shmups.system11.org

It's officially called "Zero Gunner 2 -"

The "-" was added because they had to completely remake the game from scratch and admit it's not accurate to the original.

http://zerodiv.jugem.jp/?eid=855

Wow this needs a ton of work. Will pick up to support but sticking to my Naomi version for now.

Yeah, that sounds beyond a bad port, for sure. lame!

What a disappointment about Zero Gunner 2. I'll be skipping this one for the time being, until Zerodiv fix the issues and bugs.

Still, Strikers 1945 II is something to look forward to!

It's funny, when I was playing Gunbird I noticed the text between stages was different from the arcade original. I guess Zerodiv is messing with the source material in some way, but I don't understand why.

I think the majority of us would be happy with straight up ROMs. Why are they going through the trouble of recoding parts or in Zero Gunners case, remaking the entire game?

And not having Leaderboards while we're at it, unlike the Hamster Neo Geo games. I would like an option to simply emulate the games. The Wii has no issues running games (from what I've tried), that ran on early Video System and Psikyo hardware (up to Sengoku Blade, I think). We could have been given (near) perfect substitutes of the arcade PCB's, but maybe that's too much to ask for? Yes, the English dialogue is different from the arcade. Here are a few comparison screenshots:

Arcade 1
Arcade 2
Switch 1
Switch 2

Not to mention the font is completely different. It reminds me a bit of the text in the version of Tank Force in the Switch Namco Museum, only that text is overlaid over Japanese text and can be turned off. At least Tank Force is emulated, though it's odd it uses overlaid text rather than having the US version as an option.

Tempting to throw it out there at this point, I like the game but if the value is getting to the point where it could be traded for a working Raiden DX PCB then well...

That's because the Switch version of Gunbird is based on the Saturn/PS1 version, which had different dialogue for the intermissions and the boss banter.

I wonder if they'd ever consider releasing the first Zero Gunner. Is that any good?

I don't know, TBH, as someone who has never played the original version, I might still give the Switch one a shot.

Zero Gunner 2 is up on the NA eShop. Downloaded it earlier and had time for one quick credit before I had to leave for work. I made it a point to run into as many enemies as possible and didn’t die to any contact. That said, I was using the Apache and bosses were going down real fast! Also, the playfield is now 16:9 (instead of 4:3) which kinda trivializes certain patterns... although it can result in making certain enemy movements difficult to chase. I didn’t experience the disappearing enemies/items glitch but I did notice several audio glitches (music not playing correctly and certain sound effects being dropped).

I’ll be sure to put in more time with it this evening. Probably dig out the DC for some direct comparisons.

Not being familiar with the game, I would like to see a comparison video between the Naomi/Dreamcast version and the Switch version of Zero Gunner 2.

Really happy to see these games come to the Switch. Here's hoping Gunbird and Gigawing find their way to the Switch, eventually. Particularly the latter. I'd play the shit out of that title on the go!

In the meantime, Zero Gunner 2 for just £7? Don't mind if it do... can't believe they even attached a good price for it! I was expecting it to be £15+, as is the case with many overpriced titles on eshop.

Gunbird is on the switch, but NOA is being stupid again. It was supposedly taken off the eShop due to an exploit in a debugger, but it's still on the EU and JP eShop. I bought it from the JP eShop with a JP account and JP eShop credit.

I did search for Gunbird out of curiosity after buying Strikers 1945 II and it still doesn't come up in a search on the US eShop.

I also bought arcade archives Kid Niki, which strangely follows the trend of some ROM sites and game stores calling the JP version of the game "Kid Niki". It's actually Kaiketsu Yanchamaru and even refers to the main character as Yanchamaru.

Alright, so I played several additional credits of ZG2- and then switched over to DC original.

First, I was playing both versions at the Arcade difficulty (Level 5) and the NAOMI/DC version is SIGNIFICANTLY harder. Enemies and bosses fire way denser patterns. The Switch version on Arcade is like playing the game on Easy.

Second, ZeroDiv apparently didn't bother to check whether objects were on the same spacial plane as the helicopter, so everything triggers contact. As a result, you can no longer hover over the small boats in the water stage or the train cars in the mountain stage... you just rebound off them like other airborne enemies.

Third, there is no button mapping option (which doesn't make any sense as all their other releases allow this).

Fourth, the invisible items, zako, and bullets glitch triggers upon starting a second credit. The only way to avoid this effect (which seems to keep carrying over in additional credits) is to fully exit back to the hypervisor and cancel the game. Then start the game again and it's back to normal.

And finally, what do ZeroDiv have against the L1, R1, L2 and R2 buttons? None of their games allow function mapping to these buttons.

Sounds awful. Thanks for the write up; sorry you had to waste your money! Really sucks that the original code was lost, I was really hoping for an alternate to the Dreamcast version.

BTW I downloaded Strikers 1945 II, it plays really well.

Bought Zero Gunner 2 and have no complaints. Looks good and plays well. The few minor things are not really game ruiners. In fact adds a different element of play. Have the Naomi version to play at home and this one on the go in 16:9 is great. Really happy with this port and maybe the best $8 spent in A LONG TIME.

Strikers 1945 II is a great port. Bring on Part 3 and Dragon Blaze!

Sorry, I meant Gunbird 2.

I downloaded Zero Gunner 2- to support zerodiv.

It plays decent enough to justify the purchase on it's own, but it definitely feels off. The rotation gimmick feels different and the gameplay feels a little stiff. Definitely better than nothing, not upset I bought it.

Some additional info concerning ZG2-:

Enemies no longer visibly spawn extra green option weapon items when left alone. As to whether they actually drop additional items, I didn't notice (but I'll do some further research on this).

This version has no attract mode (if you just let the game sit at the title screen it does nothing).

Scoring is inflated. I normally break 600,000 toward the end of stage 5 in the original (triggering the extend), but in this version my score averages around 850,000 by the same point.

With Zero Gunner 2, I hope they bring more shmups to the Switch. This is already feeling like the definitive console for shmups, along with the PS4.

I'd say the 360 still holds that title.

I'm talking about this generation, though. The 360 was the past generation.

Ahh ok then yeah, Switch and PS4 have surprisingly turned into great shmup consoles. Pretty crazy how far ahead MS were with the genre and now how far behind they are. Maybe Natsuki will come eventually come out.

For Natsuki, I want proof that it's a sequel to Ginga Force, that the story takes place after the events of that game. If not, then it's not worth it to me.

So what exactly is the easiest way to buy Gunbird as someone living in North America? It isn't just as easy as going directly through another region's eShop and putting in credit card info, is it?

Credit card won't work. You could try Paypal but that wouldn't work in other regions on Wii U so I'm guessing it's the same on Switch. Buying gift cards from somewhere like Play Asia is how I do it.

New update out that seems to fix a lot of the major issues: https://twitter.com/shmups/status/957904094252875781

I don't think it's out on the EU version yet, I just bought the game and it's a blast though. It definitely feels a bit different from the Dreamcast version, some cutscenes seem to be missing, widescreen obviously changes everything a bit, but like... they lost the source data and had to recreate a lot of the game. It's still a portable Zero Gunner 2 and it's amazing.

I just tried to update my copy and I'm still on version 1.0.0. When is this update supposed to drop?