Vimana

Vimana has always been my favorite Toaplan shmup. This is what an arcade sounded like when you walked in. I'm talking to you Truxton fanboys. Also, Vimana has the best colors. Lots of neon green, pink, purple, and reds against a black background. The actual game has a beautiful background wallpaper, not shown in the featured video for single player, and the best sound effects of any shmup not shown in the feature video. Also, Vimana is on the easier side, but in truth not too easy if there weren't infinite continues, but a lot easier than Truxton. FLAWLESS PORT! 9/10 for Virmana. https://steamcommunity.com/groups/indieretrogamers

Exactly as I remember it from the ’90s. This was one of the most memorable vertical shmups for me, and this version brings those memories back like it was yesterday. Everything works perfectly, and the sound is spot-on. A must-have if you enjoy this type of game.

This is generally considered one of Toaplan's weaker games, but frankly, I enjoy it more than Truxton. For starters, you have overlapping waves of enemies, and many of the single wave patterns are super fast, so you're always moving and prioritizing targets. It has maybe the best bomb in any shmup ever. And unlike Truxton and its many clones, you don't have to pick up 80 powerups to raise your shot level. It's probably too easy with 30hz autofire and the spread shot is almost entirely useless, but it's still a fun game and triggers my happy shmup neurons most of the time. I'd probably put it in the A-tier, it's not S-tier perfection like the Shark games or Twin Cobra or Out Zone or Slap Fight or V-V or Batsugun, but it's better than much of Toaplan's catalog and the massive glut of arcade shmups from the era in general. I have more fun with it than the Truxton games, Fixeight, Dogyuun, etc. Port-wise, it's pretty barebones like all of these Bitwave Toaplan ports, and I'm not sure if the audio emulation is the best, but I appreciate that it feels like there's essentially no input lag and it offers easy access to the different versions and dipswitch settings, plus easy to use …

Thank you, Vimana, for giving me the One Credit Clear No Assist achievement, on my first playthrough where I most certainly did not beat the game on one credit. I rate it a SHMUP outta 10

suffers heavily from gradius syndrome, although you can just cheese it with bombs since there is no checkpoint system get it on sale, its always worth checking out old stuff just for the novelty of it

Who makes the best ShootEmUps? Toaplan -> Cave