| Battle Garegga | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Kazuyuki Nakashima and team |
| Publisher(s) | 8ing/Raizing |
| Distributor(s) | Tuning (Europe) Fabtek (USA) Metrotainment (Hong Kong) |
| Designer(s) | Kazuyuki Nakashima, Shinobu Yagawa |
| Composer(s) | Manabu Namiki |
| Platform(s) | Arcade Game, Sega Saturn |
| Release date(s) | 1996 (Arcade) 1998 (Sega Saturn) |
| Genre(s) | Scrolling shooter / Manic shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player, 2 player Co-op |
| Cabinet | Vertical |
| CPU | 68000, Z80 |
| Sound | YM2151, OKI6295 |
| Display | Raster, 240 x 320 pixels, 2048 colors |
Battle Garegga (バトルガレッガ) is a vertically scrolling shoot 'em up arcade game released by 8ing/Raizing in 1996. It is the first manic shooter by Razing.
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It is a version without hidden fighters, Extended Mode, Harder Mode, Stage Edit, Special mode, and with different enemy bullets.
Mathew Wayne, a resident of a small country town, was a mechanical genius whose aptitude and skills were passed down to his sons, Brian and Jason. After gaining leadership of his automobile factory from him, the brothers' skills became renowned throughout the country. Eventually, the Federation approached the brothers with an extremely profitable contract to help produce military vehicles for it. The Wayne brothers accepted the contract, and created weapons without peer. A short time later, the skies turned dark with the Federation's encroaching airfleet, and towns and cities everywhere were ravaged by these armies--including Brian and Jason's home town. To their horror, the Federation was using the weapons and vehicles they themselves had designed to reshape the land to their pitiless will. Taking up planes whose designs had never been submitted to the Federation, the Wayne brothers prepare to destroy the Federation's mad scheme, and dig the graves of their own creations...
In addition to the player's main shot, picking up green Option powerups will add up to four support pods to your craft. The formation of these Options can be changed to one of five presets with the C button, and there are additional secret formations that can be accessed by dropping a certain number of powerups before picking up the next. Both shot and options are fired by holding the A button.
Upon killing a regular enemy on the ground, a red Small Bomber token will appear. Picking up 40 of these gives the player one Large Bomber token, but the player can use his remaining Small Bombers without a Large Bomber in stock; the duration or strength of the bomb will merely be reduced according to the percentage of a full bomb that was used. Up to five Large Bombers can be in stock at any one time, after which each Small token is worth 100 points.
Powerups drop randomly from popcorn enemies, along with Medals. Every time a Medal is collected, the next one that spawns will be worth more, from 100 to 10,000 points; however, if a medal falls off the bottom of the screen, the next one to spawn will be of the lowest value. Medals can also be found upon using a bomb on certain items of scenery.
The game features an adjustable difficulty system that will increase difficulty based on the actions of the player. Firing and powering up the main weapon, as well as picking up various items, will increase the difficulty of the game. Losing a life will decrease the difficulty (rank) of the game. The fewer lives a player has when he or she dies, the more rank is decreased, thus, the game rewards a player who doesn't stock up many lives at a time. Players are thus "forced" to keep themselves powered down, conserve shots, and lose lives on purpose in order to keep the last few stages of the game playable, though it is possible to finish the game in one life given an intricate knowledge of the game's rank system and an ultra-prudent playstyle.
Unlike in most other scrolling shooter games, where bullets are often brightly colored to distinguish from the background, bullets are realistically colored, making it difficult for players to see the bullets. Exploding enemies and objects also create flying debris, further camouflaging incoming fire. This was ameliorated to some extent in the Type 2 version, which replaces most of the standard bullets with yellow dots.
You can select from four fighter planes:
Mahou Daisakusen fighters. They can be selected by pressing Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, A, B, C, Start at title screen:
A fighter can be customized by pressing different buttons: