Under Defeat Can’t Be Beat: The 2005 Shmup Returns Again
Under Defeat is back—again. G.rev’s shoot ‘em up jumps the gun on its 20th anniversary (it debuted in Japanese arcades in October 2005) and hits modern consoles later this week; what you’ll find on your Switch, PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series whatever will be instantly familiar if you played it or its Dreamcast port 20 years ago, or the HD rerelease on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 12 years ago. (Yes, that’s not a typo: Under Defeat’s first home version came out on the Dreamcast in early 2006, over five years after Sega discontinued the system and got out of the hardware business entirely. There have been a ton of post-Dreamcast Dreamcast games, and this is one of the big ones.)
If you’re a shmup fan, you probably already have this preordered for your console of choice. If you’re just tentatively getting into the scene, though, or a dilettante who only occasionally feels the urge to blow a lot of digital stuff up, you might want to consider giving this one a shot.
Under Defeat is one of many Japanese-made shoot ‘em ups set during World War II, or at least a vague war very obviously inspired by World War II. Like most of them, this is a highly fictionalized, heavily distorted, utterly unrealistic version of the war, and basically just means that, instead of spaceships and aliens, you’ll be gunning down planes, tanks, ships, and other semi-recognizable vehicles and weapons from the real world. Realism is in no way the goal, and never threatens to even make an appearance—something that should be readily apparent when you see that the in-game pilots have different styles of anime hair—but instead of invaders from beyond the stars you’ll be fighting your fellow humans, in the vein of Capcom’s 1942 and Toaplan’s Twin Cobra. Like those two games, Under Defeat is also a vertical scroller with a top-down perspective—meaning you have a bird’s eye view of the action as your helicopter constantly flies towards the top of the constantly scrolling screen. Your chopper flies ever north as you use its standard weapon and its limited arsenal of screen-clearing bombs to take down waves of enemy tanks and planes, every so often having to patiently blast away at a gigantic boss vehicle that can wreck you in a hurry. It’s all pretty standard shmup stuff, and since “pretty standard shmup stuff” is what fans of these games are usually looking for, a game that does that well, like Under Defeat, has a good shot of leaving a lasting mark. And since we’re talking about its third major release in 20 years, it’s safe to say Under Defeat has absolutely left a mark.
One gameplay wrinkle that distinguishes Under Defeat has to do with how you aim. In the original arcade mode and 2012’s New Order Mode, your vehicle can focus its fire within a frontward-facing cone of roughly 90 degrees or so. You can shoot straight ahead, or angled to either the right or left . Is a small watchtower constantly spitting bullets directly at you, blocking a straight shot? Just scooch over to the side, angle your helicopter to safely target that tower, and then let the bullets fly. It’s extremely useful at handling enemies who approach from the side or shoot out a steady stream of bullets, but can also be a little frustrating. You have to hold down the fire button to move your helicopter without simultaneously tilting it in the direction you’re moving towards. On many occasions you’ll no doubt find your chopper twist into one of these angles when you’re just trying to fly your whole ship to the right or left, missing your shot and potentially blowing you the hell up. The upside greatly outweighs this minor nuisance, and makes Under Defeat feel tangibly different from other, similar shooters, but that doesn’t make it any less annoying when it does happen.
