Bitwave Games, a video game developer specialising in retro entertainment and part of Embracer Freemode, announced today the release date of the highly-anticipated Toaplan Arcade Shoot ‘Em Up Collection Vol.1 arriving on Steam and GOG from February 14, 2023.

The first in a planned series of acclaimed shooting treasures, gamers are invited to spend Valentine’s Day showing their love to arcade classics, building their own curated library of Toaplan arcade hits and expanding it through 2023.

Announced to great excitement in August 2022, the new collection is a result of the partnership between Bitwave Games and Japanese developer Tatsujin. Volume 1 of the collection includes the following titles:

Advertisement

• Zero Wing™ – Legendary co-op shooter with stunning original soundtrack from composers Tatsuya Uemura, Masahiro Yuge, and Toshiaki Tomizawa.
• Out Zone™ – Run-and-gun alone or with a buddy in this bonafide hit featuring a unique weapon system, and killer soundtrack!
• Twin Cobra™ – Battle hostile battleships solo or in co-op with the world’s fastest attack chopper!
• Truxton™ – Adrenaline filled legendary shooter has you defeating alien hordes across massive stages in this vertically scrolling shooter masterpiece.

Each game in the collection features a raft of carefully crafted quality-of-life features. Bringing these signature shooters to the modern gamer, the Toaplan Arcade Shmup Vol. 1 games feature quick save/resume, online leaderboards for single credit, no assist and assisted plays, as well as Steam Achievements for the completionist gamer. To help players share the experience, a capture option has been included, immortalising those interstellar victories. But it doesn’t stop there, other quality-of-life features include:

• Quality Emulation featuring minimal input lag, input processing, and rendering all complete on the same frame.
• Instrument Panels featuring additional gameplay information and artwork.
• Rewind feature allowing gamers to rewind between 10-18 minutes of play.
• Assist features facilitating options such as auto-fire.
• Very Easy Mode, allowing beginners to master each game at their own pace.
• Pixel-perfect display option or full-screen scaling in both windowed and full-screen modes.
• Rotate option allowing the action to be rotated in 90-degree increments.
• Choose between Raw Input on Windows® or Steam® Input.
• Practice mode, allowing gamers to hone their skills.

“Since we announced our partnership with Tatsujin the retro gaming community has been waiting patiently for a release date to be announced, and we thought Valentine’s Day would be the perfect opportunity to relive these classic shooters with the one you love!” said Andréas Göransson, PR and Community Manager for Bitwave Games “Each of these games stand the test of time, and when coupled with the impressive quality-of-life features we have carefully implemented, we believe gamers everywhere will fall in love with the first volume in our collection.”

The Toaplan Arcade Shoot ‘Em Up Collection Vol.1 will be available from February 14, 2023 for $19.99. The individual titles forming Volume 1. will also be available separately for the SRP of $7.99 per game and can be wishlisted via Steam and GOG now.