Thanks to Bitwave Games for the review code

Title:GRIND STORMER
System: Steam (PC)
Price: $7.99
Release Date: 04/08/2024

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Story

In this pseudo followup to Slap Fight, you take control of an aircraft and must use the upgradable power of your ship in order to take out the evil forces! You know the drill, another story light shooter from the masters of Toaplan; the gameplay speaks for itself!

Presentation

The usual Bitwave features return, leading to a lot of good screen options. The in-game visuals are pretty damn impressive, and with this being one of Toaplan’s final releases, that should come as no surprise. The stages are filled with lush colors and great backgrounds, very detailed sprite art, and some impressive background effects and layer usage. Toaplan continued their streak of great looking shooters, and even in their final days they were managing to make their games look distinctive from the competition.

The audio is also incredible, at least in its original form. You have some outstanding music from Toaplan alumni here, and the sound effects pack a punch as they always have. Unfortunately, yet again we have this Bitwave port launching with some rough audio, and this time around both the music and sound effects sound off from a PCB. Not nearly as bad as Truxton II, but a lot of the firing sounds, explosions and other cues such as getting an upgrade or inserting a coin just feel off if you’ve played this in any prior fashion, such as the Astro City Mini V, or if you compare it with a video of a PCB. The sound effects being off and the music being a bit stutery are what irritate me most of all really, and yet again I have to wait for a patch in hopes that stuff gets tweaked eventually for the better.

Gameplay

Like a good chunk of Toaplan’s catalog, Grind Stormer has two regional variations that change up the gameplay by quite a bit. V-V uses the Gradius-style powerup system that Slap Fight had, while Grind Stormer ditches that for traditional weapon drops and the ability to use bombs. Otherwise, the stages are pretty much the same, and while your strategy in shooting down foes will change per the versions due to how powerups get distributed, this is still a relatively fun romp however you choose to play it.

When it comes to the input timing, Bitwave yet again brings us some pretty good efforts, with the control far, far eclipsing that of the dreadfully laggy Astro City V. These have been the best aspect of the ports by far, and continue to remain as such. Being able to actually dodge shots led to me having way more fun with this game than I did on the V, and I ended up going with Grind Stormer as my preferred regional variant, due to that feeling more traditional with the bombs coming in handy in a pinch.

What didn’t turn out as a good effort though, are the QOL tweaks. While yes, they are present here, they don’t seem to work all that well in this port, and I found a lot of them just made the game act all weird when toggling them on or weren’t that helpful. One DIP switch preset led to the rank going outta control, for instance. There’s also several that don’t seem to be present here from the prior Bitwave ports, which makes me think since Truxton II also lacked a few of em, that this whole volume was rushed out the door and the QOL aspect was neglected.

Leaving everything on default made things mostly tolerable, but that nasty audio still sticks out like a sore thumb, and the shoddiness of the extra features don’t really give me confidence. Huge shame, since the core game is immensely fun and it would make for a great leaderboard game otherwise.

Conclusion

Here you have one of Toaplan’s finest shooters, presented in both unique variations, and whether you want to play it as both a score chaser or to see the ending, or to go co-op with a friend, this game has lots of fun to be had, and is easily my favorite Toaplan shooter of the four from this volume, and the quick input response time leads to an experience that’s semi-decent to play here.

Unfortunately, the repeated audio issues still sour my thoughts on this port, since while it isn’t as bad as prior Bitwave releases, it shouldn’t have even launched with these minor inaccuracies to begin with. It also doesn’t help that a bunch of the QOL features or missing or outright broken, leaving to a sloppy package all around.

Wait it out for a patch, I say, but even if you decide to rush on in, you’ll find one of Toaplan’s best shooters and one of the biggest hidden gems from their entire catalog. I just really, really wish it didn’t continue to run into the same issues a lot of these Bitwave ports seem to be having, and continue this line of rushed port jobs.

I give Grind Stormer a 4 out of 10.