DEVELOPER: | Raizing/8ing |
(INITIAL) RELEASE DATE: | FEB 3, 1996 |
PLATFORM(S): | Arcade, Sega Saturn, PS4, Xbox One |
ARCADE SYSTEM: | Toaplan 2 |
SCROLL: | Vertical |
# OF PLAYERS: | 1-2 |
STORY
Around 1890*: Two young engineers, Brian and Jason Wayne run a car factory in a small countryside town** passed onto them by their father, Matthew Wayne (deceased). Eventually word of their mechanical genius spreads and they are recruited to work for the government to build new military weapons. The Brothers’ work was peerless. Everything was going well until one day they awoke to find the government was using the machines they created to wreak havoc. Horrified and ashamed, they manage to escape to the countryside, but destruction and chaos continues to spread across the continent. One day, the destruction reaches the town they are hiding in, and the brothers decide to retaliate. The two take their series of advanced fighter planes they were developing (known as Development Code G or the Garegga series) to fight back against the government that had wronged them.
* From 8ing's website: "only about 20 years had passed since the invention of the internal combustion engine".
** The Brothers were raised on "the Southern Peninsula of the Western Continent". Presumably America.
CONTROLS
For the arcade version: Hold button A to shoot, press button B to bomb, and press button C to reconfigure your option's shot. The console releases gives you the option to reconfigure your controls.ITEMS
= raises attack power= restocks bombs
= adds an option (max 4)
OPTIONS
Main types:Spread: fires a spread shot
Tail: fires behind your ship
Front: fires a focused shot straight ahead
Rotate: fires rotating shots around your ship
Trace: fires follow your ship, only facing in the opposite direction of your last movement
Secret types:
To unlock these, collect an option item after meeting certain criteria.
Search: tracks enemies (miss 5 option items)
Shadow: shoots forwards and follows your ship (miss 5 score medals)
Wide: a fixed wide shot (miss 5 small shot power-ups)
Homing: homes in directly on enemies (miss 5 small bomb power-ups)
Chain: only available in two player mode
RANKING
Understanding the ranking system is crucial to understanding how to play Battle Garegga. Basically, the better you do at the game (conserving lives, using bombs, collecting power-ups, even just shooting), an invisible value “rank” increases and the harder it becomes. This can become an absolute nightmare during later stages, and it is a common strategy to burn through a life just to make the game playable again. To get to the further stages of the game, you will need to rack up a few extra lives, which is where score medals come in. Collecting score medals (above) will not increase your rank as much (compared to collecting other power-up items) and consecutively increase their point value by 100 if you continue to collect them without missing one (10,000 points at most). This is called “medal chaining” and is found in multiple Raizing games.
Increases rank:
- shooting (includes option shots)
- collecting power-ups (tip: try not to collect any after your shots/options/bombs are maxed out)
- using a bomb
- nullifying enemy bullets (not bombing to clear bullets, but exploiting an enemy's "dead zone")
Decreases rank:
- losing a life
SHIPS
There are four main ships to choose from.From left to right:
the Silver Sword (G-1010), a fighter aircraft with a good balance between power and speed.
the Grass-Hopper (G-130), an air-to-ground interceptor equipped with vulcans (piercing).
the Flying Baron (G-1026), a light carrier-based fighter aircraft with top mobility, equipped with homing missiles.
and the Wild Snail (G-913), a heavy carrier-based torpedo bomber with an incomplete frame, equipped with flamethrowers.
SECRET CHARACTERS
On the title screen, enter UP UP DOWN DOWN LEFT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT A B C START. If done correctly, it will unlock four more playable characters from previous Raizing title Mahou Daisakusen, known as Sorcer Striker in the U.S.From left to right,
the warrior, Gain. His option is strong and can pierce through multiple enemies, but fires at a slow rate.
the mage, Chitta. She has weak shot and option types and is considered hard to score with.
the samurai dragon, Miyamoto. The overall fastest in the game and his options do splash damage.
the necromancer, Bornnam. Slow, and has a wide rapid fire shot.
SHOT TYPES
With the addition of the secret characters, there are 32 different ship types in Battle Garegga! Selecting your ship with a different button gives you a different power type (and color) for your ship.Button A: normal power type
Button B: speed power type
Button C: shot power type
Buttons A B C (simultaneously): speed and shot power type + slightly smaller hitbox
If you let the timer count down to 0 on the select screen, it will automatically choose a random power type.
MISC. SECRETS
On the title screen:Hold B and press START: hard mode
Hold A and press START: two games for one credit
Hold A+B+C and press START: level edit mode
BATTLE GAREGGA REV.2016
A remake of the arcade release, Battle Garegga Rev.2016 is the same game, but includes:3 different difficulty levels
a remastered soundtrack
an updated UI that tracks your rank, among other things
online score options