Four Toaplan arcade classics are coming to Polymega this August

Polymega has opened pre-orders for four new physical collection discs focusing on arcade games from Japanese developer Toaplan. According to Polymega's announcement, the discs will ship in August 2026.

The Toaplan quartet

The new lineup covers Volumes 19 through 22 of the Polymega Collection series. Each disc costs $39.99 and focuses on a single arcade release from Toaplan.

Volume 19 is Batsugun. Released in 1993, it is widely considered the foundational text of the bullet hell subgenre. The screen fills with hundreds of projectiles at once, forcing players to rely on a tiny hitbox to survive.

Volume 20 brings Truxton. This 1988 vertical shooter is famous for its punishing difficulty and the massive skull bomb weapon that clears the screen. The Sega Genesis port is how most North American players know it, but the arcade version is the definitive way to play.

Volume 21 is FixEight. This 1992 run-and-gun game is the spiritual successor to Out Zone. You control mercenaries moving vertically through stages on foot, swapping weapons and dodging enemy fire.

Volume 22 rounds out the group with Snow Bros. It is a single-screen platformer from 1990 where you trap enemies in snowballs and kick them across the stage to clear waves. It shares a lot of DNA with Bubble Bobble, but the snowball mechanics give it a faster, more aggressive pace.

Putting arcade games on discs

I support any system that supports physical media. The current trend of digital-only arcade archives is convenient, but having a tangible disc to put on a shelf holds a lot of appeal.

Polymega built its entire business model around a modular console that plays original CDs and cartridges. The base unit includes an optical drive for CD-based systems like the original PlayStation, Sega CD, and TurboGrafx-CD. You then swap in different module blocks to play cartridges from the Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis. These new Toaplan discs run directly on the base unit's CD drive. Their proprietary collection discs give players a way to buy new physical copies of games that previously only existed on arcade boards or expensive vintage console ports.

Beyond the shooters

The Polymega store page lists the entire 22-volume collection, and the variety is broad.

If you want more shooters, Volumes 13 and 17 offer Sengoku Blade and Gunbird. If you prefer early 3D oddities, Volume 15 is Body Harvest. That was DMA Design's ambitious Nintendo 64 action game that laid the groundwork for the open-world structure of Grand Theft Auto III. It is a fascinating piece of history, even if the original framerate was notoriously rough.

Other available titles include A Boy and His Blob, Rival Turf, Astyanax, and Atari classics like Tempest and Asteroids.

You might want to move fast if you are interested in the older volumes. Strikers 1945 and Captain Tomaday are already sold out.

The birth of the bullet hell

Toaplan only existed for about ten years, but they completely rewired how arcade shooters worked. They established the standard bomb mechanic in Tiger-Heli (which is also available as Volume 3 in the Polymega collection) and pushed the hardware limits of the era.

When the company closed its doors in 1994, the staff splintered. Former employees went on to found Cave, Raizing, and Gazelle. Those three studios dominated the arcade shooter market for the next decade. Playing Batsugun today makes it easy to see the exact moment the genre shifted from traditional space shooters to the modern bullet hell format.