really nice. The enemy variety in them is also amazing and the patterns to follow never feel too repetitive or uninteresting. It’s all just amazing and I have no complaints here.
Bosses in this game are plentiful with the likes of stuff like a robot playing basketball, a crane machine with toys that will shoot at you, and even a clone of Mania. There’s not really any bosses that cause me too much problem as they are once again pretty easy. There are a few that got a hit or two on me. If there is one gripe I have is I don’t like how the final boss can crush you giving you an instant game over, I never understood why crushing does that anyway, feels awfully harsh. You know this game will leave a good first impression when beating the first main boss in stage 1 has it ending with Maria crashing into the boss from a building with her damn car, it’s so badass!
The presentation in this game is Ultimate A material! You get this high pumping intro with an awesome looking title screen. This game even tries to do fake anime eyecatches for two of the game’s cutscenes. The story is pretty nonsensical but the presentation is pretty good minus the underwhelming font. All the characters and enemies look great and are a big upgrade from the previous game. Even the options screen is amazing having a bunch of chibi Maria’s playing to the beat of each sound channel for every song. I could gush way more about it but I don’t want to bore anyone. The music is also really great taking advantage of the Mega Drive’s excellent bass sound. So many songs sound so rockin it’s banger after banger. A lot of effort was put into all this stuff and even the few voice samples are nice. It’s hard to resist me shouting “POWER UP!” or “SPEED UP!” or “Thank you!” god, I love so much about this game.
I know I probably could have written more but I think this does a decent job of explaining my love for this game. I know it’s a boring opinion to list this shmup high on the console but idc because this is my favorite game on the console and I love it so much. I recommend trying this game if you don’t mind using an emulator. This game was given a low print run back in the day and copies now go for over $1,000. Sadly it seems due to Vic Tokai now not being a video game developer, we will probably never see this game ported. M2 did try to get it for the Mega Drive Mini but it didn’t happen. A US version of this game was also meant to be released under the name Trouble Shooter Vintage but never came out. There was also a sequel planned for the Dreamcast but was sadly canceled and didn’t really go anywhere. I love this game like I’ve said many times already so I hope you also enjoy it if you haven’t tried it yet. I wanna say this game is obscure but I’m not really sure tbh, still JUST PLAY IT ALREADY!
This game is a shmup where you control a girl named Mania. You can shoot forward or back depending on the direction you’re facing and you can even fire in 8 directions if you choose to do that setting. You also got your partner Maria who will either shoot the other way or the same way with you depending on your settings. Never worry about her getting hit or anything as she can’t get hurt. Unlike most shmups, you have HP and can have as much as you want as you can collect hearts for more of it and getting 20,000 points gives you 1 HP. You will go through 9 stages in this one filled with lots of action and nonsensical wonders.
Mania also has access to 4 different special weapons. Sure you got your normal default weapon that can be powered up by collecting P icons but you also can choose a special weapon at the beginning of most stages. The first is Neo-Thunder which will send two powerful bolts of lightning to hurt enemies. Second is Eraser which has two lasers with one above and one below Mania as they shoot horizontally. Third is Chainsaw which has two chainsaw blades that extend vertically. Lastly there is the Benten Bomb which will have explosions happen around you. All of these moves can be used as long as they are charged up. Keep in mind the less you use them, the more points and higher rank you get.
Now the stages is where this game hits its strides. There’s so much variety to the levels and aesthetics and it’s all top notch. I adore all the levels so much and there isn’t a single bad one in the game. I really like the level where you’re driving in your car and it’s also the only time you’re forced to use an 8 way shot. I should point out that a lot of people say this game is easy and they would be right but I could care less because my god I have so much fun playing them. There’s never a dull moment and they all look really nice. The enemy variety in them is also amazing and the patterns to follow never feel too repetitive or uninteresting. It’s all just amazing and I have no complaints here.
Bosses in this game are plentiful with the likes of stuff like a robot playing basketball, a crane machine with toys that will shoot at you, and even a clone of Mania. There’s not really any bosses that cause me too much problem as they are once again pretty easy. There are a few that got a hit or two on me. If there is one gripe I have is I don’t like how the final boss can crush you giving you an instant game over, I never understood why crushing does that anyway, feels awfully harsh. You know this game will leave a good first impression when beating the first main boss in stage 1 has it ending with Maria crashing into the boss from a building with her damn car, it’s so badass!
The presentation in this game is Ultimate A material! You get this high pumping intro with an awesome looking title screen. This game even tries to do fake anime eyecatches for two of the game’s cutscenes. The story is pretty nonsensical but the presentation is pretty good minus the underwhelming font. All the characters and enemies look great and are a big upgrade from the previous game. Even the options screen is amazing having a bunch of chibi Maria’s playing to the beat of each sound channel for every song. I could gush way more about it but I don’t want to bore anyone. The music is also really great taking advantage of the Mega Drive’s excellent bass sound. So many songs sound so rockin it’s banger after banger. A lot of effort was put into all this stuff and even the few voice samples are nice. It’s hard to resist me shouting “POWER UP!” or “SPEED UP!” or “Thank you!” god, I love so much about this game.
I know I probably could have written more but I think this does a decent job of explaining my love for this game. I know it’s a boring opinion to list this shmup high on the console but idc because this is my favorite game on the console and I love it so much. I recommend trying this game if you don’t mind using an emulator. This game was given a low print run back in the day and copies now go for over $1,000. Sadly it seems due to Vic Tokai now not being a video game developer, we will probably never see this game ported. M2 did try to get it for the Mega Drive Mini but it didn’t happen. A US version of this game was also meant to be released under the name Trouble Shooter Vintage but never came out. There was also a sequel planned for the Dreamcast but was sadly canceled and didn’t really go anywhere. I love this game like I’ve said many times already so I hope you also enjoy it if you haven’t tried it yet. I wanna say this game is obscure but I’m not really sure tbh, still JUST PLAY IT ALREADY!
Good graphic art , "Brawing Up" my favourite track
Fun little shooter with great visual and sound design. Not too hard. Would recommend!
wouldn't recommend without save states, some annoying bits ruin the fun even with save states.
Schmups are a genre I’m so entirely ignorant about that I’m not even sure I spelled schmup right? Is it shmup? Neither of these look right to me. Does this game even count as that? Is this what a shmup is? Or are like scrolling shooters their own thing? I have absolutely no idea. I think it’s short for shoot ‘em up and while you do certainly shoot ‘em up in this game I also spend all my time shooting ‘em up in like, Breath of the Wild or Dragon’s Dogma or one third of Sonic Adventure 2 so who can say if I know what the fuck I’m talking about. I think by now it should be obvious that I’m playing this game because it was recommended to me by MagneticBurn.
I’m trying really hard to recall if I’ve ever played a game in this genre literally ever before and I think the answer is actually “no,” and as I was going through this one I started to suspect that I was being really spoiled by being started here. So please forgive my statements and opinions here, they’re those of a true neophyte to the genre, I genuinely don’t know what I’m talking about. But the game has a gentle difficulty curve, not really bringing a real challenge until after the halfway mark I think, and although dying weakens you so much that it can basically ruin the run after a certain point, that did encourage practice and get me a little more dexterous maybe a little more quickly, even if I wished that powerup progress would be retained across continues. I appreciate that every level had a strong mechanical gimmick in addition to an aesthetic one; “level design” isn’t something I had really considered as a thing one might be terribly playful with in this kind of game but here you have levels where there are fewer and less dangerous enemies but much higher import is placed on dodging environmental hazards, you have levels where your field of movement is really restricted, you have a level where you’re in a car instead of on a jetpack and that completely changes the way you interface with basically all of your controls and weapons. Every level has a strong theme but they all play notably differently too which really helps them stand out from each other in memory and keeps the game from every getting monotonous or letting you get into too comfortable a groove.
I also liked that rather than picking one jetpack and sticking with it for the entire game, you get to re-equip before every stage. You get a little hint about what kind of stuff might be coming up in the next level (sometimes they even straight tell you “do we have a weapon that shoots vertically???”) and matching your special attack to the circumstances you’re anticipating can really make or break a run. There are a lot of small customization options that have big ripple effects, in fact. One of your stages of powering up is that you get a little drone thing and you can set it to rotate around you in a circle, shoot with you, or shoot in the opposite direction you’re facing, covering you in certain directions better or maximizing DPS (which becomes extremely important later one!). Similarly there are three completely distinct control schemes that totally change the feel of the game. None of them make it easier or harder, they’re just like, different ways to make the girls shoot? And they change how you’re able to interact with enemies, it’s a really cool inclusion and it adds a lot of replay value on top of the already high incentive to just run this bad boy because it’s so obviously, inherently well-designed and fun.
I didn’t mention the story, or the incredible girls you play as, or the sick ass music, or that it’s cool that all the enemies are yokai themed instead of just like airplanes or mecha or whatever, but that stuff’s all cool too. Really just immaculate vibes. Entirely unrelated to all this, I’m gonna go watch Dirty Pair, apropos of nothing. Thank you MagneticBurn for the recommendation this is probably not gonna be My Genre but this was an incredible time!
I’m trying really hard to recall if I’ve ever played a game in this genre literally ever before and I think the answer is actually “no,” and as I was going through this one I started to suspect that I was being really spoiled by being started here. So please forgive my statements and opinions here, they’re those of a true neophyte to the genre, I genuinely don’t know what I’m talking about. But the game has a gentle difficulty curve, not really bringing a real challenge until after the halfway mark I think, and although dying weakens you so much that it can basically ruin the run after a certain point, that did encourage practice and get me a little more dexterous maybe a little more quickly, even if I wished that powerup progress would be retained across continues. I appreciate that every level had a strong mechanical gimmick in addition to an aesthetic one; “level design” isn’t something I had really considered as a thing one might be terribly playful with in this kind of game but here you have levels where there are fewer and less dangerous enemies but much higher import is placed on dodging environmental hazards, you have levels where your field of movement is really restricted, you have a level where you’re in a car instead of on a jetpack and that completely changes the way you interface with basically all of your controls and weapons. Every level has a strong theme but they all play notably differently too which really helps them stand out from each other in memory and keeps the game from every getting monotonous or letting you get into too comfortable a groove.
I also liked that rather than picking one jetpack and sticking with it for the entire game, you get to re-equip before every stage. You get a little hint about what kind of stuff might be coming up in the next level (sometimes they even straight tell you “do we have a weapon that shoots vertically???”) and matching your special attack to the circumstances you’re anticipating can really make or break a run. There are a lot of small customization options that have big ripple effects, in fact. One of your stages of powering up is that you get a little drone thing and you can set it to rotate around you in a circle, shoot with you, or shoot in the opposite direction you’re facing, covering you in certain directions better or maximizing DPS (which becomes extremely important later one!). Similarly there are three completely distinct control schemes that totally change the feel of the game. None of them make it easier or harder, they’re just like, different ways to make the girls shoot? And they change how you’re able to interact with enemies, it’s a really cool inclusion and it adds a lot of replay value on top of the already high incentive to just run this bad boy because it’s so obviously, inherently well-designed and fun.
I didn’t mention the story, or the incredible girls you play as, or the sick ass music, or that it’s cool that all the enemies are yokai themed instead of just like airplanes or mecha or whatever, but that stuff’s all cool too. Really just immaculate vibes. Entirely unrelated to all this, I’m gonna go watch Dirty Pair, apropos of nothing. Thank you MagneticBurn for the recommendation this is probably not gonna be My Genre but this was an incredible time!
For my money, this might be the crown jewel of the entire shmup genre, at least out of what I've played thus far. I first played this at the request of a friend about three months ago and loved it to death, and it's honestly only grown since then. Bleeding with personality from start to finish, including the credits somehow. Compared to other shmups especially of the time, it's a breeze to get through. There's an actual plot too, a pretty goofy one at that. It's been said already, but it feels like playing through an old anime episode or something along the lines. I really do love the main characters, they make me wish there really was a show featuring the two of them.
The soundtrack is also worth mentioning as one of my favorites on all time. Definitely at least top 2 on the Genesis, alongside Dynamite Headdy. If you can't be bothered to play the game, you should at least check out some of the music. Here are some personal favorites:
Shrine (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ySeh4ZNkR4)
Dancing Hunter (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWx8smU6aXM)
Brawing Up (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdV46IuVQ5o)
It's pretty easy to find an English translation of this one. You definitely shouldn't gloss over it if you have a Genesis emulator already running.
The soundtrack is also worth mentioning as one of my favorites on all time. Definitely at least top 2 on the Genesis, alongside Dynamite Headdy. If you can't be bothered to play the game, you should at least check out some of the music. Here are some personal favorites:
Shrine (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ySeh4ZNkR4)
Dancing Hunter (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWx8smU6aXM)
Brawing Up (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdV46IuVQ5o)
It's pretty easy to find an English translation of this one. You definitely shouldn't gloss over it if you have a Genesis emulator already running.
This game is SO ENTIRELY Leah Bait hahaha
- Genesis game
- Lady protagonist(s)
- Fun art
- Stylish
I mean it's just absolutely adorable and fun. Cannot recommend enough!
- Genesis game
- Lady protagonist(s)
- Fun art
- Stylish
I mean it's just absolutely adorable and fun. Cannot recommend enough!
Trouble Shooter Vintage is the sequel to the original Trouble Shooter on Genesis, the game improved in its many cutscenes and an effort on the story segment, featuring its two goofy, jetpack-wearing combat operatives: Madison and Crystal. The game plays like an improved version of Forgotten Worlds, its soundtrack is stellar, and graphics feature expressive character portraits, lovely environments using multi-layered parallax scrolling. The game's bosses and enemies are very bizarre and resemble Japanese Yōkai monsters, some of the bosses are equally eccentric, mainly featuring a demon-headed train or a basketball-playing robot.
fucking phenomenal and is worth playing for the OST alone
Near perfect game.
pretty much treasure tier.
A solid and unique shooter that improves a lot over its predecessor (Trouble Shooter). I like the unique controls that let you shoot in eight directions (though you need to enable this from the menu). The design of the game helps it stand out in the large crowd of shmups on the Genesis. Worth playing.
this game has some pretty neat setpieces, a really neat interplay of stylish sci-fi and silly absurdism, and it's hard not to be at least a little charmed by the story and characters, but as far as gameplay goes i can't say i had a whole lot of fun. felt my characters took up too big of a portion of the screen, and with stuff coming at me from all sides, too often did it feel like stuff was just hitting me without me being able to register what's going on. it's also a little bit tough on the eyes at some points with how intense and hard to parse certain backgrounds are. i'd still recommend it, though, partially because others seem to like this a whole lot than me, and because the plot is pretty endearing to follow. if you like 80's anime OVAs and the sega genesis, you are pretty much the target audience.
Instantly after beating Battle Mania Vintage, I was like, "Okay, let's go at it again," and I beat it a second time.
That's how you know you've fallen in love with a video game.
That's how you know you've fallen in love with a video game.
Fantastic follow-up! More co-pilot action but now being twice as difficult as the original. Innovative stages and abundant surprises around each boss completion.
Battle Mania Daiginjou - or as it's known on my English patched reproduction cart, Battle Mania 2: Trouble Shooter Vintage - is the Japan-only sequel to Trouble Shooter, a game which is very middling if you played it before Daiginjou and maybe straight up bad by comparison.
Seriously, most reviews here will probably mention how much of a step up Daiginjou is over the original, and that is 100% the case. In absolutely every regard, it's just the better game. Catchier soundtrack, more detailed and expressive graphics, better controls, more dynamic levels, better power-ups... Fundamentally it's the same, but the quality is elevated so much that ends up becoming one of the better shoot-em-ups on the system. That said, it's also much more difficult than the original game, and I'm ashamed to say the only way I was able to push through it was by playing on easy mode. Even then, I had my share of deaths, though there was thankfully much fewer instances of me being crushed by something unexpectedly.
Something I didn't get into much in my Trouble Shooter review was the quality of the writing. It's obvious what they're going for, but whether it was written this way to begin with or the result of a poor localization, it's a bit dry. Daiginjou opens with you throwing a car at the first levels' boss from the 70th floor of a skyscraper. This game sets its tone immediately as a more fun, quirky send-up to Dirty Pair and other female-led anime of the 1980s and early 90s, and the way the absurdity escalates throughout the adventure is great. By about the middle of the game, the villain is telling you your brain would make a great CPU for his war machine because you're single-minded and driven by destructive impulses. Towards the climax of the game, you're informed that while everything else has been going on your apartment has burned down. The end credits also feature a bunch of developer nicknames (something I really like about this era of gaming), including stuff like "Coffee Freak Kitamura - "My stomach hurts!"" Concerning amount of allegations in those credits about members of the team being alcoholics, though...
It's just a shame Daiginjou never came out here officially. If I had to guess, the original game probably didn't perform too well, but even then Daiginjou was printed in a very limited quality in Japan, with few CIB copies existing today. This has made it one of the more coveted - and consequently expensive - games in the console's library. Thankfully, emulation and fan translators have swooped in to remedy that, meaning there's very little reason for you to not give Battle Mania Daiginjou a shot.
Seriously, most reviews here will probably mention how much of a step up Daiginjou is over the original, and that is 100% the case. In absolutely every regard, it's just the better game. Catchier soundtrack, more detailed and expressive graphics, better controls, more dynamic levels, better power-ups... Fundamentally it's the same, but the quality is elevated so much that ends up becoming one of the better shoot-em-ups on the system. That said, it's also much more difficult than the original game, and I'm ashamed to say the only way I was able to push through it was by playing on easy mode. Even then, I had my share of deaths, though there was thankfully much fewer instances of me being crushed by something unexpectedly.
Something I didn't get into much in my Trouble Shooter review was the quality of the writing. It's obvious what they're going for, but whether it was written this way to begin with or the result of a poor localization, it's a bit dry. Daiginjou opens with you throwing a car at the first levels' boss from the 70th floor of a skyscraper. This game sets its tone immediately as a more fun, quirky send-up to Dirty Pair and other female-led anime of the 1980s and early 90s, and the way the absurdity escalates throughout the adventure is great. By about the middle of the game, the villain is telling you your brain would make a great CPU for his war machine because you're single-minded and driven by destructive impulses. Towards the climax of the game, you're informed that while everything else has been going on your apartment has burned down. The end credits also feature a bunch of developer nicknames (something I really like about this era of gaming), including stuff like "Coffee Freak Kitamura - "My stomach hurts!"" Concerning amount of allegations in those credits about members of the team being alcoholics, though...
It's just a shame Daiginjou never came out here officially. If I had to guess, the original game probably didn't perform too well, but even then Daiginjou was printed in a very limited quality in Japan, with few CIB copies existing today. This has made it one of the more coveted - and consequently expensive - games in the console's library. Thankfully, emulation and fan translators have swooped in to remedy that, meaning there's very little reason for you to not give Battle Mania Daiginjou a shot.
Also known as "Battle Mania 2" or "Trouble Shooter Vintage", this is a shoot-em-up Genesis game only ever released in Japan. However, this doesn't excuse the fact that I had never heard of this game until recently, as I found it completely spectacular. You play as blonde girl with jetpack and laser gun, complete with other blue haired girl with jetpack and gun. The gameplay is fun and has some customizable options, the graphics are inventive and colorful, and the game not only has some cutscenes but is actually funny and clever. I think this is the first and only shmup I've ever actually beaten in my life. It is a very easy game, especially by Genesis and shmup standards, but I still greatly enjoyed myself. It knows what it wanted to do and it did it incredibly well.
In response to Cold_Confort's review [https://www.backloggd.com/u/Cold_Comfort/review/545006/]...
I've beaten a lot of other difficult shooters in my life (Image Fight and Super Star Soldier give me bad memories D:) but in all honestly I would replay this one because it's not a generic military shooter like 95% of this era nor is it a simple cute em up which has inventive designs and nothing else. This title just made me laugh a lot with the story beats and little details (the blue haired girl poking the body of one of the final bosses before it initiates battle, and the apartment that lets you transfer your weapon catching on flames in the last level 😂), it has a lot of charactherizations that is lacking in other games from this type (even the end credits have funny comments about the programmers): it has artistic merit even if it doesn't have a lot of "sportist" merit because of the difficulty design... and as such I consider it one of the best shmups I've ever played. Wish it didn't have an epileptic inducing background in the final boss though.
I've beaten a lot of other difficult shooters in my life (Image Fight and Super Star Soldier give me bad memories D:) but in all honestly I would replay this one because it's not a generic military shooter like 95% of this era nor is it a simple cute em up which has inventive designs and nothing else. This title just made me laugh a lot with the story beats and little details (the blue haired girl poking the body of one of the final bosses before it initiates battle, and the apartment that lets you transfer your weapon catching on flames in the last level 😂), it has a lot of charactherizations that is lacking in other games from this type (even the end credits have funny comments about the programmers): it has artistic merit even if it doesn't have a lot of "sportist" merit because of the difficulty design... and as such I consider it one of the best shmups I've ever played. Wish it didn't have an epileptic inducing background in the final boss though.
Incredible presentation brushes against great music, fantastic technical use of the mega drive hardware, and solid enough gameplay to make for what would be an extremely compelling and well-aged shooting game if it weren't for being stupidly long and have interminable pacing.
I would of course, be talking about Musha Aleste. And Thunder force IV. or Gleylancer. or Zero Wing MD. And Gynoug, or, sadly - Battle Mania Daiginjou.
It is probably the most annoying trend in the STG genre. You cut out the dead air, tanky boss health bars and endless, boring waves of zako that make up 50% of the game and you've got a great STG here - and in every other game i've mentioned.
BMD does sidestep the problem a little bit thanks to the levels themselves being fairly varied, with a combination of vertical and horizontal scrolling stages, and some pretty cool environments. The adorable story-cut ins between each stage also give nice breaks. But on the other hand, the general shooting is super simplistic and below par, and it's ridiculously easy on it's default settings by STG standards (I blind cleared it without a sweat.
Even if you ignore the lightning fast STGs of the arcade of it's era (Batsugun and Thunder dragon 2 released the very same year), BMD and its ilk are still simply outmatched by the console STGs of it's era that just decided to not waste your time, regardless of technical competency. Slap Fight MD eats their lunch, and - weird as it is - biohazard battle shows how this breed could have been so much better with respect for the player's time.
Its still easy to appreciate the art and the sheer joyfullness of it. It's got some of the best sprite art on the MD, and is absolutely worth a lone playthrough. But I sadly can't reccomend it any more than that.
I would of course, be talking about Musha Aleste. And Thunder force IV. or Gleylancer. or Zero Wing MD. And Gynoug, or, sadly - Battle Mania Daiginjou.
It is probably the most annoying trend in the STG genre. You cut out the dead air, tanky boss health bars and endless, boring waves of zako that make up 50% of the game and you've got a great STG here - and in every other game i've mentioned.
BMD does sidestep the problem a little bit thanks to the levels themselves being fairly varied, with a combination of vertical and horizontal scrolling stages, and some pretty cool environments. The adorable story-cut ins between each stage also give nice breaks. But on the other hand, the general shooting is super simplistic and below par, and it's ridiculously easy on it's default settings by STG standards (I blind cleared it without a sweat.
Even if you ignore the lightning fast STGs of the arcade of it's era (Batsugun and Thunder dragon 2 released the very same year), BMD and its ilk are still simply outmatched by the console STGs of it's era that just decided to not waste your time, regardless of technical competency. Slap Fight MD eats their lunch, and - weird as it is - biohazard battle shows how this breed could have been so much better with respect for the player's time.
Its still easy to appreciate the art and the sheer joyfullness of it. It's got some of the best sprite art on the MD, and is absolutely worth a lone playthrough. But I sadly can't reccomend it any more than that.
Hell. Yes.
It's been a while I've played a game that is so unapologetically 90s, and more importantly unapologetically itself. Battle Mania Daiginjou takes the already enjoyable theming of the first game and turns it up to eleven. (Literally, listen to the music.) Oftentimes I found myself astonished at just how cool it was-- the focus on Japanese culture for this one is awesome and gives way to some really unique setpieces, and the humor is more consistent than the original's, appearing all throughout the game this time. There's a totally random anime eyecatcher at one point and it's both sick and absolutely hilarious.
Gameplay wise, Daiginjou doesn't slack either. The level design is generally a lot more interesting than it was before- there's practically always more action on the screen, especially in the later stages. The biggest improvement, though, are the new control options. 8-Way shooting makes the game a lot more fun, and I appreciate the settings for the probe-- it gives the game the replayability a shoot 'em up should have. Daiginjou has a lot more meat on its bones too, being longer than the first game-- though I think its ending isn't quite definitive. I was left wanting more after finishing the game, which is probably my biggest criticism of it.
Overall, Battle Mania Daiginjou is an excellent game, and my favorite shmup to date. It's also easily the best Dirty Pair game out there, so if you've been looking for your (playable) fix of the Lovely Angels like I have, here it is.
It's been a while I've played a game that is so unapologetically 90s, and more importantly unapologetically itself. Battle Mania Daiginjou takes the already enjoyable theming of the first game and turns it up to eleven. (Literally, listen to the music.) Oftentimes I found myself astonished at just how cool it was-- the focus on Japanese culture for this one is awesome and gives way to some really unique setpieces, and the humor is more consistent than the original's, appearing all throughout the game this time. There's a totally random anime eyecatcher at one point and it's both sick and absolutely hilarious.
Gameplay wise, Daiginjou doesn't slack either. The level design is generally a lot more interesting than it was before- there's practically always more action on the screen, especially in the later stages. The biggest improvement, though, are the new control options. 8-Way shooting makes the game a lot more fun, and I appreciate the settings for the probe-- it gives the game the replayability a shoot 'em up should have. Daiginjou has a lot more meat on its bones too, being longer than the first game-- though I think its ending isn't quite definitive. I was left wanting more after finishing the game, which is probably my biggest criticism of it.
Overall, Battle Mania Daiginjou is an excellent game, and my favorite shmup to date. It's also easily the best Dirty Pair game out there, so if you've been looking for your (playable) fix of the Lovely Angels like I have, here it is.
Fun little game that I wish was a bit longer. Really liked all the boss designs.
Isso aqui é uma obra de arte em um todo
A soundtrack é o ápice.
A soundtrack é o ápice.
I didn't think it was THAT much better than Trouble Shooter (which is to say, I think they're both very good!). It's certainly 9 more levels of the same crazy dual-shooting fun, with unique characters and enemy designs, fantastically-creative level layouts, and memorable music. Good stuff.
I really wish someone would have told me to check out the options menu and enable some things before I started. Very good game, but even better when you enable some more advanced!
The sequel to Battle Mania nailed it's style in Daiginjou with charming cutscenes and innovative features that make it one of the best shoot-em-ups out there, keeping itself fresh with creative level designs and gameplay that keeps evolving so it doesn't get repetitive.
One of my favorites on the Mega Drive.
One of my favorites on the Mega Drive.
Kinda on the easy/barebones side but the setpieces and energy perfectly encapsulate the feeling of running through a playable OVA. The soundtrack's killer too but sounds a bit harsh in some tracks.
While it's not surprising that Vic Tokai made an underground/underrated/underproduced gem, what is surprising is that this game has them, if only for a moment, stand with fan-favorite Treasure in their ability to innovate on staple genre mechanics. SHMUPs would do well to consider some of these ideas going forward.
And if you like girls with guns or the YM2612... boy, do I have good news. There's a translation out there, but without it you'd only be missing out on some quirky dialogue between the two protags.
And if you like girls with guns or the YM2612... boy, do I have good news. There's a translation out there, but without it you'd only be missing out on some quirky dialogue between the two protags.