Polymega opens pre-orders for its Toaplan FixEight arcade collection

Playmaji has officially opened pre-orders for Polymega Collection Vol. 21, FIXEIGHT, a $39.99 physical compilation bringing five Toaplan arcade games to the Polymega console. As previously reported when the four-volume Toaplan rollout was first announced in July, this disc focuses heavily on the studio's run-and-gun and action titles.

Finally off the arcade board

The official store page lists five arcade ports: FixEight, Out Zone, Knuckle Bash, Ghox, and Guardian (released as Get Star in Japan). Toaplan is mostly remembered for defining the vertical shoot 'em up genre with games like Truxton and Batsugun before the studio closed in 1994. This collection highlights the developer's experiments in other genres.

Neither FixEight nor Knuckle Bash received a contemporary home console port during the 16-bit or 32-bit eras. FixEight launched in 1992 as a spiritual successor to 1990's Out Zone. Both are top-down run-and-gun shooters that mix standard shoot 'em up mechanics with multidirectional foot-based movement. Out Zone forces players to constantly push forward to replenish an energy meter, a stressful survival mechanic that keeps the pacing aggressive.

Wrestling and paddle blocks

The rest of the disc gets weird. Knuckle Bash is Toaplan's only attempt at a belt-scrolling beat 'em up. While the 1993 arcade game features professional wrestlers as the main characters, it is a traditional street brawler featuring stage progression and combat against a wide variety of non-wrestling enemies, including ninjas, football players, and mimes. The development team originally set out to make a competitive one-on-one fighting game before pivoting to a side-scrolling brawler, which explains the heavy emphasis on grappling and wrestling maneuvers.

Ghox is a 1991 fantasy action game that originally used a spinner dial in the arcade. It plays like a dark fantasy version of Arkanoid, requiring players to bounce a glowing orb to destroy enemies and obstacles. Guardian rounds out the list. Released in 1986, it is one of Toaplan's earliest arcade projects, putting players in control of a combat robot in a side-scrolling martial arts adventure.

Toaplan's influence on arcade gaming is massive. After the studio filed for bankruptcy in 1994, former staff members splintered off to form companies like Cave, Raizing, and Gazelle. Those spin-off studios went on to create the modern bullet hell subgenre. While Toaplan's traditional space shooters usually get the spotlight in retro re-releases, their ground-based action games have historically been harder to find in physical formats.

Physical media for a modular system

The $39.99 package includes the game disc for the Polymega ecosystem.

The disc works directly with the standard Polymega PM01 base unit, which connects to a television like a traditional console. It is also compatible with the Polymega Remix system, which allows users to connect a CD drive to a Windows 11 PC and run the games through the free Polymega App.

It is nice to see these stranded arcade boards get a dedicated physical release.