In a recent video, Tatsuya Uemura, one of the lead developers and composers at Toaplan in the 80s and early 90s, details his top 5 games the studio developed. The video's quite nice, as Uemura reflects on the games he's most proud of and likes. And whilst it's far from comprehensive and heavily personal, there is one deeper cut that stands out. At number 3, he has Slap fight.
Who the fuck talks about Slap Fight? Whilst Toaplan have gained a bit of notoriety in the scene as of late due to ports and re-issues, Slap Fight is not one of them. It's not even a game Uemura worked on, so why did he list it so high in his personal list?
Well, i gave it a go, and I can kind of see it. Slap Fight AC is pretty good. Not great, and far from Toaplan's best in my book, but for a game going on 37 years old, it holds up well. It's essentially Tiger Heli's gameplay system - consisting almost entirely of ground enemies that fire slow-ish bullets at the same time at a large player hitbox, but massively more engaging, mostly due to a power up system very similar to that of Gradius. These power ups are great, with the main gimmick being that a wing power up, which increases power at the cost of making your hitbox dramatically wider. Its good shit, eventually leading to you weaving through enormous waves of fire at high speed with your massive hitbox. It's less route heavy that tiger heli and just a lot more dynamic and well thought out.
Despite a surprisingly deep power up system, it's still extremely primative, coming very early in an era where Shmups as a genre were modernising rapidly. Even compared to games developed by Toaplan released nary two years later, It feels old. I can get why Uemura likes it, but it's just a little too unrefined and antiquated for me. But that's not where the story ends.
Bizzarely, Slap Fight got a Mega Drive port in 1993, a point at which it could arguably be deemed almost retro seeing the vast changes the genre went through in the intervening years. Many newer, better toaplan titles had allready gotten MD ports long before this came out - so again, what gives?
Well what gives is that it's clear MNM had plans. Slap Fight MD is not just the arcade game (which, for what it's worth, is recreated near perfectly), but also a brand new version of Slap Fight. Consisting of new mechanics, completely different stage design, massively improved boss fights, and a brand new, great soundtrack composed by Yuzo Koshiro.
The main thing here is the new bomb mechanic, where the hitbox-expanding wings of the base game can now be sacrificed for use as the typical STG bullet clearing bomb. It's a mechanic that works so extremely well it feels like it should have been there the whole time, and adds a lot to the experience.
Special mode in general just feels like a refined, semi-modernised version of Slap Fight that plays better, sounds better, has great level flow and just really works. It's a dad shmup without the jank, the technical issues, and with refinement.
The only real letdown with MD is that, much like AC, it's incredibly short and quite easy, and that's going to really hurt it as a long term play prospect. But sometimes, you just want to play a dad shmup. And no dad shmup quite holds up like this.
Who the fuck talks about Slap Fight? Whilst Toaplan have gained a bit of notoriety in the scene as of late due to ports and re-issues, Slap Fight is not one of them. It's not even a game Uemura worked on, so why did he list it so high in his personal list?
Well, i gave it a go, and I can kind of see it. Slap Fight AC is pretty good. Not great, and far from Toaplan's best in my book, but for a game going on 37 years old, it holds up well. It's essentially Tiger Heli's gameplay system - consisting almost entirely of ground enemies that fire slow-ish bullets at the same time at a large player hitbox, but massively more engaging, mostly due to a power up system very similar to that of Gradius. These power ups are great, with the main gimmick being that a wing power up, which increases power at the cost of making your hitbox dramatically wider. Its good shit, eventually leading to you weaving through enormous waves of fire at high speed with your massive hitbox. It's less route heavy that tiger heli and just a lot more dynamic and well thought out.
Despite a surprisingly deep power up system, it's still extremely primative, coming very early in an era where Shmups as a genre were modernising rapidly. Even compared to games developed by Toaplan released nary two years later, It feels old. I can get why Uemura likes it, but it's just a little too unrefined and antiquated for me. But that's not where the story ends.
Bizzarely, Slap Fight got a Mega Drive port in 1993, a point at which it could arguably be deemed almost retro seeing the vast changes the genre went through in the intervening years. Many newer, better toaplan titles had allready gotten MD ports long before this came out - so again, what gives?
Well what gives is that it's clear MNM had plans. Slap Fight MD is not just the arcade game (which, for what it's worth, is recreated near perfectly), but also a brand new version of Slap Fight. Consisting of new mechanics, completely different stage design, massively improved boss fights, and a brand new, great soundtrack composed by Yuzo Koshiro.
The main thing here is the new bomb mechanic, where the hitbox-expanding wings of the base game can now be sacrificed for use as the typical STG bullet clearing bomb. It's a mechanic that works so extremely well it feels like it should have been there the whole time, and adds a lot to the experience.
Special mode in general just feels like a refined, semi-modernised version of Slap Fight that plays better, sounds better, has great level flow and just really works. It's a dad shmup without the jank, the technical issues, and with refinement.
The only real letdown with MD is that, much like AC, it's incredibly short and quite easy, and that's going to really hurt it as a long term play prospect. But sometimes, you just want to play a dad shmup. And no dad shmup quite holds up like this.