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Crystal Breaker: a new PC-Engine-style shmup on Steam!

Tonight I bought a new shmup called Crystal Breaker. It really hearkens back to the TG-16/PC-Engine days! You take no damage from collisions and it rewards you for getting up close to enemies by releasing gems when you destroy enemies at close range.

Choose between two characters: Layla with short, auburn hair who has a standard shot, and Jenny with long, dark hair who has a shorter attack reach, but has stronger firepower.

Your powerups max out at the 3rd level, in which you shoot five ways. There are no bombs, but only a dash that can allow you to dodge bullets (however it’s not as easy as you’d think).

Crystal Breaker is made by Terarin Games, who also released the Gunhead/Blazing Lasers-inspired Raging Blasters and Layer Section/Rayforce-inspired Moon Dancer. Terarin’s definite Compile-influences are seen here, following the retro caravan-style shmup style. They do well at capturing that ’90s shmup aesthetic. As with prior games, Crystal Breaker also has a selectable chiptune music option. This game is hard, and I still haven’t cleared the second boss yet. Nice neo-retro style game!

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A fan/doujin R-Type game on the Megadrive!

Last night I played the demo of the fan/doujin port of R-Type on the Megadrive that shmuppers were deprived of back in the day! The Master System and PC Engine got ports of R-Type, but not the Megadrive… until now! It’s actually not a “port” per se, as it is being built ground-up by an Italian family guy living in China who goes by “TheRoboz” on YouTube. The MD-generated music is fantastic! I paid for the demo rom and gave it a shot. You go from stage 1 to stages I’ve never gotten to before. The game isn’t complete and it seems to be a bit too liberal with the 1UPs for some reason. You can play as the standard R-9 Arrowhead, but also the “Leo Prototype.” Don’t get too excited about the Leo though… it doesn’t have the dual force orbs that R-Type Leo has, but rather no force orb and each powerup gives you the instant special weapons. You can shoot the powerups to change their color, like a Cotton game does. It’s definitely the Leo though, as you can tell by the sprites that it’s a rendering of the ship from R-Type Leo, but on the Megadrive. Neat gimmick, but I think I prefer having the force orb.

R-Type Leo (Arcade)
Leo Prototype (Megadrive)

I used SimpleScreenRecorder in Linux to record playing as both ships. I did better the first try, but then I realized that it was recording audio from my webcam’s mic and not the actual game. So I re-did the video all over again and I ended up not doing as well. That’s what you see here. Stick around to the end… the music for the ranking screen is a fantastic MD chiptune!

(Gosh, it is a pain in the ass to embed Odysee links in WordPress!)

The site to buy and download the rom: https://theroboz.itch.io/mega-r-type

The creator’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@theroboz