Psikyo Shooting Stars Bravo Review (Switch)

Review code used, thanks to Reef Entertainment

Released on February 18th, in the US, Psikyo Shooting Stars Bravo is the second in the collection of Psikyo arcade shoot-em-ups. I recommend you read my review on the Alpha Collection, you can find it HERE. In that review you’ll find I talk about memories playing Time Splitters in the dark of night, how this led to thinking about one-night games (games which could be beaten in one-night). You’ll also find an in-depth review of the titles featured in the Alpha Collection.

Allow me to say, the games in the two collections, while shoot-em-ups, are distinct from each other. You may enjoy the games in Alpha more than those in Bravo. That’s not because one has better games than the other, it’s because each collection is trying to represent distinct slices of the Psikyo Catalogue. For that reason, alone, I suggest you look at my review of the Alpha collection.

Naming Conventions

In the Bravo collection we’re greeted with 6 titles from two series, neither of which had any installations present on the previous collection. To clarify, Samurai Aces, Tengai, and Sengoku Cannon are from the same series. The names carry on the conventions used when they were localized. Samurai Aces is Sengoku Aces in Japan, Tengai is Sengoku Blade, and Sengoku Cannon remains the same.

For simplicity, I’ll be referring to them individually by their name in the collection, but I’ll refer to the series as a whole as the Sengoku series.

The second series in the collection is the Gunbird Series, featuring two core enteries and one spin-off entry. The spin-off, Gunbarich, shares a similar purpose to Sol Divide in the Alpha collection. It’s a genre-bender which takes elements from the Shoot-em-up genre and offers some texture to a collection of otherwise through-and-through shoot-em-ups. More on this game later.

Why a Two-Part Collection?

By this question, I mean, why are there two collections? To be honest, I have no idea as to the inner workings of the publication side. HOWEVER, I want you to know that there is a benefit to having the two collections separate.

Originally these games were published in Japan as a three-part collection. Honestly, if it had been published that way globally, I think it wouldn’t be as attractive of a collection as it currently is. See, the way it had previously been published was based on the games’ original chronologies. Early era Psikyo games were in collection 1, mid era in collection 2, and late era in collection 3. In total, the three collections had the same 12 games collectively. They were spread out 4 per collection.

For a global release, it was decided that it would be a two-part collection, 6 in each. Alpha and Bravo.

Whether intentional or not, this has led to an interesting distinction, stylistically. The games in the Alpha collection are, in a sense, more “western”. The Strikers series features airplanes, Zero Gunner 2 has helicopters, Dragon Blaze has dragons. Sol Divide is an odd one out, just like Gunbarich. None of the Alpha entries have a narrative or aesthetic based on Japanese manga or on Feudal (specifically Sengoku-era) Japan, while the opposite is the case in the Bravo Collection.

To someone with an interest in “western” aesthetics the Alpha Collection may be more appealing than the Bravo collection and vice-versa.

Gut v. Brain

At least, that’s what my gut says.

But I don’t think with my gut, I think with my brain. My brain says my gut is stupid, my brain says that gameplay is what matters. For this reason, I can honestly say that I appreciate the divide into the Alpha and Bravo collection. I think both have plenty to offer, serving different audiences. However, when I think with my brain, I have to make a distinction between the two that goes deeper than aesthetics.

Though one audience might be like my gut and aesthetic is enough to be a determining factor, the other may be like my brain. I owe it to my brain to try and pick this apart and understand why I feel more drawn to the Alpha collection, despite the fact that I almost always find the aesthetics of manga and contemporary Japanese animation to be superior to its American counterparts.

The Bravo collection is filled with great aesthetics and great music in the Samurai Aces (Sengoku) series, but the action is pretty vanilla. They feel like vanilla shoot-em-ups with great skins.

An example of the paltry backdrops in Sengoku Cannon

A Very Weak Entry

However, the last of the three, Sengoku Cannon, was originally made for the PSP and this really shows. Whereas the first two entries are rich and filled with beautiful bosses, scenery and music—as well as entertaining stories and story lines—the third entry is bland and barren by comparison with backdrops that often feel flat and repetitive.

I won’t hold this against the overall collection too hard. It is a collection after all and their goal was to give the whole series in one place, not to just sweep the unwanted black sheep under the rug.

Gunbird

The Gunbird Series was lighthearted, and this showed in the character dialogue between levels. It made me chuckle upon several occasions. The cast it features is truthfully the best amongst both of the collections. Where else can I play a shoot-em-up as a 60-year-old man who rides a man-powered helicopter modeled after DaVinci’s designs? Nowhere else. The action makes you feel powerful without hitboxes being too tight, if someone saw the visuals of this game, it would match the feeling of it perfectly, the weapons feel integrated into the world as do the bosses which makes mowing through enemies all the more enjoyable. It takes skill but they’re not absurd pain machines.

In this regard the Gunbird games are the light of this collection. They’re silly, but they have a tangible story with enemies that feel like they have personality. Maybe it’s that the Sengoku series left me with a bad taste in my mouth with that final game. However, even after playing the two Gunbird entries, when I was presented with the brick-breaker/Breakout styled gameplay of Gunbarich, I was happy.

It wasn’t mind-blowing but it certainly was entertaining and made me appreciate a game like Wizorb more.

Compared to this the Alpha collection is strong and each game has tight mechanics. If you go and read that review, you’ll hopefully be able to tell how excited I was by variety between Sol Divide, Zero Gunner 2, and Dragon Blaze. I just can’t say I feel the same here.

One-night-games: Revisited

I’ll be honest. I went into this review with some bias. I had played through the solid vanilla experience of the Strikers 1945 series as well as the rest of the Alpha collection and I felt excited for the Bravo entry. I saw the lineup and the art style and felt like it was going to blow Alpha out of the water. So, it comes as a surprise to find myself thinking of it as the lesser of the two collections.

I think much of this comes back to my discussion of one-night games. Again, if you haven’t read my previous review on the Psikyo Alpha collection, I recommend you go and do that now. Otherwise I might start sounding like a complete bat.

I’ll be talking about less tangible qualities here, so bear with me if you can or feel free to skip ahead to the last full paragraph below.

Post-Vanilla

I genuinely believe that we’re past an era of vanilla experiences. When I pick up a game, I don’t just want to think to myself that game B is like game A but worse, I want to feel that an individual game offers a unique experience that goes beyond a reskin of a vanilla experience. When I think of what makes for a good one-night game, it needs to be enticing enough throughout the game to keep you awake and keep you yearning to see what comes next in its episodic moment in your life.

A game which comes to mind is Ape Out, which I may yet offer a retrospective review on. The soundtrack is vibrant and loud and coordinated with your actions in the world, the stages offer composition in the spaces that make you feel like you have to economize your route, though it offers alternate arcade modes that encourage you to beat the game in a time-attack while racking up more points. The art is beautiful. Look up a video of this game to see what I mean.

A Fair Fight

While I understand comparing a game made last year to ones over two decades old is unfair and punching down, it’s with reason. I don’t expect as much of an experience as Ape Out from a classic arcade game, however the Alpha collection itself contains such a game.

Sol Divide is without a doubt a one-night game in the Alpha Collection and I think this earns it a lot of points in my book. It just feels right when you get a bunch of skeleton bone-ies and scatter their bones to the wind. The animations and designs feel less like placeholders and more like thoughtful designs. The designs of the bosses influence their patterns as well as their areas of attack. When I sat down with it, I couldn’t get it out of my head. If I were a less reasonable person, I would have tried my best to hammer through it in one night, instead I spread it out over two.

I hope by speaking passionately about this one game you can understand the difference between how I write about Sol Divide and any of the games in the Bravo collection. Gunbird reaches the closest though being most analogous to Dragon Blaze in how it plays, handles and its ability to keep me entertained. To be straightforward, if the Alpha collection hadn’t been released, I would have a much higher opinion of the Bravo collection.

Final Thoughts: A Mixed Bag

This is odd terrain for me. I can’t help but draw direct comparisons. The two Gunbird games in the collection are great though ultimately not as enticing as a game like Dragon Blaze or Zero Gunner, Gunbarich is good but not as meaty and satisfying as Sol Divide, two of the Sengoku series are well made but vanilla, like the strikers games (albeit without the “western” aesthetic) but the third, Sengoku Cannon, is pretty paltry.

I may be giving this game an overall good review, but I want you to understand that while as a standalone this collection is well put together I can’t help but find the mechanics of its games inferior to those in the Alpha collection. If you can get both, get them, they’re well executed ports of the main series in the Psikyo catalog. But if you can only get one, I will without hesitation recommend the Alpha collection over the Bravo. With this strong caveat I offer my verdict.

FINAL VERDICT: I like it