A game that defines the phrase: don't judge a book by it's cover. Sometimes watching gameplay or just reading about a game isn't enough to fully understand it, looks can be deceiving and first impressions only go so far.
While this mostly looks and plays like a standard top-down shooting game, this game has an interesting history
This is a Toaplan game, in fact it is the last one the studio developed, It play just like several of their other games and has their distinct design elements and mechanics. It was cancelled and finished up by another company but it was already in beta state before then, it fees like it too since the game feels like a combination old and modern (for its time) game design.
The game play in this is mostly safe, it has the usual three colored powerups, bombs you can collect up to five of, and high difficulty.
It looks kind of ordinary too, it doesn't look at all like a game made for 32 bit systems. It's not that it looks bad, in fact it looks well made with nice scaling and layering effects, the detail is pretty good overall.
Many people note this came out after Batsugun and comapare it directly to that, and to be honest it doesn't compare favorably to it or just about any Saturn Shooting game, it's not nearly as flashy, inviting, or innovative.
It doesn't have the same level of spectacle or ambition, the scaling effects look more like bootleg Mode7 meanwhile you have games like Layer section and Terra Diver that absolutely destroy this games' presentation and effects in comparison. It also plays like a game decades older so it's understandable that people would find this game disappointing.
It's very hard to get into and takes some time to understand, this is another thing that holds it back and adds to the negative reputation this game has.
At first the player will probably notice how sluggish their aircraft is, notice that enemies take really long to defeat, and then get sniped by a fast bullet. Tame presentation and the difficulty together makes this one have one of the worst first impressions in the entire genre. The music is weird Rockabilly and metal with shrill sampled guitar and random vocals (it eventually grew on me). The game is also somewhat short with only 6 levels by default.
There's three weapons, but only one of them (the strongest one) is ever worth using, it's extremely unbalanced in that two out of three of the weapons are technically useless.
The truth is there's a deceptively great game underneath all of this, and taken out of the context of the release date and console specs it's a good game in it's own right.
Feel invincible, get hit once and go back to the peashooter and fight to power back up. It's one of those games, the game isn't afraid to hand out some severe punishment and really it just is frustrating sometimes, a few parts are objectively unfair (enemies spawning from behind for example) but it keeps the game challenging, it requires constant focus and planning and a bit of memorization.
I admit it took me awhile before i really started to appreciate it, this game is designed like late 80s arcade games (big hitboxes, very slow movement, heavy memorization, and fast bullets), but unlike those it has modern sensibilities added onto it, it can be a credit stealer for sure but this time the developers had some restraint and did some things to balance the game so it isn't pure frustration and punishment (it's not Truxton 2 or Grind Stormer).
The game feels impossible at first, especially until figuring out that only one of the weapons is good, but as soon as full power is reached with the right weapon the player becomes overpowered and player bullets cover the screen.
Bosses can barely last more than 10 seconds when at full power, add to this the insanely powerful bombs you can stockpile, these are a shooting game staple. In a lot of top down shooters these do minimal damage and are meant for clearing the screen.
I've never liked this, a bomb with a huge explosion and loud sfx should be powerful, it should feel powerful and satisfying, it takes all the fun out of it when it isn't.
KTII+ is awesome because it actually makes the player feel powerful and bombs can clear the screen and easily turn a losing battle into a winning one, and if that's not enough collecting a sixth one stacks it into an extra powerful longer lasting and unbelievably broken bomb, decimating everything in the players way while giving instant invulnerability.
Even when an unfair death happens, the game gives enough opportunities for recovery with frequent powerups and bomb pickups, sure it's not good design it's a bit cheap and unpolished I can't ignore it, but I still enjoy the game in spite of it.
That's the thing, just looking at the game players deep into this genre have seen it all before, level settings, boss types, ect. The game doesn't do anything new or really noteworthy on the surface, objectively it's very flawed and a complete regression of innovation and game design, and yet...
It's the simple things that make this game worth playing, even over comparable games that look better at a glance, sometimes it's nice to play something familiar, a game that doesn't do anything amazing but does well established older ideas good enough, to keep the player invested sometimes it's enjoyable to play a game that feels like it's from a "bygone era" with all of the quirks and unrefined aspects that comes with it.
It's hard to explain or convey, it's unpolished and has some significant flaws but that ends up making it more interesting and more satisfying to overcome, I really do get into a flow state while playing this one, and losing just made me want to get right back into and to do better the next time.
Looking past all of that I do like the visuals and "cheesy" music, it has a nostalgic feel. very much like an overlooked and dated Neo Geo game.
Call it a guilty pleasure if you want, I know for sure that this is one of my favorite arcade ports on Saturn.
So that's it... for the arcade mode. There's an arrange mode they added when finishing the game up for Saturn, entirely new music (it's not as catchy) re-balanced and less aggressive difficulty, the option to always be at full power, and most of all a new 7th level with a real final boss and ending.
Take everything I said, essentially stack another (better) game on top of it, it makes up for a lot.
I recommend this one, but to only true experts already used to some antiquated game balance, some real patience is needed to get into this, but once someone gets over that hurdle it can be a very fun experience.
It's just a shame it's saturn and region exclusive, with the only authentic way to play costing exactly what you'd expect from that combination, if you have even a bit of interest in this game find a way to try it for yourself.
While this mostly looks and plays like a standard top-down shooting game, this game has an interesting history
This is a Toaplan game, in fact it is the last one the studio developed, It play just like several of their other games and has their distinct design elements and mechanics. It was cancelled and finished up by another company but it was already in beta state before then, it fees like it too since the game feels like a combination old and modern (for its time) game design.
The game play in this is mostly safe, it has the usual three colored powerups, bombs you can collect up to five of, and high difficulty.
It looks kind of ordinary too, it doesn't look at all like a game made for 32 bit systems. It's not that it looks bad, in fact it looks well made with nice scaling and layering effects, the detail is pretty good overall.
Many people note this came out after Batsugun and comapare it directly to that, and to be honest it doesn't compare favorably to it or just about any Saturn Shooting game, it's not nearly as flashy, inviting, or innovative.
It doesn't have the same level of spectacle or ambition, the scaling effects look more like bootleg Mode7 meanwhile you have games like Layer section and Terra Diver that absolutely destroy this games' presentation and effects in comparison. It also plays like a game decades older so it's understandable that people would find this game disappointing.
It's very hard to get into and takes some time to understand, this is another thing that holds it back and adds to the negative reputation this game has.
At first the player will probably notice how sluggish their aircraft is, notice that enemies take really long to defeat, and then get sniped by a fast bullet. Tame presentation and the difficulty together makes this one have one of the worst first impressions in the entire genre. The music is weird Rockabilly and metal with shrill sampled guitar and random vocals (it eventually grew on me). The game is also somewhat short with only 6 levels by default.
There's three weapons, but only one of them (the strongest one) is ever worth using, it's extremely unbalanced in that two out of three of the weapons are technically useless.
The truth is there's a deceptively great game underneath all of this, and taken out of the context of the release date and console specs it's a good game in it's own right.
Feel invincible, get hit once and go back to the peashooter and fight to power back up. It's one of those games, the game isn't afraid to hand out some severe punishment and really it just is frustrating sometimes, a few parts are objectively unfair (enemies spawning from behind for example) but it keeps the game challenging, it requires constant focus and planning and a bit of memorization.
I admit it took me awhile before i really started to appreciate it, this game is designed like late 80s arcade games (big hitboxes, very slow movement, heavy memorization, and fast bullets), but unlike those it has modern sensibilities added onto it, it can be a credit stealer for sure but this time the developers had some restraint and did some things to balance the game so it isn't pure frustration and punishment (it's not Truxton 2 or Grind Stormer).
The game feels impossible at first, especially until figuring out that only one of the weapons is good, but as soon as full power is reached with the right weapon the player becomes overpowered and player bullets cover the screen.
Bosses can barely last more than 10 seconds when at full power, add to this the insanely powerful bombs you can stockpile, these are a shooting game staple. In a lot of top down shooters these do minimal damage and are meant for clearing the screen.
I've never liked this, a bomb with a huge explosion and loud sfx should be powerful, it should feel powerful and satisfying, it takes all the fun out of it when it isn't.
KTII+ is awesome because it actually makes the player feel powerful and bombs can clear the screen and easily turn a losing battle into a winning one, and if that's not enough collecting a sixth one stacks it into an extra powerful longer lasting and unbelievably broken bomb, decimating everything in the players way while giving instant invulnerability.
Even when an unfair death happens, the game gives enough opportunities for recovery with frequent powerups and bomb pickups, sure it's not good design it's a bit cheap and unpolished I can't ignore it, but I still enjoy the game in spite of it.
That's the thing, just looking at the game players deep into this genre have seen it all before, level settings, boss types, ect. The game doesn't do anything new or really noteworthy on the surface, objectively it's very flawed and a complete regression of innovation and game design, and yet...
It's the simple things that make this game worth playing, even over comparable games that look better at a glance, sometimes it's nice to play something familiar, a game that doesn't do anything amazing but does well established older ideas good enough, to keep the player invested sometimes it's enjoyable to play a game that feels like it's from a "bygone era" with all of the quirks and unrefined aspects that comes with it.
It's hard to explain or convey, it's unpolished and has some significant flaws but that ends up making it more interesting and more satisfying to overcome, I really do get into a flow state while playing this one, and losing just made me want to get right back into and to do better the next time.
Looking past all of that I do like the visuals and "cheesy" music, it has a nostalgic feel. very much like an overlooked and dated Neo Geo game.
Call it a guilty pleasure if you want, I know for sure that this is one of my favorite arcade ports on Saturn.
So that's it... for the arcade mode. There's an arrange mode they added when finishing the game up for Saturn, entirely new music (it's not as catchy) re-balanced and less aggressive difficulty, the option to always be at full power, and most of all a new 7th level with a real final boss and ending.
Take everything I said, essentially stack another (better) game on top of it, it makes up for a lot.
I recommend this one, but to only true experts already used to some antiquated game balance, some real patience is needed to get into this, but once someone gets over that hurdle it can be a very fun experience.
It's just a shame it's saturn and region exclusive, with the only authentic way to play costing exactly what you'd expect from that combination, if you have even a bit of interest in this game find a way to try it for yourself.