Espgaluda II

Luckily for publisher Live Wire, its bare-minimum localisation work and stumble out of the online gate aren't destructive enough to drag the excellent Espgaluda II down too much, and underneath it all the game feels as fresh and well-designed as ever. The flexible risk/reward scoring system allows long-time fans to decide for themselves (to a certain extent) how much trouble they want to get into while still allowing newcomers enough leeway to enjoy an intense and visually spectacular shmup experience.

Cave built up a strong fan-base over its years of development and Espgaluda II is a perfect example as to why.

Espgaluda II is an acquired taste within a genre that was already an acquired taste, to begin with. It doesn’t take long to see why the love for the game is so divided. Its complicated play and scoring systems take some getting used to, but the Switch port is far from ideal despite being feature-packed. This is merely something to hold you over until Live Wire ports DoDonPachi Resurrection.

I'm a very happy shmup fan now that Espgaluda II is finally available for console in the west. With challenging action and complex mechanics that are rewarding to learn and master, its core gameplay has everything that genre enthusiasts would want.