Battle Garegga, arcade refinement above the skies of the Revolution!: the verdict of The Games Market editorial team is 9/10.
Once Upon a Time
Battle Garegga, arcade refinement above the skies of the Revolution!
by Simon Larocca·January 14, 2026
The arcades of the Nineties were not just places to hang out to escape the math oral exam: an arcade was first and foremost an alternative world, a save point of lights and sounds where you could recharge your batteries with 200-lira tokens, a place with its own internal dynamics, rules of behavior, respect among players, and the inevitable little group of older boys smoking in the corner, exchanging secrets and curiosities about the latest video game release. And when the manager placed two cabinets side by side that offered the same genre, the challenge began over which game was the better one: I remember well my first match of Battle Garegga, a ’96 shooter that became a regular appointment for people like me, raised on bread and dodge moves.
The home conversion took place in 1998, bringing to Sega Saturn what for me remains one of the most interesting shoot’em up projects ever.
Il gioco fu pubblicato da Eighting, practically one of the pillars in Japan for quanto riguarda the development and publication of shooter titles: vi basterà fare a brief search on the internet to learn more, ma al momento vi basti sapere che the company non only is still firmly in activity, ma has given rise to very important titles such as 1944: The Loop Master, one of the thousand-thousand chapters of the 194x saga and the main “discipline” even today for quanto riguarda the Time Attack events in the Land of the Rising Sun.
Ma let's return to Battle Garegga and its Hollywood blockbuster vibes: the plot sees us dealing with a warmongering system driven by profit at the expense of the lives of innocent citizens. The Federation, in fact, after commissioning the sons of a visionary mechanical genius, exploits the brand-new upgrades of air and ground vehicles to raze the nation's cities to the ground, including the hometown of the protagonists Brian and Jason! A vile and absolutely cruel act, and so the two brothers, a bit like in Double Dragon but without any girls involved to punch over, decide to board the high-tech aircraft they designed to destroy once and for all the evil and dictatorial Federation!
Battle Garegga is a classic vertical scrolling shooter: optimized for two players, it can also be played in single player, even though, like many titles of this kind that support it, it is much more exciting when tackling the campaign side by side with a friend (or girlfriend).
Se avete giocato a Donpachi o il mitico Raiden (riproposto anche da Nintendo Switch in un’edizione da collezione bellissima) sapete a cosa andrete incontro: hordes of enemy aircraft that will shoot at you continuously from all over the screen in full bullet hell style, tough and deadly tanks, giant bombers that are almost impossible to bring down, and showers of bullets, in two, three or even four “pellets” that will become increasingly harder to avoid with dodge movements, the shoot’em up equivalent of the current rolls that are so fashionable in soulslikes, to be clear.
Graphically, Battle Garegga is a spectacle, with a 2048-color palette, exceptionally rendered explosions, and carefully crafted level design; the backgrounds evocatively draw on the alternate-history setting in which the story unfolds, a post-Industrial Revolution world where the military atmosphere of the nation governed by the Federation is reflected in the gloom of the proposed scenarios. Every level is a battlefield, the fighting rages on Earth as well as above the clouds, where monorails of factories built in the sky transport armaments and new instruments of death. The Saturn does an excellent job with the port, and Battle Garegga ennobles it with its refined gameplay: who knows whether those kids, now adults, still exchange opinions about games, now that arcades have become a bittersweet distant memory.
9
Pro
Battle Garegga for Saturn is one of the most beautiful and complete shooter titles you will ever play on a console. Okay, I said it
Studying enemy patterns, especially bosses and mini-bosses, is stimulating and anything but boring: the strategic aspect that Battle Garegga brings into play is first-rate
A spectacle of stray bullets and exhilarating sound effects as satisfying as the feeling of mowing down hordes of enemies; for bullet hell fans, it’s heaven sent...
Contro
…but in fact, as a bullet hell, it turns out to be atypical because of its desire to make it as accessible as possible to everyone, even to those who are not familiar with the subgenre: this might disappoint (but only a little) those who prefer a bullet inferno that is almost impossible to dodge, and above all constant, throughout the entire game
Simon Larocca
Mi chiamo Simon Larocca, e sono un videogiocatore, collezionista e amante della cultura pop in tutte le sue forme. Vado al cinema ogni volta che posso, leggo da quando porto gli occhiali, quindi da sempre, e ho la passione per lo storytelling in tutte le sue forme, così dirompente da farla diventare una professione. Ma come direbbe Doc di Ritorno al Futuro, non ci sarebbe presente se non si guardasse al passato con rispetto e ammirazione, ed è il Simon bambino di più di trent’anni fa, anno più anno meno.
Simon Larocca
Mi chiamo Simon Larocca, e sono un videogiocatore, collezionista e amante della cultura pop in tutte le sue forme. Vado al cinema ogni volta che posso, leggo da quando porto gli occhiali, quindi da sempre, e ho la passione per lo storytelling in tutte le sue forme, così dirompente da farla diventare una professione. Ma come direbbe Doc di Ritorno al Futuro, non ci sarebbe presente se non si guardasse al passato con rispetto e ammirazione, ed è il Simon bambino di più di trent’anni fa, anno più anno meno.
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