Fast Striker (Neo Geo)

Vertical
Checkpoints OFF
1 Difficulty level
6 Stages
Ship speed fixed
- - - - - - -
Developed by NG:DEV.TEAM
Published by NG:DEV.TEAM in 2013

A sci-fi themed shmup designed with a vertizontal orientation (vertical scrolling occupying the whole 4:3 screen area), Fast Striker biggest claim to fame is its crisp prerendered backgrounds, a graphical achievement that also extends to the animation of bosses. Allegedly developed alongside HuCast's DUX for six years soon after NG:DEV.TEAM delivered its first game Last Hope, Fast Striker was released for the Neo Geo MVS in 2010 and received a few updates before landing on the Neo Geo AES in 2013. For this reason I guess it's safe to assume the AES version is the final iteration of the game, even though it would eventually reappear years later for other platforms.

If we exclude Last Hope - Pink Pullets, then Fast Striker is in fact NG:DEV.TEAM's second shooter. While completely different at a conceptual level, the company did strive for something what wouldn't be considered as hard to beginners, hence the presence of not only one, but four distinct game modes that sort of emulate the approach kickstarted by Cave in Mushihimesama Futari. Cave is indeed a major influence in the gameplay of some of these modes, even though the implementation is far from reaching the same standard of intensity and/or execution.

Fast Striker - Original mode demonstration
(courtesy of YouTube user ghegs)

 

Basic controls allow players to fire a frontal shot with button A and a rear shot with button B while activating a temporary invincibility shield (if available) with button C. It's possible to swap the functions of button B and C in prior to the actual start of the game. Even though it's not stated anywhere, button D gives you a frontal shot with autofire, which is very handy because by holding either the frontal or the rear shot the ship's speed is reduced, and in the case of the frontal shot the pattern is also altered. This "focus shot" is of course reminiscent of the gameplay from Cave games, and has a particular purpose depending on the chosen game mode.

Speaking of which, these are the main differences between them:

• Novice mode - rapid shot is narrow, focus shot is a wide 3-way spread, the shield activates automatically if you're hit by a bullet but this depletes the whole shield stock (doesn't work on collisions); game ends after stage 5.
• Original mode - rapid shot is wide, focus shot is narrow with straight nuke missiles.
• Maniac mode - rapid shot and focus shot are narrow, with focus changing into a Dodonpachi-esque laser; the shield does not damage bosses and might increase their health (similar to bomb usage in Espgaluda);
• Omake mode - behaves like Maniac mode, but with a lot more enemy bullets and even slowdown; shields are now released from special enemies; there are no medals to be claimed.

While all modes differ from each other with relation to ship firepower and scoring mechanics, there are aspects that are common to all of them. The astronaut enemy, for example, appears in all modes, but only gives out extra shields in Novice and Original modes. Extra shields in Maniac are obtained by collecting medals without dying, while in Omake they come by destroying specific enemies. Speaking of medals, they are obviously very important for scoring in all modes except for Omake, where they're totally absent. In Novice mode medals take the form of yellow stars. To get medals automatically sucked into the ship all you have to do is avoid using the focus shot. 

A defining feature of the game's difficulty that's common to all modes is rank, which fluctuates between 1, 2, 3 and devil (max). The longer you survive and the more enemies you destroy the quicker you raise rank, increasing the number of enemy bullets and making the game overall harder. The only way to lower rank is by dying. It's not possible to reach devil rank in Novice mode, which makes sense because it would be odd to have suicide bullets in a mode that's supposed to be tailored to beginners.

One final detail common to all modes is related to "secrets", as seen in the screen at the end of a stage showing the bonuses you get from items collected, shields remaining, no-missing the level and technical bonus (triggered by destroying specific parts of bosses). Besides indicating the max chain, this screen also tells you how many secrets were found. Secrets actually correspond to the act of uncovering the big NGDEV mascot, which converts all on-screen bullets to medals and temporarily changes medals to NGDEV items that are worth more than regular medals. In a nutshell, almost all secrets are related to destroying one or more of the larger enemies in a row. Sometimes this is followed by a "devilsplosion" tag that appears close to the score counter, but I wasn't able to figure out if this has any extra purpose other than trying to sound cool.

Where have I seen this laser before?

The formula for scoring higher is the ability to get the highest possible chain prior to the boss fight, whereby the chain count is frozen and works as a final multiplier for some end-of-level bonuses. In Novice and Original chains are simply the amount of medals collected, so the challenge is to kill everything and time the destruction of enemies that trigger the NGDEV mascot to get even more medals. In Maniac and Omake chains are increased by killing enemies in pure Dodonpachi fashion, decreasing very fast if for any reason the chain gauge is reset. In Maniac mode medals work as an extra means to score and also to regain shields (if you're able to sustain max rank all medals will appear as NGDEV items). Omake on the other hand doesn't have medals. In these modes point-blanking creates large colored balls that boost the chain counter, an effect that corresponds to the nuke missiles from the focus shot hitting large enemies in Original mode.

It's interesting to note that deaths don't have any impact at all in the chain counter, and this is valid for all game modes. Score-based extends are granted with 300 and 600 million poins in Novice mode, 800 and 1.600 million points in Original mode, and 2 and 4 billion points in Maniac mode. I wasn't able to check the extend routine for Omake. A single 1UP also appears in stage 4 in all modes if you play well enough there.

While the game is visually pleasing and all modes are quite diverse and relatively fun with their own specific little rules, my impression is that Fast Striker lacks the finesse needed to make it stand out. The techno soundtrack is nothing to write home about, common place and generic. The rear shot has an odd delay when used, with a very short pause after the first stream is fired. There are also a few baffling functional oversights, such as "broken chain" being heard all the time in Original mode even though chains can't be broken there. The shield gauge is present in Novice mode but of course it has absolutely no purpose there. Finally, there seems to be a luck-based autoshield in non-Novice modes, which definitely sounds weird but is actually good in any given situation.

My focus on this first experience with the game was to get the 1CC in Original mode, which I was able to do after a little practice with the score below. I missed several secrets and did not squeeze the game to the max, something I'll leave for the ports in other platforms, as well as future attempts in Maniac mode. Maniac and Omake have the distinction of allowing players to fight a True Last Boss if they're capable of beating the last boss on a single credit.

Rambo III (Mega Drive)

Arena
Checkpoints OFF
4 Difficulty levels
6 Stages
Ship speed fixed
- - - - - - -
Developed by Sega
Published by Sega in 1989

Rambo III - the movie - wasn’t the sequel that we were expecting. And even though it was a step down from the explosive action of the second film, which was definitely huge around here, at least it served as basis for a series of video games. In slightly borrowing its main storyline and tone, the Mega Drive version pays homage to the iconic character in a pedestrian shooter that doesn’t push the envelope yet fulfills its modest purpose with an old-fashioned sense of simplicity and difficulty. I guess that’s more than okay for an early licensed title developed by Sega itself.

If you’re a Sylvester Stallone and a 16-bit gaming fan you're well served with titles like Judge Dredd, Cliffhanger, Demolition Man and, of course, Rambo III. Speaking of the latter, for obvious reasons it's the only one of this bunch that's exclusive for the Mega Drive. The game is a natural evolution from the classic overhead mold presented by Capcom in Commando, only quite average and if not for the movie association also kinda forgettable. It's far from the great standard of Mercs and just a little more accomplished than Crossfire / Super Airwolf, with the benefit of a welcome push in the scoring system.

Anyway, fancy being a one-man army against hordes of enemy commandos? John Rambo himself fires up the title screen with an arrow and invites you to the adventure, where you must guide him into Afghan territory to rescue his friend and mentor colonel Trautman.

Attract screen for Rambo III
(courtesy of YouTube user Classic Old Games (Lucas Costa))

Besides firing a machinegun with button C, you can also choose from three types of special weapons with button A. Button B is then used to deploy them: a knife, chargeable arrows and timed bombs. There's no limit to how many times you can stab your enemies, of course, but arrows and bombs are limited. To add more to their stock you need to collect items left behind by enemies killed with the knife or the timed bombs. "A" adds more arrows, "B" adds more bombs (note that extra arrows will only be given when the knife is used). Apart from As and Bs appearing when using the knife, you might also come across an extra life in the form of a smiley face.

Even though there are only six stages in Rambo III, the game tries to offer a little variety with different mission types. Odd levels will merely require you to get to the end and destroy bunkers before facing a short boss confrontation. During boss fights you'll see Rambo from behind armed with a bow and arrow with explosive capabilities. The objective is position the crosshair, charge the bow with any button and release it to target Soviet helicopters and tanks. Just remember to move out of the incoming fire and hide behind the obstacles in front of you if necessary. In the 2nd level you need to rescue prisoners and escape before time runs out, whereas on the 4th the mission is to destroy the enemy arsenal inside a huge facility. And in the final level just find Trautman and proceed to the final challenge.

An interesting feature here is the large bonus you get from finishing the stages as fast as you can, which naturally punishes the scores of those who like to procrastinate. Even though it's theoretically possible to break the game in stages 4, 5 and 6 due to enemies spawning non-stop, I didn't try to find any spots where I could safely apply infinite milking and break the scoring system. There's another trick to scoring higher, which is using the knife successively for increasing bonuses of 200, 400, 600, 800 and a maximum of 1.000 points. The problem with this approach is that it's too risky in the long run. John Rambo isn't that sturdy a soldier as he is in the movies, and he will lose a life when taking a hit. You don't get damaged by touching enemy soldiers at ground level, but it's very easy to get shot in the face when you get too close to some of them.

Stage 4: Blow up all the enemy weapons!

Upon a first contact Rambo III feels sort of underwhelming, with graphics that look brownish, drab and uninspired. Songs repeat after a few levels, but the BGM for the second stage is pleasantly suspenseful, as if lifted directly from the movie. Nevertheless with time the game tends to grow on you due to the emphasis on speed-killing things to get the best possible high score. Though disorienting due to their sizes and the lack of any map feature, the maze-like stages are perfectly manageable once you get them memorized. The 5th level can be tricky because of soldiers catching you off guard with grenades, so watch out for them when destroying ammo crates and such. All other levels can be played as if you were on a speed run, provided of course you know what's coming ahead. The enemy spawning routine is always the same, which definitely helps with that. Never mind the crazy slowdown that takes over when there are too many enemies on screen. 

Despite its simplicity and average challenge level, Rambo III has a few weird gameplay quirks. Although unlimited, continues are downright absent in the final level, so if the credit ends there you'll need to start the game from scratch. When playing on a Japanese console, beating the game in a single credit awards players with a special ending where Rambo runs after the jeep and destroys it with an arrow. It can't be ascertained if that's Trautman in the jeep, but it's quite an unusual twist. One valuable tip in the beginning is to stab the enemies coming from the very first truck as the game starts, and also the enemies in the 2nd stage in the rightmost part where you get to release one of the hostages. By doing that you're guaranteed to find an extra life. 

At the end of the day Rambo III is just simple, modest fun. It doesn't stand out but it doesn't insult players in any way. My best 1CC result in the Normal difficulty is below. I was able to get the best time bonus in all levels, which of course means absolutely no milking whatsoever.

Battle Garegga (Saturn)

Vertical
Checkpoints OFF
6 Difficulty levels
7 Stages
Ship speed fixed, selectable at start
- - - - - - -
Developed by Raizing
Published by Electronic Arts in 1998

When digging into the history of shmups, it's not uncommon to notice a few polarizing games that in time became legendary. Radiant Silvergun and its spiritual sequel Ikaruga are prime examples of this statement, but while Ikaruga rose to fame and was subject of incredible hype during the Dreamcast era, my feeling is that Radiant Silvergun tends to be left aside due to the emphasis on chaining if you want to survive and see the game to the end. It's a mechanic that's not everyone's cup of tea, yet Radiant Silvergun has an ardent fanbase of course.

I'm drawing this comparison because in lots of ways Battle Garegga suffers from the same fate of Silvergun. While revered by many as one of the best arcade shmups ever designed, it's also heavily criticized due to the need to cope with a very special kind of challenge if you want to survive and see the game to the end. The magnum opus of Raizing, one of the companies that flourished from the ashes of Toaplan during the 90s, Battle Garegga comes with an enormous amount of intricacies that hide beneath a seemingly normal military/sci-fi themed design. In shmup hardcore circles the game is also synonym with its creator Shinobu Yagawa, who took upon himself and his company the task of making an arcane shooter with a strong visual influence from Taito's Gun Frontier.

Crisp sprites and an overwhelming attention to detail are one of the strongest assets of the game, as is the awesome soundtrack. Enemies explode in puffs of shards and smoke that vanish on screen in the most diverse ways, and such as the gameplay itself never in the same exact fashion. It gives a special vibe to a title that's very pleasing to the eyes and ears, but playing it as you would play any regular shmup won't cut it if you're the kind of gamer who likes to abide by the 1CC rule. You will be punished hard for that. And the only way to escape utter and excruciating failure is to learn how to deal with rank.

Silver Sword and the approach towards the 4th boss

First, the basics. Button A shoots, button B activates the so-called weapon (also commonly referred to as bombs, which is understandable depending on the chosen ship) and button C switches the formation of whatever options you have. All ships have very specific characteristics related to speed, firepower and weapon types, and depending on the button used to activate your choice you'll also get increased speed (button B), smaller hitbox (button C) or both (either A+B+C or selection timeout), with button A giving you the default speed+hitbox. What's particularly interesting is that each ship variation comes with a different color and has its own name! My ship of choice when playing the Sega Saturn port, for example, is commonly known as Wild Snail (A), with variants called Iron Mackerel (B), Rust Champion (C) and Golden Bat (A+B+C).

A plethora of items will appear from destroyed enemies, falling down the screen if coming from aerial foes. Small and large power-ups, small and large weapon icons, options (you can have up to 4) and medals for points. The main shot has five power levels, and the more powered-up you are the more small items you need to upgrade the ship. 40 small weapon fragments will result in another full weapon in reserve, which is also obtained by taking the large weapon icon. You can of course deploy partial weapon attacks with whatever fragments you have in stock. Options can be arranged in 5 regular formation types: spread, tail, front, rotate and trace (point to the opposite of player's movement). There are, however, special formations achieved by collection items in a certain order.  

Medals increase in value as long as you collect them before the next medal(s) appear and you don't lose any of them without having another on screen. Maxed out medals are worth 10.000 points each, but if the medal chain is lost then the next one will be worth its initial value of 100 points. That's the main source of scoring, along with a few tricks that help you achieve more points faster if you're able to pull them off.

Picking up the relevant items and powering up the ship as fast as possible would be anyone's expected strategy, as well as getting all icons in excess for a few more points. And this is where normal conventions absolutely do not apply. Rank in Battle Garegga is directly influenced by how long you survive, how much you shoot, the amount of items collected and how many lives you have in stock, among a few other minor things. This means that powering up too fast and picking up all items the game throws at you will increase the difficulty to the point the game becomes unmanageable, be it for the density and speed of bullets, the increased stamina and aggressiveness of all enemies or the absolutely random behavior of some bosses.

The start of a wild ride for Wild Snail
(courtesy of YouTube user The VideoGames Museum)

Adapting to all the constraints mentioned above is something every player needs to learn and cope with, there's absolutely no going around that. That said, the only action that effectively works to reduce rank is dying, so the most important thing to have in mind is to suicide regularly, keeping your reserve at no more than two lives – at least during the first half of the game. At the same time, regular suicides demand some dedication to scoring because the more extra lives you get the more suicides can be properly planned. Besides the extend interval of 1 million points, a single extra life will appear if you destroy the large ship that appears in stage 3 when it fully parks at the end of the level. Interesting details about deaths is that you lose only one shot power level when dying, the weapon stock is preserved when you die and you get 20 weapon fragments upon respawn.

Valley, Plateau, Factory, Plant, Cloud, Base and Airport. These are the names of the stages, each one of them putting up a harder challenge than the previous one. By the time you reach the Base in stage 6 the game is already really difficult no matter how low rank is, and that's where resources should be maximized for what's coming ahead in the final stretch of the game. Blink and you'll be toast. I lost count of how many times some very good runs ended there because I got sloppy. Just for the record, I wasn't bothered at all by the tiny thin bullet sprites. Bullet visibility is after all a common complaint from many people about Battle Garegga.

 

Click for the option menus translation for Battle Garegga on the Sega Saturn

Whatever your objective is when approaching this game, soon it becomes clear how deep the gameplay actually is, especially when you decide to try out different ships. After all, it's also possible to use four secret characters from Mahou Daisakusen / Sorcer Striker, either via a code or simply by changing a setting in the options of the Saturn port. Gain, Chitta, Miyamoto and Bornnam do have variants based on the selection buttons, only with no name changes (they are then referred to, for example, as Gain-A, B, C or ABC). For an in-depth, comprehensive description of all the subtleties about characters and gameplay, the Shmups.wiki webpage is a wonderful, if not mandatory, source of information.

It took me a long time to come to grips with Battle Garegga. It wasn't easy for a series of reasons, but mainly lack of time and stamina to practice. Slowly I warmed up to it though, spending whatever time I had to finally pursue the 1CC with the Golden Bat ship. It's got a piercing shot, a decent weapon and reasonable flying speed. My main strategy was to suicide twice on the first boss, once on the second boss and depending on how much I was able to score do it again prior to the fight against the third boss.  By then I'd have all 4 options, maximizing the weapon stock and suiciding as required to keep a low life reserve. Then from stage 6 on it was all out war. Tough as nails, but always engaging and never quite the same as the previous credit.

The port for the Japanese Sega Saturn is great and has all you need to enjoy the game to the fullest, including TATE mode, an arranged soundtrack, nice configuration tweaks and the previously mentioned ability to easily choose the secret characters. It was the only home version available for almost two decades until the joint release for the Playstation 4 and the Xbox One, titled Battle Garegga Rev. 2016.

Here's my final 1CC result, playing with Golden Bat in the Arcade difficulty. Arcade is the default setting selectable from the main option menu, and is the same as difficulty 4 when you activate the Simple options.

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 (blue) 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.