M2 Toaplan collection

[Sumez]

Except as far as I could tell most of the people posting weren't Japanese users

[kid aphex]

https://youtu.be/U5gUeKUje28

Direct link to trailer

[Ghegs]

https://youtu.be/U5gUeKUje28

Direct link to trailer

Nice. First one of these releases that I'll be picking up.

[BIL]

Now that I see the official trailer and logo, I've warmed up (bwaa!) to the ZeroFire title. One of those names that works better in full colour.

I'm writing it camelcase though, fight me IRL

[Rastan78]

If they don't announce Tatsujin or Outzone soon they'll have to change it to M2 CockTeazzers.

Seriously though I'm happy to wait for whatever they bring out. So.much good stuff these days how does anyone have time for it all?

[BIL]

So.much good stuff these days how does anyone have time for it all?

I know right? The way I see it, my retirement schedule is sorted, if nothing else

[jehu]

So.much good stuff these days how does anyone have time for it all?

I know right? The way I see it, my retirement schedule is sorted, if nothing else

Time Enough at Last but me, my Switch loaded with ACA games, and - suddenly - a drifting Joycon.

[BIL]

That or the EMP blast frying the console Time to invest in one o' them high-falootin' nuclear blast shelters

[mycophobia]

Everyone in the chat going hurr durr all your base.

it is the most notable thing about Zero Wing

[Udderdude]

The legit non-translated Japanese endings are even more hilarious. https://legendsoflocalization.com/zero- ... -in-japan/

[StrzxgvNuvWvfld]

They need to stop this gadget shit and just port the games decently. I know some of you are raising pitchforks right now, but at the current approach, I don't think we'll get any more than one/two comps over the next two years before its written off as a bad job.

I agree with this sentiment.

Unless this will be some long running passion project from M2 where the profits don't matter to them, this series won't get completed at its current pace.

Spacing out the releases as they have could actually help sales. It makes each release into a bigger event; the previous releases have generated lots of features and discussion online. If they'd released everything close together, I'd probably have bought Truxton, Batsugun....maybe a couple more, but I doubt I'd have spent time playing Twin Cobra or Flying Shark. That happened because a lot of the focus online convinced me of their individual merits.

[CRP]

I find it quite amazing that they put all this work into these releases and they cant sort out english translation. Surely the cost of translation would be coverd be estore and cart sales and they would make enuff profit making it worthwhile. Have they said anything about why the havent done it ?

[TransatlanticFoe]

Because the handful of English (or indeed non-Japanese) players importing these can just translate the menus by waving Google Translate in front of it? It's a few more variables in testing and for what, making life a little easier for a tiny fraction of players? Resources better spent elsewhere.

[CRP]

Sure i get that . but it think there is a larger market they would reach if they had it in western estores. Ppl what dont follow shumps that much but remeber the toaplan games from consol or the arcade. Ive seen a bit of comments on bitwave twitter switch begging etc. that dont know or can be that bother to order carts from amazon jp but if they saw it up on estore would buy it.

[hamfighterx]

Spacing out the releases as they have could actually help sales. It makes each release into a bigger event; the previous releases have generated lots of features and discussion online. If they'd released everything close together, I'd probably have bought Truxton, Batsugun....maybe a couple more, but I doubt I'd have spent time playing Twin Cobra or Flying Shark. That happened because a lot of the focus online convinced me of their individual merits.

Yeah, I think at least 6 months between the Toaplan releases makes a lot of sense and does give them time to breathe for marketing as well as playing them. Same thing as you, I definitely played TAG volumes 1 and 2 more since they were spaced out a bit. I wouldn't mind a pace faster than a year+, in a perfect world it would be nice to see a new one every 6-9 months.

However, I also don't necessarily want M2 falling into 100% Toaplan focus until completing them all. I think 2023 is sort of the best possible outcome by getting a Toaplan Arcade Garage release AND a non-Toaplan ShotTriggers game, plus M2 doing some contracted work on other big name shooter releases (Ray'Z, maybe we see an new Aleste console port, etc.)

[XtraSmiley]

A big miss not calling it Hell Wing.

[Steven]

Between the cost of translation, cost to program that translation into the games and debug to make sure they didn't break anything in the process, licensing fees for an overseas release, licensing for any arranged soundtracks that the releases may have, anything else they may have to pay for to get these out globally, and the probably extremely tiny demand for premium STG releases outside of Japan, it's no wonder that they don't release ShotTriggers games outside of Japan now. I wonder how much money they actually made, or lost, on those few overseas releases that they did. Ultimately, overseas releases are probably not worth it financially, especially since everyone already knows that they don't make much money with these as it is.

On the stream last night Horii even said that they were not sure if they would even be able to continue doing ShotTriggers after Battle Garegga and Dangun Feveron, and I think he also mentioned that they were lucky to get Mahou Daisakusen out at all, so I think we are very lucky that they didn't have to stop after just those first few releases. He did also mention that he would like to do a proper physical Garegga release, too, so who knows.

[pablumatic]

I find it quite amazing that they put all this work into these releases and they cant sort out english translation. Surely the cost of translation would be coverd be estore and cart sales and they would make enuff profit making it worthwhile. Have they said anything about why the havent done it ?

M2 seems to have given up on the western market entirely. The last release was Ketsui back in November 2020, digital only. Limited Run Games did a physical release of Dangun Feveron in 2021, and that's been it. I'm not expecting anything else now and just import what I want. At least its all region free.

[Steven]

https://youtu.be/U5gUeKUje28

Direct link to trailer

Nice. First one of these releases that I'll be picking up.

What made you pass on the first two?

[Ghegs]

https://youtu.be/U5gUeKUje28

Direct link to trailer

Nice. First one of these releases that I'll be picking up.

What made you pass on the first two?

Not interested in the games.

[gbaplayer]

What do you think Arcade Garages Vol 4 and the following ones will Look like?

Truxton/Truxton 2
Vimana/Twin Hawk
Outzone/Fixeight
Dogyuun/Grindstormer/Batsugun

Maybe?

Hope they can still Release them more frequently from now on. Dont want to wait another 10 years before all are Released.

[kid aphex]

Not interested in the games.

That’s not a good enough answer since I DGAF about either of them but still bought them both.

[hamfighterx]

What do you think Arcade Garages Vol 4 and the following ones will Look like?

Truxton/Truxton 2
Vimana/Twin Hawk
Outzone/Fixeight
Dogyuun/Grindstormer/Batsugun

Maybe?

Hope they can still Release them more frequently from now on. Dont want to wait another 10 years before all are Released.

Feels like there are fairly obvious pairings, and at this point I'd be surprised if M2 doesn't stick with format of 2 STG + 1 non-STG per volume, 8 total volumes, 1-2 releases per year.

Tatsujin & Tatsujin Oh
Outzone & Fixeight
V_V (Grindstormer) & Slap Fight
Twin Hawk (Daisenpu) & Vimana (the two Yuichiro Nozawa designed games)
Dogyuun & Batsugun

The non-STGs will be:
- Dash Yarou/Rally Bike
- Horror Story/Demon's World
- Snow Bros
- Snow Bros 2
- Ghox
- Knuckle Bash

[BIL]

On the stream last night Horii even said that they were not sure if they would even be able to continue doing ShotTriggers after Battle Garegga and Dangun Feveron, and I think he also mentioned that they were lucky to get Mahou Daisakusen out at all, so I think we are very lucky that they didn't have to stop after just those first few releases. He did also mention that he would like to do a proper physical Garegga release, too, so who knows.

Jeeze, I did wonder at the time if ShotTriggers would make it more than a couple releases. We live in fortunate times...

Feels kinda nostalgic tbh. Takes me back to the late 90s, seeing Toaplan SBV1 in GameFan and thinking "Whoaaa! That's Twin Cobra! I bet there's a Hellfire one, too!"

To M2, Hamster, and all other devs who genuinely take care of STG/AC fans (as opposed to lag-ridden, nostalgia-milking shitbirds like Digital Eclipse aka DICKSUCKIN LIPS ), my only request is: Survive. Gaijin will figure things out from there, as we always have.

[TransatlanticFoe]

Between the cost of translation, cost to program that translation into the games and debug to make sure they didn't break anything in the process, licensing fees for an overseas release, licensing for any arranged soundtracks that the releases may have, anything else they may have to pay for to get these out globally, and the probably extremely tiny demand for premium STG releases outside of Japan, it's no wonder that they don't release ShotTriggers games outside of Japan now. I wonder how much money they actually made, or lost, on those few overseas releases that they did. Ultimately, overseas releases are probably not worth it financially, especially since everyone already knows that they don't make much money with these as it is.

On the stream last night Horii even said that they were not sure if they would even be able to continue doing ShotTriggers after Battle Garegga and Dangun Feveron, and I think he also mentioned that they were lucky to get Mahou Daisakusen out at all, so I think we are very lucky that they didn't have to stop after just those first few releases. He did also mention that he would like to do a proper physical Garegga release, too, so who knows.

You also only need to see some of the wider community responses to these first couple of releases - "why bother with this archaic dreck?", "skip to the good stuff like Batsugun". I'm amazed they're still doing them, but glad they are - I guess Taito must be giving them some good money for their compilations!

I'm glad they're taking the approach of a Japan-only physical release, rather than fragmented regional digital Western releases. A full price digital release of an old game was always going to be a tough sell for anything but the hardest of hardcore fans, and not worth trying to localise. Especially with Europe, where you're not just translating stuff to English. The Evercade approach is probably the right one for the more casual retro crowd (a few games bundled for £20) but it's bare bones as a result, there's definitely value in these comprehensive enthusiast releases and JP physical is the most accessible way of doing it without full localisation.

[Bassa-Bassa]

If they call it Fixzone I'll use the shop with the reversible cover bonus.

[cfx]

Feels like there are fairly obvious pairings, and at this point I'd be surprised if M2 doesn't stick with format of 2 STG + 1 non-STG per volume, 8 total volumes, 1-2 releases per year.

Tatsujin & Tatsujin Oh
Outzone & Fixeight
V_V (Grindstormer) & Slap Fight
Twin Hawk (Daisenpu) & Vimana (the two Yuichiro Nozawa designed games)
Dogyuun & Batsugun

Bolded are the ones I want. Maybe Outzone; I owned the arcade board many years ago and didn't get along with it, but now feel like maybe I didn't give it the proper chance.

[jehu]

Now that the initial sting of not getting Tatsujin Oh has worn off, I'm back on the Toaplan hypetrain.

Put a few credits into PCE-CD Hellfire and was reminded of how much I do love it. Very methodical play, heavy memo focus, prime Toaplan tunes. Musically, this collection is going to be one of the best in the series. Both Toaplan collections are still my #1 and #2 most played games on Switch, and I am quite sure this collection will at least get up in the top 5 - even making allowances for Ray'z.

Speaking of music, there was a shot in the most recent M2 stream that make it appear as though BGM might be toggle-able. Fresh off the news that Ray'z will have the alt. OSTs available, I hope that we see M2 do an about-face here. Hugely attached to MegaDrive Zero Wing and PCE-CD Hellfire renditions of these songs.

Still have yet to have my moment with Zero Wing. I've always felt that Hellfire is the stronger game because it's clear what it wants to do - and does it quite well. The shot-switching is its only (albeit significant) mechanical fumble.

[kid aphex]

He did also mention that he would like to do a proper physical Garegga release, too, so who knows.

Just a reminder for those who might’ve missed it:
There is a physical release of ShotTriggers Garegga (that’s not the overpriced LRG)
It’s Korean, but works on any PS4.

[pulsemod]

definitely want Slap-Five and FixZone collections next. might end up getting zero fire a little down the line; good thing these imports don't run out of stock quickly