Battle Squadron - MD / Genesis / Amiga

[Restart_Point]

I just got the Genesis version of Battle Squadron on cart, and after thinking it was a bit meh after a brief go in emulation a while ago, I've now played it enough to appreciate its qualities, and I like it quite a bit.

It has a few interesting mechanics, one of which is the overworld area that acts like a hub to the game's real stages, which loops continuously, so you can spend as long as like building-up your arsenal before choosing a stage to enter. Also it has some fine-tuning in the options to control number of enemy bullets on screen and bullet speed, which is novel for a retro console shmup. Another small but cool thing is the enemies that have a cloaking shield, kinda like the Predator's. It's a brilliant looking effect that I don't recall seeing in any other vintage shmups, it's also very effective and you really have to look out for the cloaked ships or they WILL bite you on the ass!

I have one question: can you earn extra lives? So far I don't think i've managed to rack up any extra lives at all from score or pickups, which is something that would come in very handy as I find the game damn hard at the moment.

If anyone has other interesting information on the game to impart then please go ahead, cheers!

[Herr Schatten]

The Amiga version has vastly superior music and is generally a bit easier than the Mega Drive port. It also doesn't have the MD version's foreground layers that obscure the action. On the other hand, you have to wiggle the stick in a circular motion to bomb instead of being able to do it instantly by just pressing a button.

[Barba]

On the other hand, you have to wiggle the stick in a circular motion to bomb instead of being able to do it instantly by just pressing a button.

As per the rules, I'm in no way endorsing or encouraging copyright violations.. that said: I believe there is a crack that remedies this specific problem (I do however not remember exactly which one, it's been decades)

[PerishedFraud ឵឵]

The MD Battle Squadron is impeccably balanced. Quite minimalistic, I won't lie, but it's extremely well-made. From the weapons to the enemy placements to the amount of bombs you get. It's a challenging game.

However, I have to call it a piece of shit.

Why? First of all, invisible enemies. In a shmup. fuck off.

Secondly, huge, obtrusive foreground that goes over enemies, you, and bullets. This shows up on several levels and completely ruins segments of the game. FUCK OFF.

Overall rating 4/10.

8/10 gameplay. 0/10 common sense. shithead design.

Great music though. Both versions, though Amiga is far superior. Here's a badass remix

[dark]

I have tried to play and enjoy this game several times over the years and I've never been able to have fun with it.

[OldSkoolShmuper]

Amiga version of Battle Squadron showcased on Nickelodeon.

3:48 in this clip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=iurqptRHq-w

VG&CE reviews of both versions

Amiga: https://i.imgur.com/b0ab1av.jpg | Genesis: https://i.imgur.com/0PdmAwJ.jpg

Bonus: Electronic Gaming Monthly review of Hybris https://i.imgur.com/7HOmk7K.jpg

[PerishedFraud ឵឵]

The alien crush narrator from that clip is great lmao.

[Aurel]

the 2013 pc version is really good
nearly the same as the amiga one but with 60fps/256 lines and improved controls.
really a good game!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq9-CGON-C0

[Herr Schatten]

I have one question: can you earn extra lives? So far I don't think i've managed to rack up any extra lives at all from score or pickups, which is something that would come in very handy as I find the game damn hard at the moment.

I don't think that there you can earn extra lives in the game. Score-based extends wouldn't have made much sense anyway since you can loop the planet surface forever without any significant increase in difficulty. Of course that makes score in the game a little pointless in general. One or two extends hidden in the inner stages would have been nice, though.

I never found the cloaked ships much of a problem, as I tend to use weapons with good screen coverage (yellow or red), so they are usually discovered quickly. I can see them getting a bit problematic if you stick to green, though. The foreground layers exclusive to the Mega Drive version are definitely inexcusable, but luckily there are other versions available.

[MJR]

I used to play Battle Squadron hell of a lot back in the day. Audiovisually it's one of the better efforts and playability is not too bad, though it's a classic euroshmup in a sense that first it's stupid easy and then it gets stupid tough. Another euroshmup feature is that surviving is not about learning tactics, there is no level design really, enemy buildings simply take in more hits the further you progress. Blah. So, it's simply about keeping your weapon power at max and bombing when appropriate. Using red weapon should enable you to clear the screen for most of the time.

Battle Squadron still is one of my favourite amiga shmups, though mostly for nostalgic reasons and nice graphics & music. I also love the presentation, how it makes you feel you are really destroying something rather than just wiping off sprites. It's also a LOT better than most of the attempts made for the machine, sans only Xenon games from Bitmap Brothers, Sidewinder, Datastorm and Starray.

If you press space bar at the title screen, on amiga version, you get a submenu where you can select how many lives you have and how often enemy bullets spawn and what's their speed. Hybris from same developers had similar one.

[Restart_Point]

The foreground layers exclusive to the Mega Drive version are definitely inexcusable, but luckily there are other versions available.

I wonder if these were added just to make the game harder, having a bunch of bullets and enemies obscured while they head for you is certainly a strange decision, and these are often the first points where I die as a result. The third underground area is hard enough already and didn't need to be made even harder! I wonder if there's a patch / game genie code to send the layer below or get rid of it entirely.

[Shatterhand]

Battle Squadron still is one of my favourite amiga shmups, though mostly for nostalgic reasons and nice graphics & music. I also love the presentation, how it makes you feel you are really destroying something rather than just wiping off sprites. It's also a LOT better than most of the attempts made for the machine, sans only Xenon games from Bitmap Brothers, Sidewinder, Datastorm and Starray.

Have you heard of Apidya, Hybris, Swiv, Mega Typhoon, Disposable Hero, Z-Out, Zyriax, Deluxe Galaga, Banshee... and not counting some great arcade ports. All of those are Amiga shmups and they go from "pretty good" to "Fucking damn great". I do think Battle Squadron qualifies as "Pretty Good", but there are many other as good or even better shmups on the system. Damn, many people would argue that Hybris, made by the same developer a year before Battle Squadron, it's actually a better game.

Sorry, but most of the games you mentioned are kinda mediocre or just plain suck. Xenon 2 is the most overrated crap on history ever, and only people who owned an Amiga back then and had never played an arcade shoot'em up before could enjoy that slow jerky pile of turd with, inded, great music and great graphics. I honestly don't know anyone who was never an Amiga fan to play Xenon 2 and not find it an horrible game. Again, the music is awesome but... the gameplay is really not any good at all. I could never understood how it got so much praise back then. I remember when I first got my cracked version, I thought it was a beta leaked or something, as there was no way that piece of crap could be the same game that magazines were raving about.


-

There's a patch for the Amiga version of Battle Squadron that makes it possible to fire the bomb using the 2nd button. It's really annoying how the code was already there, since you can play the game using a mouse and the 2nd button will fire the bomb... the programmer could had left the 2nd button bomb activation turned on when playing with a Joystick too.

The amiga version has enemies moving at a half frame rate , while the Mega-Drive version is at full frame rate.... but honestly, you can barely notice it, and everything else on the Amiga version is way better.

[MJR]

Battle Squadron still is one of my favourite amiga shmups, though mostly for nostalgic reasons and nice graphics & music. I also love the presentation, how it makes you feel you are really destroying something rather than just wiping off sprites. It's also a LOT better than most of the attempts made for the machine, sans only Xenon games from Bitmap Brothers, Sidewinder, Datastorm and Starray.

Have you heard of Apidya, Hybris, Swiv, Mega Typhoon, Disposable Hero, Z-Out, Zyriax, Deluxe Galaga, Banshee... and not counting some great arcade ports. All of those are Amiga shmups and they go from "pretty good" to "Fucking damn great". I do think Battle Squadron qualifies as "Pretty Good", but there are many other as good or even better shmups on the system. Damn, many people would argue that Hybris, made by the same developer a year before Battle Squadron, it's actually a better game.

Sorry, but most of the games you mentioned are kinda mediocre or just plain suck. Xenon 2 is the most overrated crap on history ever, and only people who owned an Amiga back then and had never played an arcade shoot'em up before could enjoy that slow jerky pile of turd with, inded, great music and great graphics. I honestly don't know anyone who was never an Amiga fan to play Xenon 2 and not find it an horrible game. Again, the music is awesome but... the gameplay is really not any good at all. I could never understood how it got so much praise back then. I remember when I first got my cracked version, I thought it was a beta leaked or something, as there was no way that piece of crap could be the same game that magazines were raving about.


-

There's a patch for the Amiga version of Battle Squadron that makes it possible to fire the bomb using the 2nd button. It's really annoying how the code was already there, since you can play the game using a mouse and the 2nd button will fire the bomb... the programmer could had left the 2nd button bomb activation turned on when playing with a Joystick too.

The amiga version has enemies moving at a half frame rate , while the Mega-Drive version is at full frame rate.... but honestly, you can barely notice it, and everything else on the Amiga version is way better.

Somebody got triggered, huh?

Your fairly condescending tone made me think if this should require a legit answer, but yes, I am aware of all those shmups you mentioned and played them a lot, and also own many of them as original copies.

Apidya - Have it as original copy. Presentation is great, and lots of detail, but it is also one of the very few amiga shmups I didn't bother to complete. It's not bad, it just isn't very exciting.

Hybris - From same people as Battle Squadron. Love the music and graphics, but has same problems as many other shmups of the era, starts too easy, then gets stupid hard in the end so there is uneven difficulty curve, levels are long and repetitive. It's still enjoyable for a nostalgia dip but hardly a game I would play for score.

Swiv - Just played this out recently, remember liking it a lot back in the day, also completed it. But again the same issue with uneven difficulty curve and repetitive gameplay

Z-Out - Own this too, I've been playing it more than many other amiga shmups. It is one of the best definitely, even hidden secrets and level design is above most of the other amiga games. Nice framerate. Has uneven graphical quality; while some level graphics look fantastic, some of the levels look like they were made by a child, which is a pity. But it is still a very solid game.

As for the rest: Mega Typhoon, Disposable Hero,, Zyriax, Deluxe Galaga, Banshee - I have tried all of them, but I think these are not good enough to deserve even a mention. (Deluxe Galaga unarguably is a good game, but it's also a straight up arcade conversion so I dont count it as original amiga shmup - which this discussion is about)

Xenon 2 is not perfect game, enemies are bullet sponges which is fairly annoying, and framerate could be better, but I stand by my opinion that it is one of the amiga's better efforts. You have the right to disagree of course, but it's just your opinion, not some measurable fact

At least you didn't praise Project-X, so I am still able to take you somewhat seriously. Project-X is awful, it deserved to die in dumpster fire.

Thanks for the info about the Battle Squadron patch and mention about framerate in megadrive version, I didn't know about those. Interesting.

[Herr Schatten]

I have to agree with the above, except that I think Apidya is actually very good. I did bother to complete my original copy back in the day.
Apidya, Z-Out and Battle Squadron are really the only Amiga shmups worth anyone's time. Swiv and Hybris are okay-ish, but not more.

[RuySan]

Battle Squadron still is one of my favourite amiga shmups, though mostly for nostalgic reasons and nice graphics & music. I also love the presentation, how it makes you feel you are really destroying something rather than just wiping off sprites. It's also a LOT better than most of the attempts made for the machine, sans only Xenon games from Bitmap Brothers, Sidewinder, Datastorm and Starray.

Have you heard of Apidya, Hybris, Swiv, Mega Typhoon, Disposable Hero, Z-Out, Zyriax, Deluxe Galaga, Banshee... and not counting some great arcade ports. All of those are Amiga shmups and they go from "pretty good" to "Fucking damn great". I do think Battle Squadron qualifies as "Pretty Good", but there are many other as good or even better shmups on the system. Damn, many people would argue that Hybris, made by the same developer a year before Battle Squadron, it's actually a better game.

Sorry, but most of the games you mentioned are kinda mediocre or just plain suck. Xenon 2 is the most overrated crap on history ever, and only people who owned an Amiga back then and had never played an arcade shoot'em up before could enjoy that slow jerky pile of turd with, inded, great music and great graphics. I honestly don't know anyone who was never an Amiga fan to play Xenon 2 and not find it an horrible game. Again, the music is awesome but... the gameplay is really not any good at all. I could never understood how it got so much praise back then. I remember when I first got my cracked version, I thought it was a beta leaked or something, as there was no way that piece of crap could be the same game that magazines were raving about.


-

There's a patch for the Amiga version of Battle Squadron that makes it possible to fire the bomb using the 2nd button. It's really annoying how the code was already there, since you can play the game using a mouse and the 2nd button will fire the bomb... the programmer could had left the 2nd button bomb activation turned on when playing with a Joystick too.

The amiga version has enemies moving at a half frame rate , while the Mega-Drive version is at full frame rate.... but honestly, you can barely notice it, and everything else on the Amiga version is way better.

Somebody got triggered, huh?

Your fairly condescending tone made me think if this should require a legit answer, but yes, I am aware of all those shmups you mentioned and played them a lot, and also own many of them as original copies.

Apidya - Have it as original copy. Presentation is great, and lots of detail, but it is also one of the very few amiga shmups I didn't bother to complete. It's not bad, it just isn't very exciting.

Hybris - From same people as Battle Squadron. Love the music and graphics, but has same problems as many other shmups of the era, starts too easy, then gets stupid hard in the end so there is uneven difficulty curve, levels are long and repetitive. It's still enjoyable for a nostalgia dip but hardly a game I would play for score.

Swiv - Just played this out recently, remember liking it a lot back in the day, also completed it. But again the same issue with uneven difficulty curve and repetitive gameplay

Z-Out - Own this too, I've been playing it more than many other amiga shmups. It is one of the best definitely, even hidden secrets and level design is above most of the other amiga games. Nice framerate. Has uneven graphical quality; while some level graphics look fantastic, some of the levels look like they were made by a child, which is a pity. But it is still a very solid game.

As for the rest: Mega Typhoon, Disposable Hero,, Zyriax, Deluxe Galaga, Banshee - I have tried all of them, but I think these are not good enough to deserve even a mention. (Deluxe Galaga unarguably is a good game, but it's also a straight up arcade conversion so I dont count it as original amiga shmup - which this discussion is about)

Xenon 2 is not perfect game, enemies are bullet sponges which is fairly annoying, and framerate could be better, but I stand by my opinion that it is one of the amiga's better efforts. You have the right to disagree of course, but it's just your opinion, not some measurable fact

At least you didn't praise Project-X, so I am still able to take you somewhat seriously. Project-X is awful, it deserved to die in dumpster fire.

Thanks for the info about the Battle Squadron patch and mention about framerate in megadrive version, I didn't know about those. Interesting.

Strange that you didn't enjoy Apidya. For me it's the only Amiga shmup that compares favorably to the best japanese of the time.

Banshee is also incredible, even though it's an euroshmup through and through. Incredible sense of destruction and unique and memorable style. I feel these two are the absolute best original shmups.

There's also great arcade ports, such as R-type 1&2, Silkworm and Saint Dragon.