After Battle Garegga, Batrider can seem like a bit of a step back. The design isn't nearly as memorable and it doesn't innovate as much as the rank system, but it does more in variety that really pushes it to success.

The rank system starts fairly high (though not as difficult), the rank system also gains an improvement by being able to reduce it by grazing enemies. Bullets are now more colorful and avoidable, and there's a staggeringly high amount of characters (16!) in 3-ship teams that count as lives. It also has a good set of difficulty levels to welcome new shmup players and hardcore fans alike, and even makes good shout outs to Battle Garegga.

Want to introduce vertical shmups to a friend? Batrider is quite playable with a goofy premise (fighting crime in 2019 with psychics, police, and criminals!) and each player has their own unique shot style and bomb special. Play it, play it, and play it some more across 8 stages of fun!