Mikado's announced another Shooters Fes event for 2024—ICYMI, these are STG-centric live gathering that bring together active commercial STG devs to reveal or talk about their new/upcoming projects, sell merch, etc. I wanna say last year's event got turned into a series of panels at TGMS or some other con, so this is their first dedicated event in a minute.
The schedule on the website lists a lot of familiar participants: Taito, Granzella, City Connection, M2, Success, etc. I guess the biggest surprise is that some of the Bitwave folk from Sweden are going to be there, talking about their Toaplan Steam ports.
There are still a few as-yet-unrevealed slots on the schedule, but City Connection's kicking off with the announcement of a new game, and Happymeal (makers of Final Exerion) are hosting a "Final Series" panel, so I expect they'll reveal their next Jaleco IP revival game. I also expect Granzella to informally announce something, because Kujo informally announces things any time he appears in public.
It'll be streamed on Mikado's channel, and I fully expect the Mikado manager's dad-rock VGM band to play a tune or two.
schedule:
12:00: City Connection (new title...!)
13:00: bad arcade company (one of their games already leaked, Air Gallet)
14:00: Bushiroad (Macross Shooting Insight)
15:00: Neotro (NeverAwake, and they're teasing something... might be connected to a loop lever/spinner controller)
16:00: Pyramid (Alice Gear Aegis... probably just demoing their customary April Fools caravan minigame)
17:00: Granzella (R-Type Final 2/3/Tactics 1+2, plus whatever else Kujo feels like mentioning)
18:00: Taito (Ray'z Arcade Chronology Strahl aka the DVD concert release, and maybe something else...?)
19:00: M2 (DOJ Rinne Tensei, and maybe more...?)
20:00: Hamster (probably just demoing already-released/announced stuff, but who knows)
21:00: Bitwave (Toaplan PC ports, and probably a date/drop for the final batch)
22:00~23:00: ending (might just be chat, might also be dad rock)
@Streetmagik 1 hr ago
Maybe M2 will talk more about Ubusuna or their original Aleste game? 🤞🤞
The little hints I've been given suggest it might be another Taito collab... and as I'm typing this, I just remembered that they already announced a Night Striker reissue way back when, so I guess they'll formally reveal that project
that or more Toaplan stuff, they're long overdue on some of those (but like, what aren't they overdue on)
City Connection's big announcement: their TAKExOFF studio (Akai Katana, Deathsmiles I+II) is collaborating with G.rev to port Under Defeat—specifically, they're porting and expanding Under Defeat HD for modern platforms (PS5/Switch/Xbox/PC)
new features include
- Shinji Hosoe's returning to provide a new soundtrack
- visible display for ranks and other data
- subtitled radio channel (taken from the old guidebook)
due out this winter!
...and they're porting a second G.rev game: Mamoru-kun wa Norowarete Shimatta! / Mamorukun Curse!, their late-'00s overhead run-and-gun that's most famous for being the source for YOKAI DISCO
new features:
- all DLC content included as standard
- Yousuke Yasui's returning, but they're playing coy about precisely how he'll be contributing
- story mode is being revamped for full 16:9
due out next year
Neotro's twin-stick STG NeverAwake is getting "Flashback" DLC this summer—it'll add a roguelite mode with a more arcade-ish structure than the very segmented main game, and it'll contain new stages, bosses, accessories, etc plus the Gabe-chan boss now hangs around the player and functions as an option.