Batsugun did away with the need to constantly upgrade or change weapons with the collection of power-ups by introducing an RPG-like 'experience point' system. Basically the player is only given one weapon from the start, and must gain 'experience' by destroying enemies in order to fill a level-up gauge. Once the gauge is filled the players' firepower is upgraded a small degree, often accompanied by an on-screen indicator in the shape of the players ship sprite modifying to a new form. The level-up guage then resets and the process is started again. You can still collect power-ups, up to five per stage, but the main mechanism of evolving your weaponry is through simply killing as many enemies as quickly as possible. Starting from a rather humble laser or cannon, through the process of levelling up you can end up with a ridiculous amount of firepower, which at the maximum level can completely cover the whole screen, an unprecedented feature for the time the game was released. It's certainly the most outlandish amount of firepower ever seen in any Toaplan game, and rivals a lot of modern shooters released to this day in its frankly depraved, but whole-heartedly enjoyable spectacle of blatantly over-the-top sprite-icide. This levelling up philosophy was later to be seen in a number of games including Takumi's Mars Matrix.

Weapons at level 3.. it actually gets
even more powerful than this!

Until you finally get this!


Unleashing a smart bomb on two
unsuspecting now ex-bosses.

Beltiana's Level 3 firepower
hones in on a stage boss.

Incoming sky-stage mini-boss ahoy


Parabolic and circular bullet patterns.. the mainstay
of many a future Cave game, make what could well
be their arcade shooter debut.

Those wishing to play Batsugun at home can do so with an excellent Sega Saturn conversion released in Japan by Banpresto in 1996.This package contains both the original and revised Special Version of the game along with a bonus 'arrange' soundtrack and of course a full 'Tate' mode for authentic TV-on-side arcade simulation. A fitting final chapter in Toaplan's arcade legacy and the start of a new one which would give rise to the birth of the mighty Cave. Mike

Toaplan's final release and the
archetype of the evolution of
firepower in the modern shooter.

Considered by many as the precursor to the modern 'manic' bullet-storm shootemup (see DoDonPachi, Progear, Ibara or any other shooter by Cave) Batsugun was designed by producer and subsequent Cave co-founder Tsuneki Ikeda, who had also previously worked on Truxton and Truxton 2. Graphical design on the project was by one Junya "Joker Jun" Inoue, future designer of Cave's ESPRade, who had only recently joined the company and had just completed work on his first game, Dogyuun. Inoue was responsible for the game's anime-style character design, one of the first instances in a shooter but a trend that would continue through to latter day games.

Batsugun was released at a time when the arcade vertical shooter format had seemingly been pretty much nailed down resulting in a lot of very similar shootemups such as the Raiden games and Toaplan's own Truxton and Flying Shark. All featured floating weapon power-up icons, often allowing the selection of a limited number (usually three) of different firepower types, with the player usually aiming to upgrade their favoured weapon through the repeated collection of the same corresponding weapon icon. These games usually all featured some form of 'smart bomb' which would wipe out all adversaries on screen and grant temporary immunity to bullets and usually allowed for simultaneous two player action. Although it does indeed possess the latter two features, Batsugun's power-up method turned out to be something entirely different.

Given the totally overblown amount of firepower you are able to develop in this game it may come as some surprise to realise that the game is actually beautifully balanced. Toaplan's programmers countered the players' increasing barrage of fire by gradually incrementing the amount of hits needed to destroy enemies and bosses, and by increasing the frequency and density of enemy bullet formations in such a way that however much firepower you have you never completely have the upper hand. Indeed if you fail to level up quickly enough by missing the opportunity to make enough kills or dying too frequently (which sends you back down a part-level) you can find your weaponry woefully inadequate on later stages of the game. This only serves to add to the intensity as you are driven to simply obliterate everything you can just to stay powered up enough to survive. Enemies also seem more advanced in intelligence than in other shooters of the era, directing not only the odd aimed shot Raiden-style at your craft but also in more complex swirling bullet spray patterns - arcs, circular clusters and parabolic curves similar to those that evolved into the 'bullet-storm hell' seen in later Cave games. Bosses too have a decidely Cave-esque style about them, and a couple would not look out of place in a modern game like DoDonPachi III. Also present in Batsugun is fully fledged' bonus medal' collecting, a trend which would become a big feature of future Raizing shooters. Batsugun also introduced the reduced 'hit-box' feature which would become common in modern shooters, whereby the player would only die from a direct hit to the cockpit while 'scraping' a wing or tailplane would be fine. Yes it made the game easier but hey.. it was a very difficult game compared to rival titles of the era and anything to improve playability was a neccessity.

The downside to all this complexity is that the game is markedly shorter than most shooters, ending after only five levels, or looping round again in the remixed Special Version. But what you do get is of incredibly high quality, a game with a much greater depth and replay appeal than most other shooters of its era. Indeed Batsugun high-score competitions are still very popular indeed over at Shmups to this day!

Batsugun's colourfully lurid graphic style is very
similar to that of later Cave titles.

This boss, stage four I think, is
very DoDonPachi.