Gekirindan

Gekirindan is a 1995 arcade shooter from Taito. It belongs to the vertical shoot em up family, a genre still strong in arcades in the mid-nineties even as fighting games and the first three-dimensional titles pushed it aside. Taito had a long history in the form, and this cabinet is one of its later contributions.\n\nTime travel provides the framing: individual stages take place in different historical periods, which changes both the artwork and the kinds of enemies you face. One or two players can play simultaneously, several ships with different firepower are available, and the working method is the classic one - dodge, shoot, and save your secondary weapon for the right moment.\n\nTechnically it is a two-dimensional game with hand-drawn sprites and detailed backgrounds, a style already considered conservative in 1995 but which for that reason has aged better than the early 3D of the same year. The difficulty is arcade difficulty, meaning a design built around coin drops; sessions are short and intense.\n\nThe game stayed in arcades and never received a home conversion, which long made it one of the harder Taito titles to try. On OldGame.cz it runs directly in your browser through MAME emulation, with no ROM hunting and no configuration. If vertical shooters appeal to you, this is a solid mid-tier entry with above-average presentation.

One more point about its place in time: 1995 was a transitional year in arcades. Two-dimensional shooters stood beside the first polygon cabinets, and operators bet on whatever drew passers-by. Vertical shooters accordingly retreated to smaller venues and to an audience that sought them out deliberately, which shaped their design - less welcoming to a casual player, richer for an experienced one.