Batsugun

OVERVIEW:
Batsugun name, for any seasoned fan of the shmup genre, is a name that you have been familiar with on and off across the past decades. This was my case too so, considering I was still lacking first hand experience of the title I decided that 2025 was the year to venture myself into the mysteries and check how fair its renowned legacy really was.
Players select from six distinct pilots, each commanding unique spacecraft with varying abilities. The game combines traditional shmup elements with innovative mechanics, such as an experience-based weapon upgrade system and formidable bosses that enhance its bullet hell characteristics. The Steam version includes the original arcade release and the "Batsugun Special," featuring visual enhancements, a smaller hitbox, and a shield for added protection. Notably, this version introduces multiple difficulty loops, challenging players to master increasingly complex stages.
Pros
-» Gameplay: Adjustable difficulty settings, including a "Very Easy Mode," cater to both newcomers and seasoned players, ensuring a broad appeal. Improvements such as minimal input lag, quick save/load options, online leaderboards, assist features like auto-fire, and a customizable practice mode enrich the gameplay experience
-» Soundtrack and sound effects: drums driven melodies with warp like sound effects amount to a nice mix
-» Graphics: The game boasts from detailed pixel art and animations, wraping eachother as an amazing present for diehard fans.
-» Bosses: While the majority of the action is focused on avoiding bullets, there are also specific weak points on each boss that players must target to deal the most damage. These weak points often require precise positioning, as the player needs to maneuver their ship into tight spaces while avoiding a hail of bullets. This mechanic makes the bosses feel more interactive, as the player has to balance their offensive strategies with the need to stay alive.
-» Replayability: offers a faithful and enriched experience of a classic shmup, making it a valuable addition for both genre enthusiasts and newcomers interested in gaming history. The 2 players remote play further enhances its merit
-» Difficulty: The difficulty curve keeps players on their toes, making victory against a boss feel like a hard-earned achievement, and similarly requiring the need of balance between ofensive and survival playstyles.
-» Bullet style: Appealing but be aware that regular bullets fill the screen with dense patterns, while homing projectiles and larger, slower-moving shots create a variety of difficulties for the player to avoid. The game's enemies often shoot in patterns that seem random at first but require a level of memorization and planning, typical of the bullet hell spectrum.
Cons
-» This game stands truly as a solid pillar of the Shmup genre, so I would feel ashamed and ungrateful if I tainted it here
SUMMARY:
8.8/10 gaming scale
Final Thoughts: Batsugun, as one of the early pioneers of the bullet hell subgenre, offers a unique approach to bullet patterns and gameplay that influenced the evolution of shmups. After clearing the main campaign and, as I comeback for new sessions or new updates arise by developers, I intend to keep revising this review.

Go into the game's Options menu, change "Game" to "Special" and play an even better version.
Base game is good tho :)

Really fun game, one of my favorite toaplan games. The grand father of bullet hells, if you like the genre you will like this game. And the port itself is very good, runs great and has all you will need and a lot of QoL on top.

It's a typical coin-muncher vertical scroll shooter, where coins directly translate to more lives. There are three ships with different attack patterns. You can upgrade three times and the bombs properly clean the screen of bullets. And this game is way deeper into bullet hell  genre than others — you have a small hitbox and sometimes can even eat a bullet, but the screen is properly filled with damage, especially on the last loops of the Special version. There's one segment where the enemies ram you from below, and it's as unfair as always. The dead enemies cans till shoot you in their death convulsions.
This is a great release. It offers both the original and the special version. The special one doesn't admit that you've won until you loop all the levels factorial, with increasing difficulty. So it can take a significant amount of time. The game has no envelopes so you can play it on a vertical screen or in windows without stupid ~boxing options. It offers saves, hotkey saves, saves to file, rewinds, DIP switches, and even new additional accessibility options. There are achievements and some of them demand that you finish this game as the second players, and these are the rarest.

¡Input lag on point!
Wonderfull borders to choose from, now with scanlines there's just one type but it has multiple option to adjust to your taste.
Phenomenal practice settings and the audio department was crazy with the low/high pass filters, reverb etc. like huh? amazing!
Now the game itself has aged pretty well, any shmup enthusiast will enjoy this, it still feels pretty darn good...
For unexperienced players from stage 3 onwards you'll start to get memo'd here and there but it's not necessary a bad thing, just learn it with the practice settings and rewind function the port provides you
I absolutely recommend this.
6.8/7

Awesome proto-bullet hell title from the legendary Toaplan. Fun weapons and good difficulty curve (at least through the first 3 levels, I'm playing on one credit so I've yet to reach stage 4.)
Quite detailed and beautiful pixel art that holds up wonderfully as well.
Definitely a buy for anyone looking for a rock solid shooter, especially for a mere 8$ tops.

Great top down shooter. One of the best ever made, imho.