Game info: Wikipedia
Listening: CD audio, soundtrack album (disc 2)
Info
But before we get to the new port, we have to do the old port! After Toaplan folded in 1994, its developers went to and/or created new companies, one of which was Gazelle. Gazelle acquired some of Toaplan’s IP and ported a few of their games to consoles, including Batsugun to the Saturn.
Batsugun was one of the first shmup ports to include both the original arcade soundtrack and a new arranged version. The Saturn was actually a pretty interesting platform to port arcade games to, as far as the music goes, because it had built-in FM capabilities, so it had the ability to faithfully recreate FM audio from arcade games in a way that other consoles of its generation couldn’t. But, a lot of the time the port developers didn’t want to put in the effort to reprogram the audio for the Saturn, so they just did something easier; in Batsugun’s case, they just have a recording of the original arcade soundtrack as CD audio tracks. It’s basically the same music, but with a slightly less buzzy sound to it which you may or may not prefer (I personally love FM buzz, it makes me feel alive). These recordings were included on the 2023 soundtrack release along with an original arcade recording, which was pretty cool of them to do.
The arranged soundtrack, which is also CD audio, was done by Shingo Hirate, whose only other credit I can find in a video game is as an “assistant composer” on the other Toaplan ports that Gazelle did. All of the arranged tracks are more or less exactly the same compositions as the original songs, just with non-FM synth instruments and slightly dubious mixing. Some of the tracks I think work a little better with the new instrumentation and some of them I don’t, this is definitely just a personal preference situation for which one you’d like more.
Recommended tracks:
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“KING BIRD (BOSS 2)” takes the bell figure from the original and drenches it in reverb while randomly changing its volume, which is good
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“Premonition (BOSS 4)” really amps up the mystical feeling from the original
(final track title is an unofficial translation from VGMdb)
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