More Toaplan! They're so hot right now! /s

I wouldn't necessarily suggest getting an Evercade to everyone. But if you already bought into the ecosystem, then you might find this review handy.

Toaplan's been getting a lot of love lately, what with Slap Fight and GrindStormer[ set for release on modern consoles, the announcement of a new Evercade collection, and today we get the news that Twin Cobra, Slap Fight and Grind Stormer are all going to get brand new deluxe, physical releases for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive.

Now that I think about it, the Genesis is getting a lot of love these days, too!

The first review is in for the twin-stick spin off Raiden Nova. TL/DR 6/10, but take it with a grain of salt.

From the description:

Hey, everyone.

Are you ready for another MTP episode? In this one, I speak with DharmaPunk about his experiences with arcade shooters.

We went with more of a casual, conversational approach as opposed to the typical Q&A style and I feel this worked a lot nicer.

Be sure to check out DharmaPunk's channel here: / @dharmapunkgames

Thanks so much, Christian! It was a blast talking with you!

Enjoy the video, and we'll be in touch soon!

You know, I have been sleeping on Battle Bakraid.

From the video description:

1 Credit Clear of Battle Bakraid (Advance Course), the third game in the Raizing / Shinobu Yagawa Bat trilogy that also includes Battle Garegga and Armed Police Batrider, played with Flame Viper C, and featuring a beginner's guide and full commentary.

Don't tell anyone, but I actually like Salamander just slightly more than Gradius.

FTA:

Konami's 1986 shmup Salamander (AKA Life Force) is now playable on MiSTer FPGA.

The public release was spotted by @RCAVictorCo and has been confirmed as working.

FTA:

Originally released in arcades back in 1992, the game was developed by the Zed Blade and P47: The Phantom Fighter developer NMK, with Banpresto (a subsidiary of Bandai) handling its distribution in Japan while Fabtek did the same for the North American region.

The game is based on the 1984 film Macross: Do You Remember Love? and sees players take control of the fighters Hikaru Ichijyo (player one) and Max Jenius (player two) as they pilot the variable fighter Valkyrie to defeat an invasion from the Zentradi race.

Three shmups on this one -- not bad! From the article (shooters in bold):

Here is a short description of each game from the developer:

Dogyuun – An intense vertical-scrolling shooter filled with powerful upgrades and fast-paced action.

Grind Stormer – A critically acclaimed shooter offering a dual gameplay style with both "Grind" and "Storm" modes.

Knuckle Bash – A quirky beat 'em up with unique character designs and over-the-top action.

Pipi's & Bibi's – A mischievous platformer with daring challenges, offering a fun and lighthearted arcade adventure.

Snow Bros 2 – The sequel to the much-loved Snow Bros, with new characters and co-op gameplay.

Sky Shark (8-bit version) – A classic shoot 'em up, now presented in its 8-bit version for a nostalgic retro twist.

So, if you've watched the ShmupsBR channel, you've probably already aware that he has an English language channel called Pixel Pilots. (His native language is Portuguese.) Fair warning that the Pixel Pilots channel uses a computer generated voice for narration, so if that's not your thing, you might want to skip this one.

On the other hand if you speak Portuguese and haven't checked out ShmupsBR you might want to give him a shot! (And if, like me you don't speak the language there are English subtitles available for all his videos.)

The games are Wolf Fang (a side-scrolling mech based run n' gun) and Skull Fang, a vertical scrolling shmup. From the article:

Skull Fang: As a member of the Skeleton Fang Platoon, the player boards a fighter plane and heads off to intercept enemy weapons approaching the defense line. Choose from four pilots with different skills and four fighter planes with different performance. On the battlefield, freely control the speed of your fighter plane and decide whether to take the risk and fly at high speed, or play it safe and fly slow to intercept the enemy. In boss battles, control your speed to mark the boss within range. The Saturn version is even more powerful with additional bosses, background music, and additional units in trial mode!

The pack includes Night Striker (1989), Return of the Invaders (1985), Crime City (1989), Cloud Master/Chuka Taisen (1988), Wardner/Pyros (1987), Twin Cobra 2 (1995), Thundercade/Twin Formation (1987), Wyvern F-0 (1985), Operation Wolf (1987) and Yūyu no Quiz de Go! Go! (1990), and is selling for $500 on eBay. That's a confirmed sale, not just a listing – although another seller is asking over $600 for the game.

I mean, Twin Cobra 2 is pretty good, but damn!

From the description:

Today, we're checking out my normal mode clear in Downwell and taking a look at how the game works. I also cover some preferred weapons and upgrades and share a little about my experience with the game.

A presentation event for the new Aero Fighters game will be held at EXBAR TOKYO plus in Shinjuku, Tokyo on November 8 at 20:00 JST, where information about the game and available platforms will be announced.

I'm a big fan of the Aero Fighters/Sonic Wings series, but I never thought I'd see a new entry because I figured the IP rights were all messed up. Looking forward to seeing what SUCCESS does with it now!

FTA:

Something worth noting with this release is that the game's text remains untranslated, as with all previous EGGCONSOLE releases. As a result, it may be worth tracking down the original files and taking advantage of the unofficial English fan translation, if you want to get the full experience.

I won't turn this into a dumping ground for my progress on the game but I thought I'd try recording it tonight. It's very rough because I've never really done any screen recording like this (or posting, for that matter). Really pleased that I managed to beat the third boss now for the second time and I made it all the way to the fourth boss. Died because I was a bit panicked due to not knowing its patterns.

Very pleased with my nearly 16mil score. It's way better than last night's run. On "easy" mode, it's so hard to drop your chain so scores are all over the place. I'm not terribly focused on anything but survival right now but a couple of times the dim lightbulb in my brain turned on and I managed to hyper when I wanted to or graze consistently into chains.

It ain't much and my score is hot garbage but after about a week and some change, I finally beat the third boss on Danmaku Unlimited 3. Now I just need to make it consistent. Two more stages after this one and I might be able to get my first 1cc on a shmup.

I got some good tips from the #STG Rev. 2020 Discord server. I'm using the Hori Fighting Commander PS4-044U and it's coming together. Easy mode is actually quite difficult because I keep dropping chains. There just aren't enough bullets to graze, it seems.

I also haven't unlocked the good focus shot yet. It says you need to graze 100,000 bullets and I have no idea how many I've done. I did get the achievement for grazing 1,000 bullets in one chain, though.

Anyway, not real shmup news; I was just stoked and wanted to share the progress.

From the description:

In episode 074, MetalFRO and Addicted dig into an indie developed shooter from a seasoned programmer that's heavily inspired by classics - Crisis Wing!

If you want to listen via Apple, Spotify, etc. check out the show's link tree.

From the description:

Expert guests and players in baf and Icarus join on to talk arcade vertical shooter: Raiden Fighters 2 Operation Hell Dive. We break down the mechanics, secrets and plethora of scoring tricks. We view 3 scoring, 1 credit cleared runs in the Raiden MK II, Slave (Judge Spear), and Fairy ship selections. RF2 is jam packed with secrets and technique including grazing bullets - to keep you busy on a high scoring run.

Toaplan was established in 1979, but its gaming division wouldn't come into being until 1984. Its first two titles were Jongō (1984) and Performan (1985), but it was Tiger-Heli (also 1985) which put the firm on the map as a master of the shmup genre.

Now THIS is old school.

FTA:

Moon Shuttle first entered the arcades in the early 80s and was available at the time as a standup cabinet, which could be played with one or two players (albeit not simultaneously). It is one of many space shooters released by the company during this period with "Moon" in the title and has often been compared to Konami's influential sidescroller Scramble, which was released the same year.

FTA:

Manabu Namiki (Santaruru) Joined NMK in 1992 and has been involved in sound production for numerous game titles ever since. After working at Raizing he went independent, and is currently an active composer for Basiscape. His representative works include Battle Garegga, Dodonpachi Dai-Ou-Jou and the Mushihimesama and Deathsmiles series.

This thing look super stylish, and extremely polished. Let's hope they also made it fun to play!