myEven if you’ve never heard of the late shooter developer Toaplan, any historian of meme culture will know a key moment in the Mega Drive conversion of their arcade classic Zero Wing. Load that game up and during the opening cinematic the enemy leader appears on screen with the legendary quote “all of his base belongs to us”. That confusing phrase has appeared in everything from YouTube error messages to Elon Musk tweets to AOC speeches, but if one dubious line of translation is ALL you know about this oft-overlooked innovator in the shooter genre, Now is your chance to get to know yourself better.
Toaplan Arcade Shoot-’em-Up Collecton Vol 1 includes four games from the company’s 15-year life, providing a varied overview of both its own production and the history of the shooter genre. The first of these, Twin Cobra, is a military-style vertical-scrolling game where your helicopter battles a variety of enemy planes, tanks, and gun emplacements, while collecting power-ups to change and upgrade your primary weapon. It’s very much in the style of Capcom’s 1942 smash hit, but massively unforgiving, a factor acknowledged in the original Mega Drive conversion that included a hack for multiple smart bombs. Truxton is arguably Toaplan’s first timeless classic, a sci-fi blaster with a three-type weapon mechanic similar to Twin Cobra’s, this time including the incredible Truxton Beam that fires a continuous laser that locks on and tracks enemy ships. . Zero Wing is a 1989 horizontal scroller, clearly inspired by Gradius and R-Type, with similar biomechanical enemies and landscapes, but is notable in its own right due to the tractor beam feature that allows you to grab enemy ships and use them as shields.
Lastly, there’s 1990’s Out Zone, a run-and-gun vertical shooter where you play as a cyborg mercenary fighting off alien invaders. This is my favorite of the lot with its multiple shooting styles, requiring constant changes based on enemy attack patterns, and its strain-inducing energy system that requires you to constantly pick up energy icons to avoid shutting down and dying.
What these games illustrate is the aesthetic brilliance of Toaplan’s work. Gorgeously detailed sprites, highly elaborate and richly colored backdrops, excellent use of parallax scrolling and imaginative weapon design abound, while the soundtracks are evocative ’80s synth pop masterpieces. Obsessive Toaplan Carl-Henrik Skårstedtit’s excellent, with near perfect input response (I’m using an 8BitDo arcade stick) and a variety of display options, allowing you to switch between scan lines and pixels, different scaling options, and full screen or windowed; You can also rotate the screen in case you want to put your monitor on its side and play in a true arcade perspective.
There are also welcome modern additions for curious players who didn’t spend their teenage years slotting coins into slot machines. A save function lets you keep your progress, and there are different skill levels and multiple assists, such as autofire and a rewind function, so you can appreciate the later stage layouts even if you don’t have the reflexes of a wild cat with caffeine. .
Yes, it’s just four games, and yes, there are other ways to experience these ancient relics, including emulation via free online software. But this is a lovingly produced package, designed not only for nostalgic fans but also for newcomers who want to experience the glory days of shooters without putting in years of practice. I really hope developer Bitwave puts out a second collection with titles like Truxton 2 and possibly Toaplan’s masterpiece Batsugun, widely considered the first “bullet hell” shooter due to its intense waves of enemy fire.
For now though, this collection should appeal to old fans, new fans of the genre. and those who only know about Toaplan through it’s meme Thanks to the wonders of careful emulation, all these great ones belong to us.
