Keio Flying Squadron (慶応遊撃隊 Keiōyūgekitai?) is a scrolling shooter video game developed and published by Victor Entertainment in 1994 for the Sega/Mega CD in Japan, Europe, and North America. It is the first game of the Keio Flying Squadron series with a simple shoot-'em-up style of play. Gameplay The game consists of the protagonist Rami riding on top of Spot, who can shoot fireballs at enemies. When Spot is not firing, two smaller dragons (Companion fighters) appear one after another to assist Rami and Spot. The lesser dragons shoot smaller fireballs and can be sacrificed to do larger damage, only to reappear when Spot ceases to shoot. Release In Europe, a demo of the first level of this game was provided by Sega Pro magazine. The game seemed to end after the first level, but in fact the whole game was accessible on the disc by using a level-select cheat to skip to the second level, and then continuing through the game. Reception Retro Gamer included among top ten Mega CD games, calling it "a perfectly acceptable substitute" OF Konami's Parodius that features "similar style of horizontally scrolling wackiness and puts the Mega-CD hardware to good use to produce some excellent cut-scenes and a brilliant CD-quality soundtrack."
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This game is the definition of nothing special. Enemy's are bullet sponges; there's a severe lack of shooting styles, and the two of them are pretty useless. The choreography and projectile patterns are super boring and uninspired, and leaving the animated cutscenes aside, this game does not look or play better than the best shoot 'em ups on the regular Mega Drive.
The only outstanding thing about this game is its soundtrack, which I'd admit is pretty great.
Other than that, I just can't understand how people can pay such outrageous prices for a copy of this one. Just stick with Thunder Force IV.
The only outstanding thing about this game is its soundtrack, which I'd admit is pretty great.
Other than that, I just can't understand how people can pay such outrageous prices for a copy of this one. Just stick with Thunder Force IV.
Pretty good, but not $3000 good, y'know? There's a lot to like - a good weapon system, some decent tunes, lots of menu customization, - but there's very prevalent slowdown across the whole game. That's fine for stuff like TF or Gradius, fast games that you want a fighting chance at, but this is generally easy/middling. Just makes you feel like you're playing underwater. Moves shockingly slow, and even though it has a lot of fun parodius-esque visual beats, none of the levels are as densely packed as that game is.
And then there's the elephant in the room: Do Not Put Children In Playboy Costumes, Stupid! Use the robes from the intro! God!
And then there's the elephant in the room: Do Not Put Children In Playboy Costumes, Stupid! Use the robes from the intro! God!
Pretty solid schmup with some solid tunes and an imaginative presentation rooted in Japanese culture.
I'd compare to Cotton from a visual standpoint but Keio is more simple with how the gameplay goes: Upgrade your shots, get other weapons like bombs and shurikens, don't fire to get a screen nuke attack, solid stuff. That's really it. The opening is also funny as hell.
I'd compare to Cotton from a visual standpoint but Keio is more simple with how the gameplay goes: Upgrade your shots, get other weapons like bombs and shurikens, don't fire to get a screen nuke attack, solid stuff. That's really it. The opening is also funny as hell.
bunny
I've never done recreational drugs but I can only imagine that Keio's flying squadron is a result of them.
It takes a 10 year old anime girl throws her into a playboy bunny costume with high heels riding a dragon that looks like a green chicken fighting dogs on flying carpets and half dressed raccoons with catapults because an old lady voiced by a 30 year old man shouted at her to do so.
I'm going to start with the last part that the voice acting is abysmal. Like early fan dub level bad. It actually hurt my ears during cutscenes. The story and dialogue are just as terrible. The opening grainy scene is a fictional history lesson that is almost completely unrelated to the main plot of chasing a raccoon pirate with an IQ of 1400 who stole a gold key from your grandma. It's all so bizarre.
The story isn't the draw in a shoot 'em up however which is fortunate for Keio. What isn't fortunate for Keio is the gameplay here is just fine, it's not bad but it's not amazing either. You only get two shooting weapon types and three bomb types that drop from enemies that rotate through until you pick the one you want. You can send some baby dragon chickens to do a kamikaze attack and that's the extent of it.
I will say the game is colourful, has some decent sprites and parallax scrolling with some pretty good up beat music it's just basic with some questionable character designs and awful awful writing and voice acting. Not a game I would play again or really recommend.
It takes a 10 year old anime girl throws her into a playboy bunny costume with high heels riding a dragon that looks like a green chicken fighting dogs on flying carpets and half dressed raccoons with catapults because an old lady voiced by a 30 year old man shouted at her to do so.
I'm going to start with the last part that the voice acting is abysmal. Like early fan dub level bad. It actually hurt my ears during cutscenes. The story and dialogue are just as terrible. The opening grainy scene is a fictional history lesson that is almost completely unrelated to the main plot of chasing a raccoon pirate with an IQ of 1400 who stole a gold key from your grandma. It's all so bizarre.
The story isn't the draw in a shoot 'em up however which is fortunate for Keio. What isn't fortunate for Keio is the gameplay here is just fine, it's not bad but it's not amazing either. You only get two shooting weapon types and three bomb types that drop from enemies that rotate through until you pick the one you want. You can send some baby dragon chickens to do a kamikaze attack and that's the extent of it.
I will say the game is colourful, has some decent sprites and parallax scrolling with some pretty good up beat music it's just basic with some questionable character designs and awful awful writing and voice acting. Not a game I would play again or really recommend.
First off I would like to say happy new year as this is my first game to play for 2023. Yes I know it's only been about 3 hours of the first year, I was too impatient to play it when I wake up. So now then on to my review.
Ah the Sega CD, I sure don't play you too much. Honestly if I knew Japanese I'd be more willing to try more of library as it's filled with many mysteries to me like how there a lot of RPGs made early into the life of it or how Compile once again were the only ones to release one game in 1996 for a dying console in Japan with Shadowrun. Though that's not to say every interesting game stayed in Japan. Keio Flying Squadron was one that miraculously came out in every region.
I can't really say how I first discovered this game, maybe it was that one Jontron video? I swear I don't even remember if he said anything interesting about this game. I remember Guru Larry once talked about this game and how the demo is broken in that you can just play the whole game thanks to the level select. Though I'm still pissed he made the game look bad thanks to awful clickbait thumbnail. Yeah yeah I know I get mad over the most pointless things.
About the game itself as it's your usual shmup that honestly isn't really as cute as one would think it be. Like yeah it's got some funny raccoons and stuff but it's nothing of the lengths of stuff like Parodius or Cotton. Not sure if I like Keio's design though, maybe that's a hot take.
This game is actually kind of limiting when it comes to weapons. You have two different shots and three different kinds of bomb like weapons. For a game made in 1993, it feels oddly limited. Like could they have not thought of another type of shot? Though I do like how your helper dragons are. They are like options in Gradius but you can have them sacrifice themselves to hit enemies. But it's just as easy as not shooting to get it back to help you. It's a nice risk and reward that I can appreciate.
Though unfortunately don't expect much challenge as while it's not the easiest in the world, it's also not too hard. I did play on Normal so maybe it's really challenging on hard mode but I wouldn't know. Honestly maybe it's because I need to do another run or something but there were a couple of times I died from something I couldn't react to. Also pro tip for anyone who picks this game up, make sure you don't let your ride get hit as it's the hurtbox. Keio will be fine if a bullet is overlapping her sprite.
Since this is a Mega CD game. They gotta make those cutscenes and yeah they are something. They were done by Studio Pierrot. You might know them for working on stuff like Urusei Yatsura, Creamy Mami, Yu Yu Hakusho, Tokyo Mew Mew, Super GALS, and many more. I don't know if they only did the opening and ending cutscenes but they are very grainy. Sadly the other couple of cutscenes aren't nearly as interesting or done well. The cutscenes are also the only time you hear English voice acting as oddly in game it's still in Japanese. The voice acting is certainly something yeah...
This game can be pretty fun, I know I've seemed a little negative but yet I can't help but appreciate the nice environments, the cool details like how Keio will look back as you go in reverse, and just the nice music. Some of it though kind of sounds hilarious and I'm not complaining. I also like how you don't die from touching stuff like the ground, does anyone else prefer that compared to dying from it? The graphics kind of flicker at times and even disappearing and unfortunately the game also has slowdown though it's not the worst I've seen.
Despite it's issues, it's still a pretty fun game that I would have loved to replay if I owned this back in that time. I'm kind of surprised the scores are kind of low for this game but I guess I could see why. Keio would get a sequel on the Sega Saturn in Japan and Europe but that one changed the gameplay up a lot. If you need some more shmup fun in your life. Give this game a try, one of the better games on the add-on.
Ah the Sega CD, I sure don't play you too much. Honestly if I knew Japanese I'd be more willing to try more of library as it's filled with many mysteries to me like how there a lot of RPGs made early into the life of it or how Compile once again were the only ones to release one game in 1996 for a dying console in Japan with Shadowrun. Though that's not to say every interesting game stayed in Japan. Keio Flying Squadron was one that miraculously came out in every region.
I can't really say how I first discovered this game, maybe it was that one Jontron video? I swear I don't even remember if he said anything interesting about this game. I remember Guru Larry once talked about this game and how the demo is broken in that you can just play the whole game thanks to the level select. Though I'm still pissed he made the game look bad thanks to awful clickbait thumbnail. Yeah yeah I know I get mad over the most pointless things.
About the game itself as it's your usual shmup that honestly isn't really as cute as one would think it be. Like yeah it's got some funny raccoons and stuff but it's nothing of the lengths of stuff like Parodius or Cotton. Not sure if I like Keio's design though, maybe that's a hot take.
This game is actually kind of limiting when it comes to weapons. You have two different shots and three different kinds of bomb like weapons. For a game made in 1993, it feels oddly limited. Like could they have not thought of another type of shot? Though I do like how your helper dragons are. They are like options in Gradius but you can have them sacrifice themselves to hit enemies. But it's just as easy as not shooting to get it back to help you. It's a nice risk and reward that I can appreciate.
Though unfortunately don't expect much challenge as while it's not the easiest in the world, it's also not too hard. I did play on Normal so maybe it's really challenging on hard mode but I wouldn't know. Honestly maybe it's because I need to do another run or something but there were a couple of times I died from something I couldn't react to. Also pro tip for anyone who picks this game up, make sure you don't let your ride get hit as it's the hurtbox. Keio will be fine if a bullet is overlapping her sprite.
Since this is a Mega CD game. They gotta make those cutscenes and yeah they are something. They were done by Studio Pierrot. You might know them for working on stuff like Urusei Yatsura, Creamy Mami, Yu Yu Hakusho, Tokyo Mew Mew, Super GALS, and many more. I don't know if they only did the opening and ending cutscenes but they are very grainy. Sadly the other couple of cutscenes aren't nearly as interesting or done well. The cutscenes are also the only time you hear English voice acting as oddly in game it's still in Japanese. The voice acting is certainly something yeah...
This game can be pretty fun, I know I've seemed a little negative but yet I can't help but appreciate the nice environments, the cool details like how Keio will look back as you go in reverse, and just the nice music. Some of it though kind of sounds hilarious and I'm not complaining. I also like how you don't die from touching stuff like the ground, does anyone else prefer that compared to dying from it? The graphics kind of flicker at times and even disappearing and unfortunately the game also has slowdown though it's not the worst I've seen.
Despite it's issues, it's still a pretty fun game that I would have loved to replay if I owned this back in that time. I'm kind of surprised the scores are kind of low for this game but I guess I could see why. Keio would get a sequel on the Sega Saturn in Japan and Europe but that one changed the gameplay up a lot. If you need some more shmup fun in your life. Give this game a try, one of the better games on the add-on.