Thanks to Clear River Games for the review code
Title: Toaplan Arcade Collection Vol 1
System: Nintendo Switch (eShop)
Price: $34.99
Release Date: 08/14/2025
Prelude
A long while ago, M2 made a trilogy of Toaplan Arcade reissues, before Embracer acquired the company and before they started reissuing those arcade games almost everywhere you could think of. One of these recent reissue lines was the Bitwave Steam ports, which I have covered in full on SFG, and thus if you see a game here I mention, you can look up the individual review of it via search.
Needless to say, Bitwave brought every shooting game Toaplan created to Steam with their own set of tweaks and gadgets, and my impressions of them at the time were mixed to negative. Older games had glaring sound issues, especially with the sound effects, and some games launched in such a dire state that I was bewildered they even were deemed acceptable to begin with.
By and large, my go-to for Toaplan was via the four Evercade sets or the M2 series. Alas, despite Truxton II and Outzone being hinted at as a possible next volume, there hasn’t been a Toaplan Arcade Garage since Zero Fire in 2023. Thus, these Bitwave ports were the only way to play some of the Toaplan shooters outside of Evercade or iOS, and now they’ve all been brought to Switch and other consoles in a two volume set. Have they improved since their dire PC releases, or are they just as clunky or ear-piercing as they were on PC?
Presentation
Right away, you have your choice of the nine games presented in a decent looking menu, a much better one than the clunky, keyboard focused one the individual steam games got you. You can choose the game and the variant you wish before being dropped into a title, which also has a pause menu much nicer looking than the PC version. This is where you can set DIP switch or display options and such.
The display options here are pretty solid, just like on PC. You have an OK set of screen size/filter options, you can play every game here in TATE mode if you have a flip grip or whatnot, and the games all look crisp with no major shimmering. (and any minor bits you do see get eliminated in TATE outright) The better menus alone make changing options and settings much nicer here in the collection VS the individual bitwave ports, and you can save the display options or controls in a batch, so every game in the collection has them applied at once. (save for games that don’t use a similar button layout) Nifty!
Unfortunately, the audio is still the weakest part of the collection, and in such infuriating ways. Like with the individual bitwave games, the older Toaplan games are hit the hardest, with Tiger Heli having music that’s completely the wrong pitch, and sound effects that are just bizarre compared to the PCB or other ports. Flying Shark is also just as bad as it was on Steam with explosion sounds, making the game sound absolutely miserable and unacceptable, especially when M2’s own port on the same system sounds absolutely perfect. You can hear them back to back below. M2 top, Bitwave bottom.
Yeah. I think it’s pretty alarming that a year out from when the PC version came out, these sound issues still not being fixed despite how old the games in question are is aggravating. As the Toaplan games get newer, the sound emulation gets better too. The good news is all the music sans Tiger Heli appears to be as it should, so at least the OSTs aren’t impacted this time. That also means the gems like Batsugun still keep their excellent OSTs intact as it should be. It just really makes me pull my hair out as to why Tiger Heli and Flying Shark sound so terrible, when both of those got the M2 treatment.
Gameplay
Unfortunately, there are no bonus features. You get the games, their versions, some online leaderboards (with only one option per revision, so no co-op or 1CC normal dip switch leaderboards), and that’s about it. Would have been nice to see some key art/poster scans considering M2 didn’t get to most of these…
On the bright side, the best gameplay tweak of the Bitwave ports carry over to these games as well, which is the fact that all of the games have near instant input response time. Seriously, input lag will not be a worry here at all, and compared to other Switch ports like the Saturn Tribute Batsugun, these Bitwave reissues feel like smooth butter. It’s just a shame the audio is still an issue for some of these games.
Tiger Heli- The game that started it all for Toaplan, and a pretty simple scorechaser that maintains some good fun. You fly around in a helicopter with two bombs, and try to take down all the enemies in your way while dodging bullets, using your bombs in a pinch to try and get further and further. Not that long of a game, but a pretty fun one to try and 1CC and a good start considering what was to come from the company. The audio emulation here is beyond unacceptable though, and sours the experience here significantly; avoid this one at all costs until they fix it (if they ever do…)
Flying Shark- Toaplan’s first FM game, and I’ve sung the praises of this several times over. A great, meticulous shooter that improves on their prior two games for more scorechasing fun, with a simple powerup system and a focus on precise bombing to get outta jams.
If it wasn’t for the godawful explosion sound effects due to poor sound emulation, this would easily be a must play and easy recommend of this set, but honestly as it stands now I have to unfortunately recommend you just import the M2 version instead. Flying Shark really does take that much of an enjoyment hit when the sound effects just don’t feel right.
Twin Cobra– The sequel to Tiger Heli, this one takes the helicopter shooting concept and expands it into a rather long ordeal, with a traditional bomb system compared to the two-bomb one from the original, and a lot more shooting opportunities. Refining the simplistic gameplay and having four different shot types, this one kicked off a lot of the traditions that would become Toaplan staples, and is a lot of fun to scorechase in.
The JP version uses checkpoints like Tiger Heli, while the US Twin Cobra adds in local co-op and respawn. I still prefer the JP checkpoints for the more meticulous design, but this one is a rather fun romp if you have a friend on hand, so either way you can’t go wrong here, weird shot sounds aside.
Fire Shark– The sequel to Flying Shark, bringing over the regional difference of the US version having local co-op with respawn while the JP 1P version is checkpoint focused. Unlike Twin Cobra though, JP version Same Same Same! is waaaaaay harder than Fire Shark, almost to the point of absurdity.
You have three different weapons to pick up this time around, each of them offering a different means of fire, be it a piercing, wide or flame shot, and all are pretty fun to play around with. You can still get a lot of fun outta the game and adjust to the high challenge level and enjoy it for scoring, but compared to Flying Shark or the other Toaplan games from around this time, Same Same Same feels a bit too much on the insane side to jump into, which helps make the US version Fire Shark a better place to get some practice with this one. The sound effects don’t emulate well here either, but the music sounding normal and the SE being less awful sounding with the inaccuracy helps this one to be playable enough if you don’t have the M2 version on hand.
Outzone– This is a top-down shooter, tasking you with infiltrating an enemy base and taking out all those who stand in your way. You either have an eight way shot or a fixed forward directional spread shot, and this game is excellent. Co-Op or solo, either is a great means of enjoying this run and gun, and this console debut is handled remarkably well, and with better sound effect emulation than the prior games plus smooth control, that makes this version of Outzone a fantastic console port.
Definitely one of Toaplan’s more obscure games and one while I wish M2 managed to pull off, I’m happy it was done pretty good justice in this collection and made way more accessible. The scoring is great, the controls are great, the music is excellent, and all in all you have a wonderful run and gun experience.
Fixeight– This one is a spiritual sequel to Outzone, also being a top-down run and gun, which unfortunately isn’t nearly as well done as that excellent gem. You have eight characters to choose from this time around, and even 3P co-op as an option if you so choose, but even with every character having their own unique attacks to pull off, the level design takes a massive hit compared to Outzone.
A lot of the stages like to be pretty dull, with some equally dull music to accompany it. Some of the characters are pretty fun to use, but others feel near useless or easy to get overwhelmed by enemies dude to their weaponry being pretty weak, and considering just how outstanding Outzone was, to see Toaplan’s next run and gun dip so much in quality from an outstanding game to a pretty good, but not great game at best, really does has FixEight leaving a lot to be desired. Not bad and still worth a run through, but man, talk about a sequel downgrade.
Dogyunn– Another vertical shooter with all sorts of charming weirdness to it. Random mech battles! A tractor beam that you shoot from behind, which does almost nothing of importance except dispose of your powerup! Really good graphics, at the expense of compressed sounding music! Giant text for collecting point pickups!
All that and more lead to Dogyunn being yet another fun co-op shooter, even if it tries cramming a ton of ideas into the game all at once. The core loop is still immensely fun and I enjoyed giving scorechasing another try here, and with this being my third review of the game now, I finally started to get good at it enough to have more fun playing solo. Still not in the top tier of Toaplan shooters for me, but this one is still quite a lot of fun to get better at, even if the overall game is a bit disjointed.
BATSUGUN– How many times will I review this game? Well, here’s the fifth time! Toaplan’s final game ended on a high note, with a focus on bullet hell and a shorter length, leading to this being an incredibly polished, nearly twenty minute experience that’s a joy for every single minute of it. I’ve sung the praises of this game in more detail over and over again, so I won’t reiterate myself much, but compared to Toaplan’s other games, this one is a lot more beginner friendly and 1CC friendly at that, while also being incredibly fun to try and throw yourself at the wall with over and over again, with it hardly feeling frustrating. Rather, each new messup is just another excuse to jump in and play it all over again and try to get a high score. Even more, the local co-op is still as fun as always!
Thankfully, the audio emulation here is solid too. Of all games that would be a crime to mess it up in, this would be the biggest one to do so with, and thankfully Bitwave didn’t do that here. Every outstanding track and the sound effects sound pretty much like they did on Evercade when I tried to compare them back to back. Maaaaaybe slight differences in the shot sounds, but compared to the mess that was the earlier games in this set, Batsugun just feels like magic, and one I’m glad controls the way it does in this collection. An absolute must-buy if you don’t mind the lack of the Saturn OST.
BATSUGUN: Special Edition– How many times will I review this game? Well, here’s the sixth time! Please, let this be the end, as I can’t stop reiterating how much I love this game! Refining the excellence of the original Batsugun, but adding multiple loops and a scoring focus leads to this one being the most enjoyable for the online leaderboards.
Still the same three characters, the same set of stages (albeit with tweaks), but now with a better bomb and hitbox. Just like with the original Batsugun, the audio emulates great here and is really fun, leaving this to be the crown jewel of not just the first volume, but the entire Toaplan catalogue as a whole. If you must only focus on one game to try and 1CC and play for scoring, let this shooting masterpiece be the one.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Toaplan Arcade Collection Vol 1 is a solid set of shooting games, some of which are the absolute top tier from the time in which they originally came out. This should be a slam dunk recommendation due to Batsugun, Flying Shark and Outzone alone, along with just how perfectly every game controls, but I honestly can’t give it the grace I’d like to.
Even for the $35 pricepoint, the audio errors in the earlier games just flat out suck. Like, I’m sorry, but there’s no excuse in 2025 to have audio errors in Tiger-Heli and Flying Shark this bad, especially when the PC versions had damn near similar problems and they didn’t get addressed in these console ports. While the Batsugun here is an huge improvement over the S-Tribute version, the Shark and Tiger games are not compared to M2’s efforts, and with Heli and Flying Shark in particular having really poor audio emulation that zap the fun out of playing those games at all, it really drags the entire package down with it.
A fun wrapper of games that I’m glad improved the menuing from the PC versions, but the unacceptable audio in even two games is still unacceptable. They improved it in some of the newer games, but those older games need sound fixes, and should have never launched in this state. A big shame considering the overall quality of the included games, but one I can’t forgive here.
I give Toaplan Arcade Collection Vol 1 a 6 out of 10.