[ヴィマナ/Vimana] Stage 2-3 [Rapid Fire ON] (Score: 1,527,740) [CC Commentary]

Vimana is one of the most interesting Toaplan titles I've ever played so far. I love it, but less about the game itself. It's more about its spirit and how much the game believed in its distinct offering: Being an easy shmup for beginners to start so they can take the step towards the spicier titles! But ultimately it failed. I'm sure it succeeds in entertaining the players, but I'm certain the operators HATED this game a lot!
Vimana is a Toaplan-formula shmup where you can shoot and bomb. The game had setup unique innovations, actually! It's one of the earlier examples of changing into different shot types while still keeping as few buttons available as possible. Sounds familiar? DonPachi's SHOT AND LASER! Tapping the shot button lets you fire straight shots. Only 2 of them straight forward, but you can shoot these out without charging and at rapid fire rate. This is your default offensive tool. Charging the shot will widen the shot out. By prolonging your press period, you immediately switch to the wide shot! Heck, it can even reach exactly left and right of the ship! Great for some defensive maneuvers! This will be revisited in Batsugun with the Type C shot without the charging, of course.
The bomb is also deceivingly potent! No, no i-frames will be granted. However, upon pressing the button bullets will be immediately gone. You'll get orbs that will home into targets when they are present and also still cancel bullets upon contact. When there are no enemies around, then the bomb orbs linger around! So a mis-press is not punishing! It's one of the most potent bombs ever among Toaplan titles!
In exchange of the weapon switching on the spot, so to speak, this is also one of the very few Toaplan shmups where you can't switch weapons with any weapon item. There are 4 items of note: Power up, bomb, bonus, and extend. No power switching, no wrong weapon syndrome! Yippee!!! There is still Gradius Syndrome, but with Rapid Fire on, it's not much of a deal.
Last but not least, the game is not a checkpoint game. Weird since later titles like Tatsujin Ou brought back checkpoints. Then the extends? 70k first then every 200k. Every. Like, Twin Cobra-every! Games like Ordyne only let you have 2 score extends per run, yet this game provides you at EVERY! At around 28 minutes duration it's possible to get around 6 extends! That is unheard of for a no-checkpoint shmup! Aside from Toaplan, of course. Vimana is the poster child of this!
The stage design too. These are varied and fun to plow through, but one notable thing is the bullets are relatively slow, as if this game is a bridge toward Batsugun. Enemies also rarely shoot, relatively speaking. Very friendly for newcomers, huh! There are many enemies that synergizes with each other like there is this enemy that will make the popcorns that reach them bigger. This is to make you decide between focus fire or the wide shot. I love that! To compensate the easiness the game has to have unique setpieces to keep the players entertained.
Now that I've explained the reasons why the game is so easy, like, this is actually PC Engine-shooter easy! I'm sure many players managed to sit for a long time with a single credit alone! For arcade operators, there is this 5 - 10 minute rule: 1 credit per 5 - 10 minutes. This is Vimana's mistake. The game is so easy to 1cc but it's also a long game! Worse, the 2nd loop is not tough at all, not even shooting any counter bullets! When at average the game only brings in, at rough estimate, 1 credit per 20 minutes, of course the operators see the game as a flop!
This is also why these days the popular format is either the rent system or rhythm games format. Rhythm games give fair challenges to the player without the need to right-out kicking them out, while with a single credit and giving the player 3 tracks to play where at average the playtime is around 3 minute per track, that fulfills the 10-minute rule just fine without resorting to dirty stage design tactics! Easier arcade shmups later on employed smarter tactics to adapt too, for example the Psikyo games tend to have short one loop length, ranging around 15 - 20 minutes. Psyvariar simply just make the game 11-minute short to 1cc! Heck, Batsugun's 1 loop is short at around 15 minutes!
Vimana is an interesting look at how to please beginner players while completely forgetting the arcade operators. I totally recommend this game as an object of study! Also as a Toaplan shmup to start with.
This is the Bitwave port on Steam. If you have a PC, then give it a go. It's Slap Fight. It slaps! Why Easy mode, though? Dunno. Was it the default dip switch? At least the Bitwave port says so? Also I recommend setting the autofire at 20Hz? At 30Hz the autofire breaks as you progress further. Why? I don't know.
#stg #shmup #vimana