Toaplan inspired shmups

[glide]

I'm looking for shmups inspired by Toaplan's work. Off the top of my head, I only know Wing Force, War of Aero and Gekirindan. Thanks.

[Mortificator]

War of Aero is really in the style of Image Fight more so than Toaplan.

Anyway, the Raiden series is the biggest example, so much so that Raiden-clones could be a subcategory within the Toaplan style. Viper Phase 1, also from Seibu Kaihatsu, qualifies as well.

Taito published many Toaplan games, and they developed a Toa-style game themselves, Fighting Hawk.

Ajax and Trigon, by Konami.

Kyukoku Tiger II, by Takumi.

Fire Barrel, by Irem.

Daioh, Gekioh / Shienryu, and Sengeki Striker, by Athena and its spin-off Warashi.

Igawa's Donpachi regressed a bit from Batsugun to a more Toaplan style, before he more fully developed his own with its sequel. Dangun Feveron is also something of a Truxton throwback.

I loathe to mention NG Dev's trash, but they put out Neo XYX.

And I'm sure there are more that will come to mind, or be filled in by other members. So, is there any reason you're curious about this?

[EmperorIng]

Also note that Taito's Gekirindan is in many ways a Toaplan tribute game, with the main ship looking like the Tatsujin ship and the napalm acting almost identical to how it acts in Tatsujin. Though the game in terms of bullet pattern style and enemy behavior is probably halfway between Taito and Toaplan.

[OmegaFlareX]

Gekirindan, Kyukyoku Tiger 2, Air Gallet, and DonPachi all had former Toaplan devs in their staff roll, and I think it shows. Raizing may have had an ex-Toa or two eventually, but I'm not sure. Definitely try Air Gallet if you haven't already. It is rather magnificent. One of the last JP AC shmups to be made with that style while everything else was already going manic/danmaku.

I say "JP" because there were Korean devs making Toa-likes into the end of the decade. Dooyong and Afega come to mind. The former is notable for what they accomplished with low-powered hardware, but KR shmups in general are a bit "ugh".

On the indie front, there's Cho Ren Sha 68k, Twin Tiger Shark, Wolflame, and probably a host of others that I'm not thinking of.

[Stevens]

It's not out yet, but PieSlice has a great looking game on the way that fits the bill.

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=59038

[PC Engine Fan X!]

There's a cool Dezaemon Plus fan-made shmup that was released on the 2nd disc of Dezaemon Kids that has a cool and unmistakable Toaplan-ish feel/vibe to it -- lots of intricate and very detailed 2D sprites galore. Can't remember what the name of it is called though.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Shepardus]

There's HishouAyu.

[Squire Grooktook]

HishouAyu is pretty great.

Kaisers games, Zenohell and Zenodyne, feel pretty Toaplan to me in terms of both visuals and gameplay. They are there own thing though ultimately, but worth a look for fans.

[Nguyen VinhLOC]

G.Rev's Under Defeat is also inspired by Tiger Heli and Twin Cobra too, it's like you go play the Tiger Heli but in 3D graphics (and playing a multi-directional shmups) as well

[Nguyen VinhLOC]

Also, a lot of Dooyong games mostly cloned Toaplan. That's why they called Toaplan in Korea

[Nguyen VinhLOC]

Raizing may have had an ex-Toa or two eventually, but I'm not sure

Yes, hishouzame designer Tatsuya Uemura is created Battle Bakraid and even 1944 The Loop Master

[Steven]

I'm like 90% certain that nobody from Toaplan ever went to Raizing. Uemura-san had almost nothing to do with Bakraid. Pretty sure he doesn't even consider it one of his games, as all he did was make the sound driver and nothing more.

1944 The Loop Master was made by Uemura-san and Yuge-san at Uemura-san's company Logic & Magic, which closed when Uemura-san went to CAVE and has nothing to do with this other company with the same name. This is from interviews with both of them in this doujin magazine: https://www.beep-shop.com/ec/products/detail/1743

[Bassa-Bassa]

Did they create the graphics as well or was it co-developed with Raizing (or even Capcom)? Were they hired by Raizing or by Capcom? What else did they make as Logic & Magic?

Interesting questions which I guess they didn't address there, but gotta ask.

[Steven]

Logic & Magic also did Saturn Battle Garegga. It's also talked about in that interview, and about how the game's actually running in emulation, and that they got the player with the highest score at that time to come and check it. Maybe that was Kamui, but maybe it wasn't, as I'm not sure what year Kamui started to hold the record.

Graphics and sound for Loop Master are unknown and unmentioned, and Saturn Garegga is the only other Logic & Magic game mentioned by name, although it's mentioned that there were some others prior to the company closing. For Loop Master, there is very little information, but Yuge-san specifically says 2人で自分たちが作った, which implies that the two of them did it all by themselves, but neither of them can do graphics as far as I know, so it's possible that Raizing or Capcom sent them the graphics data and possibly the sound and then the two of them made the game with the assets they were given. Uemura-san doesn't talk about this game at all in this interview.

About 2 years ago, I went to a panel with them and asked about Loop Master and they talked about it a little, and I've almost completely forgotten everything that they said about the game, but I do remember Yuge-san saying that it was very difficult to make the game because of its aspect ratio. That's all I remember.

[Bassa-Bassa]

That's quite a bit of interesting info, thanks. Finding difficulties with the hardware's imposed aspect ratio and not making the graphics is not entirely logical, so who knows.

[Kino]

I'm like 90% certain that nobody from Toaplan ever went to Raizing. Uemura-san had almost nothing to do with Bakraid. Pretty sure he doesn't even consider it one of his games, as all he did was make the sound driver and nothing more.

I'd be curious to know if the graphic team was working at Logic & Magic, or whether they were all freelance? Apart from Fixeight's Nanpei Kaneko, it looks like Shienryu/Daioh artist Hironobu Tamai was among the staff (considering Bakraid's release aligns with the gap on his Moby page.)

I've known for a while Raizing's purported Toaplan connections were overblown, but apart from a couple one-offs by Uemura & Yuge, they look to be almost nonexistent?

[Steven]

It's too bad there's almost no information about Loop Master's development anywhere. It's huge mystery. If not for that doujin magazine, I doubt anyone who wasn't involved in its development would know that those two guys made that game.

As for the whole Raizing/Toaplan thing, I'm pretty sure that it's just a carryover from when Toaplan published Musha Aleste for Compile and those two companies' devs established good relationships with each other. As far as I know, nobody from Toaplan ever joined Raizing. Of course, Uemura-san had some unspecified involvement with Saturn Battle Garegga and there was a different interview somewhere with Yuge-san mentioning working at Capcom's office for some unstated purpose (which I now realize is possibly Loop Master-related, but it may have been Giga Wing, given that it runs on Capcom's hardware, even though the only thing he did on that game that I know of is a single piece of music), but that's all I know.