Collection essentials #331: Soukyugurentai Otokuyo (Saturn)

Also known as “Terra Diver”, this is one of very many high-quality arcade shoot ‘em ups that got ported onto the Saturn, which was known for having a strong library of these games. This one was by a company called Raizing, who later changed their name to “Eighting”. 

I don’t have a ton to say about Soukyugurentai, or “Souky” as I like to call it personally. It doesn’t really bring anything different of note to the genre. It’s just really a remarkably well-made game and manages to stand out with that alone, which is remarkable considering how incredibly crowded the shoot ‘em up genre is.

As is normal for the genre, you have a few different ships to pick between which have differing attributes. Gameplay consists of flying around the auto-scrolling screen dodging bullets and constantly using some form of attack to destroy hordes of enemies before they can destroy you. In addition to a regular shot that you’d expect to see in this type of game, each ship also has homing lasers. When you hold down the corresponding button, your ship emits some kind of shape of “wires” in a designated area, and any enemy that wanders into that area gets zapped. Each ship in this game has multiple variations of this that can be freely swapped as the player sees fits. Some of them (like in the photo above) affect all around your ship, while others are limited to a certain direction but may pack more punch. And there are also bombs which damage everything on the screen and grant brief invincibility, a common feature. 

In addition to having great gameplay that’s the right level of challenging for my tastes, I really dig the game’s soundtrack. Some of the tunes have a great beat that gets my blood pumping for action. That really adds to the experience in a game like this.

A lot of retro shoot ‘em ups have been fortunate to get a re-release on modern platforms. However, the games in Eighting’s catalogue still haven’t had this treatment even though they’re highly regarded and the company is still around. Let’s hope that changes before long. This is one that’s worthy of my essentials list and I think any fan of the genre ought to at least give it a try.