Psikyo was known for making awesome arcade shooters throughout the 90s until they went defunct in 2005. It would be a shame to let these great games go to waste so they decided to re-release many of these games in the Psikyo Shooting Stars Alpha and Bravo collection.
Bringing back the arcade days
Throughout the years some of Psikyo’s games found their way to consoles. Many gems remained arcade (or emulator) only until recent years. Previously, vertical shooters only used a small part of your TV screen due to being originally designed for a portrait orientated monitor. When detaching the controllers on the Nintendo’s Switch, the screen can actually be turned 90 degrees and thus making these games play as they were meant to be played. As such the Nintendo Switch might be responsible for the resurgence of vertical shoot-em-ups. the Psikyo Shooting Stars collects all of the Psikyo library currently available on the eShop.
Everything you want
Psikyo Shooting Stars Alpha and Bravo both offer a great collection of games which more or less defined the whole shoot-em-up genre. Psikyo was clearly on top of their game with great releases after great release. Almost no stinkers were made by this company. As such, you can just pick any game of this collection and have instant fun with it. Mind you, these games are brutal on the standard sessions but these types of games are meant to play (and fail) a lot before you can master them. The emphasis of the Psikyo games lies mostly on the bullet-hell principle in which you’ll need to find some zen in the chaos of bullets.
Psikyo Shooting Stars Alpha
The Psikyo Shooting Stars Alpha collection consists of the following games:
- Dragon Blaze
- Strikers 1945 I
- Strikers 1945 II
- Strikers 1945 III
- Zero Gunner 2
- Sol Divide
The Strikers 1945 series focusses more on the military theme with different planes to choose from. Each has its own style which alters the experience slightly. Zero Gunner 2 is obviously the most recent one of the bunch offering a different take on the genre. You can actually turn the direction in which you shoot with this one, making this the odd one out (but in a good way). With Dragon Blaze and Sol Divide, you get a more fantasy-based shmup experience. With Dragon Blaze being the superior of the two as Sol Divide is a bit too rusty to my liking.
Psikyo Shooting Stars Bravo
The Psikyo Shooting Stars Bravo collection consists of the following games:
- Samurai Aces: Tengai
- Samurai Aces II: Sengoku Ace
- Sengoku Cannon a.k.a. Samurai Aces III
- Gunbird
- Gunbird II
- Gunbarich
The Samurai Aces games are awesome manga-inspired shooters with an ancient samurai theme. The first is a vertical shooter while the second and third one are horizontal shooters. The Gunbird series is probably responsible for my personal love for the whole shmup genre. These games have a special place in my heart as they introduced me to a whole new level of awesomeness I hadn’t previously encountered. Gunbarich is the odd one out in this collection being a puzzler instead of a shooter. The gunbird characters are incorporated in the break-out/Arkanoid like gameplay justifying its place on this collection (I guess).
Conclusion
Psikyo Shooting Stars Alpha and Bravo is a handy collection in case you hadn’t purchased any of the games digitally. Most of the games were gems back in the day and hold up perfectly today. These collections aren’t quite up to par with recent “collections” which offered a bunch of extra content and options like museums, save states, … The love for these types of games makes me turn a blind eye but if I’m honest they could’ve done something more to make this a truly epic collection.
