Toaplan, a shooter game developer that flew high in the 80s with titles like Twin cobra and Truxton, has a great resume. Batsugun, the swan song shooter company and one of its most historically significant works, led the evolution of the genre that still prevails today.
Developer Tsuneki Ikeda joined Toaplan late in its life cycle. His first project, 1992 Grind Stormer, acts as a bridge between traditional shooting game motifs and the emerging ‘manic’ gameplay structure. A year later, Batsugun cemented the concept and established the ‘Hell Bullet’ style—a formula that would underpin everything Ikeda and several other former Toaplan employees would accomplish at Cave Co. Ltd.
Junya Inoue, who would later become Cave’s artist-in-residence on projects such as DoDonpachi and Deathsmiles, was chosen to create Batsugun’s Skull Hornets, a team of crack pilots fighting for liberation against a despotic king. The backstory was so elaborately conceived that Inoue created an entire manga graphic novel—the first issue of which is now absurdly rare—to fill in the backstory, though very little of it actually appears in the game.
Since this is a Japanese release (there’s no date on the Western release at the time of writing), there’s no translation for the amusingly corny quips other than a footnote to each stage, which is a shame. But what you do get is everything else in English, including menus and full option configurations. Being another entry in City Connection’s S-Tribute series, it is once again a port of the Sega Saturn release rather than the arcade PCB, using their proprietary emulation software. And, all things considered, it’s a solid port of a port that has already been recognized for its excellence. While minor lag issues have been noted, it’s certainly not a deal breaker, running fast enough on the Switch to be invisible to the untrained eye.
While the title screen of the pack is somewhat insignificant compared to what it could have been, especially with the wealth of fantastic Inoue promotional art available, the content is at least extensive. Both are original on board Batsugun and Special Batsugun. Special, with a custom color palette, is lighter thanks to a smaller ship hitbox and balancing adjustments. It also has multiple loops instead of ending after five phases, but those loops start in phase according to the loop number; for example, the third loop starts at the third stage, and so on, meaning that each round is progressively faster and, thanks to the suicide bullets, progressively stronger.
In terms of options, there are configurable scan line filters, the ability to adjust the screen by cropping, panning or rotating, precise weight adjustments, slow and rewind functions and several soundtrack variations. The beauty of these features is the ability to mix and match, meaning you can choose your preferred soundtrack and hit box type in both versions of the game. First of all, there’s a brand new arranged soundtrack to enjoy, with Shinji Hosoe and crew remixing the sound for a denser, more cinematic sound.
Other changes include raising the online scoring cap above the 100 million mark, a critically smart change that gives hardcore players more to think about when racking up points. The ability to save and load is also present, as well as a practice function that allows you to select a phase and select the power-on state for your craft. A selection of border backgrounds supports the adjustable head-up display, with breakdown points and music information.
Of course, all this is just icing. More importantly, Batsugun remains a stunningly fresh and completely superior shooter experience. Tsuneki Ikeda’s programming algorithms for fast bullets, small impact boxes, and massive firepower still flow like it was launched yesterday. The pixel art is superb, with plenty of detail in its mechanized enemies and giant screen-filling bosses. Unlike the epic stage lengths of Toaplan’s earlier games, where Tatsujin- OhThe opening gambit seemed to go on forever, Batsugun’s five stages are short, interesting beats that jump from one big setup to the next. Naval armadas and their futuristic hovercraft, aerial gunships and deep-seated mountain artillery are ripe for destruction, and blasting through them is delightfully satisfying. Like all of Ikeda’s work, enemy attack patterns are crafted in such a way as to define the feel of each section, forcing you to adopt different maneuvers and strategies on a regular basis.
Since Batsugun was something of an experimental blueprint, increasing the action while decreasing the threat, it’s much lighter than many of the bullet hell titles that followed. In fact – even with its rather aggressive ranking system – Batsugun Special remains one of the smoothest single-credit clears in Ikeda’s program catalog. This makes it a fantastic opportunity for newcomers looking to immerse themselves in the genre.
There are six pilots to choose from, although three are assigned to another player. Each ship has different types of shots, with Type-A being a wide spread fire, B a pulsing crackling center beam of lightning, and C offering a variant depending on whether you hold down the fire button or tap it. In addition, the game gives bombs like there is no tomorrow and life extensions at different thresholds. Interestingly, Batsugun’s power-up hill is connected to a level meter that can be refilled multiple times. With each new level, the type of ship footage transforms into an exciting pause, changing its color and shape to eventually overshadow the entire screen. Learning to hold onto this power is a real rush, and luckily death only knocks it down a notch instead of bringing it back to square one.
It’s also packed with scoring tricks and secrets, whether it’s dissecting boss weapons or blowing planes off the runway at precise moments. Finding all the countless hidden secrets and learning how to make the most of them is a big part of Batsugun’s deeper layer. Uncovering a bunch of cartoon pigs might seem counter to a ton of stuff, but when you make them pop out of the landscape just to milk them like crazy for a score boost, it adds a lump sum of strategic variety. And yes, it is milking pigs. More comfortable than you’d ever imagine.
However, in our opinion, this Switch edition feels a bit tougher than the arcade original. That’s probably because it’s a port of the Saturn version, which was faster thanks to reduced slowdown. It doesn’t affect the enjoyment of the game at all, and it’s certainly not overly obvious, but it’s worth mentioning because it makes those later loops a bit more challenging.
Conclusion
The Batsugun remains a thrill ride: a huge, explosive thing that holds a pivotal position in the history of shooters and their evolution. Its systems aren’t as detailed as most Cave titles, and it’s also relatively short if you give up on the repetition, but it remains a wonderfully fun and surprisingly accessible piece of gaming history. It is a pity that the arcade originals are not present, but, with all the welcome advantages, it is certainly the best domestic release so far.
