Today was a shmup day. I had a bunch of shmups I've been wanting to play, so I played some! This one is one that blew me away back when I did Genesis Quest, my playthrough of every Genesis game ever made. I had never heard of it, and I came away from it as one of my favorite games on the console. This would be a 10/10 perfect shmup I'd recommend to EVERYONE.... if there wasn't a lot of flashing lights in it. It's really just the intro and the final boss, but it is EGREGIOUS. Like for real, be careful looking at the intro, it is fast red and blue strobing. Whoof.
But other than that, what's this game? This is Battle Mania Daiginjou, the sequel to Battle Mania, which we got here in the states as Trouble Shooter. This one never came out here, and is VERY pricey on the aftermarket, sadly. I prefer this to Trouble Shooter, tho this is a 9.5/10 and that's like a 7.5/10. It's still good.
This game is highly, HIGHLY inspired by Dirty Pair, and if the devs told you otherwise, they are fucking liars. It is a 100% pure Girls With Guns shmup. You play as two girls (they're girlfriends, you cannot convince me otherwise) who live together and work as, well, trouble shooters for some agency. They're sent against some evil demon guy, who's returned from the first game. I'm not really sure what the plot is, there's a translation but for some reason I only ever play the original Japanese version, the story doesn't matter. It's a very goofy wild adventure, I don't need to know what's going on.
This is an easy shmup, all things considered, so it's a PERFECT starter shmup. A bunch of continues, generous lives, and when you get hit, you just flinch and lose one life, you don't die and lose all your powerups and go back to an earlier checkpoint. The only thing you gotta look out for is the screen scrolling and squimshing you, which will lose all your lives. On one of my two playthroughs today, I lost 25 lives that way. It sucked lmao. But yeah, game's not too bad! This is no bullet hell, it's got big nice patterns and simple obstacles and bosses. You might game over a few times, but it's totally beatable for newer shmup players. I had to play it twice for the set, on easy and on hard, and I 1cc'd the hard playthrough no problems at all.
It's also really customizable. You've got options for three gameplay styles: one way, two way, and eight way. With one way, you are constantly shooting forward, though you can press C to make your girlfriend shoot behind you. Two way is similar, except you both turn when you press C. And then 8 way, you can still turn your girlfriend with the C button, but you face the direction you last moved (though shooting locks your direction). All are fine gameplay styles, though I'd just go with three-way, then eight way once you get used to the game.
There's also some bombs you can use! Once you're fully charged (it just takes a few seconds for the bar to go all the way up), you can release a bomb, which you choose from a set of four before the level. I prefer lightning, but all of them are fine. If you try to bomb while your bar isn't full, you waste it and have to start from the start of the bar, which is a cool system. Makes you be careful with your bomb, and makes things a bit tense!
The game's styles and aesthetics are off the fucking wall btw. It's very morning anime style, with a whole bunch of wild goofy monsters you have to fight. You've got battles with a big octopus robot, a random bystander super genius school kid with his battle bot (no clue why HE'S here, he just fights you for the fuck of it I guess), a big bot that plays basketball around you, a crane game, a train with its wheels powered by running mice, and a bunch of creepy monsters. The art is real nice, and the music? Oh the MUSIC. The MUSIC IN THIS GAME IS SO GOOOOOOD. I've heard people shit talk this ost, and I dunno wtf they're on. Maybe I'm just Genesis Pilled and love this sound chip, but this shit fuuuuucks.
Anyways, that all to say, this is one of my favorite shmups. The set wasn't complicated or hard, though it could maybe have had a few more things about it, some bonus challenges. Not even a 1cc challenge, which in this game isn't even that bad!! It's a very old set though, so not TOO surprised. This game is extremely good. Go play it.