Review: Psikyo Shooting Stars Bravo (Nintendo Switch)

Back in January, Psikyo Shooting Stars Alpha was released on the Nintendo Switch. In February, Psikyo Shooting Stars Bravo was released. Like Alpha, it contains another six arcade shooters. The package is comprised of Samurai Aces Episode I, Samurai Aces Episode II: TENGAI, Samurai Aces Episode III: SENGOKU CANNON, GUNBARICH, GUNBIRD, and GUNBIRD2. We previously covered Psikyo Shooting Stars Alpha and scored it positively. Let us see how the second collection stacks up…

 Growing up in a time when arcades were still commonplace within shopping malls, I would always try to convince my parents to let me go play some games. This was usually shot down with “You have video games at home.” On rare occasions, they would give me some money to go to the arcade; I would occasionally walk over to a shooter cabinet and give it a try. I would quickly lose, despite my interest or curiosity that drew me to it in the first place, I could not justify using another quarter on it. There were other games that I was better at, and I could make my quarter last much longer.

While each game has some sort of storyline, they are not anything too in-depth. For these types of games, it does not have too much of an impact. The lack of a detailed story doesn’t affect the overall depth of the games as they are still able to accomplish the overall goal.

The gameplay is simple; players select a character and shoot everything on screen while avoiding hitting enemies and their attack. Dodging and picking up power-ups is always helpful. Power-ups speed up the rate of fire and make a broader range of attacks. 

I can say that although each game is fun to play, my favorite was GUNBARICH. It contained a slightly different type of gameplay than the others in the collection. It played more like Breakout with pinball paddles in place of the traditional line. It was a fun twist to the conventional arcade shooter. It even included power-ups and boss battles. The boss battles were along the same line of the other levels, except instead of destroying blocks you are trying to defeat the boss, while the boss attacks back. Samurai Aces II: TENGALI was my second favorite. Although I can’t entirely place why it stands out to me, I enjoyed how it switches from the typical vertical shooter to horizontal. Although it wasn’t the only one in the collection to do so, it was the one that seemed to do so the smoothest. 

Psikyo Shooting Stars Bravo certainly gave me more time spent with the arcade shooter genre. I can say with absolute certainty that I have a greater appreciation for the genre than when I went into this review. I recommend it to those who have a great appreciation for arcade shooters. I also recommend it for those who are curious or would like to have a solid collection to round out their Switch library.