What Did We Play Yesterday?

Andro Dunos is a pretty bog-standard horizontal shmup, Picorinne Soft's modern sequel Andro Dunos 2 is a lot of fun to play. I picked this game up for like $3 during a Steam sale on a whim and... WTF this is so good?

It's a super-polished horizontal shooter that picks up where the original left off. Short and sweet with 5 stages and 5 credits, three modes of difficulty. This is another of those cycling-weapons shmups a la Thunder Force, but in this one the upgrade powerup applies to whatever weapon you've currently got equipped. At the end of the stage, you get additional upgrades based on the number of point orbs you nabbed, up to 3.

This is a case of "does the thing well." There is not anything new here, it just does the thing very well, and it's a joy to play. A truly excellent intro to the horizontal shmup genre if one is so inclined, you can't quarter feed this one so you gotta earn it but it's not an impossible task. Honestly it's kind of refreshing to play a shooter that's still engaging without being hard as balls.

I was setting up a dedicated arcade machine and I remembered... oh yeah. Batsugun was ported.

I've long been a fan of this Bullet Hell Grandaddy. It's yet another hard-as-balls Toaplan shooter but what really makes it shine is how ridiculous and OP your weapons become after upgrades. Filling the screen with swathes of lasers doesn't do much for visibility unfortunately but it's intensely satisfying.

The port provides a more balanced Special mode, but the game repeats 1-stage shorter on subsequent loops, so the full Special game is 14 stages. Each loop adds an element of difficulty.

Original mode is so difficult quarter-feeding makes me question my life. Special mode is definitely easier, but by the second or third loop I'm good. I still prefer shorter shmup experiences (Gunbird 2, which I evidently never made a post for, is just abour right IMO) so I can't imagine ever getting through all 14 even quarter-feeding.

I like this port, though. I'll be picking up Grind Stormer and the Truxtons at some point because I prefer ports to emulation.

Anyway, setting up an arcade emulator had me digging around a bit and I learned the 8BitDo M30 has become something of a shmupdom darling because of the D-pad. I bought an SN30 a while ago and honestly hate it, it makes my hands cramp and it quickly becomes uncomfortable to play, but for $30 I figured I'd give it a shot to replace my old and busted XBOX 360 controller and my Nintendo Switch Pro controllers, which are feeling a little goosey these days. I like it so far and it's easier to break out than my stick, which always feels a bit like a production.

I was setting up a dedicated arcade machine and I remembered… oh yeah. Batsugun was ported.

I’ve long been a fan of this Bullet Hell Grandaddy. It’s yet another hard-as-balls Toaplan shooter but what really makes it shine is how ridiculous and OP your weapons become after upgrades. Filling the screen with swathes of lasers doesn’t do much for visibility unfortunately but it’s intensely satisfying.

The port provides a more balanced Special mode, but the game repeats 1-stage shorter on subsequent loops, so the full Special game is 14 stages. Each loop adds an element of difficulty.

Original mode is so difficult quarter-feeding makes me question my life. Special mode is definitely easier, but by the second or third loop I’m good. I still prefer shorter shmup experiences (Gunbird 2, which I evidently never made a post for, is just abour right IMO) so I can’t imagine ever getting through all 14 even quarter-feeding.

I like this port, though. I’ll be picking up Grind Stormer and the Truxtons at some point because I prefer ports to emulation.

Anyway, setting up an arcade emulator had me digging around a bit and I learned the 8BitDo M30 has become something of a shmupdom darling because of the D-pad. I bought an SN30 a while ago and honestly hate it, it makes my hands cramp and it quickly becomes uncomfortable to play, but for $30 I figured I’d give it a shot to replace my old and busted XBOX 360 controller and my Nintendo Switch Pro controllers, which are feeling a little goosey these days. I like it so far and it’s easier to break out than my stick, which always feels a bit like a production.