30 years after the arcade original debatably debuted the bullet hell concept, Toaplan's best shooter is back in an imperfect port of a port. Our Batsugun Saturn Tribute Boosted review:
In truth, 'bullet hell' describes a very specific type of shooter, where overwhelmingly dense curtains of enemy firepower, diminutive hitboxes, aggressive difficulty, cavernous scoring complexity and frenetic pacing are all present. Others might tell you that a certain visual style defined by ornate pixel-based sprite work and gaudy firepower are equally defining.
Toaplan shoot 'em ups such as Flying Shark, Truxton, Zero Wing, Grind Stormer and Twin Hawk each let the developer's staff explore how far the conventional shooter form could be pushed. The team's swansong, and final 2D shooter, was Batsugun. It served as a vessel for everything they had learned; a final statement of the Toaplan design philosophy, and an example of what the future of the genre could be.
In establishing so much of the template of bullet hell, both included versions of Batsugun are highly conventional. Each contains five linear vertically scrolling stages. You get three lives at the outset of a run, with the option of popping in extra credits should you wish to continue. The soundtrack brings a spread of energising and upbeat chiptune tones that explore a suite of genres from pop to rock, emphasising a game that delivers a captivating sense of fun, drama and delight. And with Batsugun Saturn Tribute Boosted, you also get to switch out different versions of the games' sonic scores, from the PCB original to an entirely new remixed soundtrack from a spread of renowned game musicians such as Yosuke Yasui and the prolific WASi303.
At this stage it's essential to delve into the port's performance and modernisation. Each mode is very much playable, and far from off. The thing is, what passed as a decent port when the Saturn version arrived in 1996 doesn't quite compare with the best arcade porting output seen today.
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