Title: Batsugun SATURN TRIBUTE BOOSTED
System: Steam
Price: $29.99
Release Date: 05/24/2023

Story

With a plot completely absent from being in the actual game, this is a shooter that takes place in a world where a resistance must fight back against oppressive forces! But you wouldn’t really know that while playing until the very end of the game. Still, Batsugun was one of Toaplan’s final games ever created, and this Saturn Tribute release is based off of the Sega Saturn port published by Banpresto.

Presentation

The Saturn Tribute Line is one I only briefly mentioned in a roundup article, so with this being the first from the line I reviewed on the site, there’s quite a bit to go over, especially in this “Boosted” release, which adds a lot of cool extras to the mix. Firstly, you have the usual button mapping/screen size options to mess with, with the options to toggle on a slow mode, rewind, (though this really just brings up a selection of periodic autosaves to go back to) and some extra HUD options unique to the Boosted release.

There are several borders to choose from, but unfortunately none that are fully black and disable the border outright, though at least it has cool key art. There’s even some scanline options available, but I couldn’t find myself liking any of em. The biggest additions to the usual feature set here, compared to most S-Tribute releases come in the way the soundtrack is handled along with the HUD, also known as the “Boost Up HUD”. The original Saturn version included a form of the original soundtrack that was a little bit inaccurate, but close enough, and a brand new Arranged mode that brought the entire game’s score into Redbook Audio format. Needless to say, both of these sound great, and were some of Toaplan’s best musical works, and you can toggle between these two in a music options menu, separate from the in-game options menu. (which has been completely deleted in favor of the contents being moved to their own sections in the pause menu, like these two soundtrack options)

However, new to this Boosted release are two brand new Soundtrack options to toggle; a PCB-accurate option that is a perfect replica of the original Arcade score instead of the original Saturn version’s slightly off soundtrack, and a brand new, 2023 remix set called the Boosted Remixes. These are a bunch of heavily remixed songs from a variety of popular Japanese VGM artists, including some who have done stuff for Mikado and modern Shmups, and they’re fine, but I found myself preferring the rearrangements from the Saturn port over the newer mixes. Still, all these musical options are really neat, and you can even mix and match on a per-song basis, leading to a lot of customization options.

Lastly for the UI is that aforementioned Boost Up HUD, which basically tries to do what M2, Zerodiv and Bitwave have done in their ports, and give a somewhat detailed counter of in-game stats. Here you have the EXP bar, your score, your current live count, bonus icons, the top high score, and the amount of points collected by bonus pigs, all on the side of the screen. The varying screen options also allows for you to rotate the screen in a TATE position, which in turn moves the boosted HUD above and below the game screen. This HUD is fine enough, I suppose, and is more akin to the Bitwave/Zerodiv ones in terms of quality, versus the super in-depth ones M2 provides, but I wouldn’t call it essential either.

For the game itself, well, this is the Saturn version, although it has some weird edits as a result of the options being moved to the pause menu. The intro FMV with the Banpresto and Toaplan logos is completely gone, and the game just cuts to the first loading screen. You can choose between the Special version and the original on a title screen before getting to the actual emulator (or by swapping the version in the pause menu), and the game will boot into those settings after you pick.

Once you finally get into the game, you’ll see that this game has incredible spritework, and all of it has been preserved in this reissue. Lots of cool visual effects, colorful stages and great bosses, with some cute visual easter eggs every now and then, such as those aforementioned pigs, and definitely shows how far Toaplan came since Tiger-Heli. I already gave praise for the incredible music, and that still applies here, with the Stage 2 Boss theme and the Stage 3 themes being the absolute best songs in the game. The Special version changes some graphical elements of the stages and even redesigns your bombs, but otherwise a lot of the sprites are the same, even with changed colors and other differences to the game.

Gameplay

I’m going to do this review a bit like a compilation, even though this game really isn’t much of one at all; including both Batsugun and Batsugun Special is enough for me to warrant pointing out the differences in how they feel due to some mechanics, even though the controls, playable characters and amount of stages are the same. Both games feel great to play, and despite earlier S-Tribute ports like Guardian Force controlling as if they were on ice, I’m happy to say Batsugun is way less laggy than those Success titles, being more on par with the recent Taito ports, with some frame data to back that up that places it in the 4-6 frame standard of those recent ports. Turning V-Sync off helps shave some frames in this Steam version, too, and generally the port is done leaps and bounds better than those earlier S-tribute titles, so those accustomed to that sort of shorter emulation input delay shouldn’t have much trouble enjoying this port.

Still, upon picking a game from the main menu, you’re off with your usual set of S-Tribute options, along with options relevant to the game, such as the ability to be on the P2 side, changing the hitbox to that of the other game version, the difficulty level/lives, or enabling infinite continues, which all help to curate the game experience to your liking. There’s even an Online Ranking mode for both versions, but it’s accessed in an odd way, as going to the menu option will reset the game at the default DIP Settings, and you have to manually end the game by going to the leaderboards for it to save the highest score you achieved. I also noticed this process opens an extra window for the leaderboard, and exiting it on my Steam Deck caused the game to crash there, so keep that in mind. (otherwise, compatibility with the Deck is very solid, with no further problems I ran into) Without further ado, let’s go into the two versions!

BATSUGUN: The original version, this shooter is a pretty exceptional step to what would later be the CAVE/Raizing standard, with a focus on short stages flooded with enemy projectiles. You have the typical bomb/shot setup, with three characters to choose from, all having a different way of shooting, from a typical vulcan shot, a lightning beam, or a wide shot. With five stages to fly through, the game loop is surprisingly short, but Batsugun more than makes up for it with a high amount of challenge, especially in the final three stages and during boss fights, where the bullet patterns get pretty tricky and feel as if they set the standards titles like Ketsui would later follow.

Unfortunately, here in the original version, the ship’s hitbox is rather big, and while you’ll still be able to have a good enough time fighting back with bombs and careful movements, dodging the aggressive patterns later on can get real nasty, which makes this port’s hitbox toggle much more appreciated if you just want to credit feed the game or challenge yourself with a lot less frustration. As a scorechaser though? Batsugun really excels in short bursts. The first two stages feel like a gradual warmup for the last three, which feel like true bullet hell from start to finish. Along the way you’ll also be able to gain experience to upgrade your main shots, along with collecting powerups for your ship, along with handy V icons for score bonuses if you manage to keep them to the end of a level without dying. All in all, a very replayable, yet fun scorechaser that would benefit from a bit of rebalancing, which brings us to…

BATSUGUN SPECIAL: A lovely revision that tweaks the game to be even more score-focused, while also adjusting your hitbox to be a much smaller space in the middle of your ship, making the fierce stages much more tolerable, even when cranking up the difficulty. Lots more score bonuses, different layouts in spots, more hidden pigs that provide bonus points/EXP for shooting over them, and the game even has multiple loops now, making this the far superior version for scorechasing and getting comfortable with the game.

The only thing I could see as a potential downgrade from the original is the difference in how your bomb functions, but really, this is the mode to play for points, and it definitely served as the one I played the most as a casual scorechaser. Sure, it still has the five stages and the same bosses, but there’s just enough tweaks here to make both versions worth playing through at least once, and then this one to keep going back to once you want to try and take up the online leaderboards. Definitely one of the best games in Toaplan’s entire catalog, bar none, and this saturn port did a very good job of bringing that experience home.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Batsugun is definitely a rarity to see reissued at all, and the version on last year’s Astro City Mini V was incredibly poor, with pretty abhorrent input lag that I argue is around the ballpark of earlier S-Tribute titles. Here though in Boosted? I say Batsugun is definitely the best Saturn Tribute title by far in terms of featureset, though it doesn’t hold a candle to either M2’s careful curation or Bitwave’s near instantaneous input times, it still manages to be a ton of fun, with the soundtrack customization alone getting many, many kudos from me, and makes this a must-own for any fans of the game’s score.

With that said, even with two versions and all the QOL City Connection has added, Batsugun feels like a much, much tougher recommend when Outzone is out there for $8. I personally really dug the online leaderboards and Special has more than enough replay value to make me feel like I got my money’s worth, but for a newcomer or those who just want to dabble in the game for a single loop and see what Toaplan’s swan song had to offer, it may be better to just wait for a sale on this one. Regardless, if this is the sort of quality future Saturn Tribute offerings could bring to the table, I am absolutely excited to see what sort of fun gems City Connection will bring over next from the lovely Sega Saturn!

I give Batsugun Saturn Tribute BOOSTED a 7 out of 10.