Batsugun (Saturn)

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Vincere
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Batsugun (Saturn)

Post by Vincere »

Batsugun - 1993 - Toaplan

Batsugun is available on arcade and Saturn but even if everybody knows it's a good game, it's not much discussed nor played within the shmup community. Your loss if you want my opinion.

Gfx: 7,5/10

Ok, Batsugun's graphics are the most vibrant and colorful ones you'll ever see in a shmup! Every pixel is drawn with shiny colors, making the all game particularly eye-friendly. The old-school feeling that it provokes can't be matched. I like it personally but too much colors make some bullets hard to see in the later levels. Otherwise, every bullet and enemy ship is really visible but it's not an easy task to surive nevertheless! There are some problems of visibility concerning the player's ship shots, we'll talk about this in the gameplay part.
About the global design, it's manga-made so the ships you choose from are characters actually. I like their faces and overall style.
To sum up, there is a very enjoyable old-school feeling even if the game tends to seem a little old with the time.

Music: 6/10
This point really depends on your personnal tastes actually. I like it a lot, some pseudo-midi tunes that really reminds you the good old times in the arcade centers! Some others will find it simply awful if they listen to them again and again. Just turn your sound down if you really can't stand them.

Gameplay: 9/10
Here's the most enjoyable part of the game: gameplay! So basically, Bastugun is pretty straight-forward shooting game. Complete the stage, beat the boss, up to the next one etc. But there are some major innovations that make the game a blast to play. First there's a RPG element added to the game: the experience bar. Every enemy you kill and power up you gain add some points in your experience bar so that you can fill it. Once done, you reach the next shot level. There are 3 levels in the whole game. This is quite a nice idea because you absolutely have to kill everybody in order to power up as you can't by collecting proper power ups like in Dodonpachi etc. You'll get smart bomb as well, keeping you from being killed and don't worry, there are many many bombs at your disposal!
I won't go into some more detailed strategies with the Pigs and so on, read the Strategy guide.

About the ships, you've got 3 characters to choose from:

-Jeeno: wider shot with missiles. It's like type C in Dodonpachi. Once weapon level 3 is reached, it fills the whole screens with blue bullets and big black/pink missile! The power is simply incredible! I you never played the game, just give it a try because it's simply huge. This can be an disadvantage because the screen is so much filled with your own bullets that it's sometimes hard to see the enemies and thier shots actually. Be careful while playing with Jeeno. It's really fun nevertheless.

-Beltiana: Straight-forward powershot and homing laser fluxus. The legendary A type in every game. This is the easiest way to go through the game. She destroys everything at sight with her power and if an enemy escapes the huge beam, there always is the homing fluxus that will kill the foe so the screen almost never gets filled with bullets, apart from boss battles. You might want to play with her (no pun intended) in the beginning.

-Iceman: It's a mix of both Jeeno and Beltiana shots, depending on if you're tapping the button or leaving your thumb on it. This is the most polyvalent character but the trickiest to play at the same time. You can shoot wide-range bullets if you're taping or a single large laser wing you're holding the button. Quite convenient in some situations, I find his shot to be not enough powerful at last.

Difficulty: 9/10
This point is described on its own because it deserves it. Of course, we, shmuppers from all around the world, are aware that the game is beatable. But for the majority of players, the game is insanely hard. This is something the game is know for now. I find the 2/3 of the game to be quite doable, even if the last third is really hard. But many players around here have 1cc'd the game so it shows it's not that hard. You just have to be really careful while playing. And moreover, the numerous bombs given during the game always lets you some opportunities to survive. And playing with Beltiana makes the whole game a lot more easy.
But admittedly, Jupiter and so on really are hard.

Overall: 8/10
So, to buy or not to buy? If you read this, you already know your own answer. I would recommend it, but not for a beginner though. I had many great moments with that game and it's for sure one of the top shmups on Saturn so why not giving it a try after all. But once again, the price is quite high so if you've got the bucks, go for it.
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