Batsugun

Batsugun is an arcade game that was released in 1993. The genre is a vertical scrolling shooting game. It was sold by Taito and produced by Toaplan. In order to incorporate the latest trends in vertical-scrolling shooters of the time, weapon selection by item was changed to aircraft selection before the game started, and pilot characters were also set. In addition, the attacks of both the player's and the enemy's aircraft became very flashy, foreshadowing the arrival of the bullet-hell shooting era a few years later.

Gameplay
You control your ship with an eight-way lever and two buttons (Shot and Bomber). Shots can be powered up with P-items and leveled up with experience. (See below)

There are 5 stages and 1 ending.

The difficulty level is one of the lowest for Toaplan's shooting games. The difficulty level is also low for shooting games in general, and has created a stir in the situation of shooting games, which were becoming increasingly difficult.

Level-up system

By destroying enemy planes, the experience gauge at the bottom of the screen increases. When the gauge reaches the maximum, your ship will transform with an effect, and your shots will be greatly enhanced.

You can level up to three levels. When the gauge reaches its maximum, a bomber item will appear.

Double Bomber

By pressing the Bomber button at the same time when playing with two players at the same time, you can fire a double bomber that triples the power and covers the entire screen.

Aircraft

Choose from three types of aircraft. There are also different pilots for the 1P and 2P sides, with different dialogue and endings when the stage is cleared.

Sky Mirage (Illusion of the Sky) - A "Megaway Shot" that fires a series of semi-automatic shots over a wide area. After leveling up, a powerful missile is added, though it has a lower rate of fire.

Dragon's Whisper (Dragon's Breath) - A "Thunder Spark Laser" that shoots lightning-like lasers in front of you, and then fires sparks with the press of a button. After leveling up, a diagonal forward shot is added, and the spark has the ability to be guided.

Judgment Flasher (Judgment Flash) - A "Spread Wave" that fires a fully-automatic wave shot when held down. When the button is released, it splits into multi-directional bullets. After leveling up, you'll have the option to fire lasers at the left and right sides of your ship.

Batsugun Special Version
The main changes from the standard version are as follows

Double Bomber can be used in single player mode.

Hit detection has been reduced to one dot.

When you level up, a barrier will be added to protect you from enemy bullets once. An afterimage will remain when you move while the barrier is in place.

A looping game of up to 4 stages, with each stage decreasing in number from the second round, so 5+4+3+2=14 stages in total.

Ports
Batsugun was ported to the Sega Saturn in Japan only. It features both soundtracks from the standard and original version of Batsugun. It also has arrangement soundtracks too.