I had never heard of the Samurai Aces or Tengai games until I was asked to review this collection. Going in blind, I had a lot of fun with this collection of five shoot’em ups and one brick breaker game, although it is a pretty bare-bones offering when it comes to anything besides that.

Because this collection is a little different from games I have reviewed in the past I have to look at each game individually, as the gameplay are all the same but each game changes the music and characters. Despite that, some characters return from earlier games. I also played through each game with all the characters just to see if the gameplay differed, but unfortunately the gameplay stays largely the same throughout each title.

Samurai Aces is the game that started it all; it was first released in Japan 1993 on the Psikyo arcade cabinet and has since spawned two sequels and three spinoff games. Each entry involves a story about six characters being sent to stop a cult and rescuing a kidnapped princess, at least from what I could gather through the game’s short cut scenes.

There are six characters in total, and each character has access to a main weapon and a bomb. The main weapons all feel the same, however the bombs are unique for each character. If you play as Ultra Genius Kenn-0, your bomb will envelop you in fire making you invulnerable to enemy attacks; however, at the same time you shoot fire in four different directions and can take out entire screens of enemies. Holy Tomboy Miko’s bomb acts as a safety net blocking incoming fire and also taking out any enemy unlucky enough to fly into it.

The music is pretty average and the sound design is pleasing and satisfying overall. I enjoyed going back to each character, seeing my score increase with each play through as I memorized enemy firing patterns and took on tough boss encounters. If you die and lose all your power-ups right before a boss, it can be frustrating to climb back up in a short amount of time. Luckily though, once you die you are graced with a few bombs to make things a little more manageable.

Tengai or Samurai Aces 2 has to be my favorite title in the collection for a few reasons, mostly for Junis who is a ninja that has a pet lemur who shoots shurikens. Yes this title is a little crazier then the first. The music is a great mix of classic Japanese instruments mixed with a bit of electric sound to give it an intense and faster tone; I loved the soundtrack a lot for that reason. Instead of flying planes, the characters all just fly around shooting either physical weapons like shurikens or spiritual attacks where they fight using spells. Because of this shift, each playable character has a more unique look and sound with some voice acting as well.

Samurai Aces 3 is easily one of the weakest games in this collection. The art this time around, it is a blend between 2D sprites and 3D backgrounds. This contrast actually makes my eyes hurt and it doesn’t help that the enemies blend into the background, making them harder to keep track of as you attempt to stave off and avoid attacks.

Each character has a more fleshed out story, but it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. It is the gameplay that really matters in shoot’em ups and here, the gameplay is oddly frustrating. Characters now have a third heavy attack that is slower but more powerful, however, the hit boxes for some of the attacks are oddly small. This means that some attacks allowed me to phase right through and not get hurt, while others would hit and kill me immediately, making deaths a little more frequent in this installment.

Gunbird 1 and Gunbird 2 are the spinoffs in the Tengai series and they bring the franchise back to Samurai Aces’ roots, while doubling down on the spritwork and the unique characters. Each game features a more sci-fi style rather then the traditional Japanese style as well. Additionally, the five heroes seem to be a little more quirky. For instance, we have a stubborn wood worker who pedals a flying vehicle, there is also a witch and even a girl who flies using a jet pack!

The music in both titles is extremely generic and leans on the more “kiddy” side of anime. It was enjoyable to play while listening to the tracks in this one, but it is a far cry from the Samurai Aces 2 soundtrack. I did find that the music didn’t fit well into the games war-torn setting though. It felt a little too lighthearted for what seemed to be a darker world.

Lastly we have Gunbarich which was an absolute dread to play with it’s ear grating noise and boring gameplay. In truth, it is just boring overall. You have two players to choose from, the witch Marion or a boy named Grutan. Both characters play the same, despite Marion being faster and Grutan having a higher strength stat while being slower.

Overall Psiyko Shooting Stars Bravo is a fun arcade collection, but lacks any extra materials, unlockables or features. The collection has four solid games, while two are just mediocre at best. If you are a big fan of shoot-em-ups I would highly recommend you pick up this collection. On the other hand, if you are only wanting to play one of the Samurai Aces games all of them are available to purchase separately on the Nintendo Switch eShop.

A Nintendo Switch Review Copy of Psikyo Shooting Stars Bravo was provided by NIS America for this review.

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Psikyo Shooting Stars Bravo

$39.99 USD

7

Score

7.0/10

Pros

• Four Fun Games
• Games run well
• Good price for a collection

Cons

• Two Mediocre Games
• Lacks any Extra content