BATSUGUN Saturn Tribute Boosted

***There is a $7.99 arcade port of this game on Steam and is probably better Value then this.*** That being said, I actually like this port from Saturn and this is one of my favorites in my Shoot Em' Up collection. This is like the deluxe version if you get super into the cheaper version. It's just wildly over priced.

✍️ 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 …

Absolutely love it! The music is top notch and is a must for those who love shoot em'ups. A rare Sega Saturn gem indeed.

NB to potential Steam Deck players, especially dock users: after selecting a version and going through the intro text, my screen would go black yet audio was fine and the game responded to controls. This was new behavior and other Saturn Tributes presented no issues. I tried different compatibility layers, disabling cloud saves and reinstalling but what ultimately worked was playing the game handheld, where it appeared fine, making it to Screen Settings, and reverting them to default (if you're navigating blind, Screen Settings is 6 taps down on the root menu when you press Back, then tap up once to highlight Default). Changing all these values again afterwards hasn't broken anything so far. Anyway, as I dealt with that I considered asking for a refund and buying Bitwave's release instead but that's no longer necessary. I just have Bitwave's V-V (60 FPS mode on native Linux) to compare to, another Toaplan shooter from the same year, but City Connection's Batsugun on Steam feels only a hair laggier with V-Sync off and uncapped framerate on the Deck. That a basic human like me can perceive a difference at all may already alarm some. Everyone cites [url=https://twitter.com/kimagreGam…

Perfect game, perfect arranged soundtrack, ok port. Worth to have both versions of Batsugun here on steam. This for the soundtrack mainly. Which is awesome.

This is an incredible game for a 1993 release. It's very nice for us to have the SEGA Saturn port remastered and ported to PC instead of the original arcade release. The SEGA Saturn version had a remastered soundtrack which was created using digital samples of instruments instead of 16-bit chip audio. The graphics are absolutely nuts in this version of the game. It was a blast to play. The graphics are incredible. The soundtrack and level design are very well made. For a game with such solid fundamentals, it was a shame experiencing the "end game". The game doesn't end. Unfortunately, the game repeats itself seemingly ad infinitum after beating the "final" boss. There isn't that satisfaction of truly beating the game like in other bullet hell/ shoot 'em ups I have played. For a game that was originally released as an arcade cabinet this makes sense, but I was hoping the PC port/ remaster would have something similar to what I expected. Maybe a boss rush mode at the end. Something. Other reviewers have complained about slowdowns, input lag, or audio cackling. I experienced none of these issues.