Playing all of "Sega Saturn's Explosive Shmup Library"

[opa]

Soukyugurentai



Wow, how come no one talks about this game? Soukyugurentai is awesome. The game features three different ships, each with a different shot pattern. Power-ups are acquired by shooting these floating caches that appear. Once you shoot them they drop in a spread pattern for you to fly around and collect (kind of like MUSHA on Gen/MD, if you're familiar with that title). The graphics are really quite nice to look at and the gameplay starts out strong. There's no "waiting around" for the game to build up - enemies and bullets start flying at you in Stage 1.

Soukyugurentai also makes use of a neat lock-on mechanic. By holding down one of the buttons you generate a lock-on zone that floats around you. Using this you can target enemies above and below you before they ever fly up to your level. Also, the music is very strong an present in the game. Much improved over Radiant Silvergun. I had to force myself to quit playing this so I can write about it. Go check it out!

Note: There's some conflicting info on the actual title of the game. Wikipedia gives an alternate title of "Terra Diver". The RB article calls it "Soukyugurentai". If you're wanting to find the game files you'll probably have better luck searching for "Soukyuu Gurentai". Hopefully this helps someone. Probably a mistranslation or transliteration screwing with things.

Likes
-Starts off strong/fast-paced
-Good use of 3D space with action above/below you
-Lock-on weapon is fun and easy to use

Dislikes
-All the action on screen can be a bit overwhelming at times

Verdict: Recommended

[pierrot]

Nice. For whatever reason, I've never put a whole lot of time into Soukyugurentai. It's cool, for sure, but it didn't grab me enough to make me keep playing, in the past. Feeling like putting a couple of hours into it sometime soon, now.

Note: There's some conflicting info on the actual title of the game. Wikipedia gives an alternate title of "Terra Diver". The RB article calls it "Soukyugurentai". If you're wanting to find the game files you'll probably have better luck searching for "Soukyuu Gurentai". Hopefully this helps someone. Probably a mistranslation or transliteration screwing with things.

This is a regional naming difference. "Soukyugurentai" is the Japanese title. "Terra Diver" is the Western market title.
The S-TV (arcade / "Sega-Titan Video") cartridge has both titles on the label:


I'm pretty sure the arcade board bios region determines which one the ROM boots up as, but I'm not positive of that. (Maybe there was actually a selection toggle in the BIOS, I can't remember.) I could test this with the cartridge on my S-TV board to confirm, but I'm a little lazy--.

Anyway, it gets a little more confusing when you throw in that the Saturn version has a re-release called "Soukyugurentai Otokuyo." I should probably look this up, so don't quote me on it, but I think there might have been a ROM revision with the re-release. I have the reprint version, and I don't know why I would have picked that one up if it didn't have some beneficial revision. (Maybe it was just really cheap at the time, though. I don't know.)

EDIT: All right, well the @wiki potentially saves me again. Seems like the "Otokuyo" version might only include a demo of Battle Garegga (another Rising game released by Electronic Arts in Japan):

パッケージに大きく『御徳用』と書かれた廉価版が同じくEAVから出ている。こちらは『バトルガレッガ』の体験版も収録

[o.pwuaioc]

Wow, how come no one talks about this game? Soukyugurentai is awesome.

I do hear this mentioned often, especially when it comes to Saturn shooters. It was in the shmup forum's top 25 for a moment, but still consistently hits their honourable mention. And it's marurun's favorite Saturn shooter to boot! I much prefer it to RS (which I don't actually care for), but I'll want to hear your thoughts after you play Layer Section.

[marurun]

Layer Section is a sweet, sweet shooter for sure.

[opa]

pierrot - Thank you for the clarification. Always good to have more info!

-

o.pwuaioc - I legit never heard of Soukyugurentai. However, the 32-bit era shooters are my weak point. Hoping to correct this!

-

Maybe I'll play Layer Section next. No real plan here. Just going to play what sounds / looks interesting.

[opa]

Blast Wind



Blast Wind is a vertical shooter developed by Technosoft (better known for the Thunder Force series). I highly recommend checking out the dev's other offerings because this one is a stinker. It's really a shame because I like some of the ideas seen in Blast Wind.
The game plays like any other scrolling shooter: blast things, dodge bullets, and collect powerups that float by. When you collect a power up you get a short laser blast that shoots out both sides of your ship. This is really cool because often times it'll destroy enemies coming in from behind you. Blast Wind also features physical switches that you encounter in the stages. You literally ram your ship to "lock-in" these switches to either get an item or bonus points (or even switch the path you're on). Kind of neat to have branching paths in a shooter.
Also, in one stage I ran into a physical barrier that actually changed the direction my shot was going. Pretty intriquing mechanic. You can kind of see it on the screenshot I posted.

I wish I could quit typing but I have to bring up the "bad stuff". I'd talk about the music if I could hear it over the same three explosion sound effects. The constant noise just drowns out any sort of tune that may be going on. The game does feature an option to hear the music in the options menu. Probably the only way you'll hear it!
Another sore point is that the graphics themselves aren't anything to write home about. I kind of feel like I'm playing a Turbografx or Genesis shooter. The backgrounds feel flat and not really a step above older systems. Also, there's supposedly another ship to choose from for player 2 but I don't care enough to play this again. Skip this one.

Likes
- Branching paths add to replayability

Dislikes
- Bad graphics
- Music is buried under constant explosions
- Just play something better, okay?

Verdict: Pass

[marurun]

Best Technosoft on Saturn is Thunderforce V. So good.

[Note]

Awesome idea for a thread, opa. I went through some of these games via emulation last year and Soukyugurentai was also a stand out to me.

Even though I'm not too good at shmups in general and was having a tough time, something kept drawing me back in to keep giving it another go. That's always a good sign to me, and it's something I'd like to put some more time into. Also, good to know about the difference between the physical copies for the Saturn, so appreciate the clarification on that, pierrot.

That's too bad Blast Wind was a dud, hadn't tried that one. Regarding Technosoft's Thunder Force V, that's one I'm interested in giving a go too, the graphics look really good for the time.

Look forward to reading your thoughts on the other shmups for the Saturn.

[pierrot]

Aw, man. I really really like Blast Wind, personally. I thought it was fairly inviting, and on the easier side for getting a decent way into the game without a lot of memorization; Kind of like Batsugun (or a lot of other Toaplan shooters).
I came tantalizingly close to a 1-ALL when I was playing it--*adjusts glasses*--11(!!!) YEARS AGO?
(viewtopic.php?t=43580&hilit=blast+wind& ... dc9261685a)

The audio mixing is certainly a bit of a problem. I still love the soundtrack on its own, though. Especially the end credits theme.

EDIT: The HG101 article from the top-scorer in that thread is worth a read too, I think: http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blast-wind/
Basically arrives at a similar conclusion to yours, opa, but there's a lot of extra historical info along the way.

[Ziggy]

I haven't had the time to post in this thread yet (or on the forum in general lately) but I just wanted to say that this is an awesome idea! Thanks for posting this, opa! I'm looking forward to reading this thread as it unfolds. And, hopefully, post in it as well.