Syvalion (SNES)

Arena
Checkpoints OFF
4 Difficulty levels
5 Stages
Ship speed fixed
- - - - - - -
Developed by Taito
Published by Toshiba EMI in 1992

On the subject of strange video games – shmups or not – here's a serious contender for the most eccentric one: Syvalion. A rather faithful port of an awkward trackball arcade title, it was released for the Super Famicom in Japan and the Super Nintendo in Europe. As a result, it remained relatively obscure outside those regions, known mostly to die-hard Taito fans or those with a deep interest in Darius lore. For Syvalion is a part of the Darius universe. The connection is unorthodox and somewhat obscure, but it unquestionably exists.

Well, unorthodox is actually the best word to describe this game. The first impression can be, quite frankly, a real disaster. From disheartening to downright unplayable, at first glance Syvalion seems to be impossible. Besides controlling a humongous dragon within a tight maze, you're often victim of enemies spawning right below the poor creature to drain its health to oblivion in seconds. Certainly aware of the awful nature of the gameplay, devs were smart enough to provide unlimited continues with no checkpoints at all, so people will at least inevitably reach the end no matter how many times that golden dragon explodes.

Your only way of attack is to breath fire by pressing buttons A or B (R and L make it spin its head only). While it's possible to deflect all bullets with the fire breath (not stationary lasers), aiming is a chore and there is absolutely no other way to inflict damage against waves of sneaky enemies and a series of huge bosses. Not only that, the reach of the dragon's breath diminishes the longer you keep firing, and the only way to recover is to refrain from doing it (moving the dragon helps recuperate faster). Lost health, indicated by the dragon's golden color turning red, might be replenished if you're lucky enough to see enemies release small triangles instead of DNA molecules whose only purpose is to give you points. Health is not recovered between levels, and no panic resource exists to help you out.

In the search for Gigat and Armax

The story of Syvalion is that an alien race is invading Earth and capturing people to turn them into robotic slaves. Then the game unfolds in two different ways: a fixed adventure that works as a training/tutorial mode featuring fixed stages/bosses (basic series) and the main game mode, which contains procedurally generated levels, random bosses and ever-changing story developments that lead to more than 100 different endings (real combat series). The Super Nintendo version also features a time attack mode where the player must get as many points as possible before the timer runs out over the course of a single stage.

I played the Japanese version, so I couldn't understand anything about the story. For those who also do not understand Japanese, the only thing we need to know is that the first option in the selection screen is the basic series, the second one is the real combat series and the third one is time attack. And then, no matter which one you choose, suffering starts. Syvalion will teach players the meaning of claustrophobic navigation and playing under pressure. After all, the game is timed. If you take too long to follow the arrows and beat the level you'll die. If you procrastinate and stay put deadly skulls will start crossing the screen to bring you inescapable suffering and defeat.

But there is hope. Beating the game in a single credit is actually possible. The natural approach here is to play the basic series first, getting used to stage layouts and enemy behavior. After a while the challenge almost feels fair because it's possible to memorize where hazards are located and spawned. When you move on to the real combat mode suffering starts anew, heightened by a vicious AI that cramps all sorts of things in tight passages that require pixel perfect navigation to avoid damage. Bosses are chosen randomly from a gallery that includes three extra enemies: a giant snail, a dinosaur and a couple of variants of Syvalion itself.

Real combat series also includes a feature that's not present in the basic/tutorial mode: random upgrades applied (or not) to the dragon for each level. These upgrades include extra shots provided by trailing options (single shots, several variations of spread shots, exploding orbs, homing shots), unlimited flames or the best enhancement of all: invincibility. Being invincible allows you to cruise the whole level and still pummel the boss without taking any damage. As for the other upgrades, unfortunately you lose them if you die. Watch out for a variation of the auxiliary option in the form of the Silver Hawk, the trademark spaceship from the Darius series.

Look, ma, how tiny my hands and feet are!
(courtesy of YouTube user Now Loading Please Wait)

So the catch to see the ending of Syvalion's real combat mode in a single credit is a mix of two factors: lucky upgrades and swift performance. Swift because the game encourages you to keep moving even at the cost of some health. Enemies with a blue aura are unique in that they're invincible, so the only way to get through them is by navigating carefully. All dragon segments follow the movement of the head, but if you don't move or move too slowly they might drift a few pixels and get you in harm's way. I might be wrong here, but I don't recall this happening in the arcade version. Unfair cramping of narrow passages is another trait that seems exclusive to the SNES port, so there you have a strong hint of which version should be considered the hardest.

Another thing that doesn't seem to be in line with the original arcade game, aside from the different soundtrack, is rank. Sometimes the port just throws very difficult mazes in the second stage already for no reason at all. And the different boss attacks vary wildly. There are three of them: small blue shots, large blue shots and two forms of homing blue shots. Depending on the boss, if you get the homing shots you can kiss the credit goodbye because it's just really hard to deplete them in time. When luck plays such an important part of the challenge it's hard to state that the experience was actually fun, but Syvalion at least succeeds in teasing the player into trying again and again. The game is very short, graphics are crisp and colorful and the occasional slowdown will certainly be welcomed during the most crowded parts of the maze.

In the high score screen the right table refers to the basic series, and the left table shows the best results for the real combat series. Scores for real combat series tend to be higher because the bonuses when completing levels are cut in half in the basic series. That's why it's also harder to get the single extend in the basic series when you score 1,5 million points, an award that's valid for all game modes. Here are my best 1CC results for the main game modes in the default difficulty (Normal):

Hidden options allow you to change the difficulty and practice the game with stage selection. At the title screen press A, B, X, Y, START. For a debug mode with more options go for A, B, ↑, ↓, ←, →, START. These codes are only valid for the Japanese port.

Task Force Kampas (Playstation 4)

Vertical
Checkpoints OFF
5 Difficulty levels
3 Stages (loopable)
Ship speed fixed
- - - - - - -
Developed by Cassiopea
Published by eastasiasoft / Red Art Games in 2021

Originally released for the Playstation Vita and later ported to more modern platforms, Task Force Kampas is a vertical shooter with three stages and neverending loops – at least after you've beaten it once, whereby the game ends right there and then. That's the first time I've ever seen this, and I refused to incur in that old mental exercise of trying to figure out what was going on in the minds of the people who developed the game. I could quote Roger Murtaugh once again, but this is (still) a respectable blog.   

To a design naïveté that doesn't even allow wallpapers to fill out the empty space of the widescreen space but offers the usual share of stupid visual unlockables, Kampas adds random enemy generation within stages, in an attempt to make the most out of the extremely poor enemy gallery. Yes, this is another game that desperately tries to give out more than what it has in store. Although not exactly in the same bag, it's sort of in line with some of those quickies released by Panda Indie Studio, such as Red Death and Void Gore.

With that said, what's there to expect from Task Force Kampas? Not so much, really. In a nutshell, it's an endurance campaign with very short loops, a few weird gameplay choices and decent music.

Cocoking doing his coco thing

 

There's just a single input used for shooting: either R1 or □. An assortment of five characters, of which two are initially unavailable, allow some sort of variation in the way you're supposed to deal with the restricted array of enemies. The basic rule of the game is that you only have one life with a single health bar, but this health bar doesn't actually work like players are used to. If you get hit the screen gets tinted red, and another shot in this condition ends the game. In order to get rid of the "damage" status and start recovering health you need to stop shooting. Just remember that recovery can't be done immediately after being hit, but only after a few seconds have elapsed while being at the brink of defeat. The health bar is the one in the lower left corner of the screen. I haven't figured out the purpose of the one to the right.  

Powering up the initial shot happens automatically as you destroy enemies, but can be sped up by taking the icons that appear halfway into the level and prior to a boss fight. D doubles the shots of your firing stream and S increases its power, while H instantly recovers health. Since the screen is empty when these huge alphabet letters appear, picking up the H doesn't make any sense. Some of the destroyed enemies release tiny golden dinosaurs named "coco", whose basic purpose is to give you more points. However, as you make progress they will also endow the ship with options that behave like cocos on a leash, which of course grant the player with a little more firepower. 

The choice of characters/ships is simple. Besides color, they differ in specific aspects that give them some edge over the basic gear. Midori (green) starts with an extra shot, Psychobaby (red) starts with an enhanced/super shot, grandma La Yaya (green) has more HP, Unknown (dark red) has side shots and Cocoking (yellow) has no shots as all. Wait, no shots? Yes. What you get instead is a group of 5 cocos on a leash that constantly fire for you. The problem is that you can't actually control their position (they're always following you around) and their attacks do not reach the top of the screen, which requires getting up close to bosses to actually inflict some damage on them. As for grandma Yaya, she's actually a very good character because it takes two hits to see her enter damage mode.

With very few exceptions, all enemy shots in Task Force Kampas come straight down at the player, whereas small missiles change their trajectory diagonally towards your position. Don't destroy them too close though, their explosion radius is lethal. This little detail becomes very important later on when things get really hectic simply because this blast radius also annihilates enemy bullets, helping you to strategically clear chunks of the screen. Watch out for the huge destruction blast of those large missiles that come at the center of the play field.

Release trailer for Task Force Kampas on the Playstation 4
(courtesy of YouTube user and publisher RED ART GAMES)

It's hard to recommend the game by dint of the visual design, which is just simple to the bone. Backgrounds are almost all black, and everything is aimed at heightening the intensity of the foreground action. The music is quite good though, it definitely gets you going if you can crank up the volume a little bit. The three boss encounters are also quite interesting, especially the last one with the colorful energy spreads against the laid back club track. After a while you tend to take the screen shake for granted, an aspect that might be a small nuisance for some people when they start playing. I got used to it after a while.

The game is okay for a few hours of good fun, then it wears off once you've looped it a couple of times and tried a few extra (unlockable) difficulty levels. My favorite characters where the Unknown lady for her side shots and old La Yaya because of her best survival chances. My best score was achieved with her, reaching loop 4-1 in the Normal difficulty. During gameplay Task Force Kampas keeps track of the time each credit lasts, but unfortunately this information doesn't appear in the high score screen.

Crisis Wing (Playstation 4)

Vertical
Checkpoints OFF
1 Difficulty level
7 Stages (loopable)
Ship speed fixed
- - - - - - -
Developed by Pieslice Productions
Published by VGNY Soft / eastasiasoft in 2023

Even though I appreciate inovation every now and then in my shmups, more often than not in recent times developers tend to forget about design basics that are still important, at least for me, in any good and decent video game. Some of the quirks or problems I have stumbled upon frequently when trying more recent games include style over substance, shop mechanics + grinding, stupid online/offline leaderboards and botched scoring systems often associated with huge campaigns that are impracticable for an arcade/1CC mindset.

This is the main reason why Crisis Wing, released for all mainstream consoles after a decent run in PC territory, sounds like such a breath of fresh air. Heavily inspired by the classics of old pioneered by Toaplan, such as Truxton and Vimana, the game is a straightforward outer space campaign that dares to use the clichéd combo of shot + bomb across seven loopable levels. The fundamental difference in the design of Crisis Wing is that no ground terrain exists in the game, which sees the player exclusively fending off wave after wave of aerial foes while dispatching a worthy gallery of gigantic bosses. It's pure old school shooting fun in a quintessential arcade format.   

Upon being spawned the ship has only a main stream of two narrow shots, which is instantly upgraded by taking one of the power-ups released by specific carriers. It cycles between three colors: red gives you a spread vulcan, blue endows the ship with a slow but powerful missile salvo and green provides the classic straight pattern, just a little wider. In order to upgrade them you need to collect two items of the same color (the first one will add a "P" beside the score counter). There are two very distinct upgrade levels, after that any power-up collected in excess will be worth 1.000 points.

Release trailer for Crisis Wing on the Playstation 4
(courtesy of YouTube user and mega company PlayStation)

 

The carriers will also normally bring extra bombs, as well as a very rare extra life or a super medal worth 100.000 points. The medal mechanic is the most important device of the scoring system, and works in a similar way as that of the shmups designed by Shinobu Yagawa, such as Muchi Muchi Pork! and Battle Garegga. Medals are released periodically by killing regular enemies. Starting at 100 points, all medals successfully collected increase in value until maxing out at 10.000 points. If one of them is dropped this value is reset, unless there's another medal on screen which will be generated at the same value of the previous visible one. If a successive string of maxed out medals is maintained the super medal mentioned above will be released from a special carrier in stages 3 and 7, provided you manage to destroy the necessary enemy waves in each stage. If the criteria for the 100K medal isn't met then you'll get the 1UP instead.

Enemy destruction is indeed what you need to focus on in order to trigger either the abovementioned special carriers in stages 3 and 7 or bonus waves in the other stages. Not only do you get an extra number of free and easily destructible enemies for more medal generation, but you also score 40.000 extra points by obliterating a bonus wave. Finally, constantly hitting enemies also increases points slowly. That's all for scoring, but players should also be very aware of rank. Survival time, power-up levels and successive medal collecting add to the dynamic difficulty and the increasing enemy aggression in terms of bullet density and bullet speed. As expected in this case, rank is only alleviated by dying.

Score-based extra lives are granted with 250.000 and 500.000 points, and then for every 500.000 points after that.

Well designed, with good variety and packed with a steady flow of enemies from start to finish, Crisis Wing is definitely a winner on the gameplay front. It's challenging and engaging, with only a few short moments that could be described as unfair. In some sections a few enemies come from below without warning, a situation that's comfortably overcome by simple memorization. The first couple of levels is relatively easy, but soon crowd control and some degree of strategy becomes extremely important to get through with safety and confidence. And it goes without saying, but greed for medals is an extra threat for score chasers.

Hint: target both parts of the 2nd boss in equal measure if you want to have an easier fight

My general tips for Crisis Wing would be to get comfortable with the rank aggression as quickly as possible, go for the blue weapon on bosses if you can and don't be tightfisted with bombs. Dying with a full bomb stock always made me feel like a moron. There's absolutely no bonus for preserving them, just like there's absolutely no fanfarre in the ending, which just displays "COMPLETED" on screen and sends you right away into the second loop. Almost all enemies fire extra bullets during the loop, providing a remarkale leap in challenge that should please the most hardcore of players.  

If I had to be picky, there are very few aspects that could've been worked on in Crisis Wing. I'd much rather have a sound cue for medal spawning instead of medal loss, for example. I's not rare to be blindsided by the horizontal screen span (even if it's a relatively minor one) and lose a precious 10K medal. And although stage 4 is very long and seems to go on forever, I wouldn't say it's a drag because enemy variety shines throughout. The good news is that the music does a good job to support the action, it's just not that awesome in the sense you'd want to include it in your next gaming soundtrack playlist.

Besides the normal Arcade mode for one or two players in couch co-op, there's also a Time Attack mode (2:30 minutes) and a sweet Boss Rush mode that offers much more than the regular parade of bosses and mid-bosses. A handy Practice mode allows training with some flexibility for the levels you have reached in a single credit. TATE is available along with some nice options for filters and such.

My final high score table for the normal game campaign is below, reaching the third stage in the second loop. 

P-47 II - The Freedom Star (Mega Drive)

Horizontal
Checkpoints OFF
3 Difficulty levels
6 Stages
Ship speed by icons
- - - - - - -
Developed by Jaleco
Published by City Connection in 2025

The Mega Drive is well known for being a powerhouse for shmups. There are so many of them available for the console that a few people think it was too much, when in fact there's always room for more in the heart and soul of every fan of the genre. And seeing brand-new shmups being released for the system in 2025 is nothing short of amazing. One of them is P-47 II - The Freedom Star, a game that was ultimately cancelled prior to release and only saw the light of day after 35 years. Once again the old say is true: better late than never!

The physical edition of the game came out under the banner of different publishers. City Connection took care of the Japanese release, whereas Retro-Bit did the job in other regions partenered with Strictly Limited Games in Europe and Limited Run Games in the US. Developed as a true sequel to P-47 - The Phantom Fighter, an arcade shmup that was ported to several systems at the time including the PC Engine, this game – also referred to as P-47 II MD, as in the box cover – does look better in terms of color and use of parallax, just like a competently designed title should look like in 1990. It does lift some music themes from the original game but that's it, everything else is new.

Just for reference, the arcade sequel P-47 Aces came out in 1995. If we consider P-47 II should've come out in 1990, then we can assume P-47 Aces is actually the third chapter in a fairly obscure series.

P-47 II MD - Announcement Trailer
(courtesy of YouTube user and Western publisher Retro-Bit)

The core gameplay in this 16-bit follow-up is based on collecting power-ups for the main gun and special weapons to enhance the plane's firepower. Helicopters are the carriers of all items, which include speed-up (S), power-up (P), hyper/health (H), extra life (1UP) and an assortment of four special weapons: ground bombs (B), twin vulcan (T), homing missiles (M) and guard option (G). Sticking to the same special weapon upgrades its efficiency, which once maxed out will result in a bonus of 5.000 points if you keep collecting the same item. This bonus also applies for maxing out all other items except for H, which deserves special consideration. 

H stands for Hyper, the special attack that sends forward a powerful exploding bomb that inflicts a ton of damage and clears the screen from bullets. However, hyper stock also works as health, so each hit taken consumes one hyper. This means, of course, that taking a bullet with no hypers in stock makes you lose a life. In the strategic balance between bomb usage and survival it's important to know that hyper stock is always replenished to three when a new stage starts, unless you have three or more in reserve (in this case you preserve the current stock). Even though the maximum visible amount is five, it's possible to stock more hypers than that.

Since hypers in excess aren't worth any extra points, you certainly won't feel guilty for using them as bombs instead of health. It's an interesting detail that serves as evidence of how to actually apply simple yet effective rules to implement the scoring system. On the other hand, the health mechanic associated to hypers turns P-47 II into a very easy game that shouldn't be a great obstacle for the average shmupper. There's no problem at all in that, except for the fact that the game's appeal wears off pretty fast due to the lack of challenge. The soundtrack, a selection of tunes that range from just okay to absolutely boring, doesn't help in the appreciation either.

In the pursuit of Gunfish, the "hugest" armored airship

All things considered, P-47 II at least looks decent with no slowdown at all. Mountains, forests, oceans, caves and fast moving clouds certainly bring up that sweet reminiscence of the good old 16-bit days. It isn't exactly flashy or graced by outstanding graphical moments, lacking the polished smoothness of Steel Empire and the dynamic intensity of Fire Mustang, two titles that can certainly be cited as similar in design and tone. At times it also reminded me of UN Squadron, Air Buster and even some Thunder Force III in the cavern stage, which is nice.

Jaleco and all publishers involved certainly deserve recognition for their job in bringing P-47 II - The Freedom Star to life after so many years. The game isn't stellar by any stretch of the imagination, but the simple fact that it gets the basics right and doesn't offend the player with broken features is to be commended and saluted by all Mega Drive shmup fans.

The high score below was achieved in the Normal difficulty with no lives lost. In this run I believe I missed one power-up item for the 5K bonus. The power-up and the hyper are the only ones that drop to the left pretty fast when released, so take that into consideration if you want to maximize the score when playing.

Slap Fight MD (Mega Drive)

Vertical
Checkpoints ON
4 Difficulty levels
3/4 Stages (loopable)
Ship speed by icons
- - - - - - -
Developed by Toaplan
Published by Tengen in 1993

In order to understand the many chapters in the history of the development of the shooting genre, it's important to get to know at least a few pivotal games. Two examples are Xevious, one of the cornerstones of the vertical subgenre, and Gradius, the game that paved the way for more intricate horizontal shooters. Even though the design of both games doesn't have much in common, the devs at Toaplan were certainly keen on blending their styles with a little extra influence of Terra Cresta. The result was Slap Fight, the second arcade shooter the company released after Tiger-Heli.

The late release of a port for the Japanese Mega Drive was a relatively weird one, both in terms of timing and print run. Slap Fight was a rather old game by then, and a lot of Toaplan love had already been given to the system with the likes of Truxton, Twin Cobra and Zero Wing. And since the game came out in very low quantities, it soon became one of the most expensive and sought after cartridges in the years that followed. The Mega Drive port, however, has a particularly interesting feature: an arrange mode that's even more engaging than the arcade original. That's the reason behind the Slap Fight MD title.

A quick full credit of the Mega Drive version of Slap Fight
(courtesy of YouTube user Jorge Miashike)

Simplicity is the name of the game in vanilla Slap Fight. By default, button B provides rapid shot and button A acts as a "weapon select", as the options have it. Button B, in fact, activates the highlighted upgrade in the vertical weapon away, exactly as you'd do in any Gradius. The active slot cycles by taking yellow stars left behind by specific enemies, and the upgrades include speed-up, shot, side, wing, bomb, laser, homing missile and shield. Shot, bomb, laser and homing missile are weapon types and self-excludent. Side is the ability of firing short-range side shots to take care of the ship's flanks. The shield is self-explanatory, lasting a certain amount of time while giving you protection against three hits. As for wing, it upgrades the ship's firepower but also laterally increases its hitbox in the process. Wings can be destroyed by enemy fire, but up to three of them can be equipped at any given time. Activating any weapon type or the wing power-up will move the ship close to the middle of the screen and award the player a few seconds of full invincibility.

Kinda like in Xevious, stage progression is seamless, yet it's very clear that one loop of Slap Fight has three bosses, which appear in areas 17, 40 and 80. This means a full loop is made of 80 contiguous sections. It's not a long one, but the difficulty slowly ramps up as you get through the game again and again. Life extends are given with 30.000 and for every 100.000 points you score after that. A single extra life is also granted when you defeat the second boss, as well as in other obscure circumstances that aren't really important unless you're adamant in learning this and many other intricacies about the game. Here's a great source for that.

Speaking of secrets, the only one I used extensively was the one for the starting speed-up (press ↗ with A + B when you're spawned, also valid for the very start of the game). All weapons also have specific dynamic scoring secrets that appear when you use them extensively: the space invaders character for shot, growing plants and flowers for bomb/laser and metallic tokens for the homing shot. Upon starting the game and refraining from shooting completely, when you die you'll reappear fully powered in a further area ahead with up to 240.000 points in the bag (there is a certain point where it's not advantageous anymore to keep on going).

One final element about the regular game is the appearance of an invincible little ship that bounces around giving you random help against the enemies, a phenomenon that happens only when you're using the shot weapon type. It's kinda like the helper bit seen in the Mega Drive version of Hellfire. An obscure detail that's worth mentioning is the duration of the shield function, which is actually determined by one of the settings in the options.

Second boss

And then there's Slap Fight MD, which some consider to be the real meat on the bone of the Mega Drive port. By activating this mode in the options, you'll play a darker and marginally harder mode that rearranges and improves enemy sprites, adding different bosses and a new function for button C: the typhoon bomber. Whenever you have at least one wing equipped it's possible to sacrifice it for a spinning powerful blast that leaves the ship in its default size afterwards. Note that in Slap Fight MD you already start the game with one wing attached, that's why the ship is bigger there. Four bosses are fought in areas 15, 57, 73 and 83, with the full loop being just slightly longer than the original one.

Of special importance is the energetic new Gradius-like soundtrack of Slap Fight MD, composed by none other than Yuzo Koshiro, the man behind the music from Streets of Rage and The Revenge of Shinobi. I don't know about specifics, but with the exception of the pacifist trick of the regular game all other main secrets mentioned above also work in this arrange version. And a very nice bonus regardless of the mode being played is the soft-reset function provided by pressing A+B+C + START, a feature that would only become usual in the Sega Saturn era.

I admit I had more fun with this game than I had anticipated, mostly because I was never really fond of the visuals inspired by Xevious. It's extremely interesting to notice some embrionary elements in this game that would evolve into several different shmups in the Toaplan portfolio, such as V-V / Grindstormer and Truxton, both in terms of gameplay and music. Truxton, in particular, owes a lot to Slap Fight, as hinted by the terrains filled with moving turrets and bosses that fly over moving sections, timing out if you take too long to beat them.

Below are my best results for regular Slap Fight (4th loop, area 4-59) and Slap Fight MD, (3rd loop, area 3-44), playing in the Normal difficulty. From what I could gather, the port is very faithful to the arcade game, even including an arranged version of the original soundtrack.

TwinBee Da!! (PSP)

Vertical
Checkpoints OFF
2 Difficulty levels
5 Stages
Ship speed fixed
- - - - - - -
Developed by Konami
Published by Konami in 2007

Originally released for the Japanese Game Boy handheld in 1990, TwinBee Da!! has the distinction of being the 4th chapter of the long running bell-juggling franchise by Konami. Besides an European port that appeared a few years later with the title Pop'n TwinBee (not to be confused with the homonymous Super Famicom chapter), the game was revamped into a full-blown colored version included in the TwinBee Portable compilation that came out for the PSP in 2007. Also known as the "Powered Up Arranged Edition", the PSP entry comes with a little bit more than the color makeover you'd expect for a monochromatic older and rather obscure video game.

The first aspect that pops to mind when booting up TwinBee Da!! is how good it looks. The arcade-quality cute'em up graphics are nothing short of awesome, as is the music featuring arrangements of tracks from previous games led by well-known composer Manabu Namiki. Some sources cite the involvement of M2, yet I could not confirm that anywhere from the in-game information. The only feature that did not reach the heights of an arcade entry is the challenge, which is of course understandable. On the other hand, since the game does not loop the carrot on the stick here is the possibility of maximizing your score throughout five stages.

Pink windmills over fluffy clouds

Basic gameplay is very similar to other chapters of the franchise. One button is used to shoot (with native autofire) and another to drop ground bombs (can be set to autofire if desired). By shooting at clouds you release bells whose color can be changed if you continue shooting at them. Mainly colored yellow, they will eventually cycle through blue (speed-up), white (double shot), green (trailing options) and red (shield barrier). If you hit them bells for too long they eventually get wrecked and fall down the screen for good in the form of a deadly bug.

Besides bells, there are also ground items to be collected. Most of them are fruit that give you some points, but you can also come across a star (clears the screen of airborne enemies and bullets), a milk bottle (extra life) and a candy (3-way shot). Collecting the candy a second time makes the character shoots an extra candyball that bounces around the screen. Note that you can't have the double shot (white bell) and the 3-way shot (candy) at the same time, so collecting one disables the other. The same happens with the green and the red bells, which means you are forced to choose between the options or the shield. All items collected are shown in a large status bar on the left side of the screen.

A staple of the series, the ambulance item also returns. If both your arms get shot (the ones that drop the ground bombs), the ambulance will cruise the screen for you to recover them. Miss it and you won't be able to drop bombs for the remainder of the level, being granted new arms only when the next level starts. Also note that the ambulance item appears only once per stage.

Each yellow bell collected in succession without any of them falling off the screen increases in value until maxing out at 10.000 points, in what represents the main source of score for those who shoot for the best possible performance. In a nutshell, it's the same mechanic that's present in every TwinBee game or variation thereof, such as the ones from the Parodius franchise. Juggling bells for points can be spoiled by greed as usual, but TwinBee Da!! behaves a little differently from the other games in the series. For example, it takes several shots to make a bell change its color instead of just one. And instead of disappearing from the color cycle, all bell colors keep coming even if their function is maxed out. Each surplus bell collected is worth 10.000 points.

A brief look into how TwinBee Da!! looks on the PSP
(courtesy of YouTube user Now Loading Please Wait)

With only five stages, TwinBee Da!! is quite a short game. Instead of parading in their own level, the boss rush lifted from TwinBee appears right at the end of the 4th stage, meaning the PSP version is one stage shorter than the Game Boy original. The gameplay in general is very easy to grasp yet the game becomes a royal mess by the time you reach the 4th stage. There's so much going on by then that it's virtually impossible to keep a steady combo of yellow bells, with absolutely no slowdown to be seen anywhere. Hint: since it takes three blue bells to max out the flying speed and maximum speed isn't that fast, it's advisable to just max it out as quickly as possible.

There are other differences between TwinBee Da!! and the original Game Boy title, such as the absence of the Queen Bee boss, the lack of the stage select feature at the start of the credit, the reordering of some boss themes and the fact that it's 1-player only. Does the eye candy compensate for that? I guess in the end it depends if you're a die hard Game Boy fan. For me it was just another basic diversion to be had during a short flight. It's also a rather easy one, especially for those who have some knowledge of other games in the series.

My best 1CC score is shown below, playing in the Normal difficulty. A charming collection in its own right, the TwinBee Portable disc has elementary features such as button remapping and saving.

Trevor McFur in the Crescent Galaxy (Playstation 4)

Horizontal
Checkpoints OFF
1 Difficulty level
5 Stages
Ship speed fixed
- - - - - - -
Developed by Atari
Published by Atari / Digital Eclipse in 2022

Released in 1993, the Atari Jaguar was the last nail in the coffin of the console market endeavors from the once powerful Atari Corporation. A mess of a system that proved to be a failure in both the hardware and software fronts, the Jaguar was home to a meager library that lacked substance and quality. I do not own nor do I ever intend to own such a system, but thanks to the eclectic selection of the compilation titled Atari 50 - The Anniversary Celebration I did get to know some games that came out for it. 

Released for several modern platforms, of which my system of choice was the Playstation 4, this stylish and charming anthology includes nine Atari Jaguar titles, two of them being shmups: Tempest 2000 and Trevor McFur in the Crescent Galaxy. Once considered as the pack-in game for the Jaguar, eventually Trevor McFur was replaced by Cybermorph, yet it did have the distinction of being part of the first offerings for the new system, and supposedly one that would showcase the Jaguar's edge over well-established competitors Sega and Nintendo. Unfortunately, history shows us that's not the case since the game was a commercial and critic failure.

Trevor McFur in the Crescent Galaxy takes place in a universe inhabited by anthropomorphic creatures that fight for peace in the so-called Crescent Galaxy. Trevor McFur is a tiger-like corporal sent to battle in order to defeat an evil entity, freeing planets from its clutches while receiving intelligence messages from other members of the defense squad. Before you move into the enemy's headquarter in the Cosmolite planet, four moons must be freed. They can be tackled in any order, as shown in the selection screen prior to the start of the level.   

Interplanetary Defense Squad in action

Inputs work with shot, missile/bomb, special weapon and another button to cycle between these special weapons. The default controller arrangement can be remapped, which is nice, but strangely it's not possible to set both shot and missile to the same button (missiles are capped to one at a time, but the natural shot autofire rate can be increased by tapping). There are 9 special weapons in the game but they have limited ammo, and every credit starts with one special weapon in stock for all nine variations: magnet (attracts regular enemies and sends them off screen), tracer (bounces off enemies), laser beam, flash (smart bomb), missile (explodes upon contact, but has shorter reach), ring (rotating orbs), bolt (outward energy barrier), shield (invincibility) and cutter (an invincible extra helper ship that stays on screen for a while and increases your offensive attack).

Power-ups for the main shot and missile, as well as extra stock for the special weapons, are released by specific enemies in every level. Each special weapon has its own icon, but there's also an extra icon that increases the stock of the special weapon you're using at the moment. Once maxed out, icons for shot and missile are replaced by a blue sphere that's worth 5.000 points. You might also come accross 1UPs in the form of the face of Trevor McFur, but the bulk of the extra lives is granted by scoring, in a total of 7 extends until you reach 1.050.000 points.

All levels unfold in the same exact way. First you fly through outer space, fighting the enemy armada amidst splitting asteroids. After defeating the mid-boss you patrol the surface of the moon/planet before facing the main boss. Each stage has its own set of enemies, which can be seen prior to entering the level by pressing one of the attack buttons. Specific hazards also apply for the patrolling sections, such as exploding geysers, falling stalactites, huge wall blocks or giant splitting eyeballs. Once the main stage boss is defeated you'll enter a bonus section where you must fly through rings to collect extra items. Crashing against one of these rings ends the bonus intermission. 

Despite having level motifs that are sort of discernible throughout, the game design for enemies in Trevor McFur in the Crescent Galaxy is all over the place. Stages are long and excessively drawn out, with a feeling of repetition that's worsened by the complete lack of any accompanying music. Yes, there's no music at all while playing the game, and the only music you'll hear appears in the opening, high score and ending screens. The emphasis on sound effects eventually leaves players numb as they need to learn how to deal with the unpredictable behavior of meteors and when to safely take the items. McFur's ship has a huge hitbox after all, and this certainly needs to be taken into consideration if you want to see the end of this sorry display of bad euroshmup design.

Descent into the dry desert of the Osseous moon
(courtesy of YouTube user Rodrigo Lopes)

 

It's also important to consider a few gameplay details, such as the way special weapons work, for example. Whenever you collect a special weapon item the selection automatically changes to this weapon, forcing you to constantly switch back to the one you'd like to use if needed. At least they're all useful, just watch out for the magnet since its effect can also wipe you out if you get caught inside the attraction radius. The duration effect of laser, ring and shield is roughly the same, but cutter lasts longer and allows the use of other special weapons in the meantime. Cutter is actually piloted by McFur's female feline partner, the one you meet in a loving embrace at the end of the game.

As for general tips besides the ones I mentioned above, an interesting method to deal with bosses, especially those who tend to squeeze you against the left side of the screen, is to abuse the shield and fire away over them while it lasts. Two shields and a fully powered ship are enough to send most bosses into oblivion. Other alternative is to use one smart bomb (flash) right away, which disarms their most dangerous attacks, and then spam whatever you wish to take them out.

Unfortunately, no matter how you see it or how you decide to approach Trevor McFur in the Crescent Galaxy, we can't escape the fact that the game is not only a chore, but also a bore. I am grateful however and absolutely commend the work done in the Atari 50 compilation. It's an outstanding job in gaming selection and preservation, which in the case of Trevor McFur includes a full scan of the original instruction manual, as well as the ability to apply filters and to save/load at any moment. These features are the same for all titles included, which is certainly more than what most of them were able to offer in their original incarnations. 

Once the game is completed it gets stuck in the screen below, which at least shows your final completion score. This 1CC did require some dedication since I chose to play the game with the natural firing rate only (no tapping, turbo, etc). On a last note, Trevor McFur comes with three continues but it denies the player the right to reject them. An inspiration for DUX, I wonder?