Tag Archives: Shooters

Shooting Live 2019 – Vertical Shooting Night: An Event Packed With Shooting Love

Magazine Translations

Shooting Live 2019 - Vertical Shooting Night was held on 02/21/2019 at AREA in Tokyo's Takadanobaba. This event was the second in Famitsu's series of concerts (following the first one that was centered around pixel-drawn RPGs), and was centered around vertical scrolling shooters. There was a live music section featuring performances by two bands that know the sounds of an arcade better than anyone, a DJ set featuring wonderful composers, and a talk segment featuring some shooting game-loving celebrities. We're bringing you coverage of this event that was packed full of shooting love. Continue Reading

The People Reviving the Darius Series

Magazine Translations

We've interviewed the main staff responsible for the Darius Cozmic Collection at Taito and M2 (who is responsible for the porting). It's divided up into three topics: We start with the details of planning the collection, move into the fixation on sound, and then end with some features found only in this collection. Tatsuhito Kasuga (Sound, M2) Kazuki Kubota (U-Design, M2) Tetsuya Abe (Main Programmer, M2) Saoki Kudou (Sound, M2) Hirotoshi Kobayashi (Producer, Taito) Yuuichi Toyama (Development, Taito) Naoki Horii (Producer, M2) Yukiko Karashima (Director, M2) Continue Reading

Famitsu Feature: The Present State of Shooting Games

Features

A big multi-article feature entitled "The Present State of Shooting Games" which published in the 07/12/2018 issue of Famitsu magazine, centered around the recent release of famed shooter Ikaruga to the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 stores. Ikaruga got its own set of articles that I won't be translating, however there were three key articles in the bigger feature that interested me quite a bit as a fan of the shooter (Shmups, whatever you want to call it, just as long as you understand I'm not talking about First-Person Shooters) genre:

- Famitsu's 2D Shooting Family Tree 2018
  - Famitu put together a basic family tree (no it won't have EVERYTHING on it) on the evolution of the 2D shooter as of 2018, which gave me a chance to break out my draw.io flowchart skills for the translation once again!
- Talking with ZUN from the Touhou Series! A Conversation Hell
  - A very interesting conversation between old-school shooter fans, featuring various writers and editors, as well as Touhou Project creator ZUN. They discuss their memories of classic shooters, as well as how the genre led up to Bullet Hell and the formation of Touhou. All of this comes with pictures of them having a lot of fun in a dark izakaya with very delicious looking beer!
- Talking With Minoru Ikeda, Owner Of Takadanobaba Arcade Mikado: The Allure And Future of Shooting Games
  - In perhaps my favorite of the three articles, Famitsu talks to owner/operator of famed arcade Mikado in Tokyo's Takadanobaba area Minoru Ikeda about his history with shooting games and as an arcade operator. It's very interesting to hear about this sort of thing from the standpoint of someone who runs an arcade, and how what he feels it will take for shooters and arcades to revitalize themselves. I'll definitely be stopping into Mikado on my next trip to Japan!

Talking With Minoru Ikeda, Owner Of Takadanobaba Arcade Mikado: The Allure And Future of Shooting Games

Magazine Translations

Now it's time to speak with Minoru Ikeda, the owner of the arcade "Mikado" located in Tokyo's Takadanobaba area. Ikeda was first attracted to arcade shooting games by Xevious. He talked with us about the history of shooting games and arcades from the dark days of shooters to the present, and the allure and future of shooting games from the perspective of the arcade. Continue Reading

Darius Plus

Reviews

Hardware: PC Engine
09/21/1990 (Japan)
ダライアスプラス

This second port of arcade shooter Darius was based on the PC Engine CD Super Darius (the first home port ever, released 6 months prior to this one), from the same developer and publisher. Being on a standard HuCard instead of a CD, this was obviously the Darius port for those who couldn't afford or just didn't have a PC Engine CD, so a lot more technical limitations were at play here than for Super Darius. But the results of this port are pleasantly surprising. Continue Reading

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