Psikyo Shooting Stars Bravo Guns Down 2020 Release Date

Published: October 17, 2019 7:15 PM /

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psikyo shooting stars bravo gunbird 2

Classic arcade shooting action comes home in Psikyo Shooting Stars Bravo, which is set to launch on the Switch on February 18th, 2020. Covering 12 years of top-down and sidescrolling shooting action, Psikyo Shooting Stars Bravo is the second collection coming to Switch, roughly a month after Psikyo Shooting Stars Alpha. NIS America is also selling a limited edition version of both Alpha and Bravowith the latter coming with design drawings, art cards, a soundtrack, collector's box, and a physical version. The limited edition will run you 59.99 USD, and while there's no price listed for the base version, one would expect it to be a more budget collection, based on pricing. Psikyo Shooting Stars Bravo is set to launch on February 18th, 2020.

Psikyo Shooting Stars Bravo's six game collection offers you the chance to play through two different series all in one neat package. Stretching all the way back to Psikyo's founding in 1992 through their closure in 2005, Shooting Stars Bravo traces both Psikyo's legacy, as well as the evolution of shooters themselves. Psikyo themselves made a name for their games by including a "new game plus" in their shooter games, where upon beating the story for the first time, you could play again against faster and tougher enemies. 

The first three games on offer are Samurai ACES Episode I, II, and III. Set in a science fiction/fantasy world that mashes up traditional Japanese art styles with modern ships and weaponry, each of the Samurai ACES games sees an evil cult attempt to awaken an ancient evil through human sacrifice. Notably more serious in tone, Samurai ACES III was the first Psikyo game to release natively on home consoles, albeit just before the studio shuttered for good.

The other half of Shooting Stars Bravo covers the Gunbird series, one that's much goofier than Samurai ACESGunbird, Gunbird 2 and spinoff Gunbarich all star a quirky cast of characters, from a witch-in-training with anger management issues, to a steam-powered robotthe Gunbird series leans heavily on humor and unique gameplay. The first two games play like classic top-down shooters, but Gunbarich blends pinball and Breakout/Arkanoid style strategy in a wholly weird fusion.

Of course Shooting Stars Alpha and Bravo only cover twelve of Psikyo's catalogue of twenty-nine shooting games. Depending on the success seen with these first two compilations, we could very well see NIS America return for a third collection or more. You can pick up Psikyo Shooting Stars Alpha for the Switch when it releases on January 21st, 2020 in the US, and Psikyo Shooting Stars Bravo when it launches on February 18th, 2020.

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Kyle Johnson
| Japanese Gaming Specialist

Professional painter. Semi-professional weeb. I've played hundreds of games, but finished very few. I speak Chinese and Minnesotan.