{"id":461,"date":"2022-09-26T12:08:43","date_gmt":"2022-09-26T12:08:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/?p=461"},"modified":"2024-06-19T21:53:05","modified_gmt":"2024-06-19T12:53:05","slug":"andro-dunos-ii-another-fantastic-retro-style-shmup-on-steam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/2022\/09\/26\/andro-dunos-ii-another-fantastic-retro-style-shmup-on-steam\/","title":{"rendered":"Andro Dunos II, another fantastic retro-style shmup on Steam!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I’ve probably spent too much money on Steam games this past two years or more. I never liked the idea of buying games I did not have physical copies for, and I haven’t cared about gaming on the PC since the ’90s. But Steam offers a way to enjoy the console gaming experience on my computer without having to buy a new game console, so I’m happy. This past summer I wrote about how much I love Infinos Gaiden<\/a> on Steam, and the same development team, Picorinne Soft, has done it again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As far as Neo Geo shmups go, my two favorites are Blazing Star and Pulstar. I’d never actually heard of the original Andro Dunos before. So upon hearing about how great Andro Dunos II is, I played the original on RetroPie to try it out. While it isn’t a rather impressive-looking game graphically, it’s pretty solid and I’m surprised I’ve never heard of it before. It was made by a company called Visco, and that entire catalog has been purchased. Picorinne created this sequel, with improved graphics, yet keeping faithful to that 24-bit Neo Geo graphics style. I do not see any mention of Picorinne’s name in Andro Dunos II, but they are listed as being the developer in Steam, and both shmups feature great ’90s quality pixel art. (FYI, they also did a vertical shmup called Battle Crust, which feels more like a 16-bit arcade shmup.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Just like Infinos Gaiden, this game also supports a 4:3 aspect ratio! I am so grateful for this. It irritates me when I play a vertical shmup that is formatted for 16:9 only, which makes the playing screen even smaller on my 4:3 monitor. This is of course a horizontal shmup, but nevertheless it’s good that I don’t have to bother with wasted borders to either side of the screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The first level starts you out inside of what seems to be an underground city, then you break out into a desert wasteland. Nothing but sand and desolation. Apparently this is what happens when we let the cows fart one too many times. <\/em>If only we had listened to Bill Gates back in the 21st century and ate bugs and drank soymilk instead… we wouldn’t be pelted with sand storms and living underground, eating bugs and drinking soymilk! So anyhow, this is the first level boss, a giant mecha with a big shoulder cannon, a chest cannon, and the blue sensor weak spot to shoot at. Pretty cool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Next you fly into outer space to look for jerks to shoot at. Oh look, a space colony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Gameplay is improved over the original. There is now an autofire, a button to cycle the weapons, and a button for the power attack. The original only had two buttons, which required button mashing for the regular shot and to charge up for the power attack. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Like Hellfire on the PC Engine and Megadrive, each of the weapons has its purpose, and you can switch between them using the trigger buttons. You can power up the shots individually by collecting powerups, and your weapons will lose power when you take damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Here’s the second level boss. Shoot the core!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Now you’re on the moon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Now you’re underwater. Games like this and Infinos Gaiden are cool because each level is distinct. People praise Eschatos, but that game is just the same thing over and over again, it seems. Very little variety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There’s always a strong Darius vibe whenever giant, mechanical fish are involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Then you fly over a space city. The boss of this level was taken from the original Andro Dunos game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So you can’t go wrong with Andro Dunos II. Very fun, retro shmup action with beautiful sprite work, and it’s an improvement on the original. For my Linux desktop, I just had to set the launch option: gamemoderun %command%<\/em> and the Proton compatibility tool runs the game just fine in Linux.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top it all off, the music to this game is excellent synthwave by Allister Brimble. I bought the the soundtrack here at Bandcamp.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I’ve probably spent too much money on Steam games this past two years or more. I never liked the idea of buying games I did not have physical copies for, and I haven’t cared about gaming on the PC since the ’90s. But Steam offers a way to enjoy the console gaming experience on my … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Andro Dunos II, another fantastic retro-style shmup on Steam!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[10,8,9],"class_list":["post-461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-video-games","tag-gaming","tag-shmups","tag-steam"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":439,"url":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/2022\/09\/16\/annalynn-a-retro-arcade-style-game-on-steam\/","url_meta":{"origin":461,"position":0},"title":"Annalynn, a retro arcade-style game on Steam!","date":"2022-09-16","format":false,"excerpt":"This game came out last year, but I just now learned of it. Annalynn is a new game with an early '80s arcade game appeal. It is a sort of a cross between Mario Bros. and Pac-Man. The intro to this game introduces a miner named Annalynn, who finds herself\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "video games"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Annalynn03.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2399,"url":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/2025\/08\/05\/enjoying-summer-time-off-with-my-sfc-mini\/","url_meta":{"origin":461,"position":1},"title":"Enjoying summer time off with my SFC Mini.","date":"2025-08-05","format":false,"excerpt":"I haven't played Super Metroid for about 15 years or more. I love this game! It's actually the only Metroid game I've ever played. This wireless gamepad is a recent purchase. There was no name at all on the package. I got it on Ali Express for something like 1500\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "video games"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/SFC-Mini-and-Super-Metroid.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":916,"url":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/2023\/05\/20\/assault-suit-valken-a-remake-of-the-classic-megadrive-game-called-target-earth-on-the-genesis-on-steam\/","url_meta":{"origin":461,"position":2},"title":"Assault Suit Leynos, a remake of the classic Megadrive game (called Target Earth on the Genesis) on Steam","date":"2023-05-20","format":false,"excerpt":"Masaya's \"Assault Suit\" series of side-scrolling mecha combat action games is fantastic. My first exposure to the series was Assault Suit Valken, aka \"Cybernator\" for North America, on the Super Nintendo. I played the crap out of that game, and then I later got Target: Earth for my Genesis. But\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "video games"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/20230520161330_1-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":210,"url":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/2022\/06\/15\/super-hydorah-a-fun-konami-style-shmup-on-steam\/","url_meta":{"origin":461,"position":3},"title":"Super Hydorah: a fun Konami-style shmup on Steam","date":"2022-06-15","format":false,"excerpt":"I've had this game on my Steam wishlist for a while, and as soon as it went on sale this month, I bought it. It has a \"silver\" rating on the Proton Database, but after installing it, I had no problems running the game at all on my Linux desktop,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "video games"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Hydorah01.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":71,"url":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/2022\/03\/23\/ikaruga-on-steam\/","url_meta":{"origin":461,"position":4},"title":"Ikaruga on Steam!","date":"2022-03-23","format":false,"excerpt":"I played Ikaruga in the game centers when it first came out. I was living in Himeji at the time, and I was excited to find this at the game center near Himeji Station. Being the spirtual successor to Radiant Silvergun, I was pretty hyped and greatly anticpated its release.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "video games"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Ikaruga.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":89,"url":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/2022\/04\/05\/ex-zodiac-a-clone-of-the-16-bit-star-fox-game-for-steam\/","url_meta":{"origin":461,"position":5},"title":"Ex Zodiac, a clone of the 16-bit Star Fox game for Steam","date":"2022-04-05","format":false,"excerpt":"Very cool. This game has yet to be released, but I could download a free demo of the game so far. At first glance, you'd swear that you were watching Star Fox on the Super Famicom\/Super Nintendo. It's extremely similar in gameplay, although Ex Zodiac adds a lock-on missile attack,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "video games"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Ex-Zodiac.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1572,"href":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461\/revisions\/1572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}