DISCLAIMER:
This ST has survived the reddit boomer's meltdown because of archive.org's brilliant work! Thanks very much for your fundamental contribution
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EDIT - 21-09-2011
Added exact scores for stage 4 and stage 5 tricks, corrected instructions for pigs (Contribution by PLASMO)
INDEX OF CONTENTS
0.0 INTRODUCTION
0.1 TOAPLAN'S LAST MOMENTS
0.2 SHMUPS PHILOLOGY 1.01
0.3 RANDOM TRIVIA
1.0 BASIC MECHANICS.
1.1 A NOTE
1.1.1 NORMAL VERSION
1.1.2 SPECIAL VERSION
1.2 EXPERIENCE SYSTEM
1.2.1 NORMAL VERSION
1.2.2 SPECIAL VERSION
1.3 SHIPS
1.3.1 TYPE A
1.3.2 TYPE B
1.3.3 TYPE C
1.4 AUTOFIRE
1.4.1 TYPE A AND AUTOFIRE
1.4.2 TYPE B AND AUTOFIRE
1.4.3 TYPE C AND AUTOFIRE
1.5 PIGS
1.5.1 NORMAL VERSION.
1.5.2 SPECIAL VERSION
2.0 SCORING TRICKS
2.1 STAGE 2
2.2 STAGE 4
2.3 STAGE 5
3.0 ROUNDS AND DIFFICULTY
3.1. DIFFICULTY
3.2 ROUNDS AND SUICIDE BULLETS
3.2.1 FIRST ROUND
3.2.2 SECOND ROUND
3.2.3 THIRD ROUND
3.2.4 FOURTH ROUND
4.0 CONCLUSIONS
0.0 INTRODUCTION
Batsugun, as you may know, is the last game by Toaplan and the first without infinite loops:the normal version ends after 5 stages,the special version loops four times,starting at second stage on second loop,at third on third loop,at fourth on fourth loop.It was the first game featuring human characters, drawn by Junia Inoue (Joker Jun), a reduced hit box, and a set of other features we'll discuss at length during this shmup treatise. What's the game about? On a distant Star, a human colony is being abused by its tyrants,who made a coup-d'etat and started a wacky project to colonize outer space.Six mighty warriors, the "skull hornets" brigade, will put an end to this weird project...
0.1 TOAPLAN'S LAST MOMENTS
The original game was produced in 1993, whereas the Special version had to be released for the AOU show in 1994, if Toaplan didn't bankrupt.Boards of the special version started appearing on second-hand markets after a while...even if the best solution you can get is the Saturn port, since emulation is pretty bad (it lacks sound and,i think, in MAME has graphical glitches,dunno about emulators).While the normal version PCB shouldn't be very expensive ( i think less than 100$), the special version should cost a lot.Let's say that "The Sheep" (the guy posting here) may help you in this regard,but that's all i can tell you (i suppose he can burn the extra roms and then you solder those to your board). You may actually be interested in the PCB or emulation because the Saturn port (done by Gazelle,ex-Toaplan members) is actually an optimized version, id est, it doesn't slowdown when there are a shitload of bullets on screen.
This factor becomes very important in the third and fourth loops of special version, mainly...yes,there's even a third and a fourth loop, but more on this later.
0.2 SHMUPS PHILOLOGY 1.01
Now,one thing about Batsugun is its striking resemblances to Cave games...This is because The main programmer behind this game was Tsuneki Ikeda, who also was the main programmer behind Tatsujin and,along with Kenichi Takano,Cave's founders and programmers of all Cave shmups.This also means that any rants on Cave games are to be made knowing that ALL of their games have been done by two persons and a varying number of free-lancers/temporary grunt programmers.
Those striking resemblances have only partially been carried to Cave games...aside the graphical aspect (i don't remember Joker Jun to appear in Don Pachi's credits, for instance), what's more obvious is the almost identical flow of enemies, attack patterns and style of boss battles.The original gameplay of Batsugun, that can be defined as "bombs and bonuses", was actually the main source of inspiration (gameplay-wise) for BATTLE GAREGGA. Why? Battle Garegga's main programmer is S.Yagawa, who worked on many Toaplan games (dunno which ones, sorry) and thus was inspired by his friend for his game (and by Gun Frontier...but this is another story).Also,There's an interesting case of "inspiration cycle" ( in literature, i would talk about philological issues): The type-A is obviously inspired by raiden's ship (in its wide attack/frontal missile combination), a game who is in turn based on early toaplan games (in fact, stage 2 and 7 BGM of Raiden, "Gallantry" is a "cover" of Flying shark stage 2's BGM...not to mention gameplay ).
0.3 RANDOM TRIVIA
An interesting rumour (completely unconfirmed, so don't look at me for more info) is that Joker made a parody of himself by designing Iceman: he should also have provided the voice for said character. This because Joker Jun seems to have the habit of ALWAYS wearing sunglasses.As i said, this is a rumour, and it's more or less useless...but if true, it's hilariously funny
Now, as a rule of thumb i'll expose the common aspects between the two version, and after every paragraph, write the differences between normal and special version.
1.0 BASIC MECHANICS.
Batsugun is pretty an immediate game to play: you shoot up stuff, collect bonuses and power-up your ship.This is basically the whole core of the game.On some points, though, there are some tricks to dramatically increase your score, which basically revolve about bombing the proper enemies (or other actions). Before explaining these tecniques, let's analyze how ships/planes work.
1.1 A NOTE
Before talking about the main feature, the experience system, cover the other attack, the smart bomb: this because it basically never changes when you level up, but it's different between normal and special version. At this point, let's introduce a contrastive (for comparison) model:
1.1.1 NORMAL VERSION
In the normal version,you shoot a "ring of energy",that will expand to about half the screen in radius ,and deal a limited damage (like Flying Shark,for instance).It also cancels bullets in its radius.
1.1.2 SPECIAL VERSION
In the special version, you shoot a screen-covering blast (with a central ball of energy) that will cancel all bullets, destroy almost everything (save mid-bosses and bosses) on screen.There's also the pilot's hand with a pollice recto animation showing up.
These differences are important for scoring purposes,since the special version will be easier to perform a given trick at the fourth boss that will make you score a lot, given the different and more powerful bomb.Also, in the normal version the bomb will basically damage only touched enemies, and this means that you may need to be close to them,or that you can't damage all enemies on screen at once. This can be a problem when dealing with bosses!
Now,let's talk about the main feature, the
1.2 EXPERIENCE SYSTEM.
This game has an RPG element, the experience system,that basically works in this way: every enemy you shoot will give you a given quantity of Experience Points (EP from now on).On the lower part of the screen, you have the number of bombs on the lower-left corner and, beside it, the Experience Points Bar (EPB from now on).This bar is made of 24 blocks, and one block is filled every 12 EP you score (this means you need 288 EP to level up).You can level up to reach level 3, and the ships will change in form every time you do it (only the sprite will be altered,not the hitbox).
Now, you can actually also take power-ups: up to 5 per level. This means that you can make your shot more powerful by taking power-ups, and you can (partially) change its characteristics by levelling up.One example: on level 1, type C (Iceman and Olisis) shoots a wide-shot attack if tapping, and a sort of forward shot if holding down the button. At level 2,at the third power up, you will get pods that shot laser beams. At the second power up of level 3, the most external shots of the wide attack have the homing feature.Once you reach level 3, you stop getting new levels but the bar still can be filled up:why?Because you will get an extra bomb and a shield (on special version).Here are the differences:
1.2.1 NORMAL VERSION
You get an extra bomb once you fill up the bar,after you've reached level 3.
1.2.2 SPECIAL VERSION
You get an extra bomb once you fill up the bar,and you get a shield feature,you can be hit without dying.You will have a "white shadow" following you like the trail you have in Don Pachi (when using the laser). Also, you will get a multiplier equal to round's value for your EP, i.e. if you destroy an enemy worth 10 EP in the third round, you will get 10x3=30 EP.This means that in the last (fourth) round you will level up a lot...which is helpful, since you can't have more than one shield at time.This multiplier also affects the EP bonus given by secret piggies, which are lavander and to be found in given spots by entering a "special move" in key moments (more of this in the "secrets" section).While hovering near the lavander piggies,though, we can get 1,1 exp points per second,and this value is also influenced by the said multiplier (Round Multiplier, or RM). Now,once we've talked about the basic mechanics and experience system,let's analyze the different ships, or types:
1.3 SHIPS
There are three types of ships, but since Joker Jun did an excellent job in drawing very likeable characters,you may want to play with the 2p side characters.At any case, we'll discuss how the three types play and give some hints on characters.Before that,some common features to all ships:
1)Speed is the same for all ships.To my knowledge,this is the only case in shmups with more than one ship.This is true for both versions,actually.
2)Hit area is smaller than the sprite,but still pretty big, in the normal version, whereas the special versions introduces the "cockpit" only hitbox.
3)As we said, bombs are different between the two versions.
Once said that,let's talk about the ships:
1.3.1 TYPE A
This is an interesting case of shmups philology,like i said earlier,and also the ship with the biggest amount of firepower ever to grace a screen.At full power,it easily covers all screen!Now, the evolution of your shot is this:
LEVEL 1 - Normal spread shot.
LEVEL 2 - The spread shot becomes wider,more powerful:at the third power-up,you will trigger the secondary attack,frontal missiles.
LEVEL 3 - The Spread shot will become huge,and at the third power-up,the more external shots will sweep left and right while tapping.
This ship is actually pretty strong played the "Raiden" way, that is,trying to point blank bigger enemies.The amount of bullets you shoot,if all hit the same enemy, can be devastating. It can be the most difficult ship to use in the loops,for this reason.One note: you can't use full auto with this ship,you are forced to always tap the shot button, in order to shot,and this can be tiring...
Its two pilots are Jeeno(1p) and Schneider(2p). Jeeno has actually a sad past and he's trying to prove himself to be the best warrior around (even if he's now a cyborg), whereas Schneider is the "Fling Shark" pilot who was hybernated and moved on this planet during his centuries-long sleep. Some trivia:Type A will become Type C in Don Pachi, minus the secondary attack.
1.3.2 TYPE B
Type B is basically your typical "forward shot" type,and it's pretty powerful once at full power.Its secondary attack is an homing fluxus of energy,strongly reminiscent of Tatsujin's homing lasers.Its development is:
LEVEL 1 - One frontal laser,pretty powerful.
LEVEL 2 - The laser attack becomes more powerful: at the third power-up,you get the aforementioned spiralling fluxus,who basically works like an homing laser.
LEVEL 3 - Every becomes more powerful,and at the third power up the secondary attack increases the number of possible locked attacks, and works like the "toothpaste"(violet) attack in Raiden DX.
This ship is surely the most powerful and can take down bosses in no time,once you overlap the secondary attack onto them.You need to be careful with the secondary attack in loops though,often it can destroy too many enemies and thus you may have too many suicide bullets on screen.It's interesting that you can ONLY use full auto (better,tapping is useless) with this ship.
Its pilots are Beltiana (1p) and Alteeno (2p). Beltiana wants to have revenge for his family,killed by the main baddie,and Alteeno is the young skull hornets' mechanic, who finally has the chance to pilot the ships she always repaired.Some trivia:Type B became type A in Don Pachi,minus the secondary attack.
1.3.3 TYPE C
Type C is the most original one of the trio,since it actually has two different attacks, depending on your actions (tapping or holding down the button).Basically,tapping will give you a wide shot,holding down the button a frontal stream of arched lasers.Its progressions is:
LEVEL 1 - Wide shot and simple frontal attacks.
LEVEL 2 - The wide shot becomes larger and more powerful,at the third power-up you gain two pods that will shoot piercing lasers when in laser mode.
LEVEL 3 - The two most external bullets of the wide shot become homing at the third power up.
This ship is the less powerful but the more versatile.The ability to choose which enemies to take down is excellent for the loops:Some Trivia:it's pretty obvious that the shot/laser attacks,perhaps the most famous feature of Don Pachi series, were inspired by type C.
Its pilots are Iceman (1p) and Olisis.Iceman is a mysterious mercenary with a cloudy past,Whereas Olisis is the prince of Batsugun's planet, and he fights to claim back his reign.
Once we have explained how ships work, let's talk about the
1.4 AUTOFIRE
The three ships all have one element of their firepower that makes them powerful: type A has the missiles, Type B the power surge at the beginning ot the fluxus, Type C the homing bullets in spread mode. The arcade versions were usually hacked with overclocked autofire, that made the said elements easily abusable to get more firepower. The Saturn version has two different options: button A is the normal automatic fire, which lacks the ability to intensify the fire rate unless you're using a joystick with variable autofire. Button C, though, is the equivalent of said hack, and basically substites the need of furious tapping to increase the firepower: if you don't use C, you will be forced to tap a lot, with your speed of tapping being equivalent of the power increase. Let's see how:
1.4.1 TYPE A AND AUTOFIRE
Type A, being Raidenesque in nature, needs tapping, and lots of it. If you want to spare your finger, you can easily use the C button all the time, and it's even better if you point-blank enemies: this because tapping and distance from your enemy rules the frequency of missiles.Of course, you can tap too, but it's difficult to reach the same speed as autofire. you can also turn on auto-fire on button A at maximum speed to have the same result.
1.4.2 TYPE B AND AUTOFIRE
Type B has a power surge at the begging of the fluxus: once it reaches an enemy, the power surge is produced again.By tapping, you produce said power surge more frequently, but you need to have the surge to hit the enemy to do any damage, or it will be useless.The best method is C button, as you will overclock the shot and have several power surges to hit an enemy at once, without damaging your finger.You can also tap with A, but some of the power surges will be cancelled by the continuous action.
1.4.3 TYPE C AND AUTOFIRE
The trickiest of the three: since tapping makes the ship switch to the spread attack, it's better to use A for normal frontal laser, and C button to use the spread attack. Like Type A, the spread attack at point-blank distance deals massive damage.One important thing: be careful when using the spread attack on rounds other than the first, the homing bullets can creat unrequested suicide bullets by destroying odd-placed enemies!
1.5 PIGS
That is,pigs offer you a good way to score a bit and increase your level bar in special version.This because:
a)Peach-coloured pigs are worth 110 points per 1/60th of second you hover near them;
b)Lavander-coloured pigs are worth 1,1 EP per 1/60th of second you hover near them;
Let's see how:
1.5.1 NORMAL VERSION.
Pigs are revealed in four points, and are only of the peach-coloured variety.
a) On Stage 2, hold right-down when destroying the turret on the right side of the island.The pig should appear there.
b) On stage 3, when you destroy the central battery on the main land, and the scroll slows down, hold down.The pig should appear in the falls.
c) On stage 5, there should be two occasions with the same command. Hold left+down, when the stage starts and immediately after you destroy the hangar and the tanks in it,on the left:two pigs.Then,after the section with the round tanks,after the first row of tanks, on the first horizontal road, as soon as it scrolls in, destroy the tanks and pigs should appear in their place.
1.5.2 SPECIAL VERSION
Same four points, same macros, but:
a)On stage 2 ,it's a lavander pig;
b)On stage 3, you get peach pigs instead of bonuses when you destroy the central battery,and the fall pig is of the lavander variety;
c)On stage 5, first one is worth two lavander pigs, second one 8 (if memory serves me right) peach pigs.
You should actually mantain a second or two the last direction,when inserting the macro,in order to be sure. Now,once we know how the pigs work, let's talk about the
2.0 SCORING TRICKS.
Basically,every small V is worth 3k points,and every big V 5k points,at the end of the stage.They are computed since your last death, i.e., if you die and don't get any medals from that point on,no bonuses.once you max out power ups (5) or bombs (7),you will get a bonus that will start at 1k and increase to 10k,1k at time.Also, normal peach pigs are worth 110 points per every 1/60th of a second you hover near them.Of course, all these factors are not enough to max out the score: how to do it, then? Basically,there are a few tricks based on careful bombing (and other stuff).Let's see how:
2.1 STAGE 2
One simple trick,destroy the plane near the turret (where the pigs are) when it's on the ramp, for 68,930 points.
2.2 STAGE 4
This is the most difficult and rewarding trick. A brief explanation is this:
Destroy the five cannons behind the laser cannons. Exploit the hole in the rotating attacks,by placing yourself between cannons the central turret shoots.Once done that,destroy the two laser cannons.Two hangars will be revealed and and tanks will come out of them. Let them "overcrowd" the ramps,they will become red:at this point, you need to bomb and each one of them is worth 56.930 points. Repeat until the boss goes down. This trick is worth 1,311,680 per bomb.
2.3 STAGE 5
You need,when you arrive at the central platform that has two walker mechas on it,to make it arrive at the other side of the factory.This is done by leaving one of the two mechas functional, since the platform will stop moving if you destroy them both.Once it arrives at the other side, it will give you 3,279,650 points.Then, there's a section with round tanks moving on two planes: bomb them for 59,630 points each.This trick can be repeated four times, it is worth a maximum of 1,3x4=5,2M (more or less) in total.
Now, these tricks work on special version, while on normal version, the first stage 5 trick gives you only 300k, and the second one doesn't work. Also,on stage 4, since you have a less powerful bomb,you need to be careful on how to use it (place yourself at centre of the two ramps, at about half of their length).
Some considerations: if you can avoid damaging the central turret at all,it will endure about 8 or 9 bombs.This means that you can suicide in order to score more on this boss.Also,On the platform trick, you should leave the left mecha (withot the lateral cannons) functional,it's easy to destroy other incoming enemies this way. On the round tanks part, learn what's the best bomb distribution,you may actually save one bomb.
Now, this is almost everything you need to know.The last part deals with
3.0 ROUNDS AND DIFFICULTY.
Now, aside the change of palettes, normal and special version differ mainly in length: Since the normal version was pretty short (a complete requires about 20 minutes), the programmers thought of adding a extra challenge by making the game loop 3 times.In this game, loops and normal part are called rounds, so you have to clear four rounds to complete it.You don't repeat all stages: you start again at the stage with the same ordinal value of the round,i.e you start at stage 2 at the second round,stage 3 at third round,stage 4 at fourth round.This gives you a grand total of 14 stages,which require about 80 minutes to be cleared (if you always do the trick at fourth boss).
Now,one important note: i will find a way to show what's the best method to dodge suicide bullets on different rounds.Complex explanations can't do justice,in this case we really need sound and vision. For the moment,though,i will try to explain how to deal with suicide bullets using words,since it's all i have,right now.
3.1. DIFFICULTY
Without much ado: Normal version is set at normal difficulty, and since it's just one round, no suicide bullets whatsoever.Special version starts at EASY difficulty, then goes one level up at every round, gives you an extra ship after every round completed, and has three different types of suicide bullets.This isn't a big problem on the original PCB, since the programmers had to work with a not-too-powerful hardware,and there's plenty of slowdown on round 3 and 4.This slowdown is completely absent on Saturn version, and this means that said port is quite more difficult than the original game.However, it's still doable,once we know how to deal with those nasty suicide bullets.
3.2 ROUNDS AND SUICIDE BULLETS
How we deal with those suicide bullets?First, what you need to know is that if you're near the explosion left by destroying any enemy, there will not be any suicide bullets.This means that the explosion animation must finish before there won't be any suicide bullets:this is *very* important, since bigger enemies will release a lot of suicide bullets,given their longer explosions.This also forces you to know the enemy sequence, and to plan the best way to be closer to all of them while they pop-up on screen.Moving in that sequence is the basis behind chaining in DP and other cases,point-blanking enemies is partially the base behind Esp.Ra.De, and to a lesser extent behind Shikigami games.
One last thing:when boss are destroyed, you're invicible,so,don't worry about their suicide bullets.Be careful on Madzella (second boss) between its first and second phase,you're not invincible,orbit around it to hoard bullets.
Now, how to approach those rounds?
3.2.1 FIRST ROUND
Pretty easy, literally.At some point i started doing it without even focusing, back in the day.
3.2.2 SECOND ROUND
Ok, this one may be tricky, but let's try to understand how to work on it.Suicide bullets will basically come in straight fluxi of red bullets,aimed at you.These fluxi will aimed again every 1/5th of a second,roughly.This means that only bigger enemies will be a serious threat,because they will change direction more than 2 times.The simplest trick is,aside point-blanking and chaining enemies, move only if you're about to be hit,by small taps.If they're going to close you in an angle,stop shooting,make a cut-back (abrupt change of direction)and then start again shooting.
3.2.3 THIRD ROUND
Now things get nasty: you will basically have the game on HARD difficulty, and every enemy will release three rows of orange bullets.One of this rows of bullets will aimed directly at you, the other two will roughtly be oriented at 30° on the left and on the right.This means that there will be a cone of suicide bullets with its generator axis aimed at you.The best trick is point blanking,but you also have to learn not to be exactly in front of enemies:slightly on side,so you'll be in the space between two of the rows.This also means that you have to be careful on cut-backs,since you can have the left (or right row) exploding on your ship.
3.2.4 FOURTH ROUND
Like the third round,but!There will be the "splashing" bullets this time.These bullets are first seen on 4th stage mid-boss:in its second form, it will shoot a salvo of big,almond-shaped orange bullets,then those other bullets that will partially go above your plane and then return to the plane of you ship.Now, all enemies wil release these bullets, and this means that you have a shorted distance to react.Also, the game is at HARDEST difficulty,and this means that every enemy will be very aggressive.The same rules for third round are to be applied, it will just be more difficult to point-blank enemies because of their enhanced aggressivity.
4.0 CONCLUSIONS
Batsugun is surely a nice game,and a good challenge:however, it allows enough freedom to the player to actually choose if he wants to play for score or survival,or any mix of the two.If you want good scores, you really need to learn stage 4's trick, but even the stage 5 tricks will grant you a more than dignitose score.The game becomes difficult from third round on,and its sheer length is also pretty taxing.Nonetheless, it features so many elements that i can suit the tastes of just any player.It's also one of the few cases (if not the only one) of a game that features all ships of the same speed,which lets you choose only on the attack types.I may add some guide to stages in the future, but this is just an hypothesis.
