This week's Arcade Archives release is... Scramble Formation (Taito, 1986)
Although this release is referred to as Scramble Formation in the West, the game's original Japanese name, this was actually a dip-switch setting originally, so you can select between the Japanese version and Tokio, the English version. However, the
'Old' version of the game is not present, almost certainly because Tokyo Disneyland appears in that version and Taito were asked to remove it. You can see it at 49:30 in this video.
Above the skies of Tokyo, a great battle is brewing, with a huge enemy army taking over the entire metropolis. A lone fighter pilot is all the stands between the opposing army and total victory, but they're not alone- by destroying enemy ships, they can gain extra mini-ships to help them in the fight, eventually gathering enough to make their own formation, their own scramble formation (get it?) with switchable formtions for focusing on ground targets, air targets or a mix of both. Take back Tokyo while flying over various famous landmarks!
This is one I first discovered on the first Taito Legends collection and it's a fairly interesting vertical shmup with the common Xevious system of having normal fire for air targets and bombs for ground targets (in this case, both are assigned to the same fire button). The main mechanic here is the formation system- as you collect more mini-ships (a maximum of four on-screen, but you can keep any others you grab in reserve should your others get shot down), you can tap the second button to cycle them through a few different formations, where you have to trade something for an advantage. The anti-air and anti-ground formations prevent you from attacking the other type of target, and the formation with both shots and bombs is extremely narrow, so you'll be switching between them constantly.
I must admit, this isn't one of my favourite Taito shmups from this era- I'm more of a Halley's Comet kind of person. The presentation is interesting in concept- you're flying over Tokyo and do get to spot a few landmarks here and there- but a lot of the game is spent inbetween those sections above the clouds which isn't quite as striking. It might just be me, but I also find the bullets really difficult to spot in a lot of these areas- they're quite small and don't stand out among the backgrounds which is pretty frustrating as it'll often take your mini-ships away from you and I've had multiple credits where I have no idea what killed me! It's also checkpoint-based, if that's the sort of thing you need to know. Still, you might find it interesting, plus it has a great soundtrack.