Batsugun

Solid port of a great game. Good jumping in point for genre newcomers - make sure to change it to special version in the options.

Pretty much the best version of Batsugun/Special around. No noticeable input lag, it has saves, rewinds etc. Otherwise it is still Batsugun Sp. and I still can't get through loop 3 XD.

This is a good game. The sp. version in particular feels great to play, and I picked up a 1-ALL today. Many shmups create a cycle of resource management that feels like it always punishes you no matter what, but Batsugun's shield mechanic is incredible. Whenever the shield is up you can preserve your bombs and focus on dodging, or you can pre-emptively bomb to set yourself up for a difficult section with your shield intact. Fun to play just for my clear, and fun to play for score too. Music is great, visuals are great, I love the classic spritework. Hitboxes are quite good here, I felt like I was able to dodge the impossible regularly, and frequently came out of bullet swarms in disbelief I'd lived. Very solid pacing as well, I'm just about mentally exhausted by the time stage 5 ends. Is it the best shmup ever? Probably not, but it's easily the best one I've ever picked up under 10$, and competing with games 30 years newer and 10-20$ more costly.