Did I miss anything on JPN PS2?

neojma · Post by **neojma** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 10:09 pm

I've been a shmup fan for a long time, but for a while I never bothered with PS2 imports. Now I'm going back and filling in holes, and I want to make sure I'm not missing any important PS2 releases from the time I wasn't keeping up with them. I'm especially concerned with console exclusives, as I probably already have/know about any ports of classics or stuff that was released on other systems. So... could any of you help by adding any unnamed PS2 imports to the list?

Here's my off the top of my head list:
DoDonPachi DOJ
EspGaluda
XII Stag
Shikigami no Shiro 1 and 2
Psyvariar 1 (Complete/Medium Unit/etc.)
Psyvariar 2
Psikyo Collections (Strikers, Gunbird, Sengoku, Sol Divide/Dragon Blaze)
Cho Aniki
Star Soldier
Giga Wing Generations (coming in March 2005)

So, what titles am I not listing? It's surprisingly hard to find a comprehensive listing of PS2 shmups, so this might be a useful list for a lot of people.

Zach Keene · Post by **Zach Keene** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 10:10 pm

Shienryu Explosion

Post by **Ghegs** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 10:19 pm

I'm not sure if you're asking for JPN imports only, but add R-Type Final, Gradius V, Gradius III & IV, Silpheed: The Lost Planet to that list and it's pretty much complete.

neojma · Post by **neojma** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 11:48 pm

Ah yes, I do remember hearing about Shinryu Explosion - I forgot if it was PS2 or PS1. I like the original a lot on Saturn, just a good classic vert shooter - no big gimmicks, no big flaws. Since I've never heard anything good about Shinryu 2 I never had much interest in the PS2 pack.

As for the US games, yep - I already knew those. Good to have in the topic though, to let everyone know what's available.

Post by **system11** » Sat Feb 26, 2005 1:01 am

I recently got the euro port of Shienryu Explosion. It's a mixed bag.

The good: it's pretty, very clean, very smooth, the weapons are nice, it's the only game EVER to get an analogue button to be useful, there are plenty of levels and some pretty bullet patterns, the control is spot on, the music is decent all the way through.

The bad: it's too easy, on my second go on hard I hit the last level, part of this may be the PAL version running slower, but 17% speed increase isn't going to make a huge difference. It feels slightly unfinished, like this was a game in development that was relabelled to put out as a freebie with Shienryu.

If you aren't very good at shmups, or if you want some nice easy bulletstorm navigation practise, I highly recommend trying this out (it's very cheap). It represents (in my mind) one of the biggest missed opportunities ever. If they'd ramped the difficulty up several notches and renamed hard to normal, then tidied up the menus and presentation, this would have been a must-have title. I emailed Warashi to ask them to release a revision, but I had no reply, didn't really expect one.

Anarchos · Post by **Anarchos** » Sat Feb 26, 2005 1:25 am

Heard cho aniki is really bad, and I thought the first part on PS-one was crap. :/

I think you got all of em listed anyway,

captain ahar · Post by **captain ahar** » Sat Feb 26, 2005 5:37 pm

Anarchos wrote:Heard cho aniki is really bad, and I thought the first part on PS-one was crap. :/

I think you got all of em listed anyway,

for the record, that wasn't the first game in the series. i think it started on the pc engine.

Post by **system11** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 4:26 pm

I just got the JP version of Shienryu Explosion (aka Shienryu 2, aka Steel Dragon Evo). Looks like the job Midas(?) did in the regional ports turning it into Steel Dragon, included changing the weapons, and making it much much easier. That explains a lot.....

If you get this game, make sure it's the JP one.

Post by **Ghegs** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 5:18 pm

bloodflowers wrote:Looks like the job Midas(?) did in the regional ports turning it into Steel Dragon, included changing the weapons, and making it much much easier.

You'd think if that game was made any easier, it would start at the final boss with its energy down to 5% and you with fully powered-up weapons and 9 bombs in stock.

I've always wondered for some reason if Midas translated the ending. If so, can you type it up here?