Battle Garegga - Saturn

[Geoff D]

I want to buy another vert shooter for the Sat - how does BG fare? I know it commands a pretty penny these days, but I'm more interested in how it plays & so on.

Also, does anyone have any links to vids of the game?

Thanks in advance chaps

[wheelaa]

Best saturn shooter imo. That you don't already own it is frankly scandalous.

[Molloy]

You should be able to try it on MAME.

Raizing titles tend to be a bit of an acquired taste. They have nifty explosions (but some people find the visuals in general a little brown a gritty). The whole rank system (the more powerups you get, the harder the game gets) tends to split opinion down the middle as well. It's one of those love it or hate it titles I'm afraid. Very hard to tell if you'll enjoy it without trying it yourself.

[endo]

Really good shooter. It's certainly a twitch manic-style shmup, but not in the Cave bullet curtain style.

Control feels fast and smooth, but very accurate, which is essential given the amount of debris flying around the screen at any given time.

This game has a ranking system, so the better you do at it the harder it will get- that's why you see top player's "suiciding" at the end of levels on replay vids- so the ranking doesn't get out of control.

A little gripe quite a few people have with it is the bullets too. Lots of bullets flying at you have a tendency to blend into the background and are generally hard to see, which can be a pain, but you will get used to it. That said, there's an option to turn bullets to red (although it doesn't apply to all bullets)

You can switch the options to English too and the arranged soundtrack is ace.

All in all, I would totally recommend it if you're into your shooters. It may take a little while to get into, especially if you've played a lot of Cave stuff, but it's really fun when you do. The scoring system is pretty fun and it's one of those shooters you actually feel like you're progressing with the more you play.

[rmoxon]

Not a massive fan of it myself. Though most people do seem to like it a lot, not sure why though.

Just always seemed quite dull, has pretty rubbish enemy patterns, even the graphics are bland, everythings all green or brown and mucky looking.... which makes the "happy" music seem weird really. There are loads of other saturn shmups that I'd play over it, plus its one of those saturn shooters thatn you absolutely HAVE to play with your TV on its side otherwise you lose about half of the picture. I'm not bothered about turning the TV on its side particuarly, i'll do it if the games worth the bother, but when developers don't bother to make it so you can play the game properly unless you do it, then that just annoys me...

However like I said loads of other people love it so maybe you should just ignore me, but thats my opinion anyway.

[peeveen]

BG is a magnificent shoot-em-up ... I bought it for the Saturn back in "the day", and it's an excellent conversion. It's almost worth owning just to see the "Electronic Arts" logo on a shoot-em-up.

It's quite a difficult game though, and a lot of people complain about the bullet graphics, which are mainly thin grey steely lines, rather than neon purple, making them a bit more difficult to see ... however, there is a "red ball" option, but I consider it cheating.

Speaking of cheating, the game is famous for it's tortuous "rank" system, whereby it will become more difficult the better you do. I played this game for months before anyone told me about it, and I have to admit it kinda put me off it for a while. It is in your best interests to avoid picking up too many powerups, and it's actually advantageous to purposefully lose a life now and then. You'd have to be some kind of god to complete the game otherwise.

[buster_broon]

i dont actually think htere is a bad raizing shooter

its one of the best on the system to be honest

blows radiant right out of the water erm space

[SharkSkin-Man]

You should be able to try it on MAME.

Horrible laggy control in MAME, waste of time.

Almost a great game but the ranking is frighteningly **** and kinda ruins it. Music is lovely though.

[Mad Gear]

Great game but just don't expect to like it immediately.

[Baseley09]

Horrible laggy control in MAME, waste of time.

Almost a great game but the ranking is frighteningly **** and kinda ruins it. Music is lovely though.

Never noticed, try it out in Final Burn then

For sure, it is a product with true class.

[nightstalker100]

Never noticed, try it out in Final Burn then

For sure, it is a product with true class.

Agreed, running it on final burn on the xbox it works like a dream. If its that good on an emu i can only imagine how more accomplished it is in real form.

[vertigo]

I like Battle Garegga, mainly because you're not forced to play it to a gimmick (like Ikaruga, etc) and you can just fly up and shoot stuff and then when you want to go more complex you can. Same as with RFJ, you can play it straight or go for big dirty medalling.
And it also has some barmy rave music in some bits.

[Team Andromeda]

Stunning shooter and the 2nd best shooter I've ever played. Also Level 3(factory) is one of the best levels found in any shooter (what is it about Raizing and thier stunning Level 3's ) the music is just stunning and the shooting action some of the best ever. If you like shooters you must get this.

Though Soukygurentai is still for me Raizing best shooter, and the best shooter full stop

[Sabreman]

Didn't really click with me, though I spent a lot of time with it because I love the design and the music. It becomes ludicrously difficult later on, moreso than I had the time or inclination to master.

[moonwhistle]

I absolutely love Battle Garegga, it was one of the first Saturn games I hunted down when I was exploring the various shooters. I find the power up system a little baffling though. There as so many different collectables in game and I don't know what any of them do.

I bought it around the same time as Radiant Silvegun and Battle Garegga got all my time after I realised that RSG really doesn't do it for me. Battle Garegga is just a really solid and straight forward shooter, kind of the same same raw appeal as classics like Raiden. The standout parts are the boss battles which are simply enthralling along with the whole of the "Cloud" level with the superb music. As mentioned it really benefits playing it with your TV on it's side, as it plays alot more fairly when you can see what coming. Raizing games are a fairly crude bunch, no bells or whistles really, but much more solid than Teasure's mutants IMO.