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The Genesis is home to many a shmup, boasting a total library of over seventy. And just when you think you’ve saved the planet from an alien invasion one too many times, another game comes along that’s worth checking out. This time around it’s Eliminate Down, an import title that can run upwards of $150 on eBay. There’s a reason why people are so eager to pay big bucks for this one folks, and it definitely has more to do with quality than rarity.
Taito’s Fire Mustang may not have set the world on fire, but it was a decent little game that may be worth looking into if you can find it on the cheap side.
Toaplan gets credit for being one of the pioneers of the Danmaku style of shooter, what we westerners know as the “bullet hell” shmup, and games like Donpachi and Mars Matrix are great examples of this fast paced and ultra twitch style of play. What’s interesting is that it got its roots in a Toaplan game that was eventually ported to the Genesis. Grind Stormer was the first game done by Ikeda Tsunemoto, who eventually went on to work at another shmup haven, Cave. Tengen handled the porting job, and sadly the game suffered in the transition. Flickering graphics hindered what could have been a great game, and our full review has the whole story.
Toaplan’s been behind some great shmups, and a few of them were never released in the U.S. Twin Hawk was one of the rare games that got published by Sega in Europe and Japan, but never flew across the Atlantic. No one knows why, but we were deprived of a solid little shooter that employed some unconventional gameplay dynamics.
So many great Mega CD titles were left behind in Japan, a sign of the times when gamers waited and prayed for prospective games to be released in the U.S. Sometimes, we were deprived of an absolute gem that was unjustly kept from our eager hands (Monster World IV comes to mind). Other times, we’re saved from a dud that would have otherwise deprived us of our hard-earned cash. Sengoku Densyo is one such title.