Gekirindan Time Travel Shooting

From Sega Retro

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Gekirindan title.png

Gekirindan Time Travel Shooting
System(s): Sega Saturn
Publisher: Virgin Interactive
Developer:
Developer(s) of original games: Taito
Genre: Shoot-'em-Up

















Number of players: 1-2
Release Date RRP Code
Sega Saturn
JP 		¥5,8005,800 T-7008G

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Gekirindan Time Travel Shooting (逆鱗弾 タイムトラベルシューティング) is a 1995 arcade shoot-'em-up by Taito ported to the Sega Saturn in 1997 by Virgin. The Saturn port was only released in Japan. Soundtrack was composed by Taito’s house band Zuntata.

Gekirindan game appears to be a hommage to competitor Toaplan. Enemies, player ships etc. display many similarities, e.g. Type A’s bomb closely resembles the skull bomb in Tatsujin, Type C’s alternative shot is similar to the green shot in Flying Shark. The story involves time travel, with the heroes following the villain through their period (future from our perspective), world war period, present, and two future periods.

Gameplay

Three ship types, titled Type A, B and C are available. Depending on player 1 and 2 side, the pilot also looks different.

In typical shooting game manner, there is one button for firing and one for bombs. Bombs are very strong and destroy most standard enemies and bullets instantly. Power ups increase shot strength and add extra weapons: Homing, Laser and Napalm, with the latter being the objectively best weapon in the game.

The game adds score based on collected medals and remaining bombs at the end of each stage.

Versions

The Saturn port can be played in both horizontal and vertical screen orientation, the latter being identical to the arcade setup.

The game originaly ran on Taito's F3 board Judging from Ving 's Taito F3 port version of Layer Section, this port compares rather unfavourable . A better port is not available on SEGA hardware, but on the Playstation 2 as part of the Taito Legends/Memories series.

Compared to the arcade version:

  • The Saturn port lacks some graphical effects (such as the pseudo 3D effect used to render the colony in the background of stage 1).
  • Extra loading time before boss fights
  • The game’s intro, originally made with bitmap graphics, has been captured from the arcade board and put into the Saturn version as video file, displaying compression artifacts

Trivia

  • Player 2 side ships have slightly stronger attack power.
  • There is a hidden score item (an angel holding a “bonus” plate) right at the beginning of stage 1. It is likely triggered by defeating the first mid boss after the asteroids as fast as possible.
  • There are some hidden medals, e.g. by letting the walker in stage 2 step on the houses in his path
  • Suiciding until the continue screen at the beginning of stage 1 gives the player one extra bomb

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average 
Publication Score Source
43 №436, p32
43 №1997-13, p138[2]
60
Sega Saturn
 49
Based on
3 reviews
Sega Retro Average 
Publication Version Score
Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J
43
[4]
Saturn Fan (JP) NTSC-J
54
[5]
Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J
43
[6]
Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J
60
[3]
Sega Saturn
 50
Based on
4 reviews

Gekirindan Time Travel Shooting

Saturn, JP
GTTS Saturn JP Box Back.jpgGTTS Saturn JP Box Front.jpg
Cover

References

  1. ↑ http://www.jamp-net.co.jp/works/game/game11.html (Wayback Machine: 2002-08-10 03:06)
  2. ↑ File:SSM_JP_19970425_1997-13.pdf, page 140
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Saturn no Game wa Sekai Ichi~i~i~i!: Satamaga Dokusha Race Zen Kiroku, SoftBank Publishing, page 16 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:SnGwSISDRZK Book JP.pdf_p16" defined multiple times with different content
  4. ↑ Famitsu, "1997-04-25" (JP; 1997-04-11), page 1
  5. ↑ Saturn Fan, "1997 No. 8" (JP; 1997-04-11), page 151
  6. ↑ Sega Saturn Magazine, "1997-13 (1997-04-25)" (JP; 1997-04-11), page 140
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