I initially thought the name BatRider is referring to Bat (the flying mammal) Rider. But it's actually an acronym for Battle Rider. The very full title is Armed Police BATTLE RIDER. This is part of Raizing's Battle series. By the way, I've googled if there is indeed any BatRider manga... nope! None...
Absolutely my favorite shmup of all time. The advanced course is totally worth doing, as the last two stages have some of the coolest stuff in the entire game. Not only that, but the game is packed to the gills with secret bosses and hidden bonuses. The whole thing is so damn cool and stylish, with fantastic music and artwork stuffed into every bit of the game. I can't recommend it enough, especially to fans of other Raizing games. As for difficulty, I think it actually scales really well -- a short course with autobomb for beginners, the normal course being a good goal for intermediate shmuppers looking to improve, then advanced course to make you really understand rank control, with even higher skill ceilings as you learn to trigger the secret bosses and scoring tricks. Comparing it to Garegga, maybe it's not *quite* as mechanically perfect as that game, but Garegga also doesn't start with a huge blast of scrolling text and guy yelling "WELCOME TO VIOLENT CITY!" either.
For anyone interested, I spent a huge amount of time creating a custom vertical 4K overlay mastered at 300dpi for this game for retroarch. With marquee, bezel and instruction cards all translated from the original japanese to english. They are all high resolution enough to be printed. You can find them here: forums.libretro.com/t/new-4k-bezel-overlays/25247/204
Sorry for not knowing much about the subject. I've seen your posts on Reddit as well, is there some way I can use shmuparch with these kind of borders? Great work by the way. I'm excited for this next generation of shmup enthusiasts.
Batrider looks very interesting with the huge roster, the various modes and the colourful patterns. I'll have to play this some day. Garegga scoring is seriously nuts though. So much multitasking going on. I can't imagine how scoring is like in Batrider if it is harder than Garegga.
Great review! Delighted to see you get around to talking about this one. Always loved the idea of selecting multiple ships per credit - such a cool idea! Looks like a great game all round.
Damn, what an intro. Would be really cool to see you do that for future reviews where possible! Never really been a fan of Raizing games but their quality is absolutely unquestionable. Here's hoping we can get a solid port in the future!
This video is a home run!. I would love to see more reviews with the lore and scoring explanations I do disagree about batrider being a cult classic though. No one plays it, no one talks about it, I think it’s taken everyone 30 years to realise how cool this game is and to get it out from under the shadow of Garegga. The style and music alone is enough to sell it!. Like blade runner the shmup!.
I usually don't like rank in shmups, but a game that I feel does rank very well is Mecha Ritz: Steel Rondo. What do you think about that one? It's a terribly frustrating game, but it's due to when I play it I want to maximize my score and play at the highest rank possible and cash out at the end of each level! What are your thoughts on that one?
Great review Mark, creative intro and well explained mechanics. The best Bat Rider review on YT! PS: Ikaruga on Easy has the exact same number of stages (five) than Normal or Hard. From Normal mode, Easy doesn't have suicide bullets from same polarity enemies and have less Boss health/sloghtly different Boss patterns
Batrider's fucking awesome, it needed some ports badly because it's so much more accessible than Garegga, despite being just as hard if not harder. Surprised you didn't mention how amazing it looks and sounds, I adore the color palette and western comic book + manga mix character designs.
I just started playing this game a few days ago and holy crap am I impressed. I agree that there's a hint of a Psikyo feel to this game. Thus game combines all these great shmup elements together just right. It's a whole lot funner than Battle Garegga because the presentation just feels zany. The team mechanic is weird at first but it's a cool feature.
Is there really no one else here with a Bakraid comment? I might be missing something, but I've always seen Garegga, Batrider and Bakraid as kind of a trilogy, in fact why not entertain the thought that Bakraid as a sequel to Garegga is also a better game in some respects? Just thought I'd throw that out there:)
Bakraid just feels a lot more generic, at least in my opinion. The ships, stages and bosses all lack this certain style both Garegga and Batrider had. The music is quite good, but also lacks just a certain something. And the scoring is really weird, with building this enemy chain and extending it via suciding and bombing. Definitely a very solid game, but not nearly as polished as the other two.
@@100hundert Appreiciate your comments man, its fair to say bakraid doesnt have that snazzy feeling the other games do, but I just thought it was weird mark never covered it, neither any other channel i've come across, it was like there was code of silence about it lol.
I've played it. It's a very good game. I would love to see your reviews of other shmups, especially of those which are available on modern consoles. Even if they are not that good - just to be warned about this.
I really love the boss rush mode in Batrider. Since the bosses are so interesting and allow for so many milking strategies, it's a fun mode to play both for survival and score. As much as I love classic Cave, no one does bosses better than Yagawa did. As massive all stars boss rush game would be my absolute dream shmup!
Great video but would have loved some more tips about this game. There are some aspects of this game that are confusing. And I didn't get this idea of dying as a strategy.
Oh no problem! I go over a lot of tips in my how to garegga vid that directly apply to batrider as well :-) including planned deaths for rank control :-) th-cam.com/video/iQHqmPgw_80/w-d-xo.html
Also want to point out that on my IPhone 10 at full screen, you can’t SEE the scanlines clearly BUT they contribute to making the capture look extremely smooth and detailed. It makes the game look like it has HD graphics.
I just started getting into this game (thanks to shmuparch), and damn, why haven't I played this before? I think it's just as good if not better than Garegga in terms of sheer fun factor.
I initially thought the name BatRider is referring to Bat (the flying mammal) Rider. But it's actually an acronym for Battle Rider. The very full title is Armed Police BATTLE RIDER. This is part of Raizing's Battle series.
By the way, I've googled if there is indeed any BatRider manga... nope! None...
Absolutely my favorite shmup of all time. The advanced course is totally worth doing, as the last two stages have some of the coolest stuff in the entire game. Not only that, but the game is packed to the gills with secret bosses and hidden bonuses. The whole thing is so damn cool and stylish, with fantastic music and artwork stuffed into every bit of the game. I can't recommend it enough, especially to fans of other Raizing games. As for difficulty, I think it actually scales really well -- a short course with autobomb for beginners, the normal course being a good goal for intermediate shmuppers looking to improve, then advanced course to make you really understand rank control, with even higher skill ceilings as you learn to trigger the secret bosses and scoring tricks.
Comparing it to Garegga, maybe it's not *quite* as mechanically perfect as that game, but Garegga also doesn't start with a huge blast of scrolling text and guy yelling "WELCOME TO VIOLENT CITY!" either.
It's my absolute #1 as well. There's so many shmups that I like more in theory... But Batrider is simply so fun to play.
For anyone interested, I spent a huge amount of time creating a custom vertical 4K overlay mastered at 300dpi for this game for retroarch. With marquee, bezel and instruction cards all translated from the original japanese to english. They are all high resolution enough to be printed. You can find them here: forums.libretro.com/t/new-4k-bezel-overlays/25247/204
Awesome!
Sorry for not knowing much about the subject. I've seen your posts on Reddit as well, is there some way I can use shmuparch with these kind of borders? Great work by the way. I'm excited for this next generation of shmup enthusiasts.
they are just beautiful! I just started playing this game and I plan to print these. Thank you very very very much!
Batrider looks very interesting with the huge roster, the various modes and the colourful patterns. I'll have to play this some day.
Garegga scoring is seriously nuts though. So much multitasking going on. I can't imagine how scoring is like in Batrider if it is harder than Garegga.
Great review! Delighted to see you get around to talking about this one. Always loved the idea of selecting multiple ships per credit - such a cool idea! Looks like a great game all round.
Damn, what an intro. Would be really cool to see you do that for future reviews where possible!
Never really been a fan of Raizing games but their quality is absolutely unquestionable. Here's hoping we can get a solid port in the future!
The robo voice intro. Yes! lol
This video is a home run!. I would love to see more reviews with the lore and scoring explanations
I do disagree about batrider being a cult classic though. No one plays it, no one talks about it, I think it’s taken everyone 30 years to realise how cool this game is and to get it out from under the shadow of Garegga. The style and music alone is enough to sell it!. Like blade runner the shmup!.
I usually don't like rank in shmups, but a game that I feel does rank very well is Mecha Ritz: Steel Rondo. What do you think about that one? It's a terribly frustrating game, but it's due to when I play it I want to maximize my score and play at the highest rank possible and cash out at the end of each level! What are your thoughts on that one?
Hello,
Mind doing a video on dangun feveron? Since it is available on the US PSN store.
Hope this comes on consoles, switch and PC
Great review Mark, creative intro and well explained mechanics. The best Bat Rider review on YT!
PS: Ikaruga on Easy has the exact same number of stages (five) than Normal or Hard. From Normal mode, Easy doesn't have suicide bullets from same polarity enemies and have less Boss health/sloghtly different Boss patterns
Batrider's fucking awesome, it needed some ports badly because it's so much more accessible than Garegga, despite being just as hard if not harder. Surprised you didn't mention how amazing it looks and sounds, I adore the color palette and western comic book + manga mix character designs.
2014 looks like it kicked ass
I mean if you compare it to 2020... :D
Amazeballz intro, this be great visual novel
:-) yeah I d love to see an anime of the game. Thanks for watching!
hey, no mention of bakraid?
I just started playing this game a few days ago and holy crap am I impressed.
I agree that there's a hint of a Psikyo feel to this game.
Thus game combines all these great shmup elements together just right. It's a whole lot funner than Battle Garegga because the presentation just feels zany.
The team mechanic is weird at first but it's a cool feature.
Is there really no one else here with a Bakraid comment? I might be missing something, but I've always seen Garegga, Batrider and Bakraid as kind of a trilogy, in fact why not entertain the thought that Bakraid as a sequel to Garegga is also a better game in some respects? Just thought I'd throw that out there:)
Bakraid just feels a lot more generic, at least in my opinion. The ships, stages and bosses all lack this certain style both Garegga and Batrider had. The music is quite good, but also lacks just a certain something.
And the scoring is really weird, with building this enemy chain and extending it via suciding and bombing.
Definitely a very solid game, but not nearly as polished as the other two.
@@100hundert Appreiciate your comments man, its fair to say bakraid doesnt have that snazzy feeling the other games do, but I just thought it was weird mark never covered it, neither any other channel i've come across, it was like there was code of silence about it lol.
I've played it. It's a very good game. I would love to see your reviews of other shmups, especially of those which are available on modern consoles. Even if they are not that good - just to be warned about this.
A climinally under rated game
I really love the boss rush mode in Batrider. Since the bosses are so interesting and allow for so many milking strategies, it's a fun mode to play both for survival and score.
As much as I love classic Cave, no one does bosses better than Yagawa did. As massive all stars boss rush game would be my absolute dream shmup!
Yeah this mode is really ahead of its time! So tough yet awesome!
Runs great on Mame now! What a game!
It's the best shmup I've played so far. Blows any Cave effort out of the water and is substantially better than Garegga.
Runs perfect in final burn neo also
Great video but would have loved some more tips about this game. There are some aspects of this game that are confusing. And I didn't get this idea of dying as a strategy.
Oh no problem! I go over a lot of tips in my how to garegga vid that directly apply to batrider as well :-) including planned deaths for rank control :-) th-cam.com/video/iQHqmPgw_80/w-d-xo.html
I used to have the PCB :(
oh shame you don't have it anymore
I enjoyed the intro :)
SUPER crispy scanlines (again) on my living room TV. It’s a fantastic advert for Shmup Arch, tempting me away from console...
Also want to point out that on my IPhone 10 at full screen, you can’t SEE the scanlines clearly BUT they contribute to making the capture look extremely smooth and detailed. It makes the game look like it has HD graphics.
I just started getting into this game (thanks to shmuparch), and damn, why haven't I played this before? I think it's just as good if not better than Garegga in terms of sheer fun factor.
Yes batrider is a beast! A very good game!
Your reviews sure have changed. You spent 2 and a half minutes going over the story 😂😂😂😂