Title: Toaplan Arcade 1
System: Evercade
Price: $19.99
Release Date: Late 2022

Prelude

This collection of Toaplan classics brings a bit of Deja Vu to SFG! See, I covered all the Toaplan shmups in detail via their Bitwave ports earlier this year, and that was quite fun to do, I must say. However, the weird oddities/problems behind those ports did make it tricky to highlight the positives of the core games themselves, so I hope to at least still provide decent context here for those who want to consider picking this up on Evercade. Also, we have a few non shooters here!

Presentation

Another batch of Arcade games means a lot more work is needed to make them sound and look just right, and thankfully Blaze nailed the emulation here. One of the biggest reasons I was as hard on the Bitwave ports as I was is because Blaze managed to nail the audio so accurately that the Evercade versions were a perfect source to compare those ports with, and in most cases the audio was worse on the Bitwave ports, even post-patch.

So yes. Flying Shark has those FM sounds coming through clear as crystal, Tiger Heli has normal PSG audio that won’t hurt your ears, Truxton is just as iconic as ever and Teki-Paki is as obnoxious as ever. All sounding just as they should here, and all looking very crisp on most Evercade devices you can throw the cart at. The Super Pocket is a bit weird with the TATE games, but otherwise I enjoyed played these on the various systems quite a bit. Accurate audio, crisp graphics, this is an easy plus for me.

Gameplay

You know the drill by now. Eight games! A lot previously reviewed solo! I’ll still do my best.

Tiger-Heli: Toaplan’s first shmup, and a very simple, yet fun scorechaser loop. Uses a different bomb system than you might expect, and there’s tons of secrets to find here, making this a game clearly meant for score VS beating the game to loop it, but it controls very well here on Evercade and most importantly nails the sound perfectly. Jump in, shoot down enemies, and rack up those points! Simplistic fun that’s still enjoyable even for the company’s first shmup.

Guardian: The first of three non shooters on the cart. This is a weird, tokusatsu inspired action game where you are a guardian robot thing, jumping around the solar systems to take out their big baddies with your fists. Every now and then you may get a handy powerup like a blaster or an upgrade to your fists, but the big challenge of each stage comes from the boss fights, which are one on one duels requiring memorization; some aren’t even typical boss battles and require you to think outside the box!

Yet again, this one is more score focused, even though it does have a defined ending you can get to with credit feeding and practice. After beating the final stage, you go back a bit and it loops, so just rack up those points and memorize those bosses! Once you do, there’s a really fun scorechasing rhythm to this unique action game.

Alcon: This is just Slap Fight renamed. Like Tiger Heli before it, you go around shooting enemies, but this time you have a Gradius-style powerup system to take advantage of, allowing you to upgrade your ship in many wild and varied ways! Yet again, a very long, looping game with tons of scoring secrets and hidden items to discover, and one that also manages to be much harder than the prior two games. No continues to save you this time around, and certain sections require the right weapon to get through safely, just like Gradius! Another score focused game, and yet another fun one you’ll enjoy experimenting with.

Flying Shark: This is what I consider to be the underrated game of the collection, and as Toaplan’s first FM sounding shooter, that’s a darn shame. It has a unique musical style, but manages to pull off a great presentation and most importantly, an addicting score loop. Still tons of secrets to discover, and now you have traditional bombs to defend yourselves with. Will you go for score, or try to make it to the end of the long, long stretch? Either way, this game increased the amount of depth Toaplan shooters would have, and is immensely fun because of it.

Truxton: This is the one you probably heard of before, if you’re familiar with the company at all. A classic shooter, this takes prior Toaplan concepts and evolves them into a lovely, section-based shooter with pattern recognization galore and a lot of challenge. Three different weapon types with their own advantages, a checkpoint system and various upgrades make this a good shooter with quite a bit of depth, but a far nastier one to try and actually beat.

Still, Truxton stays fair, manages to be fun for scoring purposes as well, and is a classic for damn good reason. If you want a shooter that’ll take you some time to fully get to grips with, this is a great one to focus on.

Zero Wing: One of two Toaplan Horizontal shooters, and unfortunately this is the lamer one. You still have a good amount of weapons to pick up and take advantage of, there’s still some fun scoring secrets to be had and the music is outright magnificent, but in terms of engaging gameplay loops, this one just never clicked with me. The tractor beam you have feels rather useless except for shielding yourself from enemies, and some of these stages are incredibly dull and drag on way too long.

This is the US version with local co-op, which does mitigate the challenge a little, but even with checkpoints, I never cared for this one much, and I’d give the Genesis version a slight edge in the balance department anyhow. A lot of people like this one, but I just can’t get into it, and vastly prefer the other horizontal shmup they made.

Snow Bros: This is an incredibly fun elimination style Arcade game! You and a local Co-Op partner go through fifty stages to beat up demons with snow, and it just rules. Easily the game with the most enjoyable co-op on the cartridge, and this one is just such a blast I never have problems binging it in full with someone. You just jump in, throw snow, and go nuts as you defeat enemies while working (or causing mayhem!) with a friend.

Tons and tons of scoring potential too, whether that be from taking advantage of snowball combos, collecting bonus items, or doing risky techniques against bosses, this one is just a blast to play again and again! Sadly, the sequel hasn’t been announced for any Evercade cartridge as of this review, and I really hope it gets on Vol 4.

Teki-Paki: This puzzler might have obnoxious music, but stick with it for a while and you’ll find a rather unique block matching game purely focused on score. No VS Opponent aspects here, just survive until you’re out of the game! The more you score, the more block types get added, and thus, more scoring potential!

Seriously, some of the crazy point combos you can get by matching bombs or golden blocks together is enough to make Teki-Paki an insanely competitive puzzle game for scoring purposes, alongside being a game where a session can be both engaging and long if you manage to get to grips with the linking system. Whenever you think a game might be over, there’s often a chance to do a last-minute point chain to clear some space and keep the game going, which adds to the addictive nature and makes Teki-Paki really darn hard to put down.

It isn’t Tetris, but it manages to be a damn addictive game nevertheless, and I argue this one is the most replayable game on the entire cartridge. It also helps that as a horizontal game, this is just perfect for the Super Pocket.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Toaplan Arcade 1 is a phenomenal starting point for newcomers to introduce themselves to the scorechasing goodness the company was famous for. Some of their most iconic shmups are here like Truxton, while some underrated ones with plenty of depth, such as Flying Shark are here as well, with a lot of replay value for those wanting to rack up those scores. Add in three excellent non-shooters with their own scoring quirks with one even being a fun co-op romp, and you have a cartridge where I could only really dunk on one of the games, and even that one (Zero Wing) still has an epic soundtrack and Co-op to distract from a boring game loop.

There still aren’t too many Arcade carts for Evercade as of now, but there’s a darn good reason why Toaplan is the first company to get three of them; they rarely miss, and this cartridge is easily one of the best Arcade carts you could pick up for Evercade as of right now, especially for scorechasing fans. The only big flaw is the continued lack of DIP Switches, but hopefully the Alpha will introduce that as an option so there’ll be more options to introduce a self-challenge.

I give Toaplan Arcade 1 an 8 out of 10.