Every Toaplan Shoot ‘Em Up, Ranked

By Marc Normandin | April 4, 2024 | 2:02pm

Video Games Lists toaplan

30 years ago, one of the most important arcade studios closed its doors due to bankruptcy. Toaplan formed in 1984 out of the ashes of a couple of bankrupt studios, but unlike their predecessors they lasted for an entire decade, and in that time managed to make not one but (at least) two of the most influential shooting games ever. Oh, and another dozen STG, besides, most of them landing somewhere between great and great. Out of the ashes of Toaplan arose Gazelle, Takumi, Raizing, and Cave, so the sway of this studio and its ideas survived its death: the first two of those made some good to wonderful shooters of their own, and the latter two, well, they’re Raizing and Cave, two development houses who could have their own fancy Paste shoot ‘em up rankings someday.

Anyway, ranking is what we’re here to do: Toaplan developed 14 shoot ‘em ups in a decade, and closed their doors while working on a 15th and an arrangement of number 14. As both of those ended up releasing posthumously, finished at the hands of ex-Toaplan devs, we’ll include those here as Toaplan for our purposes.

A housekeeping note: the Japanese version of Toaplan’s games were basically always the superior one, as they were designed in a very specific, intentional way that was often changed for western audiences. The western releases are fine, of course, they just tend to be slightly worse, and a little less Toaplan. So, names will be used per the regional version of the game being described, not interchangeably. It will matter!

A consumer note: nearly every Toaplan shoot ‘em up is available for purchase somewhere right now, since M2 and Bitwave Games are both converting the lot of them for home consoles (Switch, Playstation 4) and Windows, respectively. The M2 releases, however, are available only via importing, whether physical or digital, unless Limited Run Games steps up for the entire Toaplan Arcade Garage run. They’re the definitive versions of these games and worth it, if you’re an aspiring sicko who also wants access to every console port of these games on top of the arcade ones and also the rest of Toaplan’s (non-eroge) library to boot. If you just want a good, accurate version of their shooting games with some quality of life features added in, the Bitwave releases will suit you fine, and cost less, too.

Or you could get both. No one is stopping you, especially not me.

15. Vimana

Toaplan Vimana

System: Arcade

Year: 1991

Availability: Windows

Vimana represents one of Toaplan’s only misses in the vertical space. Maybe their lone one, depending on your tastes. And yet, you can pretty easily find shoot ‘em up message board users who will claim it as one of their favorites, if not their favorite, so that should tell you something about Toaplan’s abilities there. I’m not on board, though. Vimana has a killer look, as it draws from Hindu culture in far more than just in its name, giving it a distinct style in the shoot ‘em up space. And there are some impressive graphical tricks in here, too, especially with the shimmering bodies of water you come across. And yet: even fully powered, your weapons never feel as strong as they should, with even some basic foes feeling a little bullet sponge-y, and the bomb is as annoying as it is useful, since it splits into orbs that circle your ship and have a bit of a mind of their own. It’s also short, and feels it—there are far more satisfying Toaplan games out there.

14. Zero Wing

System: Arcade, Genesis, PC Engine CD

Year: 1989

Availability: Switch, PS4, Windows

You know Zero Wing as the source of a whole bunch of memes—“All your base are belong to us!” and so on—but the original arcade edition of the game didn’t have any of that. Which, honestly, makes it a little bit worse! The culprit for the infamous localization was revealed in 2012 by Toaplan mainstay Tatsuya Uemura as “a guy who was in charge of our exports at the time…his English was really terrible (laughs).”

Zero Wing is Toaplan’s other horizontal shooter, and like with Hellfire, it doesn’t hold up against most of their vertically-oriented library. Originally, it was meant as just a training exercise for new hires, but Toaplan ended up with an entire game out of that project and released it before putting horizontal shooters behind them forever. It’s a shame, in a way, as both Zero Wing and Hellfire had some nifty gimmicks, and more experience in the subgenre probably would have resulted in good things. But [checks ranking] you also can’t really argue against most of what Toaplan made post-Zero Wing, either.

13. Tiger-Heli

System: Arcade, NES

Year: 1985

Availability: Switch, PS4, Windows

Tiger-Heli is going to be a hard sell for a lot of people, because it feels every part of its 1985 release date. And yet… it’s just so clear about its intentions, and what it requires of the player. It’s so very Toaplan, is the thing, even as their first STG, and it’s got the juice if you’ve got the patience to squeeze it out. It is brutal, with highly accurate enemies, fast bullets, an ever-increasing firing and enemy rate, difficult-to-earn extends that force you to balance using bombs to save your life or holding onto them for post-stage bonuses—bombs that Tiger-Heli invented for shoot ‘em ups, by the way—but it is not unfair. The worst thing you can say about it, really, is that Toaplan kept making shoot ‘em ups after this one, pushing it down the list.

12. Hellfire

System: Arcade, Genesis, PC Engine CD

Year: 1989

Availability: Switch, PS4, Windows

Toaplan’s specialty was vertical shooters, and it showed in their pair of horizontal titles. It’s not that Hellfire is bad, because it’s far from it. You might even say that it’s good, and you should, too, because otherwise it’s not ranking ahead of Tiger-Heli. But there’s something missing here that keeps it from competing with the hori stars such as in the Gradius or R-Type or Thunder Force series, and it’s the same kind of something that Toaplan’s vertical shoot ‘em ups had over that competition. Still, Hellfire has a nifty mechanic that lets you choose to fire in front of you, behind you, above you, or below you, and it makes for some quality puzzle-y memorization that can really only work in this STG subgenre. Don’t sleep on the PC Engine CD version, Hellfire S, which added story cutscenes and an excellent arrangement of Tatsuyu Uemura’s soundtrack.

11. Daisenpuu (Twin Hawk)

System: Arcade, Genesis, PC Engine/CD

Year: 1989

Availability: Windows

Daisenpuu marks the one instance that longtime Toaplan distributor, Taito, was specific about the kind of game they wanted instead of waiting for Toaplan to show them what they’d been cooking up, and even specified what hardware they wanted it on. Which is why it’s on the Taito X System arcade board instead of one of Toaplan’s own creations.

Daisenpuu is mistaken for being part of the Tiger series sometimes since the international release, Twin Hawk, uses the word “Twin” in it, but it’s nothing like those titles, really. For one, you fly a plane, not a chopper, in it. And, instead of bombs, you summon a whole bunch of wingmen into battle with you, which gives you a leg up on difficult foes and bosses. Until they’re all shot down and use themselves as flying bombs in a last-ditch effort to defeat their foes, anyway. It’s a very different way of playing an STG and rationing out your “bombs,” but it’s also a concept that could have used another pass in a sequel to get it at the same level as some of Toaplan’s other works.

10. Slap Fight

System: Arcade, Genesis

Year: 1986

Availability: Windows

Slap Fight borrowed the customizable power-up bar from Konami’s Gradius, and placed it in a vertical shooter. It also utilized a mechanic from Data East’s B-Wings, which caused your ship to grow in size every time it powered up. Given this, it’s a weird shooter, conceptually and in practice, somehow even weirder in 2024 than it was in 1986. It’s compelling, though, another game that, like Tiger-Heli, is just so well put together that it’s easier to understand than it should be why Toaplan bothered to have it ported to the Sega Mega Drive seven years after its arcade release. Slap Fight MD was a package deal that included the original as well as a new, updated version, scored by Yuzo Koshiro, and it’s also great.

9. Dogyuun

System: Arcade

Year: 1992

Availability: Windows

Toaplan’s focus, historically, was on highly refined gameplay loops that made players feel like they were the best in the world at the game they were playing. Dogyuun, instead, entered development aiming to produce the best visuals of any Toaplan game to date. Tetsuya Uemura explained in a 2012 interview that, “because we made graphics the top priority, the actual gameplay was kind of unimaginative. It was a shame we couldn’t balance both.” Now, this makes it sound like Dogyuun isn’t a lot of fun, but it truly is. It’s just less fun than it could have been if that balance had been better met. It has some fascinating weapons that all have distinct situational usefulness—you might wonder why you could need two different kinds of homing lasers in one game, but believe me, you do—while making you choose between having a single-use bomb and the ability to dash a space fighter out of harm’s way as much as you want. Or! Skip both and kidnap a small enemy ship with a tractor beam located behind you instead. Well, okay, not all of the ideas are great ones with obvious use cases, but that dash is pretty nifty and different, at least.

8. Hishouzame (Flying Shark, Sky Shark)

System: Arcade, NES

Year: 1987

Availability: Switch, PS4, Windows

Toaplan switched from attack chopper to biplane for Flying Shark. It refined the approach of Tiger-Heli with a game that moved a little faster, brought in way more enemy planes to shoot down, and introduced these little attack boats that shoot more accurately than anything you’ve ever faced before. You will learn to hate them. You will also learn to anticipate their coming, though, and defeat them before they can shoot you down, because Flying Shark is a splendidly designed game that makes you feel as if you’re one correction away from beating the whole thing on one credit, and then seeing how far you can go on the next loop. You can do it: just remember to use the bomb in that trouble spot rather than save it.

7. Kyukyoku Tiger (Twin Cobra)

System: Arcade, NES, Genesis, PC Engine

Year: 1987

Availability: Switch, PS4, Windows

Kyukyoku Tiger is where Toaplan began to add on to the formula refined by Flying Shark, with a variety of weapons to utilize and power up, instead of just the one. There’s more of everything, actually: weapons, yes, but also enemies, enemy variety, bosses, bullets, stages. Toaplan had seen success before Kyukyoku Tiger—which roughly translates to “Ultimate Tiger”—but this is the one that really put them on the map. There was still plenty of room for improvement in a general sense, but Kyukyoku Tiger is the apex of this particular era of Toaplan shooter, one that concluded in 1987 with this game. Everything beyond this point was building on what the ultimate tiger introduced.

6. Same! Same! Same! (Fire Shark)

System: Arcade, Genesis, PC Engine CD

Year: 1989

Availability: Switch, PS4, Windows

Same! Same! Same! should be read as “Shark! Shark! Shark!” in a Tora! Tora! Tora! Cadence. Or you could just refer to it as Fire Shark, because the massive fire beam that rips out of this plane is the star of the show. Fire Shark is in an interesting place, because it’s both a game where it’s a little too easy if you’re fully powered up and you can just kind of plow through it, but also good luck living long enough to get to that point. And the rank system—i.e. how the game adjusts to how you’re playing—piles on more difficulty via faster enemy movement and firing speed the longer you avoid death, so… yeah, good luck. There’s a hell of a game here, though, one worth trying and trying over and over again, and if its systems click with you, you’re going to experience one of Toaplan’s finest.

5. Kyukyoku Tiger II (Twin Cobra II)

System: Arcade, Saturn

Year: 1995

Availability: Egret Mini II (Arcade Memories Vol. 2)

I didn’t bother listing Egret Mini II or Astro City Mini V availability for any other Toaplan shooters, because they’re also available on non-specialty platforms. Taito’s mini arcade cabinet is the only way to legally play the bow Takumi put on Toaplan’s legacy, though, so if you’ve got one, import that Arcade Memories Vol 2. cart from Japan, and get blasting in the most graphically advanced and intense game in the Tiger series. It’s short, at six 1995-length stages, but like with its predecessors, it’s going to take a lot of replaying to even see the final boss, never mind defeat it. Its reputation isn’t amazing because the lone home port was mediocre, but the original arcade edition sent Toaplan’s inaugural series out with a deserved bang.

4. V-V (Grind Stormer)

System: Arcade, Genesis

Year: 1993

Availability: Windows

V-V, which you pronounce “V-Five,” isn’t a bullet hell shooter, but it’s the game that had to be made before those games could exist. It’s a proto-manic shooter, a pre-danmaku, bullet… purgatory? Whatever you want to call it, it’s wonderful. Unless you’re calling it Grind Stormer, in which case, it’s slightly worse, because it loses the Slap Fight-inspired power-up bar and all the strategizing that comes with it, replacing those power-up orbs and decisions with straight power-ups and weapon changes instead. Luckily, that was only a problem for literally the entire world where the game was playable besides Japan.

V-V has the distinction of being Tsuneki Ikeda’s first game, and if you’re familiar with his extensive work with Cave that covers, oh, a huge swath of their excellent output, then you’d be able to point out exactly what ways his influence changed the direction of Toaplan from the start. Slower bullets, but way more of them, and an emphasis on dodging and finding safe spots rather than something of an endless, slow-paced ballet of memorized death-dealing. A real gem.

3. Tatsujin (Truxton)

System: Arcade, Genesis, PC Engine

Year: 1988

Availability: Windows

Tatsujin moved Toaplan from realistic military-themed shooters to a sci-fi space setting, and it’s such an important game for them that Tatsujin’s composer and programmer, Masahiro Yuge, named his modern successor studio after it. It’s a Japanese word that means “expert” and represents the philosophical concept of a complete mastery that can’t be achieved in life. You’re going to die a lot in Tatsujin, though, so you’re certainly going to feel like an expert if you manage to complete the game. It will challenge you from the outset, and if you don’t want to memorize enemy placement and movement patterns and what kind of bullets they’re going to fire at you and which of the game’s three weapon types makes the most situational sense from moment to moment, well, it’s not a game for you (and most of the rest of Toaplan’s library won’t be, either). It’s a game built on Kyukyoku Tiger that resulted in a far superior one, which is saying something.

2. Tatsujin Ou (Truxton II)

System: Arcade

Year: 1992

Availability: Windows

Tatsujin Ou is the sequel to a notoriously difficult game that required replay after replay for it to be not so difficult. And, when faced with an arcade market that had started to trend toward fighting games over shooters, decided to go all-in on its own difficulty to appease the remaining hardcore fans. If you’ve the stomach for the challenge, there’s a highly rewarding STG here that will test your memorization and reflexes. Audiences of the time did not, but that shouldn’t stop you from seeing the improved graphics, the introduction of autofire, and even more kickass exploding skull bomb animations for you to stare at as you clear the screen of enemies. The one complaint is that it’s a little too long for an arcade shooter, and, when combined with the difficulty, it feels even longer due to how often you’re going to have to die and retry until you get a handle on it all.

1. Batsugun

System: Arcade, Saturn

Year: 1993

Availability: Switch, PS4, Xbox One, Windows

The actual first bullet hell shooter, and the culmination of everything Toaplan had developed before this. It’s their final shoot ‘em up, released mere months before their closure, and it’s also their finest. It looks fantastic, with future Cave artist Junya Inoue getting a chance to marry his art to a game that achieved the balance between looks and gameplay that Dogyuun did not, and it plays splendidly, with Ikeda plowing ahead with the birth of bullet hell following the teases of this new subgenre in V-V. The base game is excellent, but the arranged mode—which was only initially released for location testing before Toaplan shuttered but has been included in every home port—is superior, as it better balances the difficulty over the course of the game, and adds three additional loops for further scoring opportunities.

Batsugun is a wildly important game in the history of both Toaplan and shoot ‘em ups in general, but that’s not why it’s ranked on top. It’s here because it’s still tremendous over three decades later. If you want to know more about how it plays and what makes it so crucial to the genre, we can oblige.

Marc Normandin covers retro videogames at Retro XP, which you can read for free but support through his Patreon, and can be found on Twitter at @Marc_Normandin.