Shoot em’ up—better known as shmups—are always a nice challenge to allow players to see who can live the longest on one continue and reach the coveted high score. Though haven’t you ever wondered if there could be more to it then just simple back and forth? What if you could challenge a fellow player and reach that high score but equally play against them to do so? Welcome to Rival Megagun from developer Spacewave Software and published by Degica Games. One-part shmup and the other part competitive title, Rival Megagun shows off a retro themed style with gameplay that stands up with the big titles. If you wish to know what you can expect from Rival Megagun then you’ll just have to scroll on down and read our review in its entirety.

Rival Megagun is a versus style shmup that feels like an anime from the 80s has blended with an American Saturday morning cartoon. Players choose from one of several pilots and take control of their mighty gunships to defeat enemies in a tournament style event. Players will also have to survive waves of attacks from each other as they unleash powerful weapon attacks and even become mini-bosses to try and defeat the opposing player. Either go online to play against another player or engage in the story mode where you versus AI in a ladder style competition. The time to see who is the best shmup player begins in Rival Megagun!

In the near future, life forms known as the harvesters have unleashed chaos on Earth. Despite our best defenses, the battle was not in our favor. In response, a contest began to test pilots from all around. Now with the hopes of becoming famous and gaining a large prize, these various gunship warriors go head to head in a deadly competition. Who will come out on top and be crowned the best? Find out now in Rival Megagun!

R-Type Delta, Raiden, Ikaruga and Gradius—if these names ring a bell in your gaming heart then you know the wonderful world of shmups. We here at Honey’s Anime love shmups and have spent hundreds of hours—and quarters—trying to reach high numbers on leaderboards or have at least tried to survive various levels that challenge any player to push their eyes to the limits. Often, we will try to play with friends and will test each other to see who can reach a specific level or score without using a single continue. Shmup games are just meant to be competitive but often they don’t give players that actual feeling of competition beyond numbers and rank. Well folks, that all changes with Rival Megagun. Unlike the traditional shmup games, Rival Megagun is all about competitive gameplay and you can bet we sat down and entered this amazing title with high anticipations. Were they met or did Rival Megagun fail to deliver? Why don’t we find out in our review of Rival Megagun for the PS4?!

Rival Megagun is a split screen space ship shmup with a focus on one thing, out gunning your opponent with skill. Players choose from one of several different pilots who also control unique spaceships—titled gunships—and then enter battle against regular ships and their opponent. On standard setting, the first player to 2 wins is the victor. Rival Megagun isn’t a complicated game as you can tell but what makes it interesting is that multiplayer focus. Let us explain.

Unlike traditional shump titles, Rival Megagun throws both players—or AI—on the screen together in a split screen orientation. Players will need to survive the volley of bullets from AI controlled ships and will also have to build up a meter to unleash their own attacks on a fellow player—each ship has a unique attack they can use—and or reach 100% to become a literal robot that has a health bar! If a player uses this attack, they end up on the other side of the screen and act as a mini boss for the player to take down. Players can even change specific game settings to make the game last longer—or shorter—and can alter the game’s internal difficulty to make for some truly hectic combat. Rival Megagun has a single player mode too that has the AI controlling the other side’s ship if you can’t hop online for a random opponent—yes there is matchmaking—or have a friend available for split screen.

Now you might think with only seven ships each player won’t really have much advantage over their opponent but that is where you would be quite wrong. Players can unlock different equipment pieces to make their ships fire different ways and have unique abilities that make for some wicked customization options. Though one issue we have in the lack of content for Rival Megagun is the maps that you can play on. There are only several available and while they have a decent amount of on-screen scrolling—each map lasts for quite a while—we wish more maps were playable. Is it a big issue? No, Rival Megagun has enough content to keep us playing for a while but we do hope for some DLC in the future.

Lastly, let us mention our two favorite elements of Rival Megagun, the graphics and music. Have you ever seen those old Saturday morning cartoons that feel like anime but aren’t considered anime? Rival Megagun looks like one of those cartoons come to game form and it’s a true spectacle. We loved unleashing special moves and attacks seeing the screen explode with colors and animation worthy of a triple A title. However, what truly steals the show—as if everything else we mention didn’t already—is the incredible OST. Let us just say this to you readers. If Rival Megagun had a soundtrack we could buy right this minute…we wouldn’t hesitate to download it right as we are writing this review. There were times we just played matches to hear the music, that’s how awesome it truly is.

Rival Megagun is honestly one of the best shmup games we’ve played in a while here at Honey’s Anime. Not only is there tight shmup gameplay, but the unique idea of making the whole game have a split screen competitive theme was ingenious. We loved the amazing anime-like art and equally loved the different ships as each one could be customized to become unique to the player and their specific style. Our only issue with the lack of maps to play on was still not enough to stop hours of enjoyment we had—and will continue to have—while playing Rival Megagun. If you’re one of those players who always loves to compete with others in shmup styled games, here is the game for you. We definitely think you should download Rival Megagun when it releases for one of the best shmup experiences you can get.

We praise developers like Spacewave Software when we know they have a title that has to be amazing a sea of similar themed games. Rival Megagun might not be the all time best shmup game ever but with its unique style and spot on gameplay, it comes darn close to being a legend in of itself. We hope there will be some more titles like Rival Megagun from Spacewave Games as we think this studio has the potential to do great games! Are you playing Rival Megagun or do you plan on nabbing it soon? Comment down below to let us know and as always be sure to tell us your thoughts on our review. Stick to our hive for even more game reviews, anime related articles and hundreds of other pieces courtesy of us here at Honey’s Anime.