Toaplan’s ten years making games left a tremendous legacy. Following a run of defining 2D shooters, the team ushered in the bullet hell era with 1993’s triumphant Batsugun. After Toaplan closed its doors for the last time, former staff would go on to found or take senior positions at many of the shooting game genre’s most important studios, such as Takumi, Gazelle, Raizing/Eighting, and the mighty Cave.
Toaplan Arcade Shoot ‘Em Up Collection Vol.1 reviewDeveloper: Bitwave Games/ToaplanPublisher: Bitwave GamesPlatform: Played on PCAvailability: Out now on PC Steam
Despite those contributions, Toaplan’s most famed creation is one they’d likely be none too proud of. The infamous mistranslation ‘all your base are belong to us’ in the European Mega Drive port of their game Zero Wing has transcended the studio, genre, and even video game medium to become a touchpoint of popular culture.
In recent years, though, a handful of the studio’s games have returned, with developer-publisher M2 already porting a handful of Toaplan shooters as part of its consistently impressive ‘ShotTriggers’ series. Now retro specialist Bitwave Games has joined in, bringing PC owners Toaplan Arcade Shoot ‘Em Up Collection Vol.1.
The collection here explores a four year period from the Japanese studio’s middle history, capturing a time when Toaplan’s team were exploring the fundamentals of what would later become bullet hell. That means you won’t find dense bullet clouds or highly complex scoring systems here. Instead, you get to trace how, between 1987 and 1990, Toaplan’s developers started to move away from the convention of more traditional shooters, and push the form into more energetic new places.