Batsugun Saturn Tribute Boosted has been out for a couple months on PC and PS/Switch in Japan, but the international release was hit with a last-minute delay and has been MIA until just now—the publisher didn't explicitly say as much but the delay seems to have been caused by them signing a deal with a limited-print western publisher, but I haven't seen any movement from any of those publishers to correspond with this unannounced release and I'm not sure it was even intentional, so who knows if it'll still be up come next week.
As for the release itself, lemme break down the title, segment by segment:
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Batsugun is the final arcade shooting game from the defunct Japanese arcade developer Toaplan, and is remembered as the missing link between the old-school style of vertical STG exemplified by games like Twin Cobra and Raiden and the danmaku style seen from developers like Cave and Raizing. (Batsugun's programmer, Tsuneki "IKD" Ikeda, was the main directive force behind most of Cave's arcade output, including the famous Dodonpachi series, and Batsugun plays like a proto-Donpachi.)
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"Saturn Tribute/S-Tribute" is City Connection's line of emulated Sega Saturn reissues; they're basically the only folk around pursuing bulk reissues of Saturn games, and they've essentially commercialised the old SSF emulator in order to do so. The emulator isn't terrible but input lag has been and continues to be a constant issue—the emulator adds 3~4 frames at an absolute minimum, and they made the mistake of launching their line with a trio of games that were already saddled with excessive native lag, and the fact that they're dealing in reissues of games where response time is crucial means that arguments about input lag dominate all discussion of these releases. It also doesn't help that, as of now, they've exclusively reissued ports of arcade games, most of which don't have any notable additions or improvements that'd make people specifically want those versions over the arcade originals. (Batsugun's Saturn port included both the original version and the Special revision, plus an arranged soundtrack, which isn't nothing.)
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"Boosted" is a designation for Saturn Tribute reissues that go beyond the ISO and a basic emulator suite, with Batsugun being the first game in this sub-line: they've recorded a new arranged soundtrack and a custom BGM option that lets you assign specific versions of each tune per stage, added some M2-esque screen-border HUD widgets and implemented specific tweaks to the game itself, which include the option to use the Special hitbox in the original game and vice-versa, a true full-screen tate mode (no longer cropped like it would be on real hardware) and an extra digit on the score counter, among other things. (I got a kick over the sound director saying they tapped Hagane, one of the guest arrangers, specifically to provide something in the vein of their work on the indie danmaku game Blue Revolver.)
Put simply, this is a emulated Saturn version of a game that will eventually be reissued in authentic arcade form on PC and/or consoles by multiple other devs (M2 on consoles, Bitwave on PC) in the short-to-medium-term future, and the extras they've added to this Boosted version may not mitigate the unavoidable input delay. I'd eyeball the lag at being in the 5~6F range, which I'd generally consider being right on the brink of tolerability, depending on the game; a lot of more casual folk don't seem to have any issues with this particular release and maybe you'd feel similarly, iunno.
I just wish they'd turn their attention to Saturn-original games and/or games that weren't so reliant on twitch inputs, but I fully expect them to jump on Dodonpachi or Soukyugurentai or some other game that deserves better.
