Batsugun

✍️ A Theory of Shmup Evolution By: Joseph Salomonsen Gradius → R‑Type → Darius → Toaplan → Cave / Treasure / G.rev 🟨 Foundations — Designed Space Gradius (Konami, 1985) The origin of control: resource systems, checkpoints, and authored space. The player shapes their ship to survive the level. R‑Type (Irem, 1987) The Force system: space becomes weaponized. A slow, methodical philosophy—positioning over reflex. Darius (Taito, 1987) Branching structure and spectacle. The first step toward non-linear shmup identity. 🟥 Line 1 — Density → Pattern → Bullet Hell (Toaplan → Cave) Twin Cobra (Toaplan, 1987) The definitive military shooter. Discipline, routing, survival. (my personal fave) Truxton / Tatsujin (Toaplan, 1988) The birth of the “Mega-Bomb” aesthetic—power as expression. Batsugun (Toaplan, 1993) The bridge to Bullet Hell. Density begins to dominate space. DoDonPachi (Cave, 1997) The system is complete. Patterns become language. Mushihimesama (Cave, 2004) The organic extreme. Bullets form ecosystems, not just obstacles. Deathsmiles (Cave, 2007) A divergence: horizontal design fused with atmosphere. Bullet hell becomes mood, not just system. 🟩 Line 2 — Weight → Realism → Physicality (Seibu → G.rev) Raiden II / DX (Seibu, 1993) The peak of “Heavy Metal” sprite-work. Industrial, grounded, uncompromising. Under Defeat (G.rev, 2005) The final expression of the military shmup. Momentum, recoil, and battlefield physics replace abstraction. Here: space > bullets weight > pattern movement > memorization 🟦 Line 3 — Mechanics → Abstraction → Philosophy (Iuchi Lineage) Hiroshi Iuchi ❤️ Radiant Silvergun → Judgment Silversword → Ikaruga → Kokuga → Ubusuna Treasure → M‑KAI → G.rev → M2 Radiant Silvergun (Treasure, 1998) The maximalist foundation. A shmup with layered systems and narrative ambition rarely seen in arcades. Judgment Silversword (M‑KAI, 2004) The technical bridge. The “Silver” philosophy reduced to pure system and code. Ikaruga (Treasure, 2001) The minimalist apex. Seven weapons collapse into one binary system: Black or White. The “chess” of shmups. Kokuga (G.rev, 2012) The tactical pivot. The ship becomes a tank. Weight replaces speed. Strategy replaces reaction. Ubusuna (M2, 2025/2026) The philosophical return. A synthesis of polarity and modern standards—a reflection on the lineage itself. ✅ Synthesis Shmups do not evolve in a single line. They fragment into three competing philosophies: Toaplan → Cave = density / pattern / abstraction of space Seibu → G.rev = weight / realism / physical presence Treasure → Iuchi = system / reduction / philosophy All of them emerge from: Gradius = designed systems R‑Type = controlled space Darius = structural possibility ✅ Final statement From Gradius’ authored space to Cave’s infinite bullet fields, from Iuchi’s compression of systems to G.rev’s return to physicality— The shmup is not just reflex, but a philosophy of dynamic control.

In my opinion, there are 3 Toaplan shmups that are essentially perfect: Flying Shark, Twin Cobra, and Batsugun. Which I prefer depends on my mood, but if you include the full package of Batsugun Arcade and Special it's hard not to conclude that this is Toaplan's undisputed masterpiece. What we have here is a seminal bullet hell. Much in the same way that Twin Cobra was the template for Raiden-style shmups or Truxton for boring tanky wave-based Euro slop, Batsugun, especially the Special version, took the reduced hitbox of Grind Stormer, made it even smaller, and dramatically increased both the power of the player's weapons and the number of bullets fired by enemies. While in some ways it resembles a Psikyo shmup more than CAVE's post-DonPachi efforts, as the bullet sprays are fast and frequent, there's no question that it created the rough template that was later used in DonPachi, DoDonPachi, and the entire subgenre of shmups that's been copying that formula for 3 decades. It's a must play for anyone who is a fan of the genre or has an interest in the history of arcade games. In terms of this port, it's similar to the other Bitwave Toaplan ports. You don't get a plethora of behind-the-scenes gadget info like you would in an M2 port, but what you do get are every version and regional variation of the game with quick and easy access to the dipswitch options, a configurable autofire (sadly only one; it would be nice to be able to bind multiple autofire rates to different buttons a'la M2 STG), training options to ease you into the game such as rewinds/invincibility/smaller hitboxes/etc, replay saving, and the ability to practice any stage with any loadout or powerups (without, as far as I can tell, the ability to specifically practice a boss). Input lag is effectively nil; using a basic generic X360 gamepad I can't feel any delay between my inputs and the response on screen. It's a solid port that would only be surpassed, IMO, with an M2 STG release, and given the amount of time it's taking them to release other Toaplan ports I'm not holding my breath waiting for one. So a solid recommend with few caveats. Certainly better than the Saturn port and significantly better than the City Connection port of the Saturn port.

A cool as hell and addictive old school shmup with a 90's anime aesthetic, catchy music and hard but fair difficulty. Includes the original version of the game and a "Special" version which is a bit easier because your hitbox is tiny and bosses have a lot less health. The special version also loops 4 times and it gets harder each time. Loops 3 and 4 are madness. Both versions are good but if you just want to blow up hundreds of ships to cool chiptunes then special is the way to go. It feels really nice to play, this is top tier old school arcade goodness.

Batsugun is an arcade (runs on Toaplan Version 2 PCBs) shoot em up title from 1993 released by Toaplan (which was also their last game, before Toaplan's death resulted in it splitting into multiple other studios, most known examples being Raizing/CAVE/Takumi), and was known among the public for being one of first shmups of "bullet hell" subgenre: Your hitbox is more generous, your ship fires insane amount of bullets, enough to cover entire screen on some ships, bullets are, while still fairly fast compared to modern bullet hell, much more denser, bombs work as instant screen clear and power loss after death has been heavily reduced. And, in 1994, a Special Version of Batsugun was released: While i'm not sure, what's the story behind it, but looking a bit into what has been going on with this version, it was an sort of showcase version that eventually found it's way into secondary market, which is why people managed to dump it's romset for usage in MAME/FB Neo/FB Alpha. While Special Version is much easier to clear than original arcade release (for 1 loop only) due to it's differences (smaller hitbox, one hit shield upon leveling up, and new type of "ground item" that allowed me to get 2-3 bombs on stage 2-2), it added 4 loops to go through, and even doing a "simple" task as going through second loop may require learning how to handle revenge/suicide bullets to avoid getting walled. I ususally make it into stage 4 of second loop before losing all my resources due to bad positioning. In 1996, Batsugun gets a home console release for Sega Saturn, in which Gazelle (same guys who made Air Gallet) were involved. Nothing interesting to say there outside of fact that it includes Special Version (yet CAVE couldn't do the same for PS2 DOJ) with arranged soundtrack, as i didn't really played on this port yet. After a while, CITY CONNECTION re-releases the saturn port through their "SATURN TRIBUTE" series, containing remixed "SATURN TRIBUTE BOOSTED" soundtrack... And containing lots of input lag. Just don't play it... Now, going into 2024, we get this PC release of Batsugun from Bitwave Games, which i'll focus on discussing in this review. While Toaplan games come in collections on consoles, there you can buy them one by one, and for fairy cheap price too! First of all, let's get into what versions of batsugun this port offers: Just like the previous ports, you get both the Original and Special Version releases in a single package. HOWEVER THIS DOES NOT ENDS HERE! In game options, you can change region of your game, which should help if specific version is used for scoreruns. For this port, i heard that Bitwave used their own engine that attempts replicating original Toaplan Version 1/2 boards as perfectly as possible: As such, the input lag is minimal. And, in game where during later stages you'll need to micrododge every once in a while, low latency is important. Really kind of Bitwave to actually work on making their own engine for arcade port instead of just lazily shoving romset into laggy FB Alpha emulator with no ways of extracting the said romset for usage in better emulators! In video options, you get decent amount of features, nothing interesting, a bunch of screen/scaling settings, ability to TATE your monitor, however what i'd like to put a focus on is scanlines: as some ports forget to implement this very important shader that gets experience a bit closer to what it supposed to look like on your average modern flat screen TV. You also can have "side gadgets" too! While they are not as good as M2 ones (or hell, even PS2/Gamecube Radirgy level), they do their job, and there are few different options: one of which includes a guide meant to provide beginners with idea on how to play this game. Obviously, you get the save states: these are included in most shmup ports, and are something that shmuppers use very often: not to cheese through entire game, but to repeat problematic sections until they get consistent at handling it. However, if you're lazy to make states like me, Bitwave got you too! They implemented a very flexible practice mode, where you can select loop/stage, as well as ship power level with resources for seeing how you can handle stages with, let's say, average amount of resources you get when reaching them (kinda like what i did when practicing futari original before getting a very good run for first 1cc). This practice mode alone would be enough to get me playing on this port instead of using FB Neo with RunAhead... HOWEVER, THERE'S MORE! Bitwave implemented all kinds of time manipulation features (such as rewind, which may come in handy for casuals, or slowdown, which allows to analyze some of patterns properly: not sure what about ever so-important fast-forward though, as for moment of writing this port i still haven't fully explored this port) alongside assists: There, you can customize your autofire rate (up to 30hz), change your ship hitbox size, and do all various things that make game easier to approach for novices. BUT, the most important feature there is ability to display hitboxes: While it feels a bit broken for me, it allows to properly see hitboxes and analyze things based on hitboxes instead of sprites and shmupper senses gained over time. Last thing i'd like to mention about this port is forced Steam Input implementation: This means, that this port will work with pretty much any controller/arcade stick, as long as you managed to set it up in Steam Input. As for keyboard controls, they can easily be changed in-game, so you can still play it on keyboard if you wanted. If i had to describe this port in one sentence, it would be "too good to be cheap". Bitwave put a huge amount of love and effort into getting these games ported over, and while there are a few issues i can nitpick, overall package ends up being the best and cheapest non-emulated way to play Batsugun out of box. Now, THIS is how you should make ports.

The first bullet hell. The only port worth your time.

Thank you for your playing

Fun, fun, fun! My goodness it's hardcore.

My god how fun this game is. I got my first 1CC in the special version. A fantastic experience that will get you hooked on shmups for life!

So long that I forgot the pain. This is the one that fiddles your balls for the first 2 levels before halfway thru lvl3 when it slaps on the concrete & sandpaper condom to remind you of just what a dildo of a game it is, and i promise it reminds you who that strapon belongs to. 10/10, quite truly one of the best games ever (despite my previous statements - this isn't a joke). Batsugun is relentless in how it draws you back for one more try. Insane how far ♥♥♥♥ has fallen off the rails in this stupid industry.

One of if not the best Vertical shooter of all time... this version has all the bells and whistles including slow motion, fast forward and lots of options for display, and difficulty.