During the M2 Shmups Thanksgiving Festival today, M2 president Naoki Horii announced that M2 has acquired the licensing to release (nearly) all Toaplan games onto modern platforms. [Thanks, Yosuke Okunari!]
For those unfamiliar with Toaplan, they were a famous arcade game and shoot ’em up developer in the 1980’s which sadly ended up declaring bankruptcy in 1994. Some of the developers would go on to create their own companies like Cave.
While he was unsure how long this plan would take, Horii said that M2 will work towards releasing all of them, barring the risque game like Mahjong Sisters, and Enma Daio. Aside from Toaplan’s shoot ’em up games, other genre titles like Wardner and Guardian are also planned to be part of this lineup. The Toaplan games are set to be brought to modern platforms beginning in 2020.
Toaplan games Twin Cobra and Truxton are currently available on smartphones, and it was announced that the issues those ports have with aspect ratios will be fixed.
Finally, it was announced that the Toaplan title Snow Bros. is coming to smartphones in the near future.
The Toaplan game revivals will begin in 2020. The game lineup will be announced at a later date.
