Twin Hawk

This is the best release of this game. The emulator runs with no stupid envelopes so you can play full screen on your vertical 3//4 monitor. There's rewinds, saves, difficulty selectors, accessibility selectors, multiple binds and multi-binds. It's the same plane-shoots-tanks Toaplan game. All the familiar set-pieces and enemies. But it is not fun. There's a lot of medium and large size enemies that are absolute bullet sponges. And they just fill the screen with bullets. One of the enemies is just a box with a fan that spews a stream of bullets. Instead of the bosses it's usually big dual bullet sponges with a boring design. Instead of screen-clearing bombs you just summon additional planes that can be shot down, so the second you press the button a half of them just dies. The other half follows. Half of everything is a bullet sponge when you have maximum firepower. But on death your firepower resets, so no matter how many lives you have, you are done for. And the death unanimation is very long is unsatisfying. There's no new material and the balance is not fun. It's a typical arcade coin-muncher, and this entry in the plane-shoots-tanks series they were just going through the m…

Big Classic - Twin Hawk - I love this kind of games and i collect them ALL , even on Easy mode its challenge and that is good , i completed the full game whiteout losing all the Lifes and i even got a new record Top Score ( 559870 ) for this performance it took me 10 hours, Practice and Practice makes you good.

A solid emulation, no complaints. The original game's design itself is quite tough. Enemy projectiles often blend in with the scenery making it exceptionally difficult to dodge at times.

I'm about 10 games into Toaplan's shooter library, and this is easily the worst of the bunch. The first impression I got was that I've played this kind of Toaplan game before... but it never felt so sub-par. From there, [i]Twin Hawk[/i] goes pedal-down on the repetitive elements for half an hour, topped off with a crappy soundtrack that just farts along in the background. Nothing new, or at least anything exciting to make up for lack of imagination. The quality just isn't there. (Even the near-ancient [i]Tiger-Heli[/i] is more engaging and still has something going for it.) Considering the huge wealth of quality shooters in the past forty years and in comparison to its own ilk, [i]Twin Hawk[/i] feels like a stale, quarter-munching relic of the arcade era that players ought to leave buried in the past. To quote Jud Crandall: "Sometimes... dead is better."

One of the better Toaplan games, but it comes with issues. Firstly, I found the Japanese release was the only version playable due to it's slightly improved colour palette easing the problem of bullets blending into the background. Secondly, if you're playing Twin Hawk on a Steam Deck (hand-held or docked) then you'll need to edit the supplied controller layout to remove the insane amount of left stick deadzone because the initial 'soapy' movement makes it pretty much unplayable. Good news though! Once you've gotten over those initial hurdles there's one helluva good game to look forward to. Sure, It's not the greatest shooter ever made and if truth be told it's not even the best Toaplan game ever made - but it's still challenging, fun, highly addictive and has online leaderboards to add to the longevity. Oh, and one other thing included in the price was a polite reminder that my ancient eyes, dithering thumbs and mushy brain are well past the point of being able to stay in sync with one another😵‍💫 A highly recommended game if you come from an era where 'hard' was the default difficulty setting, 'rewind' was just something you did to a cassette tape and 'easy' was, erm, a tomb…

✍️ A Theory of Shmup Evolution By: Joseph Salomonsen Gradius → R‑Type → Darius → Toaplan → Cave / Treasure / G.rev 🟨 Foundations — Designed Space Gradius (Konami, 1985) The origin of control: resource systems, checkpoints, and authored space. The player shapes their ship to survive the level. R‑Type (Irem, 1987) The Force system: space becomes weaponized. A slow, methodical philosophy—positioning over reflex. Darius (Taito, 1987) Branching structure and spectacle. The first step toward non-linear shmup identity. 🟥 Line 1 — Density → Pattern → Bullet Hell (Toaplan → Cave) Twin Cobra (Toaplan, 1987) The definitive military shooter. Discipline, routing, survival. (my personal fave) Truxton / Tatsujin (Toaplan, 1988) The birth of the “Mega-Bomb” aesthetic—power as expression. Batsugun (Toaplan, 1993) The bridge to Bullet Hell. Density begins to dominate space. DoDonPachi (Cave, 1997) The system is complete. Patterns become language. Mushihimesama (Cave, 2004) The organic extreme. Bullets form ecosystems, not just obstacles. Deathsmiles (Cave, 2007) A divergence: horizontal design fused with atmosphere. Bullet hell becomes mood, not just system. 🟩 Line 2 …