Night Striker Gear announced!

[Sweatlord_STG]

I was also told by a friend that the game was very short. Thank you for confirming. I think it's okay when some ancient arcade games have a 15min first loop because it will still take me a lot of practice to beat it, but this - the game has been in the making for so long, and it is still not out yet apart from getting it this way. You would expect it to be longer than this.

Edit: FUCK MY LIFE! Finally I just received my copy of the LE. It is sooo beautiful. I love it.

[Bassa-Bassa]

the game has been in the making for so long

??

The game was announced in November.

[Sweatlord_STG]

the game has been in the making for so long

??

The game was announced in November.

Right. LOL I must have confused it with the remaster of Night Striker, because that was first mentioned several years ago, I know that for sure.

[FunktionJCB]

The game (and soundtrack) are out now on Steam:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3290 ... IKER_GEAR/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4010 ... oundtrack/

I saw some mentions elsewhere that it's also up on the Switch store, at least in some territories.

[xEbb1993x]

But not on PS5?

[Sengoku Strider]

But not on PS5?

Nope, just Switch + Steam:

タイトル：ナイトストライカーGEAR
発売日：2025年10月23日（木）
価格：2,800円(税込)
プラットフォーム：Nintendo Switch™（ダウンロード販売） / Steam®
ジャンル：3Dアクションシューティング
対応言語：日本語 / 英語
プレイ人数：１人
レーティング：CERO A


I think they did a good job with the visuals, I like how the enemies are rendered to look 3D but still retain just enough of the characteristic pixelated vibe of old-school sprite scaling. That's a balance devs have been getting wrong since the Dreamcast imo, I hope M2 carry this approach over to other titles like the new Aleste.

[qmish]

I find it hilarious how they did release date trailer just 1 day in advance

As for visuals, I thought it was reminding people of Devil Blade Reboot a bit?

[Udderdude]

It's pretty good. That's my review(tm).

[PC Engine Fan X!]

The game (and soundtrack) are out now on Steam:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3290 ... IKER_GEAR/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4010 ... oundtrack/

I saw some mentions elsewhere that it's also up on the Switch store, at least in some territories.

It ain't on the USA region Switch eShop portal as of today, 10/22/2025.

The Steam port of Night Striker Gear is a mere 606.7mb d/l and can had for $18.99 usd.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[m.sniffles.esq]

It ain't on the USA region Switch eShop portal as of today, 10/22/2025.

Yeah, the trailer they released today says 10/23

[hamfighterx]

FWIW, the "Operation Night Strikers Edition" that was exclusive to the packaged LE release via download code got an update to version 1.2.0. (from 1.1.0). I think this was new/recent, but not 100% sure since I haven't fired up NSG in the past few weeks (until today). Not sure what may have changed, but I assume it's consistent with the imminent standalone eshop release.

[Jonpachi]

Play-Asia still hasn't opened up pre-orders for the physical. Such a burn for people that bought the LE of the ONS collection to not get it on a cart.

[hamfighterx]

Play-Asia still hasn't opened up pre-orders for the physical. Such a burn for people that bought the LE of the ONS collection to not get it on a cart.

There's going to be a physical release Night Striker Gear? I wasn't aware of that and had been expecting that this one was gonna be download only. I suppose that was an assumption based on them only including a download code in the Operation Night Strikers SE box set, but as far as I can tell M2 has never said anything about a stand-alone physical release of Gear on any platform in any region.

Oh, and the Switch version 1.2.0 patch is indeed brand new, M2's site confirms it was released October 23, 2025: https://m2stg.com/night-striker-gear/news.php
M2 site lists the patch contents as only "minor bug fixes", nothing too exciting here.

[Jonpachi]

Yep, physical incoming: https://www.play-asia.com/night-striker-gear/13/70i98f

[hamfighterx]

Oh, there is a good chance that is not real. Play Asia has a habit of putting placeholder pages up for games before they are officially announced, and they often go away. I wouldn't view a PA "coming soon" page with no date and a stock photo as proof of anything unless it's corroborated by an official announcement from the publisher, or if it starts going up for pre-order at lots of retailers.

M2 not mentioning a word of a physical release with the official launch reveal, no preorders at Amazon.jp (or anywhere else I've seen), no mention in the Famitsu post to go along with the announcement (https://www.famitsu.com/article/202510/55784 which basically serves as a press release)... yeah, I don't see anything here that gives me any confidence there is a planned physical release.

[Jonpachi]

Oh, there is a good chance that is not real. Play Asia has a habit of putting placeholder pages up for games before they are officially announced, and they often go away. I wouldn't view a PA "coming soon" page with no date and a stock photo as proof of anything unless it's corroborated by an official announcement from the publisher, or if it starts going up for pre-order at lots of retailers.

M2 not mentioning a word of a physical release with the official launch reveal, no preorders at Amazon.jp (or anywhere else I've seen), no mention in the Famitsu post to go along with the announcement (https://www.famitsu.com/article/202510/55784 which basically serves as a press release)... yeah, I don't see anything here that gives me any confidence there is a planned physical release.

Shitty. I hope you're wrong. I really want it on a cart.

[hamfighterx]

Shitty. I hope you're wrong. I really want it on a cart.

I also hope I'm wrong! Not holding my breath after having seen this same thing several times from Play Asia though.

[xEbb1993x]

I'm checking the eShop for a while. I can't find it. eShop games usually aren't expensive, right? Between this and Final Formation coming out next Thursday...

[Sweatlord_STG]

the game is 2800 yen, of course it wont get a physical release

[Acid]

No PS4 release? I thought PS4 was their console of choice.

[hamfighterx]

I'm checking the eShop for a while. I can't find it. eShop games usually aren't expensive, right? Between this and Final Formation coming out next Thursday...

If you're looking for the US eShop link, here it is: https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/produ ... ar-switch/

I can also confirm I saw the game up in the US store yesterday when accessing the store on an actual Switch. Price is $18.99.

No PS4 release? I thought PS4 was their console of choice.

Yeah, known weirdness on this once since it was announced. And annoying to me as a console-first player, because I'd love to play with the Cyberstick but that's only supported on PC, not Switch (though it works on PS4, so presumably would have been supported there).

Maybe the decision wasn't entirely M2's, due to Taito involvement? Publisher is a little interesting with this one though:
* Taito published both the Japanese physical and eShop versions of Operation Night Strikers.
* Clear River Games (i.e., Limited Run's European entity) published the NA and EU eshop versions of Operation Night Strikers, and is listed as co-publisher with Taito for the Limited Run Games western physical release: https://limitedrungames.com/products/op ... ion-switch
* M2 self-published the stand-alone eShop Night Striker Gear in all regions, including Japan

[xEbb1993x]

I saw. I'll download it tonight. I think I'll do all four routes before attempting the true route and ending. I just need to know how to get to it.

[AGermanArtist]

This is kinda great.

[Udderdude]

While I'm sure the game could run on the PS4 (and probably even the PS3), it's 12 years old now .. obligatory "Time to feel old".

[Darkseed_5150]

Nice job releasing on the 2 platforms which I own but refuse to sink any more money into. PS release pls!

[m.sniffles.esq]

Got to play one credit

You can transform into a robot for no apparent reason

Into it

[xEbb1993x]

I noticed the Inter Gray goes from KITT from Knight Rider to a Valkyrie from Macross this time. How do you change form?

[Klatrymadon]

Press the Gear button! It does serve a purpose, BTW — your shots become homing shots in that form. It's on a pretty tight meter which can be refilled by killing groups of enemies, so there's a least a little strategy involved in deciding when and how long to use it. (I tend to use Gear mode for 1-2 seconds to deal with high-value enemy waves, but maybe there's a more optimal strat. I'm awful at the game, so far.)

[xEbb1993x]

I'll keep that in mind. I'm already gonna start the game sometime today.

[hamfighterx]

Press the Gear button! It does serve a purpose, BTW — your shots become homing shots in that form. It's on a pretty tight meter which can be refilled by killing groups of enemies, so there's a least a little strategy involved in deciding when and how long to use it. (I tend to use Gear mode for 1-2 seconds to deal with high-value enemy waves, but maybe there's a more optimal strat. I'm awful at the game, so far.)

Yeah, if you stay in Gear mode long you will power down your main shot quickly, so it's risky to use without being very intentional. You have to time it right so you can kill several groups of enemies quickly after turning back to flying car mode to get your normal shot powered back up.

I dunno that my use is optimal either, but it does feel like using it for short bursts to deal with high-value waves is a good approach. I also sometimes like to quickly swap to homing/robot mode when the little bonus enemy appears (the one that shows up once per stage and gives you a shield segment if you destroy it), to make damn sure I kill that. It's also pretty good to quickly kill midbosses, and you can generally power back up very quickly when the midboss goes down and a bunch of zako fodder enemies appear to let you get your shot power back (just don't exhaust all your power and fail to kill the midboss, or you're stuck down at Gear 1 shot power to whittle it down)

I think I still have the same reservations about the mechanic that I did back in August, see item #1 in my earlier post viewtopic.php?p=1584758#p1584758
I can see the potential in a game that leans into the whole expending your shot meter then building it back up, if there was more of a rhythm to it. Almost thinking like a Giga Wing or Mars Matrix feel, where you use your reflect shield/ability at the right time to destroy everything and then feel a bit underpowered and exposed while you wait for the cooldown to be able to use it again. If Gear was more designed around smart use of the transformation (which I don't really think it is, though maybe I'm just terrible) I'd appreciate that more.

It's just that there are so few mechanics in this game that when using your ONE ability (transform) other than your standard shot actually reduces the power of the standard shot... IDK, it feels a bit too limited and underbaked for my liking.