I borrowed this pcb from my good friend gunbird18 after playing it at the CWC '09 and I think I may become a big Raizing fan.
The game itself plays a lot like Battle Garegga, with medal chaining, same types of power ups, but there's a whole lot more.
There are a ton of ships to choose from, various teams of three different ships and even team edit, where you can select three different ships to be on your team. There are a ton of hidden bosses, unlockable after the regular stage bosses, depending on who is left in your team or by some other stage based unlock.
It shares a lot of the look of Garegga, but it has a futuristic, almost cyberpunk feel to it. The music is awesome, a close second behind Garegga's fantastic tunes in Raizing's catalog. The sprites are bright and colorful and the backgrounds are as well.
I am really enjoying my time with it and this high score was set without any set strategy - except for limiting the power-up icon pick ups to try and control rank a bit. It feels a bit easier than Garegga and I made it to stage 4 with this credit, finally eating it on the Highway against that huge blue tank.
This pcb is now pretty high on my want list...
2 comments:
Yeah, some people would call it a decent shmup...
I prefer to call it brilliant! It provides such an adrenaline rush when you play it. The list of shmups that give this kind of rush is a very short list, indeed!
I played this for a long time in MAME on a 14" monitor. When I plugged in the pcb...WOW! Took my breath away. Huge sprites, wide spectrum of color! WIN, in every category!
And that great Raizing synthesizer soundtrack! Geez, I am writing a book about this! Sorry!
Hey - don't worry about writing too much - I post/write waaaaaay more than I should - no need to curb yourself!
And you are right, it really does generate an adreneline rush. Garegga requires a bit more studious approach and I think APB just wants you to get stuck in and go for it. Sooooooo good!
Thanks for the loaner gunbird18.
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