City Connection recently announced that horizontally scrolling shoot ‘em up Akai Katana Shin will be released on Nintendo Switch, PS4, Steam and Xbone on 15 December.

Originally released for arcades in 2010, Akai Katana received multiple updates and a home port on Xbox 360 in the form of Akai Katana Shin. This upcoming release includes all three versions of Akai Katana, and is being ported over by City Connection’s new development team TAKExOFF.

Here’s the official breakdown of Akai Katana Shin from City Connection:

Akai Katana is a side scrolling shooting game released in 2010 in arcades. 2 players can play together.

A port was later made in Japan for more advanced hardware under the name of Akai Katana Shin, and thanks to the 16:9 screen ratio, the game became even more intuitive.

Finally, a third opus was later made under the name of Zetsu Akai Katana, in which the quality of life and the balance of the game have been revised.

Each game will ask you to use different tactics, so prepare yourself.

• Score Attack: You can play the game with no continue or retry, it’s hit or die. The ranking and replay can be saved separately from normal play.
• Training: You can play a stage and an aircraft and change the settings to train yourself.
• Online Ranking: You can confront your score with other players’ from all over the world.
• Replay: You can save your play data and watch it again. You can pause and replay, and also “Edit” your play so to start your run from a certain point and better yourself.
• Options: You can change the control mapping, the BGMs, the SEs, the voice volume, the screen size, the wallpaper, and customize your play as you like.

With a mix of traditional Japanese style and military style, artist Mushimaro delivered beautiful character designs for the games. The story features two factions torn apart by the war, all wrapped up in a tragic and dramatic story.

This time, Daisuke Matsumoto remastered all the sound effects and delivered new arrangements for the music. He previously did so for Cave’s smartphone shooting game Gothic ha Mahou Otome “Deathsmiles I・II ’s soundtrack.

The original arcade music and the Xbox360 version of Akai Katana Shin are available as well, so you can switch to any of the 3 versions you like.

In addition to the digital release, there are also plans for a special physical version of the game on every console platform except Xbone (unsurprisingly), which includes the following tchotchkes and extras:

• Collector’s box
• Arcade instruction panel
• Soundtrack
• An original A4 art file

Akai Katana Shin is currently scheduled to release on 15 December for Nintendo Switch, PS4, Steam and Xbone. You can preorder the game at most Japanese game retailers.

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