I think I agree with you, that 3 is more "fun", but Toaplan 4 marks a key milestone in the world of shmups. Grind Stormer for example had a new team at Toaplan, including Tsuneki Ikeda. He went on to work on Batsugun and DonPachi - arguably two of the most important titles in the evolution towards bullet hell shooter. He also went on to co-found Cave, the bullet hell masters. Dogyuun was created by the Snow Bros team, including Toshiaki Ota - he went on to produce Battle Arena Toshinden. Knuckle Bash designer Junya Inoue also got his start in the industry on Dogyuun. Interestingly the game is also incomplete. It will crash after the 5th loop because the team simply ran out of time and couldn't complete it. It was also the 11th most successful arcade machine at the time of it's release, which is quite an achievement when you consider the top 10 includes the likes of Pacman. Knuckle Bash had a really interesting life as well - it actually started out as a competitor to Street Fighter, but the team went sideways and ended up making a beat-em-up instead. Most of the team that worked on the game, after Toaplan went under, went on to other icons of gaming, including Cave
@CrazyBurger lol you have to try slow things down in your head even though it's frantic/chaos on the screen, hard game for sure. Even I play with the dipswitches set on easy with unlimited lives. Won't be able to do that with Evercade but I still want it.
@@Junier-Hussein I sure hope we get a. Update to give us access. I dont believe we are getting full access. Would just be nice to get help with some of these games. They were deliberately hard in many cases to get more money from you.
yeah I'm with you. I do enjoy Toaplan 1 and 2 but I think 3 and 4 are soooo much better and really showcase the best of Toaplan. Batsugun and Grind Stormer are my two personal favorites and I think the run and guns (Outzone and Fix Eight) are also great additions to 3 and Knuckle Bash was surprisingly fun. Not a hidden gem but a fun find and a nice change of pace from all the shooting.
If only there was a setting in these games to artificially slow them down 😀 We all age, so this would be something great to include in modern emulators as an accessibility feature. Some games require ultra fast reflexes.
I really wish Blaze had held back on releasing a 4th collection so soon after the 3rd. For me it just feels as though they didn't have another Arcade Cart lined up for December so they just threw this one out. Still a good cart but tainted by the release schedule. Keep up the awesome work!
I’ve ordered it but not arrived yet and honestly I’m not in any great hurry! When they censored Glass it was the get the 12-rating so I guess the same here but like you said, not sure many kids that age will be playing!
I agree, settings for difficulty would be much appreciated! Surely the intro text for Knuckle Bash is bugged? Must be something wrong with that turbo-scrolling. Seems amazing anyway. By Toaplan, looks like Data East, tastes like Technos? I’ll get the collection one day, but I’ll settle with Toaplan 3 and Data East 2 for now.
I wish you would of compared Snow Bros vs Snow Bros 2. From what I played it seems it offers a lot more content and of course different characters. Does it play better, have more gameplay elements?
I never understood the logic of censorship in videogames. You can depict a guy beating other guys to a gruesome death, but you can not depict a lady in her natural beauty. You can be committing literal genocide of entire worlds, but don't you dare using a swear word when doing that.😂 To me, the more problematic part of that censored game was the stroboscopic flickering of that silhouette - could give epileptic seizures to some people.
Love the look and the music on the beat em ups back in the day
I love the clicky sound when you're bashing your knuckles into their nether-regions, lol! 😆
@@JohnnyProctor9 😆
I think I agree with you, that 3 is more "fun", but Toaplan 4 marks a key milestone in the world of shmups. Grind Stormer for example had a new team at Toaplan, including Tsuneki Ikeda. He went on to work on Batsugun and DonPachi - arguably two of the most important titles in the evolution towards bullet hell shooter. He also went on to co-found Cave, the bullet hell masters.
Dogyuun was created by the Snow Bros team, including Toshiaki Ota - he went on to produce Battle Arena Toshinden. Knuckle Bash designer Junya Inoue also got his start in the industry on Dogyuun. Interestingly the game is also incomplete. It will crash after the 5th loop because the team simply ran out of time and couldn't complete it. It was also the 11th most successful arcade machine at the time of it's release, which is quite an achievement when you consider the top 10 includes the likes of Pacman.
Knuckle Bash had a really interesting life as well - it actually started out as a competitor to Street Fighter, but the team went sideways and ended up making a beat-em-up instead. Most of the team that worked on the game, after Toaplan went under, went on to other icons of gaming, including Cave
@@frooglepete Cheers for the info.. I would expect a Cave collection at some point also.
I will probably get this collection somewhere down the line specifically for Dogyuun, one of my favourite shooters.
@@Junier-Hussein lol send me tips please
@CrazyBurger lol you have to try slow things down in your head even though it's frantic/chaos on the screen, hard game for sure. Even I play with the dipswitches set on easy with unlimited lives. Won't be able to do that with Evercade but I still want it.
@@Junier-Hussein I sure hope we get a. Update to give us access. I dont believe we are getting full access. Would just be nice to get help with some of these games. They were deliberately hard in many cases to get more money from you.
I think Toaplan 3 is better, but I'll buy both.
My final 2 carts are on there way can't wait to finish the set for the year
target audience somewhere between 30-70 lol yep that’s us
@@ghostrunnerco6791 lol Yep I know. Hopefully I captured 99% of the viewers with that.
*In my 20s still*
Guess I’m after my time hehe
@@RizzlyBear-298 lol the 1%. I'm jealous.
yeah I'm with you. I do enjoy Toaplan 1 and 2 but I think 3 and 4 are soooo much better and really showcase the best of Toaplan. Batsugun and Grind Stormer are my two personal favorites and I think the run and guns (Outzone and Fix Eight) are also great additions to 3 and Knuckle Bash was surprisingly fun. Not a hidden gem but a fun find and a nice change of pace from all the shooting.
I struggle to play these kinds of games because I am getting old. My reflexes ain't what they used to be nor is my eyesight.
If only there was a setting in these games to artificially slow them down 😀
We all age, so this would be something great to include in modern emulators as an accessibility feature. Some games require ultra fast reflexes.
I really wish Blaze had held back on releasing a 4th collection so soon after the 3rd. For me it just feels as though they didn't have another Arcade Cart lined up for December so they just threw this one out. Still a good cart but tainted by the release schedule. Keep up the awesome work!
@@jayme69 Ideally I wish 3 and 4 was one cart. Would've been perfect.
I’ve ordered it but not arrived yet and honestly I’m not in any great hurry! When they censored Glass it was the get the 12-rating so I guess the same here but like you said, not sure many kids that age will be playing!
@@SteveNorman It's madness really. Yeah same pretty much as Glass. Though arguably Pip n Bibi is a bit more revealing. Just as pointless though.
Censorship has no business in retro gaming.👎
I agree, settings for difficulty would be much appreciated!
Surely the intro text for Knuckle Bash is bugged? Must be something wrong with that turbo-scrolling. Seems amazing anyway. By Toaplan, looks like Data East, tastes like Technos? I’ll get the collection one day, but I’ll settle with Toaplan 3 and Data East 2 for now.
Okay, you've sold me on it...I've pre-ordered now, but I'm still going to pass on the 3rd one for now. There should be a Toaplan console cart though!
@@JohnnyProctor9 lol apologies. Did they do much other than conversions of their arcade games?
@CrazyBurger - Not really, but I'd buy it just to "MOVE 'ZIG'. FOR GREAT JUSTICE." 😆
Something about that Knuckle Bash game. Hmmm. 😂
@@FredBloggs919 lol its better than I initially thought. But enemies certainly a bit.. different.
Some of Blaze's stockists might not have accepted an 18 rated game with naughty bits. Much safer for them to remove.
@@Lorfarius That's true.
I wonder if knuckle bash was censored too? I has some very suspect stereotypes as the bad guys if I remember
@@jamiec2023 lol still does, I didnt want to highlight that incase I offended anyone. No idea if its been censored at all.
Does Snow Bros 2 cap out on 20 credits even when set to “no coin limit”?
I wish you would of compared Snow Bros vs Snow Bros 2. From what I played it seems it offers a lot more content and of course different characters. Does it play better, have more gameplay elements?
@@jasonmann3775 Seems just more of the same to me but with more playable characters
I never understood the logic of censorship in videogames. You can depict a guy beating other guys to a gruesome death, but you can not depict a lady in her natural beauty. You can be committing literal genocide of entire worlds, but don't you dare using a swear word when doing that.😂
To me, the more problematic part of that censored game was the stroboscopic flickering of that silhouette - could give epileptic seizures to some people.