The Shmup Thread

[DANGERMAN]

There's a Next Fest demo for upcoming Mega Drive classic ZPF. 

 

It seems good but I think I'd rather play the Mega Drive version when that arrives 

[Maryokutai]

Has anyone played Strania - The Stella Machina? Had this on my wishlist for a while and saw that it's on sale on Switch at the moment. It looks nice enough, but there's a few oddities that I don't know if they'd bother me or not (like the actual visible screen space being larger than the box you can move in).

[spatular]

i'm sure i've played that on 360 but don't remember enough about it to have an opinion really, i'm not a big fan of g.rev, although under defeat is alright.

 

oh and late reply but yeah probably don't get dodonpachi SDOJ if you're not really into bullet hell, it's super hard, although the port will have easy mode.

 

edit - also in shmup news shikigami no shiro 3 is out on steam now, which is cool, i's a fun game but i was always a little disappointed by it because i rate 2 so highly.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3253690/Castle_of_Shikigami_3/

[Maryokutai]

So this got completely buried because they decided to release it on the same day as Switch 2, but Trizeal is now out on Switch 1&2 (and PC, but has been there for a while). Can't even find a trailer, they really just threw it out there – we recently talked a bit about it when Dangerman played it on Dreamcast, I put it on my wishlist for later though it did launch with a little discount if you want to get it right away.

[mfnick]

I can’t find that on Switch? Its on the american store but cant see it on ours?

[Maf]

I had this game on PS1 and really liked the first level 

[Maryokutai]

20 hours ago, mfnick said:

I can’t find that on Switch? Its on the american store but cant see it on ours?

 

That's very weird but unfortunately so niche that looking it up online will likely yield little result. Just for fun I checked the Swiss eShop and it isn't there either, so looks like whatever publisher brought it over limited themselves to the EU.

[DANGERMAN]

Earthion, Yuzo Koshiro's very cool looking new shmup is out very soon, with a bit of a catch. 

 

It's out June 31st on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PlayStation 4, Switch, and Steam, but the Mega Drive version is delayed, seemingly until next year 

 

https://www.timeextension.com/news/2025/06/earthion-launches-next-month-mega-drive-version-pushed-into-2026

 

 

[mfnick]

That looks great. I’ll be picking it up for sure.

 

Its July 31st btw

[Maryokutai]

If you want to wait as long for your current system version than the Mega Drive port, Limited Run also has this: 

 

 

The mini arcade is cute and the signed certificate nice in a geeky way, but I'm kind of over the whole LRG thing.

 

But if someone's interested, they also have the soundtrack on vinyl and tape and this controller, which I admit looks rather cool:

[DANGERMAN]

yeah, I'd like a physical copy of the Mega Drive version, but I really don't want to give Limited Run any money

[Maryokutai]

I got lured in by the launch discount FOMO for Trizeal Remix and bought it yesterday. You guys dodged a bullet here with it not being available in the UK. First warning sign is the main menu, which is the most hideous thing I've seen in my life. I guess to an extent you could call it charming maybe, because this entire port can't have been more than just a one-man show and whoever programmer did it never did any UI work in their life. It even still has the Exit option from the PC port, which obviously doesn't work on Switch because games can't force quit, so it just soft reboots instead.

There's also some baffling QOL oversights, like when switching to Tate-mode you have to manually adjust the screen space to the screen, and it doesn't even rotate the menus.

 

Now all of this I could live with if the game ran fine. Which, in fairness, it did during my first run. Smooth 60fps without any of the slowdowns from the Dreamcast version. Unfortunately on my second run it started to have some weird audio issues and glitches, making super uncomfortable noises that render it basically unplayable in my opinion.

 

It's actually so bad I think I'm going to try to get a refund, even though I realise Nintendo isn't super forthcoming in that regard. A shame, too, because during the little time I got to play it normally I still enjoyed it quite a lot.

 

*Though just while I'm typing this this might be a Switch 2 issue. I'll have to try on Switch 1 to see if it happens there as well. If not, I guess I can kiss my chances for a refund goodbye.

[DANGERMAN]

I can't remember if I said, but when I went back to it recently I was quite enjoying Trizeal for the first hour ish, then it started to get a bit boring again quite quickly. I just don't think I like Trizeal much

[Maryokutai]

For me the tiny bit of nostalgia might influence my enjoyment but I do like it.

 

Tried it on Switch 1 earlier, has the same audio issues there as well. Meaning I'm going to try to go for a refund. If they have some secret conditions and such maybe I'm lucky considering I have a truckload of games on my account and never approached customer service before.

[Maryokutai]

 

Never even heard of this but it looks rather cute.

[Maryokutai]

Clear River Games is publishing Earthion in Europe as a normal and deluxe version: https://shop.clearrivergames.com/collections/earthon

 

Pretty neat, we only knew about LRG before. I might even get the deluxe here, considering it doesn't cost more than your usual new game RRP.

[DANGERMAN]

Hopefully someone else does the Mega Drive version too 

[Maryokutai]

I bought Platypus Reclayed over the weekend. What an evil game, behind the adorable and cuddly facade hides a really punishing shoot'em up. Those chonky masses of colourful fun are here to end you.

 

Jokes aside I think this is quite a decent game, very well put together. Movement and shooting feels good, enemies take the right amount of hits. There's a couple of unique systems that make it stand apart beyond just the presentation. Power-Ups, for example, are only temporary and getting hit while one is active protects your ship from getting destroyed but will remove the Power-Up immediately. Respawn invulnerability seem to differ between difficulty levels, with easy being a second or two but normal already being very short, which makes repositioning yourself after death quite challenging (because by that point you are in an unlucky spot by default). Easy is also missing the last stage, which is a choice I don't usually agree with but this also has an 'unlock everything' toggle in the menu, so that solves the problem.

 

Because there's so much emphasis put on its visual style I wasn't expecting much for the music but the soundtrack is quite good as well. But the visuals are really the star of the show here, it's just wonderfully unique, and everything is made of clay, even the score numbers. There are some production pictures in the extras menu where you can see how they made all the stuff on some random table in someone's basement. Just cool to see how low-fi the production was and having the very accomplished result right next to it.

 

Edit: it also comes with the complete original game. As I never played the original I can't tell what's new but it's always good to have both available.

[Maryokutai]

 

I'm unfamiliar with these old Truxton games and missed this announcement, but it looks really good. Vertical scrollers in 16:9 are a bit hit & miss but movement speed seems quite high to balance it out. Will keep an eye on it, there's also a physical release coming via Clear River Games.

[DANGERMAN]

I was just talking to Spatular about this. I like the look of this, it's much faster and more busy than the original