VASARA COLLECTION / DEVELOPER & PUBLISHER: QUBYTE INTERACTIVE / PLATFORM:PC, PS4, PS VITA, SWITCH (REVIEWED), XBOX ONE / RELEASE DATE: AUGUST 14TH

Vasara and its imaginatively-named sequel, Vasara 2, were released in Japanese arcades at the turn of the century. Vasara Collection bundles those two games together along with a brand new mode, and finally gives those of us outside Japan our first ever official / legal way to play these cult shoot ’em ups on a home console.

With a story that combines cyberpunk and science fiction with re-imagined events from an alternate version of Japanese history, characters zip through vertically-scrolling levels on jet bikes as they slash and blast their way through hordes of tanks, warships, soldiers and robots. The story takes a back seat to the gameplay, as is usually (and preferably) the case with shoot ’em ups, and Vasara certainly provides plenty of gripping action that, despite being nearly 20 years old, feels right at home today.

The two “vintage” games in the collection are fairly similar. There are several pilots to choose from, each with different speeds, strengths and weapons, and they all control in the same way, all able to perform single shots, autofire, a charged melee attack, and drop a devastating bomb. Collecting gems builds up a meter which, when full, turns your melee manoeuvre into a “Vasara” attack, a near screen-clearing flurry of sword swipes. Power ups can be collected to enhance your firepower, and some enemies drop scrolls which add bonus points at the end of each stage. The only real differences between the two games are that V2 adds a fourth playable character and allows for up to three stored Vasara attacks instead of only one in the original.

These are very much bullet hell shooters, except bullets are very slow-moving and often have no discernible pattern. Colliding with enemies causes no damage other than bumping your ship away to one side, and enemies will often use this to their advantage, flying close in an attempt to push you into oncoming fire. Your melee attack deflects most bullets, although it takes a second or two to charge, which adds a bit of strategy to proceedings. It’s possible to make use of the unlimited continues to blast through to the end of each game in half an hour or so, but playing it “properly” requires much more thought than many other shmups, especially if you’re going for high scores.

The new “Timeless” mode supports up to four players across the whole screen, following the gameplay formula of the originals but allowing players to simply keep going until they’re defeated. It’s great to see a new version with updated graphics, and thumbs up for trying something different instead of just polishing up the older titles.

Vasara doesn’t manage to hit the heights of today’s heavy hitters but, being almost 20 years old, you shouldn’t really expect it to. It still offers plenty of excitement though, and it’s also worth checking out purely as a previously-officially-unreleased curiosity.