Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked) Back in the late eighties when 2D shooting games were a dominant form rather than a somewhat niche genre, a particular kind of shmup became very popular indeed. While the likes of Capcom’s 1942 certainly set the groundwork, the success of Toaplan’s separate 1987 arcade releases Twin Cobra and Flying Shark made hard-nosed, unembellished military shooting games very popular indeed. In the following two years came the likes of Twin Eagle, Meta Fox, Fighting Hawk, and Toaplan’s own Fire Shark and Twin Hawk. By 1990, a Tokyo-based studio named Seibu Kaihatsu put a well-needed spin on what had become something of a shooting game trope. Rather than adding another straight-down-the-middle military shooter to the pile – and resisting any titular references to hawks, eagles, sharks or twins – the studio seasoned Toaplan’s recipe with sci-fi.