Arcade Archives: NebulasRay (PS4|5 - Switch)

Sturmvogel Prime · Post by **Sturmvogel Prime** » Wed May 21, 2025 9:36 am

DANGER ZONE (PART XCVI)
GOING NEBULAR WITH A HIGH PRICE

The "Danger Zone" series of reviews so far.
DANGER ZONE VOL. I

Spoiler

I: REVVIN' UP YOUR ENGINE, LISTENIN' TO HER HOWLIN' ROARING - (E.D.F.: Earth Defense Force)
II: IS THIS YOUR IDEA OF FUN, MAV? - (Binarystar Infinity)
III: PLAYING WITH THE (ARCADE ARCHIVES) BOYS - (Arcade Archives: Thunder Dragon 2)
IV: THAT'S RIGHT! ICE...MAN. I AM DANGEROUS (SEED) - (Arcade Archives: Dangerous Seed)
V: THE ELITE. BEST OF THE BEST. WE'LL MAKE YOU BETTER. - (Super E.D.F.: Earth Defense Force)
VI: GONNA TAKE YOU RIGHT INTO THE DANGER ZONE - (Star Hunter DX)
VII: IT TAKES MORE THAN JUST FANCY FLYING - (Earth Defense Force 4.1: Wing Diver The Shooter)
VIII: INSTRUMENTS OF DESTRUCTION - (Devastator by Radiangames)
IX: ¿WHO'S AFRAID OF THE BIG BAD TUBES? - (Arcade Archives: Tube Panic)
X: SWIMMIN' IN THE FLOODS, DANCIN' ON THE CLOUDS BELOW. I AIN'T WORRIED 'BOUT IT - (Arcade Archives: Fighting Hawk)
XI: PULLING A RABBIT OUT OF THE HAT - (Arcade Archives: Rabio Lepus)
XII: WINGS OF SILVER, NERVES OF STEEL - (Arcade Archives: Darius)
XIII: FULL SCALE ASSAULT - (Arcade Archives: Assault)
XIV: WE'RE GONNA NEED A DIFFERENT KIND OF BUGSPRAY - (Arcade Archives: Gaplus)
XV: DOWN THE ALIEN SECTOR - (Arcade Archives: Baraduke)
XVI: WHEN YOU'RE DRAWN TO THE GROUND BY THE DRAGONS - (Arcade Archives: Dragon Spirit)
XVII: SOME RETICENT GODDESS PUT THE CHILDREN TO SLEEP - (Arcade Archives: Metal Black)
XVIII: I SHOT THE WILD LIZARDS - (Arcade Archives: Gun Frontier)
XIX: HOW WE GONNA GET THIS MUSEUM PIECE IN THE AIR? - (Arcade Archives: Galaxian)
XX: SHATTERED KAWAII SKIES - (Arcade Archives: Ordyne)
XXI: ENTER THE DRAGON (SABER) - (Arcade Archives: Dragon Saber)
XXII: SEEMS LIKE WE'RE NOT THE ONLY ONES HOLDING ON TO OLD RELICS - (Arcade Archives: Galaga)
XXIII: OLD WARBIRDS, RETRO ARCADE ACTION - (Arcade Archives: USAAF Mustang)
XXIV: ARCADE STYLED HELICOPTER BATTLEFIELD - (Arcade Archives: Metal Hawk)
XXV: CLASH OF THE GODS - (Arcade Archives: Phelios)
XXVI: BACK IN (METAL) BLACK - (Metal Black S-Tribute)
XXVII: NAMCO'S TAKE ON THE NBA - (Arcade Archives: Grobda)
XXVIII: DOUJIN SHMUPPING "GM" STYLE - (Graze Counter GM)
XXIX: MIXED AND REMIXED - (Raiden IV x Mikado Remix)
XXX: EXPLICIT DIFFICULTY - (Arcade Archives: Gradius III)

DANGER ZONE VOL. II

Spoiler

XXXI: HAVING THE EARTH IN MY SIGHTS - (Layer Section & Galactic Attack S-Tribute)
XXXII: FAST, FURIOUS AND DANGEROUS - (Arcade Archives: Turbo Force)
XXXIII: CHORUS AND CHORES - (Chorus)
XXXIV: SAVE THE SUN - (Sol Cresta)
XXXV: NAMCO WHISPERS IN OUR EARS AND SAYS THAT "YOU ARE IN NAVARONE" - (Arcade Archives: Navarone)
XXXVI: A SHORT (ASTEROID) BREAK TIME - (Space Scavengers by Xitilon)
XXXVII: GIVE ME A "REZON" TO HOLD ON TO WHAT WE'VE GOT - (Arcade Archives: Rezon)
XXXVIII: A COSMIC TROUBLESOME GANG - (Arcade Archives: Cosmo Gang The Video)
XXXIX: WHAT'S THE PLAN? SAVE THE MOON, SAVE EARTH - (Arcade Archives: Moon Cresta)
XL: A HERO FOR THE EARTH - (Arcade Archives: Terra Cresta)
XLI: BACK TO THE '88 - (Arcade Archives: Galaga '88)
XLII: SUPER ROBOT SMASH - (Arcade Archives: Mazinger Z)
XLIII: FREEDOM FIGHTERS OF THE FUTURE - (Arcade Archives: Thunder Dragon)
XLIV: HAMSTER SAID "IT'S SHARK WEEK ON ARCADE ARCHIVES" - (Arcade Archives: Mad Shark)
XLV: MESSED UP NETWORK - (RayCrisis)
XLVI: AN INC-RAY-DIBLE COLLECTION - (Ray'z Arcade Chronology)
XLVII: AN INC-RAY-DIBLE COLLECTION II - (RayStorm x RayCrisis HD Collection)
XLVIII: 99 NAMCO BALLOONS GO BY (Arcade Archives: King & Balloon)
XLIX: ATTACK ON BOSCONIAN - (Arcade Archives: Bosconian)
L: MIXED AND REMIXED II - (Raiden III x Mikado Maniax)
LI: ALLUMER'S TOON SQUADRON - (Arcade Archives: Zing Zing Zip)
LII: GO STRIKE! - (Arcade Archives: Strike Gunner S.T.G)
LIII: A THING CALLED TUNA SASIMI - (Arcade Archives: Darius II)
LIV: RAIDER ZONE: YOU KNOW, IT IS WHAT IT IS - (Arcade Archives: Raiders5)
LV: COMET OF DESTRUCTION - (Arcade Archives: Halley's Comet)
LVI: FORCE AND BURN: NO FLY ZONE - (Arcade Archives: Burning Force)
LVII: THE SHENANIGANS OF SHENANDOAH - (1993 Shenandoah)
LVIII: GREAT, JUST LIKE A KING - (Arcade Archives: Daioh)
LIX: THE TIMELESS CLASSIC - (Arcade Archives: Gradius)
LX: A NINTEN-SIVE ARCADE PORT - (Arcade Archives: VS. Gradius)

DANGER ZONE VOL. III

Spoiler

For an in-depth analysis of gameplay, graphics and sound, check the review "NebulasRay by Namco".

A visually stunning space adventure beyond anything you've played!
From the squadron that brought you Galaxian and Ace Combat.

Since Bandai Namco began to release their vintage catalogue of shmups in the Arcade Archives, I knew this was going to happen sooner or later, and believe it or not, here it is: Arcade Archives NebulasRay.
The only hint Namco gave about their second Namco Month release was "First time in consoles" made the guess harder than we expected since could be any other game from them; Steel Gunner, Cyber Commando or Winning Run. So, this time Namco had the surprise well kept, and Oh, boy! what a surprise turned out to be. The month started with a shmup and continued with another one, and NebulasRay was one hell of a right decision. This visually stunning space blaster was the testimony of how advanced Namco's NB-1 System arcade hardware could be, as if the CD-like sound quality wasn't enough, the rendered CGI graphics and fast pounding gameplay were perfect elements to create a very memorable shmup.

Where you could find NebulasRay?
Not on Nintendo. Not on Sega, not on add-ons, not on CD.
"Why it wasn't home ported" It was a mystery.

NebulasRay, along with the rest of arcade videogames were in the constant evolution of their hardware leading to greater advantages in gameplay, graphic and sound aspects. Thus, homeporting them immediately became a challenge for the 16-Bit consoles. Despite those limitations, NebulasRay was among the games that deserved a home port but it didn't got one. I mean, we're talking 1994, when the fully capable Super Nintendo could do the "follow Namco NA-1's steps" job much better than the Genesis-Sega CD combination (although Sega CD had the CD quality advantage to recreate the arcade quality sound), but it seems like the NB-1 was far more advanced than Nintendo and Sega's consoles. Keep in mind, 1994 was also the year of the PlayStation, a more powerful console which was fully capable of faithfully porting NebulasRay on the console, but it didn't.
So, what happened? Let's check the "Usual suspects" of this homeporting debacle.

GAMEPLAY BUTCHERING REQUIRED?: When it comes to porting arcade games on consoles, this is one suspect in the debacle. In order to port the games on consoles, some features are removed. In the SNES ports of Final Fight and U.N. Squadron, the simultaneous 2 Player Co-Op gameplay was removed, Gradius III removed the "Ice Cubes" zone as well. So, there might be the chance that the unavailability of NebulasRay would require the game to be get axed on gameplay aspects along with the graphic simplification, but take a look at the SNES ports of SunsetRiders and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time, they kept the original gameplay, almost all of the arcade visuals, except that the simultaneous Co-Op was simplified from the "Arcade 4 Players" to home-like 2 Player action, but still retain the arcade fun.

GRAPHIC LIMITATIONS?: Easily the one to blame when it comes to homeporting. Consoles have indeed limitations, but for the SNES, Nintendo prove that the Super Nintendo/Super Famicom had what it takes; VideoSystem's Aero Fighters, Midway's NBA Jam, Capcom's Saturday Night Slam Masters and Super Street Fighter II The New Challengers were the solid proof of arcade accuracy in this department. I know what you're gonna say "Oh, but NebulasRay was CGI rather than 2D" Believe it or not, NebulasRay CGI wouldn't be a problem. Killer Instinct, the Donkey Kong Country trilogy and Rise of the Robots showed the SNES potential on that aspect.

ARCADE/CD QUALITY SOUND?: Can be, but we've noticed how the SNES was faithful on recreating Namco System II and Namco NA-1's games in Cosmo Gang: The Video and Cosmo Gang: The Puzzle. While System II's CD-esque quality was almost perfectly ported on the SNES, the NA-1 sound board was beyond the SNES and any Non-CD console's capabilities at the point that not even the Atari Jaguar (which had a quite decent port of Raiden) could port this. ¿But why the PlayStation, Sega Saturn and Dreamcast didn't had a port? It's a dilemma that raises more questions and answers since they were capable of CGI graphics and CD quality.

Namco jets you into battle flying faster than light!

Whatever the cause, the result was the same "Bad Rap": NebulasRay was buried and forgotten to time, and even for Namco because not even when more advanced consoles like the PlayStation 2 appeared, NebulasRay never made its way on the Namco Museum series. So this absurd decision led to 31 years of spending time in total oblivion, 31 years until Bandai-Namco remembered this game and released it as part of Arcade Archives on 2025's "Namco Month", hinting it as "First time in consoles". From what I saw, the emulation is excellent compared to the issues present on MAME, since the graphic effects and the voice samples sound perfect unlike MAME which had a few problems (¿Encryption? who knows), and if I had to judge Hamster's emulation of the game, it looks more complete than the initial release of Viper Phase 1, so we have the closest thing to an arcade-perfect port of the game, along with the bonus features from Hamster's library of arcade releases. You will be glad to have Save state support since the Extra Stage is downright unfair. As if the lack of extra lives or Force Attack (Bombs) wasn't enough, dealing with extremely fast bullets will result on an "Instant Game Over" at the first seconds.

While having NebulasRay on our consoles is something to be appreciated, the only problem is the price tag for this game: 15 dollars. Yeah, twice the regular price, just like Arcade Archives: Mazinger Z and Arcade Archives: Super Space Fortress Macross, but in those cases, it was due to the licensing from Toei Animation and Big West. Unlike those, NebulasRay is an original title, so it brings a question with a disturbing theory. The question is ¿Why the increase in prices? As for the theory, I said "Disturbing" becuase this only makes me think that as long as Arcade Archives advances in gaming timeline, the price could increase. ¿Can you imagine a few years later buying Arcade Archives 2: Rave Racer, Arcade Archives 2: RayStorm or Arcade Archives 2: Triggerheart Exelica at $15 or even more because of the emulation of more advanced hardware? It's unthinkable. Now imagine licensed games like Banpresto's Sailor Moon or Konami's X-Men and The Simpsons. Imagine paying 25 or more for those due to licensing fees. Outrageous, right? But judging the decision with NebulasRay, it looks like that's the direction Hamster is heading for. I just hope this sudden rise in the price tag is just a sad happenstance of fate and not a premonition of things to come. I don't want to pull the plug on collecting Arcade Archives shmups because they'll be costing almost as much as good quality Indie games (for example, CrossCode which costs $20.00).

TRIVIULASRAY

Can we congratulate the heroes at Hamster who decided to port this game?
They deserve it.

- The Arcade Archives release is the first home port of the game after 31 years.
- Within the Strangereal/United Galaxy Space Force continuity, the game takes place in the year 2361 and ends in 2367.

It was worth the time and price.

Namco threw one hell of a surprise with this release as it rectifies 31 years of lacking a console port. Well, better later than never, I guess.
Along with Assault, Ordyne, Phelios, Cosmo Gang: The Video and Burning Force, this is one of those moments when Hamster's "Namco Favoritism" brings great surprises.
Really, I'm glad to see NebulasRay in the Arcade Archives series and it really deserves to be part of the lineup. Hope BNEI reconsiders and does an overseas release of Arcade Archives: F/A, so we can have a complete collection of Namco shmups.

Overall, Arcade Archives: NebulasRay gets 10 R-9's out of 10 in the R-Scale:

Eda knows you should give this game a shot.