just as Psikyo Shooting Stars Bravo is a game to keep up with previous releases Psikyo Shooting Stars Alpha, what you are reading now should also be considered a companion to our previous review of the last article. We suggest, to help capture the full context of this review, that the reader also skips and reads this piece of friendship before continuing with the rest, as both games share the same problems and errors depending on the quality of the character.
To rediscover, the strength of the new City Connection Psikyo ports is the right price, the number of titles offered, and the quality of the games themselves. The Psikyo Shooting Stars Bravo in particular maintains these same benefits as the Psikyo Shooting Stars Alpha, though it is negotiable if the game library holds it all at once. As the weaknesses of these robots are shared – issues such as high input lag, lack of add-ons, no stage selection or training methods, and the redesign of carbon copies of ZeroDiv ports – will not be the focus of this review. Instead, we will focus on highlighting some of the featured games and identify areas where Psikyo Shoot ing Stars Bravo differs from Psikyo Shooting Stars Alpha.
Six of the games included in this collection are Gunbird, Gunbird 2, Gunbarich, Samurai Aces Episode 1, Samurai Aces Episode 2: Tengai, and Samurai Aces Episode 3: Now Cannon. First of all, the main domain of this collection is two Gunbird games. As fun as many other games have been, these two titles will be a multiplayer marketplace – and that's it.
Gunbird was first released in Japan in 1994. Since then, it has been a unique topic in the Psikyo team line, but under the lens of review, it's hard to understand why. Overall, it's hard to pinpoint any notable or exciting features of Gunbird, except for the main character, Marion, recalling Studio Ghibli's creations (which is not bad at all).
The scoring system is important to the point of being unavailable (just kill things and collect coins) and boxes of ammunition, especially Marion, are absurd. Instead of focusing on the sprite body, like most shmup hitboxes, Gunbird hit boxes tend to be mounted on the heads or straps of a character, which makes sense but feels it's bad in practice. Still, Gunbird remains our favorite because the overall content of the game – the interactive visuals, the catchy music, the light-hearted charm, and the good build up of the levels – far outweighs the potential of each piece. If you are new to Psikyo, Gunbird is a good first place. Just know that the game's hitboxes are subtle, and trying to micro-dodge your way through the passing of characters will lead to instant frustration.
Four years later, Psikyo released Gunbird 2 in 1998, a major improvement over the original in almost every way. We can all get down on our knees and thank the shmup heavens that Pikikyo has prepared for the bright boxes of the first game, while the visuals and sound get a huge boost. Just as importantly, the scoring system and basic gameplay have improved beyond their predecessor. The mechanic who fired now more is very useful with a quick launch and a meter system that allows for a lot of costs to be saved, which is really useful for management battles and can add some risk reward decisions to the route. There is also a close melee attack that is obviously very dangerous but has the ability to install timely precision. Managers who do not say anything during a particular opening will score additional points.
Coins from the original restoration of Gunbird, but now they have additional mechanics where they can offer increased prices if they are collected in their small space, which is a fantastic viewing experience. There are some additions to the scoring system as well, but it's safe to say that scoring in Gunbird 2 and level design is an early development. One quick note to do with Gunbird 2, to warn new players, that it's considered one of the toughest shmups and bullet speed (especially in the second loop) can be shamefully immediately. Speaking of this port, which has six layers of at least one input, this character speed feels very compelling.
So, while the game looks good and sounds great in this collection, the lack of stage selection combined with the high input lag will make any effort to read and delete. harsh it is frustrating. This is true of other games in port, but especially with Gunbird 2.
Gunbarich is a title left in the series, and Psikyo in general. Instead of being a pure shmup, this game is a hybrid between shmup and Come out full touch of the pinball thing due to the frequency that removes the standard Break-Out slide. For the most part, the game can be described as a Break-Out nickname with some fun STG-inspired add-ons such as boss fight and bullet dodging. We are not experts in the field of Break-Out, and so you can't quite comment on how this game is filled with its peers, but overall for an arcade game lover it is a fun change of pace and deserves to be included.
The last three games at Shooting Stars Bravo have all failed Samurai Aces a series of games, which had some exciting appearances, to say the least. The first article in the series, Samurai Aces Episode I, you're a up-and-coming shooter very similar to Gunbird. The lively Japanese settings are excellent and the game shares a funny idea for the Gunbird series. The piece I find is very polished in comparison to the recent Psikyo games, but also the first releases of the company, so it's interesting to play from that perspective.
As different as Gunbird 1 and 2 appear to each other, the changes between the couple are compared to the dramatic change between Samurai Aces and Samurai Aces 2: Tsengoku
Finally, we have Samurai Aces 3: Now Cannon, and all we can say about this particular topic is … wow, this is harsh. As we understand it, Sengoku Cannon was actually not produced by Psikyo himself, but by X-Nauts in 2005. Also, the game was not released at the start of the series, but with the classic Sky program, PSP – which we think kind of defines a weird 3D background. PSP, by the way, is home to many amazing shmup collections, but Sengoku Cannon is not part of this group. As we understand, or in his first place, Sengoku Cannon had problems with overweight and choppy framerates. In this collection, however, the performance is so great that we couldn't help but laugh. As with the PSP, the game shows some simplicity and decline, but the worst is the input. As mentioned over and over in these two reviews, these are Stage Shooting clusters indeed high input, or Switch port. Sengoku Cannon, however, has such a high input value that we don't even need to bother testing, as the huge delay between pressing a button and the actions on the screens can be clearly seen without question. This article is not worth the time or money of the player, or at a budget price.
Conclusion
Both the Psikyo Shooting Stars Alpha and Psikyo Shooting Stars Bravo collections are closely related to each other. While Psikyo Shooting Stars Alpha is probably the best of the two because of the relative quality of the Winners games, and we have a soft spot for the Gunbird series on the Psikyo Shooting Stars Bravo, especially Gunbird 2. So far the Cannon is probably not even in the collection, but Samurai Aces Episode 1 and Gunbarich are stronger than Alpha Divide Sol and Zero Gunner 2, so what's the best collection that will come down to popularity among the Gunbird or Strikers series. Another constant among them is, sadly, the high level of sleepless installations and lack of bonus features to make the collection really stand out.