Developed By: City Connection
Published by: NIS America
Date of Release: January 21st 2020 (Alpha)/February 18 2020 (Bravo)
Price: $39.99 each
Over the years in Japan the arcade scene has been absolutely dominated by a specific genre of game: the Shoot-em-up (or SHMUP), also known as bullet hell, barrage, danmaku, etc. Whatever you choose to call it, the genre generally consists of either a horizontally or vertically scrolling playing field where the action unfolds on a 2D plane as your foes rush at you head on. Whether you're strapped into the cockpit of a scifi starfighter, a WW2 fighter craft, riding a dragon or a magical broom, the genre is always finding ways to bring high-impact excitement to the table. a lot of companies made a big name for themselves developing SHMUPS, and one of the biggest was PSIKYO. From 1992 to 2005 they made a massive mark on the SHMUP genre, and created well over 33 titles. And now NIS America has released the Psikyo Shooting Stars Alpha and Bravo collections for the Nintendo Switch in celebration of the company's massive achievements.
Psikyo Shooting Stars Alpha and Bravo are both 6-game collections featuring a wide variety of SHMUP stylings. the game lists are as follows:
Psikyo Shooting Stars Alpha:
Strikers 1945: A gorgeous vertical-scrolling alternate-WWII shooter released in 1995, Strikers 1945 pits your dinky little plane against massive transforming mechas. A damn good start to the series!
Strikers 1945 II: This 1997 vertical-scrolling sequel upped the ante, and basically threw bigger and badder stuff at the player.
Strikers 1945 III: This 1999 entry threw the WWII setting out the window, and went HAM with a modern/sci-fi style. Still vertical-scrolling!
Sol Divide: Originally released in 1996, Sol Divide took the horizontal shooter formula and shoved a good dose of RPG and beat-em-up stylings up it's arse for good measure. A good dark-fantasy themed romp.
Dragon Blaze: Hailing from the year 2000, this one is a high-fantasy vertical shooter where, you guessed it, you ride on a powerful dragon and obliterate your foes.
Zero Gunner 2: This is the odd duck of this collection. 2001's Zero Gunner 2 is a modern shooter that lets you lock on to your foes and fly around the screen at will.
Psikyo Shooting Stars Bravo:
Samurai Aces: Released in 1993, this vertical SHMUP is actually Psikyo's first foray into the shooter genre.
Tengai: Psikyo released this Edo-themed horizontal shooter in 1996. Highly recommended!
Sengoku Cannon: Sengoku Ace Chapter III The third game in the Samurai Aces series, it made it's debut in 2005 on home consoles rather than the arcade.
GunBird: A madcap and colorful outing, this vertical shooter was released in 1994.
GunBird 2: This 1998 sequel turns up the weirdness, and totally surpasses the original GunBird in every way.
Gunbarich: This spinoff of GunBird inexplicably trades in the SHMUP stylings and instead is an Arkanoid clone. Still keeps piling on the weirdness though!
So as you can see, there's a helluva lot of good content here in this collection. Each game is arcade perfect, and there's settings for difficulty, lives, and credits out the wazoo. The visual presentation is wonderful with various screen filters plus the option to display the original crisp pixels. Another welcome addition is being able to display the vertical games in TATE mode, turning the Switch 90 degrees in handheld mode to fit the image better. No matter what way you choose to play, the pixels are crisp and scaled well, with delicious pixel art all around. The sound is also perfectly emulated, crisp and clear with no distortion. Unfortunately this is where the fun ends however as this port has one major glaring flaw which will become apparent as you really get into the games: there is a fair amount of input lag, even in handheld mode. A little bit of input lag is something that SHMUP pros can learn to compensate for, but in this case there's just a bit too much of it, making precise timing impossible. Now it's been rumored that there's a patch coming to fix the input lag, however as of this writing (and I've delayed the publication a bit just in case) it has yet to materialize. With the input lag fixed these would be the DE FACTO DEFINITIVE ways to play these games. As of right now though these titles are only for those who want to have a casual playthrough of these amazing SHMUPS, as precision is currently impossible. So use your discretion, this IS definitely an affordable way to get serviceable versions of these amazing games from Psikyo's historical catalog. Just don;t come in expecting perfection.
