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Raizing's Armed Police Batrider almost certainly has the greatest assortment of secrets in the history of shooters. Not only is it an excellent and very original game in its own right, but it contains a mind-boggling assortment of features, playable characters, and bosses from earlier Raizing efforts. Although the game is great fun when played on normal settings, it really comes alive when you begin to explore some of the extra stuff Raizing crammed into it.
This post covers most of the game's hidden features. It's based on a rough translation I made of the Japanese Batrider Secrets page on Raizing's official site. You can also find a lot of this info (although with some errors) on The Sheep's R8zing site.
I've tested out all of these secrets with my Japanese Version B PCB. Some of them may not work on boards from other regions, especially the ones involving extend items.
It's text-only for now, but I'll try to add pictures soon to make things a little more clear.
Player selection secrets
- At the player select screen, your fighter's capability is determined by which button(s) you press to pick your craft:
- * A Button - Strong shot, weak option
* B Button - Strong option, weak shot
* C Button (or A+B on a 2-button cab) - Strong option & shot, slower speed
* Start Button - Weak option & shot, faster speed
- * A Button - Strong shot, weak option
Player Types
- Each character has different "shot" and "power" categories for their option attacks. This doesn't affect gameplay, but is important if you want to unlock some of the secret bosses later on. Excuse the messiness of the list - I'll try and make this into a neat table later on.
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Character Shot Type Power Type D.D. Wide Vulcan Shorty Search Napalm Juji Front Beam Maria Wide Beam Golden Front Vulcan Strawman Search Beam Birthday Front Napalm Tag-T Search Laser Adam Wide Laser Gain Front Laser Chitta Wide Vulcan Miyamoto Wide Napalm Bornnam Search Vulcan Car-Pet Front Napalm Silver Sword Vulcan Garegga Grasshopper Laser Garegga Flying Baron Vulcan Garegga Wild Snail Laser Garegga
Course Selection Secrets
- * Hold left or right on the joystick while selecting "Training" mode, and the game will be just 2 stages long (M-City, then Highway)
* Select either Normal or Advanced course by pressing buttons A+B to enable Stage Edit mode. This can also be enabled by setting DIP switch #3-3.
Note that, in stage edit, you can opt not to select stages for levels 2, 3, and 4. This lets you go straight to the Highway stage after level 1 if you want to.
Guest Characters
- At the title screen, press U, U, D, D, L, R, L, R, A, B, Start. The Garegga and Mahou characters will now be available in "team edit" mode. This can also be enabled by setting DIP switch #3-6.
Player Select
- At the title screen, press U, U, D, D, L, R, L, R, B, A, Start. Now, you will be able to select all 3 of the same player. This can also be enabled with DIP switch #3-7.
Special Course
- At the title screen, press U, D, U, D, L, R, L, R, A, B, Start. This will enable a fourth "Boss Attack" game mode. You can also enable it with DIP switch #3-8.
Garegga Option Formation Codes
- The Garegga ships are unique in that their options can be set to a variety of different formations. Typically, this is done by pushing button C, just as in Battle Garegga. However, since Batrider is "officially" a 2-button PCB, some cabinets may not have a third button. If you're stuck playing on one of these cabs, use these "Street Fighter" moves instead:
- * Front - up, down, A
* Back - down, up, down, A
* Wide - right, down, down-right, A
* Control - left, down, down-left, A
* Rolling - left, down-left, down, down-right, right, A
- * Front - up, down, A
Garegga Option Special Formations
- Just like in Battle Garegga, you can get unique (and in most cases powerful) option formation upgrades by collecting items in special sequence:
- * Wide - Miss 5 small shot items, then pick up an option item
Options shoot out to the sides in a very wide pattern
* Search - Miss 5 option items, pick up an option item
Options automatically aim themselves at enemies
* Homing - Miss 5 bomb icons, pick up an option item
Options fly right up to enemies and shoot them
* Shadow - Miss 5 bonus medals, pick up an option item
Options follow your ship a la Gradius
* Rolling - Miss 5 large shot items, pick up an option item
Options roll around your ship while still shooting forwards
- * Wide - Miss 5 small shot items, then pick up an option item
Ingame Commands
- Press these button combinations during play to customize the game's bullet patterns. Note that, contrary to popular belief, the Start+A and Start+C combinations affect only your ship, and not the enemies:
- * Increase your ship's firing rate - Start + A
* Decrease your firing rate - Start + C, or Start + Up (B ver. only)
* Score Display - Start + B (displays points given for destroying enemies)
* Change colour of round bullets - Start + Left
* Change colour of straight bullet - Start + Down
* Change colour of destructinle bullets - Start + Right
- * Increase your ship's firing rate - Start + A
Secret Extend Items
- An extend item will drop after each 1.5 million points. In addition, there are two secret methods for triggering extends:
- * Kill the Highway Stage's blue hovercraft only after it's stopped
* Miss 3 max bomb items
Missing three extend items and collecting the fourth will yield a "special extend", refilling all your empty life slots. - * Kill the Highway Stage's blue hovercraft only after it's stopped
Shot Special Level Up
- Dropping three shot power up icons and picking up a fourth will get you a Special Power Up, which boosts your shot level to maximum. This can be done with either large or small shot icons - these are tallied independently of each other.
Raizing's website seems to imply that getting a Special Power Up at power level 4 will boost your ship to level 5, presumably overcoming the limitations of the type B or S ships. However, I've had trouble getting this to work. Both the Shot and Option Special Level Ups are mostly useful for triggering the secret bosses.
Option Special Level Up
- Drop 3 option items and collect a fourth to get an Option Special Level Up, which will boost your options to max level.
Galaxy Valhallyzer
- This is Gain's "dream machine" from the Mahou Daisakusen games. In Batrider, you can actually play as this ship for the first time, although it's not particularly useful.
To get it, you must be playing as Gain. Miss an extend item with no options on your ship, and collect the next option you see. Your ship will now transform into the the Galaxy Valhallyzer. It can be difficult to reach 1.5 million points without using options, so it's easiest to just suicide to drop your options right before you hit the extend.
Boss Appearances
- Batrider has an enormous array of bosses, many of them borrowed from Raizing's previous games. Most of these are hidden, however, so you'll need to perform various tricks to fight them all. Each stage except for the first has at least one hidden boss.
- * Sky-High Stage: Bashinet
- Destroy all of the large triangular ships in the middle of the stage. You must have at least one surviving Mahou character in your team after you defeat Boredom.
- Destroy all of the vertical laser/gun turrets while they're open. You must have at least one surviving Garegga character in your team upon beating Deviate.
* Airport Stage: Gob-Robo
- Defeat the two side panels of the large gun turret in the middle of the jetliner. At least one surviving Mahou character must be in your team.
- On the first level, destroy the used car dealership building first and the billboard afterwards, causing a flock of birds to fly out. If this is successful, and your party contains at least one surviving Mahou character when you clear level 4, you will fight Bashinet MkII before progressing to the Highway stage.
* Highway Stage: Tsumuji-Maru, Hayate-Maru
- * Tsumuji-Maru
- All three of your characters must have different "shot" types (refer to the table at the beginning of the post). At least one of your surviving characters must be a Mahou character. However, you can still fight this boss if one or more of your other players are dead.
* Hayate-Maru
- All three characters must have different "power" types. Otherwise, the criteria are the same as for Tsumuji.
For example, to fight both of these bosses, you could use a combination of Golden (front, vulcan), Strawman (search, beam), and Miyamoto (wide, napalm).
- Listed in increasing order of difficulty, these three are the "default" bosses of the Highway stage. You'll always fight at least one of them; which one(s) you meet and how many will depend on your actions during the game.
To begin with, each boss corresponds with a different stage:
- * Sobut (green) - Sewer System
* Blunt (yellow) - Sky High
* Envy (red) - Airport
At the end of the Highway stage, you will fight the boss corresponding with whatever stage you played as level 2, as determined by "stage edit". Because Envy is extremely difficult, it's a bad idea to play the Airport stage first if you're shooting for survival.
To fight more than one of these bosses, you must have a surviving Batrider character in your team, and fulfill the following conditions:
- * Bosses for levels 2 & 3 - Get a shot Special Level Up
* Bosses for levels 2 & 4 - Get an option Special Level Up
* Bosses for levels 2, 3, & 4 - Get both option and shot Special Level Ups
Naturally, if you're trying to survive, avoid special level ups like the plague! The opposite is true if you're aiming for a high score. - * Sobut (green) - Sewer System
* Zenobia City: Black Heart MkII
- All three of your fighters must have been selected with different buttons (A type, B type, C type, etc.) If you have at least one surviving Garegga ship in your team upon cleaing the Highway stage, you will fight Black Heart MkII before progressing to Zenobia City.
* Final Stage: Bashinet R & Glow Squid
- * In Zenobia City, there are 3 large rectangular doors with missile launchers that pop out of them. Destroy all 3 with bombs, and if your team contains at least one surviving Mahou character after beating Grubby, you will fight Bashinet R before progressing to the final stage.
* Destroy all 4 of the large spinning gun platforms in Zenobia City, and if your team has at least one surviving Garegga Character after beating Grubby (and possibly Bashinet R also), you will fight Glow Squid before progressing to the final stage.
- * Sky-High Stage: Bashinet
