The Battle Bakraid Love Thread

[Acid King]

This game gets beat up on quite a bit, but I love it. I like that it sticks to particular genre cliches (The military aesthetic, the Desert/Naval Base/Train stages) while the chief scoring mechanic, often maligned as "counter intuitive", totally stands the genre on its head. It's almost two games at once; a good straightforward shooting game and a bizarre and complex kamikaze simulator. The game design and the score system encourage gradually learning the game, approaching it in the way that best fits the player. It's very accessible when you play it for survival, no complicated rank system to worry about and a big selection of ships to choose from. You can start working on smaller chains once you have a good grasp on the stage layouts, no suicides necessary, and start to push your score up to earn extra extends. It's only then, when you really want to push your score and stretch the game out, that it becomes incredibly exacting and demanding, perhaps more than any other enemy chaining game. My mind boggles at what kind of skill is required to fully exploit the game, juggling suicides, catching extends, and maintaining a medal chain, all while destroying enemies and boss bits with particular weapons. If I could see a true-blue world record superplay of any game, it'd be Bakraid.

The love/hate relationship with the game seems to be turning though, as I noticed that this past year was the first time that Bakraid made it to the forums top 25, and there seems to be more people enjoying the game on their own terms. Kaiser's Advanced Course 1cc in particular was pretty awesome. Time to get out at spread the love.

[BulletMagnet]

A good summary, IMO - really generic presentation, but fun to play either as a straightforward survival shooter (Raizing discovered garish but easy-to-see pink bullets!) or a super-technical frustration-fest, and you can ease yourself into it at your own pace (i.e. start by using bombs to extend chains, then move on to suicides). I'd be interested to know more about the game's origins: not only does it play rather differently from Garegga/Batrider, but it's usually listed under the "8ing" label, so I'm curious which bunch of people worked on it, and what else they did.

[Drachenherz]

Battle bukkake.

That's what I actually expected when entering this thread.

[ciox]

The game is pretty inaccessible but as time passes more people are giving it a chance, this is a good thing.
I'd like to see a top play too (scores go as high as 132mil) unfortunately it's either just very unpopular in Japan or has has something like the "Donpachi Mafia" going on, where it's obscure enough that the very few who beasted the game can just keep the top techniques secret indefinitely if they want. There's a definitely a lot more to this game than meets the eye, will post more on that later when I have a new run to show.
But yeah, I have a hunch the only way we'll ever get a THE MADNESS treatment of the game is if we make it ourselves.

Btw, I never got the criticism of this game that it's too plain or cliche in design, I found it very fresh with it using a time period roughly between the 40s and 70s for inspiration, with its 1940s prototype planes, bosses named after Dungeons&Dragons and old style rock music that makes you think of Dukes of Hazzard or something close.
Not to mention its premise of a large scale, popular "war game" that is actually a vehicle for real war, you can see that premise in how the enemy has very many turrets and bosses color-coded in all sorts of gaudy, obvious hues as if they are marked for military war games and to have high visibility instead of being camouflaged, even though underneath they are all war machines being used in an invasion.
It's too bad the game feels too understated with no announcer, no real ending and even the main chaining mechanic represented by just a frame counter that tells you how many frames are left until the chain drops.. really an ironic announcer that seems to get the situation, a big colored chaining bar and some reliable way to trade a life for extra bombs would have made this game amazing, as it is you have to dig very deep to understand it, sort of part of its charm but also hurts it a lot.
I can imagine an ending for the game, where maybe the enemy tries to save face by pretending the Bakraid was actually indeed fake and went exactly as planned, this weird politics angle in the story was interesting to me.
Overall, I think the game has a very solid concept that deserves a revisit.

[dark]

I always want to compare it to Battle Garegga, since it shares a similar name, similar propeller style planes, similar sprite style, similar bomb mechanic, etc. But in this regard, I always feel like Bakraid comes up short against Garegga in terms of style, atmosphere, feeling like the stages are part of a cohesive package, and the gameplay seems less smooth and more jerky and twitchy to me. Bakraid is an ok game, but my opinion is that it just feels surprisingly average when compared to Garegga.

And several of the levels seem surprisingly short. You can beat level 1 in about 30 seconds? What's up with that!

[Vexorg]

I've got the PCB for Bakraid, although I have nothing to play it on right now. I actually like it a lot better than Garegga or Batrider, mostly because it's far more accessible than the other two. It also has some really great music tracks in it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2QxuOHL-zo - Illegal Mission (Seaside)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TR4W4ApJoVI - Steam Syndrome (Railroad)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubPJvdmFN5g - Gray Stream (Clouds)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_xf2lvhmxQ - Crisis (Used for several boss battles)

[trap15]

Bakraid is in my top 5 games. Nuff said. Great game.

[brentsg]

I let Sophia bend me over when I couldn't fine a Bakraid board anywhere. Great game!

[chempop]

I love it, even just playing advanced course for survival. The last couple stages are colorful and exciting, final boss is epic. I'm always terrible at games with timed chaining, so unfortunately scoring is beyond me. The boss rush rules though.

[AKRATEN]

I love it, even just playing advanced course for survival. The last couple stages are colorful and exciting, final boss is epic. I'm always terrible at games with timed chaining, so unfortunately scoring is beyond me. The boss rush rules though.

+1

Bakraid rocks!

[Mortificator]

Bakraid's been on my top 25 list for years. Forget Black Heart; bring on Gigamanta!

[Neorebel]

I love this game. Unfortunately I only play it in MAME. I wish it was ported to consoles in some manner.

[captpain]

A really smart genius already summed it up in the OP's sig.

[Skykid]

Actually, when you have someone show you how to play it properly and do a live demonstration (thanks Icarus!) you do feel like running for the hills. The scoring system is in many ways even more bizarre and veiled than Garegga.

But it's a beautiful game and a dream to play. More concise than Garegga and less punishing if you just go for survival. This was a game I came a whisker away from selling five years ago - even had buyers lined up. Put it back on for one more session and I've still got it today.

[Dave_K.]

How could I not post in a Bakraid love thread? This has been #2 in my Raizing lineup forever, only beat out by Batrider. You can guess where Garegga wound up.

[Acid King]

I'd like to see a top play too (scores go as high as 132mil) unfortunately it's either just very unpopular in Japan or has has something like the "Donpachi Mafia" going on, where it's obscure enough that the very few who beasted the game can just keep the top techniques secret indefinitely if they want. There's a definitely a lot more to this game than meets the eye, will post more on that later when I have a new run to show.
But yeah, I have a hunch the only way we'll ever get a THE MADNESS treatment of the game is if we make it ourselves.

I've wondered about this too. Is Bakraid just particularly unpopular in Japan? I saw someone in another thread say they've seen people on Japanese boards refer to it as kusoge so I wonder how many active players there are.

It's too bad the game feels too understated with no announcer, no real ending and even the main chaining mechanic represented by just a frame counter that tells you how many frames are left until the chain drops.. really an ironic announcer that seems to get the situation, a big colored chaining bar and some reliable way to trade a life for extra bombs would have made this game amazing, as it is you have to dig very deep to understand it, sort of part of its charm but also hurts it a lot.

Yes! No announcer is disappointing considering the heights they reached with Batrider. I kind of wonder why they chose to make everything so hidden. Even just having the chain noise on by default would have been a big help.

Batrider and Garegga do a much better job of setting the tone of the game worlds and, especially considering how colorful and stylized Batrider is, I understand why Bakraid seems generic to some people. That said, I think the bosses are brilliantly designed and spit out some of my favorite patterns. Also, I never made the D&D connection with the boss names.

A really smart genius already summed it up in the OP's sig.

I found a few gems digging through old Bakraid posts, but yours was clearly the best. Also of note, someone saying that watching y.k.'s 80 million point replay made them want to throw up.

This was a game I came a whisker away from selling five years ago - even had buyers lined up. Put it back on for one more session and I've still got it today.

I considered selling mine a few years back, but ultimately parted with Batrider instead.I kind of regret it, given how much it has gone up in price, but Bakraid is the first PCB I bought and is about even with Batrider in my rankings, so nostalgia won out on that one.

How could I not post in a Bakraid love thread? This has been #2 in my Raizing lineup forever, only beat out by Batrider. You can guess where Garegga wound up.

Bakraid and Batrider are about even for me. I prefer Batrider's colorful world and cast a lot more, but Bakraid gives you all of Batriders play options (Team edit, ABC ship selection, Normal/Advanced/Boss Rush), but has a few more ways to approach the game. Garegga never really grabbed me like the others, but I've only played on MAME and I think playing on a cab or on a proper tate monitor might help getting in to it.

[scrilla4rella]

One of my first posts on this forum was asking questions about this game and if it's any good. Even back then, before Malc's 10/10 review was posted, the consensus seemed to be that it's a great game when not directly compared to Garegga. I've been on the look out for the PCB for about 5 years and it seems to come up less and less as the years go on. Though I guess that's indicative of PCB market as a whole. I actually have no idea what the going price is, if there is such a thing, as I've only seen one pop up on Yahoo Auctions in the last couple of years.
-
I've always enjoyed my time playing it in the arcade. It's pretty hard to find so I don't get to play it often. I never play for score but playing for survival is very accessible and gratifying.

[Acid King]

I've seen a few pop up in the trading station over the past year or so. Seems like the going rate is around $400-450.

[BulletMagnet]

I kind of wonder why they chose to make everything so hidden.

Raizing seems to demand that players earn the right to like them; determining one's opinion of a game without first digging into the programming code to figure out how half of it works is for lowly scrubs.

[Dave_K.]

Bakraid and Batrider are about even for me. I prefer Batrider's colorful world and cast a lot more, but Bakraid gives you all of Batriders play options (Team edit, ABC ship selection, Normal/Advanced/Boss Rush), but has a few more ways to approach the game. Garegga never really grabbed me like the others, but I've only played on MAME and I think playing on a cab or on a proper tate monitor might help getting in to it.

Although Bakraid has team edit, its not used to revel hidden bosses like Batrider, which calls into question its usefulness. As for Garegga, I never owned a Saturn so that might have something to do with me not liking it as much. Owning the PCB didn't make a difference. I find it depressing and more rigid in comparison to Bakraid and Batrider.

[Acid King]

Team edit isn't useful in the same sense as in Batrider, rather it does give players another way to play. In a game like Bakraid, where playing for score and just playing because it's a fun game with awesome bosses are world's apart, team edit adds a wrinkle for burning through a Normal 1cc.

[Acid King]

I almost managed a full chain of the Seaside stage a moment ago. Knicked 7 million from Axebeak with only one suicide and parleyed the extends in a few suicides for a chain that died just before the last set of 4 tanks at the very end of the stage, which ended up as a 5 million point pick up. I think part of the genius of the game is the sheer amount of destruction going on when you're playing for score. The ship explosions are, like Garegga and Batrider, pretty spectacular, with flying shrapnel and splash damage. Your ship ends up being as much a weapon as bombs and guns are. It's pretty satisfying to dump a plane in to a bunch of zako and watch as the screen clears and you get that moment to plan where you drop your next bomb or what enemy to kill next.

Edit: Grammar

[Never_Scurred]

Love this game! All the fun of Garegga with little to none of the aggression. Would love to own this, Batrider, and Garegga on pcb if I had the time to play them.

[To Far Away Times]

Is it wrong if Battle Bakraid is my favorite of the trilogy? Bakraid would be in my Top 10 overall, and Batrider would make it to the top 25.

[Some-Mist]

still on my "to buy" list. from what I've played, I enjoy batrider and garegga more, but that's because I haven't sunk a lot of time into bakraid.

some time next year I'll snag a board and sink some time into it

[Acid King]

One of the other things I enjoy about this game is how experimenting with different stage orders and chaining strategies becomes easy and interesting once you get a decent Axebeak strategy down. You can easily pull between 4 and 6 million from him with one suicide, and it's easy enough to snag the extra extends before dicking around with stage chaining on Seaside, Naval, and Desert. I've been rotating my second stage between those three as a way to develop and practice chaining.

Is it wrong if Battle Bakraid is my favorite of the trilogy? Bakraid would be in my Top 10 overall, and Batrider would make it to the top 25.

Nah, I don't think so. I'd have a hard time picking between Bakraid and Batrider.

[trap15]

You can easily pull between 4 and 6 million from him with one suicide

You can actually pull something like 10 million with one suicide, 4~6 is what I get if I absolutely fail it.

[Acid King]

Yeah, that's what I mean. Even a relatively graceless attempt can yield a few million points and a couple extends. The Axebeak score trick seems to be an initial hump for a lot of players and, while pulling the full 10-11 million can be pretty tricky, just clipping the wings with bombs and popping the cockpit with the aura for x64 isn't too difficult and is a good way to ease in to it.

[NTSC-J]

For those interested, here are scans of some items of note (essentially useless if you can't read Japanese, but they're a part of Battle Bakraid history and kind of neat anyway):

Arcadia hi-score page for the counterstop, done just after the game's release

Information from Eighting for early buyers of the PCB about how to switch your board for the Unlimited version because they fucked up

[Aquas]

It looks like many people are knowledgeable of Bakraid here. I'd like to do an episode of STG Weekly in the next couple weeks.
If you would like to help comment or record footage for any of these games for the show, please feel free to let me know. Trap15 has already volunteered for Bakraid, anyone else?