I know I covered this when I gave Psikyo Shooting Library Vol. 1 the same treatment a while back, but in the interests of keeping this self-contained, I’d certainly consider myself a fan of Psikyo and their distinctive gameplay imprint (and just to confirm, I’m still specifically talking about shoot ‘em ups rather than their sexy mahjong lineup)! And having virtually copied and pasted that last statement, I might as well do the same with a bit about them too… They were founded in 1992 by a bunch of devs from Video System, who’d done the Aero Fighters shoot ‘em up series, and while a few of their games also hit PS1 and PS2, Sega Saturn and Dreamcast, the majority of the thirty or so titles released up to their acquisition (and effective shutting down) by X-Nauts in 2002 were arcade games, and more than half of those were shoot ‘em ups, which is probably why that’s probably what they’re now best known for… Unless you’re a dirty old Japanese man! I’m not going to go mad on more histories or all the games I’m not going to cover but I should mention that from 2003, there have also been a load of Psikyo-labelled games not developed by them, which were mainly remixes, remasters and compilations for PS2, PSP, Switch and mobile. 

Just to bring us totally up to date, and before we get into this second volume, let me quickly recap what came on the first one for some overall context… We had Strikers 1945, Strikers 1945 II, Strikers 1999, Sol Divide (and the very thought of that makes me shiver!), Dragon Blaze and Zero Gunner too, which is very nearly an excellent bunch of shooters of different shapes and sizes! And with that, we can finally jump into Psikyo Shooting Library Vol. 2! Again, I know I’m retreading old ground here, but I believe both volumes originally appeared on PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch at the same time back in 2019, from City Connection (who I think also own the Jaleco name now) but it seems like only in Asia, then they made their way elsewhere in 2022 at around the $30 mark, though I think they were sub-£10 each physical when I eventually got to them two years later. Whatever you pay, you’re not getting much beyond the games for your money – it’s all very slick and easy to navigate from a central game menu but once you’re in, you’ve got a couple of screen filters, an optional wallpaper and arcade user interface, the ability to rotate the screen if you can, some DIP settings, a barebones manual and online leaderboards. No other bonus material or mod-cons like rewinds or save states, so you’d better get ready to just get good as we take a proper look at each game included in turn!

We’re going to begin with Psikyo’s very first release, Samurai Aces, a vertically scrolling shoot ‘em up from 1993 that’s also known as Sengoku Ace or Sengoku Ace: Tengai Episode I. We will come back to further episodes as we go but you really couldn’t ask for a more Psikyo game than this regardless – it’s just so polished and so well balanced, and it also introduces us to their trademark randomisation of the first few of seven levels, which not only adds immediate variety but an accelerated way of learning them and progressing a bit further a bit faster. That’s not to say they’re not increasingly intense whenever they appear though, and you’ll quickly start to develop a preferred (and hoped for) order. Speaking of variety, there’s a bonkers twenty-one different endings too, covering six playable characters and two-player variations, as you try to rescue the Shogun’s daughter from an evil cult in a psychedelic sci-fi fantasy take on Feudal Japan. It’s a frequently gorgeous setting too, full of detail and destruction, with some really imaginative enemies and huge, transforming, bullet-spewing bosses (some of which are also randomised). I’m not so keen on the music here, which is well-produced and fits the theme but is a bit dull and repetitive. Great sound effects though, perfectly reflecting the on-screen chaos, which might never get that exhilarating but is consistently fun and hopelessly addictive. Oh yeah, seven difficulty levels too (which is the case for most of what we’ll see), so no excuses for anything, and a fantastic start all round!

If my Top Ten Favourite Horizontally Scrolling Shoot ‘Em Ups countdown had been a top fifteen instead then Tengai would definitely have been in it! I only came across it when it arrived on Nintendo Switch in 2018, and it looked interesting, and a quick “trial” on MAME later convinced me it would be worth every penny on there, and it really was! I played it loads, to the point I had designs on beating it in one credit, but the last two levels just had the better of me and I gave up in the end. That’s not to say I’m not frequently back though because this time out we’ve got the exhilaration to match the fun, as well as a far more dynamic soundtrack… Yes, it’s been spun around by ninety degrees but this one, called Sengoku Blade in Japan, is the 1996 follow-up to Samurai Aces, where we’re back in futuristic Feudal Japan for seven more (initially random) levels of kidnapped princess and demon-god sacrifice nonsense, this time with a cast of five initial plus two unlockable playable characters, although in my case at least, the presence of a ridiculously busty Shinto shrine maiden from the outset makes most of that irrelevant! Still such a product of my time… Where in the first game we were effectively choosing different types of firepower mounted on a plane though, this time it’s all magic coming out of the characters themselves, which can once again be powered-up but also powered-down if you touch anything you shouldn’t. It certainly keeps you on your toes, as do the relentless, not-quite-bullet-hell sprays of enemy fire, which are such a blast to dance in and out of! Gorgeous to look at too, with loads of variety even if it’s more about atmosphere than character or detail this time. The bosses are suitably wild though, sometimes spanning multiple screens in multiple phases, and it all adds up to this one being a total classic.

I don’t like the third in this series in the slightest! Actually, the screenshot here probably says it all, but let’s go through the motions all the same… Samurai Aces III: Sengoku Cannon (or Sengoku Cannon: Sengoku Ace Episode III) was, I think, originally developed for the PlayStation Portable in 2005, and keeps the format horizontal but goes for a dreadful, pseudo-3D, heavy on the jagged polygons aesthetic, supported by dreadful, whimsical music, and dreadful, twitchy controls… They have tried to up the complexity of the series’ scoring mechanics though, throwing a multiplier behind a really dreadful, overly cumbersome cannon shot!  Oh well, at least we’ve got an all-new, super-busty character to choose this time too, and like the three others available off the bat and two more to unlock, she also has a full story mode to play through! Not that it’s anything new, as we once again head off in search of missing princesses over five ugly as hell levels full of frankly boring enemies and repetitive, uninspiring boss fights. Apart from narrow escapes from motion sickness as the camera inexplicably pans and tilts and rotates and zooms – presumably just because it can – there’s absolutely no excitement to be had here at all, I’m afraid. Oh for the gorgeous pixel art, only in Japan imagination and plain old fun we saw earlier…

Right, let’s jump to the figurative side two of the compilation, and another series that’s hopefully about to restore my faith in Psikyo, with Gunbird from 1994! This one was renamed Mobile Light Force outside of Japan, where it also had all its story stripped out and three of its five playable (and surprisingly likeable) characters renamed and reimagined, including what was possibly video gaming’s first overtly homosexual old man, Tetsu (also known as John Suarez). Thankfully it’s all here in this version though because while it’s hardly Shakespeare, some of it is really funny (albeit not always intentionally), as you piece together four bits of a wish-granting mirror in the possession of various bosses across the game’s seven vertically scrolling levels, the first three of which are once again random from a choice of four, and you need to loop it to see the end. These levels are absolutely stunning too, with a kind of manga-inspired, medieval-steampunk style, literally brought to life by so much movement and attention to detail, and deep parallax layers and occasional directional shifts… The clothes blowing in the wind on the washing lines in the castle are a particular favourite, as all kinds of mayhem is unleashed in air above them! The music is upbeat and works great, and the sound effects a wonderful cacophony above it, matched all the way by the non-stop visual spectacle; the frequent but brief cutscenes are an unobtrusive treat too, and I don’t just mean the busty space pirate lady, but really it’s all about the gameplay here – this is peak Psikyo, elegant and effortless, unflinchingly cruel with increasingly dense and varied bullet patterns, but always fair, assuming you know your hit-box and look after those power-ups, and it’s impossible to put down to boot! 

There’s only one way to follow that, and it’s called Gunbird 2!  Like Tengai before it, if only my Top Ten Favourite Vertically Scrolling Shoot ‘Em Ups countdown had been a top fifteen, or even a top eleven… That said, it would have been the Dreamcast version because you can play as the lovely succubus Morrigan from Darkstalkers’ on there! Anyway, this first arrived in arcades in 1998, and was thematically very similar to its predecessor, with a choice of seven characters now chasing down the three elements of Sun, Moon and Stars, which they then need to deliver to a god who’ll reward them with the Almighty Potion… Assuming those stupid, sexy space pirates from the first game don’t get their hands on them first! Again, as ridiculous as it sounds, the writing, and the cutscenes it’s delivered in, is actually pretty entertaining, as you once again traverse seven medieval fantasy manga levels, with the three from four random openers and a second loop. It’s a lot more than more of the same though, with a new medal-chaining score system (the same as would later appear in Psikyo’s Strikers games) providing another layer of risk-reward gameplay, while everything else has just been totally maxed out – enemies are more aggressive from the outset and there’s more of them, bosses are outrageously big and complex, and we’re pretty much in proper bullet-hell territory now, with elaborate patterns of glowing terror from all directions to weave around and sweep across, visual carnage everywhere, and it’s all a non-stop thrill ride! The visuals really are something else too, coming at you like the best-looking JRPG ever, with so much detail and atmosphere and variety providing a richness that lives and breathes in the backgrounds, while both enemies and the hapless NPCs are full of surprise and character, and likewise the special effects going off all over the place all the time! Same goes for the sound design too, although I guess the poppy score isn’t really my thing, as suitably in your face as it is. Once again, you’ve got seven difficulty levels but more than anywhere else, you want this at normal as a minimum because it’s so precisely balanced to keep you right on the edge of ongoing panic there! This one is simply the best of everything we’ve seen so far. 

I really need to go back and review that top ten countdown sometime… Anyway, for now, where on earth do we go from there? Well, how about not a shoot ‘em up at all but a brick-breaker instead, like the most polished and sophisticated version of Arkanoid ever? That’s Gunbarich from 2001, which is more of a Gunbird spin-off than sequel, featuring one of its characters, the witch Marion, as well as a young magician called Grutan, who seems to be a member of the space pirate gang that kept turning up in the first two games. Anyway, they’re doing some training in the magical arts that apparently involves bouncing balls off a paddle at the bottom of the screen against bricks at the top, so you’ll be choosing one of them and taking them across seven distinct worlds of three regular bricked-up levels then a boss. It’s all against the clock too, so the faster you clear the bricks, the higher your score, although your main concern will be getting it done within the sixty second time limit at all, which is fine and dandy when you’ve got a screen full of bricks to aim at, but just wait for that last one when you’ve only got ten seconds left and a load of indestructible blocks arriving to spoil the party! There’ll also be enemies to get in the way, or send a ball off course, or chuck it back at you, as well as shoot all sorts of their own nastiness in your general direction. This is where your paddle can help though because it’s not really a paddle at all but a pair of pinball flippers you can use to send enemy fire back up at them, as well as aid in sending the ball towards the bricks at different angles and speeds. There are also a bunch of power-ups that occasionally appear, with all the regular stuff for this genre, from making your paddle wider to multiball to allowing you to shoot at the bricks, and you’ll need all the help you can get because it soon gets very intense! A cool unlimited continue but with a diminishing score system is there if you want it too, although any longevity here is all about score so that’s not really for me. The translation to PS4 controller is as good as it gets too, even if nothing’s ever really come close to a paddle controller since Breakout. And while by nature it’s hardly pushing any technical boundaries, this is a very good-looking game, full of colour and shine on top of vibrant and thoughtfully-themed backgrounds, set off nicely if not particularly memorably in the sound department. Okay, not a shooter in a shooter collection but a fantastic curio all the same! 

I seem to be going longer for every new game we get to so thankfully that’s the lot here! And like the first volume, it’s a pretty decent lot too, assuming you’re not too offended by the presence of a brick-breaker, and can likewise view the absolute stinker that is Samurai Aces III as here for completeness, and are really not fussed about anything in a compilation beyond the games themselves, presented more or less as they were, minus the need for all the coins in your pocket, of course! I kind of like the “get good” philosophy for this kind of thing anyway, and the mere presence of Tengai and Gunbird 2, representing absolute masterpieces of their respective sub-genres, makes it worth the asking price for this collection alone. Especially if you can still get it cheap in a sale! And one big turd aside, which was also the case for the first volume with Sol Divide, you’re going to get your money’s worth out of the rest too, and like I said for the first one, I reckon there’s still plenty of value in simply discovering new games in any compilation, even if they don’t stick… Even Samurai Aces III! And with that, I hope you’ve enjoyed our little journey through both volumes of these Psikyo shoot ‘em ups (and more besides) because I’ve certainly had the very best time delving into them! 

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