I'm sure that's going to be really useful for a lot of people. Cheers!

What do the “custom” modes for Twin Cobra and Tiger-Heli do?

It's a good point. Once the earlier stuff is dealt with, then it really should be just a flood of top quality stuff. The only worry I'd have, though, is that the Switch is probably at about the peak of its sales trajectory right now and there's currently a real momentum around shmups on the platform. If Batsugun etc don't get releases until, say 2023 (or later!), will that still be true? Or will people have moved on to other consoles or ways of playing? I'm pretty sure from the limited physical game companies' releases that physical shmups sell a lot better on Switch than elsewhere and it would be a shame to see M2 miss out on maximising that potential as, more than anything else, I really want them to do well and be rewarded for the stellar work they've been doing - and not cause I'm particularly altruistic, just so they'll keep doing it!

@@ShmupsOnSwitch I worry about that element of this release schedule, too. There's a worrying historical precedent here with 'Toaplan Shooting Battle 1,' a planned PSX Toaplan series that literally died on the first release, a collection of Tiger-Heli and Twin Cobra. I hope post-Same-Same-Same, M2 will jump to a Truxton/Tatsujin Oh! pack - increasing consumer goodwill again. And then, after that, it sounded like OutZone and FixEight would be on the table. And then, fingers crossed, Batsugun - very close, one has to imagine, to the end of the Switch's market life. Speculation abound. Since M2 is so important to the scene, it's a tremendous exhibition of 'opportunity cost' - when they choose to treat X game and not Y game, it really has a big impact on the STG fanbase because no one, not even the talented LiveWire team, gets even close to doing what they do. Does part of me secretly wish that M2 had just released a DDP collection with, I don't know, an Ibara collection on the way in spring 2022? Yes. And would that timeline be better for the invigoration of the STG scene in the English-speaking world? Also yes. But what we have is still pretty special. (Also, thanks for the service you're doing the community with your channel. I'm a big fan of your content and really glad you stepped up to fill the coverage gap of this niche of the gaming landscape.)

I’m not 100% for sure, but it appears that the PS4 version only has the arcades on disc and the consoles as redeemable dlc code. You may not care, but just warning in case. 👍🏼

Nope, only if you get the DLC for another 2000Y. Otherwise it's just K-Tiger Arcade, Tiger Heli Arcade, and the Tetris thingy.

I'm actually quite looking forward to the Flying Shark collection. Here, the biggest problem for me is that while Kyuukyoku Tiger is decent, Tiger Heli's a bit of a dud. On the Flying Shark collection however, it should be two games of equal - or maybe even higher - quality than Kyuukyoku Tiger, and sounds like a far more worthwhile package. Nice to have so much choice though. At the moment there's something for everyone coming out all the time!

This and the pending 2nd release are definitely the low tier games out of the toaplan’s outstanding back catalog. I just hope low sells don’t prevent them getting the other’s out 😩 Surely putting out truxton or batsugun first would have been that better business decision 🤦‍♂️

Nearly 70 for an import??? Hard pass at that money.

Waiting for a sale to get this

I’m old and appreciate releases like this, but younger gamers with no nostalgia for these probably could spend their $70 better. I am however, disappointed at the PS4 version which only has the arcade games on disc. The console games are included as a DLC code.

we want more physical releases

Not seen one for this collection so far, I'm afraid. If you have Google translate on your phone, it'll now do a real-time AR translation if you hold it up to the screen. Not perfect, but may help.

Oh, I totally agree. it's kind of a weird one because, yeah, it's great from a preservation standpoint and I'm really pleased to see them avoid the fate of becoming forgotten, but at the same time they're not the games I personally want to play. I think my preference would probably be Shot Triggers releases for the more "important" shmups, with the less popular games compiled into larger collections with fewer gadgets etc.

Oh! There will be. Called Hishou Same! Same! Same! coming next year.

I'd have liked to focus more on the differences between the ports too, but I felt the video was already getting pretty long. It certainly has been interesting playing through and comparing them though.

I'd have liked to focus more on the differences between the ports too, but I felt the video was already getting pretty long. It certainly has been interesting playing through and comparing them though.

@@ShmupsOnSwitch No worries, thanks for respecting your audience's time.

No idea, but almost all the Shot Triggers releases have been the same. Ketsui, I think, came to PS4 in the west, but it took years.

I assume it's because M2 cater primarily to the japanese market and western audiences have less interest in shmups, thus it's not worth it for them to localize their games.

Honestly, it can be a bit confusing following quite what and how much M2 does do. They've previously only put out a Shot Triggers release about once a year, but they do do lots of other work for other companies - eg Sega Ages line, and work on the Darius collection. They also made Senjin Aleste for arcades last year and (I think) they have another new Aleste game, Aleste Branch, in the works too.