Taito's 1980 shooter Space Cyclone is coming to modern consoles

Hamster has announced that Taito's 1980 arcade shooter Space Cyclone is coming to modern consoles this Thursday. The announcement trailer shows off the game's fixed-shooter mechanics, where players have to stop enemies from constructing rockets on the ground.

Cybernetic bugs doing aerospace engineering

Taito released Space Cyclone during the massive arcade boom that followed Space Invaders. The fixed-shooter genre was already getting crowded by 1980, with dozens of companies trying to cash in on the alien-blasting craze. To stand out, Taito gave the enemies a clear goal. You play a ship defending against BEMs, which Hamster translates as insect cyborgs. These bugs warp between meteors to invade the top of the screen.

If the BEMs manage to land safely at the bottom, they do not just sit there. They start building rockets. Once a rocket is complete, they launch it back into the sky to blast you with Cyclone Shots. It forces you to prioritize targets based on what they are building on the ground, rather than just shooting whatever is closest to your ship in the air.

The game also breaks up the shooting with a bizarre "Lesson Constellation" bonus segment. Between waves, the game draws star charts on the screen and awards bonus points. Space Cyclone is a fairly obscure title in Taito's back catalog. Original arcade boards are difficult to track down today.

Arcade Archives Features

The Arcade Archives version of Space Cyclone includes a variety of convenient features that make revisiting this classic title even more enjoyable. In ORIGINAL MODE, you'll find options such as difficulty and display settings, button remapping, rapid-fire options, the ability to create multiple save files at any time, and even a rewind feature.

The game launches this Thursday.