Toaplan Arcade Shoot ‘Em Up Collection Vol.1 review

These are exceptional ports with all the in-game extras you could ask for. But sadly, there’s little context or presentation to connect these games.

Any respectable overview of shooting game history wouldn’t be complete without a discussion of Toaplan. Once situated in the cedar-lined streets of Suginami, the prolific developer released sixteen STGs between 1985 and 1993. Across these eight years, innovations were abundant.

1985’s Tiger-Heli was one of the first STGs to introduce the now ubiquitous bomb mechanic. Its sequel, 1987’s Twin Cobra popularized the color-coded weapon system that would form a foundation for franchises like Seibu Kaihatsu’s Raiden. Toaplan’s swan song, 1993’s Batsugun even instigated the danmaku sub-genre. Following the company’s bankruptcy one year later, key staff would continue to transform the shooter, founding famed companies such as Cave and Takumi.

Four Separate Ports Rather than a Traditional Collection

As such, the publishing of Toaplan Arcade Shoot ‘Em Up Collection Vol.1 represents one-quarter of the studio’s illustrious legacy. Unlike most anthologies, there’s no unifying framework. Purchase the package and you’ll unceremoniously find a quartet of classics in your Steam or GOG library rather than a suite that lets you jump across the entries.

There are also none of the archival materials that often accompany these compilations. Given Toaplan’s place in the annals of arcade (and home console) history, it’s surprising that the collection doesn’t include any auxiliaries, like a visual timeline, photographs, or planning documents. After experiencing Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration’s materials, this collection feels pithy. Fortunately, the individual games can be purchased separately.

Capturing the Look of a Two-Year-Old CRT

On the upside, Gothenburg-based Bitwave Games has given each game in Toaplan Vol. 1 some worthwhile enhancements. Pleasingly, each title boots up incredibly quickly. The need for credits has been removed, allowing you to jump into a game within a second or two. Delve into each shooter’s options menu and you’ll be able to turn on a variety of perks.

Some are inherently useful, like granting access to each coin-ops DIP switches or illuminating the habitually large hitbox in each Toaplan game. There is also the ability to engage autofire, with a variable firing rate that simulates 30, 20, 15, 12, 10, 9, 7, 6, or 4 button presses a second. You can even make each ship able to withstand up to three hits before exploding or elect to use slow-motion or rewind functions. But the game’s dodging ability is decidedly less useful. While you might expect it to replicate the precision of a self-driving car, the AI is horrible at avoiding objects. It’s an interesting idea, at least. If you’re seeking a place on the online leaderboards, the only assistance you can use is autofire.

Similarly, there are some worthwhile visual options. You can opt to play in tate mode, tweak scaling, output to a window, or play the game in fullscreen. Five visual modifiers affect everything from vignetting, brightness, scanlines, and shadowing. The default setting offers a very good recreation of CRT output. But if you can’t fight the urge to tamper with things, there’s no easy way to revert the settings. But save for this detail, there are a multitude of ways to fine-tune the visual delivery of each title.

Twin Cobra and Truxton

Of course, we haven’t discussed the games. Fortunately, there are no obvious fillers in Volume 1. 1987’s Twin Cobra is the sequel to Tiger-Heli offering a vertically-scrolling title undoubtedly inspired by Capcom’s 1942. In addition to the color-coded weapon systems, you’re also able to increase the offensive punch of your copter by grabbing power-ups and additional bombs. Pleasingly, Bitwave fixed the way continues were handled. In the original release, your score wasn’t reset. Like the other games covered here, you can select the US or Japanese versions. In this case, the former offers cooperative play, while the latter provides checkpointing and slightly better firepower.

Truxton transports the action into a science-fiction setting as you face five stages of adversarial Gidans and a quintet of boss battles. The title undoubtedly builds on the foundation of Twin Cobra, with a triad of different weapons acquired when grabbing red, green, or blue icons. The last one might remind you of Raiden, with the sapphire laser convulsing about and locking onto foes. Another familiar element is how bosses and mid-bosses accumulate visual damage, with flaming sprites revealing how close to death they are.

But there are also digressions. One of the most evident of these is your starting weapon, which dispenses a powerful output of spread shots. Then there are the signature bombs. Release one of these and you’ll drop a damaging area-of-effect blast marketed with an eerie, flickering skull. 35 years on, the visual remains iconic.

Zero Wing and Out Zone

1989’s Zero Wing shifts Toaplan’s approach, offering action across horizontally scrolling stages. Pleasingly, you start with two smaller ships that flank your main craft. Not only do these augment your offensive output, but they’re invaluable defensively- absorbing many of the projectiles that might kill you. Your ship is also equipped with a tractor beam, which can absorb most smaller enemies and the occasional bomb. You can fling attracted enemies at other foes or use them as a shield to protect against a single forward threat. And yes, this is the game that spawned the “all your base are belong to us” meme.

Finally, there’s 1990’s Out Zone, which plays a bit more like run-and-guns such as Gun.Smoke, Mercs, and Ikari Warriors than a traditional ship-based STG. At the beginning of the game, your character is outfitted with two weapons- a laser that fires in the direction you are facing as well as a forward-firing three-way. By collecting “P” icons, you’ll power up each firearm, and the “C” icon permits players to swap between the weapon modes. Factor in a generous supply of bombs, bonus arms like flamethrowers, and an inventory of references to other Toaplan titles, and Out Zone is a challenging but satisfying experience.

Toaplan Arcade Shoot ‘Em Up Collection Vol.1 was played
on PC with review code provided by the publisher.