is a

fixed shooter Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs ) are a Video game genre, sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certai ...

arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

developed by Crux and published by

Sega is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...

on June

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

. In the game, players battle against the invading Aquila

nation A nation is a community of people formed on the basis of a combination of shared features such as language, history, ethnicity, culture and/or society. A nation is thus the collective identity of a group of people understood as defined by those ...

to defend

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

from

world domination World domination (also called global domination or world conquest or cosmocracy) is a hypothetical power structure, either achieved or aspired to, in which a single political authority holds the power over all or virtually all the inhabitants ...

. The title is notable for being created by most of the same team that previously worked on several projects at Orca and Crux before both companies declared

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

, after which a group of employees from the two gaming divisions would go on to form

Toaplan was a Japanese video game developer based in Tokyo responsible for the creation of a wide array of Shoot 'em up#Scrolling shooters, scrolling shooters and other arcade games. The company was founded in 1979 but its gaming division was establis ...

Gameplay

''Repulse'' is a fixed shooter game reminiscent of ''

Space Invaders is a 1978 shoot 'em up arcade game developed by Tomohiro Nishikado. It was manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and licensed to the Midway division of Bally for overseas distribution. ''Space Invaders'' was the first fixed shooter and set ...

'' and ''

Phoenix Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...

'', in which the player controls a

laser cannon A laser weapon is a directed-energy weapon based on lasers. After decades of R&D, directed-energy weapons including lasers are still at the experimental stage and it remains to be seen if or when they will be deployed as practical, high-perfo ...

by moving it across the bottom of the screen and firing at robotic enemies and descending alien spaceships through six stages, five of which host a

boss Boss may refer to: Occupations * Supervisor, often referred to as boss * Air boss, more formally, air officer, the person in charge of aircraft operations on an aircraft carrier * Crime boss, the head of a criminal organization * Fire boss, a ...

at the end that must be defeated in order to progress further. The players' laser cannon is equipped with a limited

force shield In speculative fiction, a force field, sometimes known as an energy shield, force shield, energy bubble or deflector shield, is a barrier made of things like energy, negative energy, dark energy, electromagnetic fields, gravitational fields, ...

to endure any kind of enemy attacks, though its energy drains both while activated and whenever the ship gets hit.

Power-up In video games, a power-up is an object that adds temporary benefits or extra abilities to the player character as a game mechanic. This is in contrast to an item, which may or may not have a permanent benefit that can be used at any time chosen ...

s are dropped by ally

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

s and ships that bring to the players a faster shot than the normal one and refills the laser cannon's force field meter.''Repulse'' 取扱説明書 (Arcade, JP) Reaching certain score thresholds by shooting at the enemies results in extra lives. Once all lives are lost, The game is over, unless the player inserts more credits into the arcade machine to continue playing.

Development and release

''Repulse'' was created by most of the same team that previously worked on several projects at Orca and Crux before both companies declared bankruptcy, after which a group of employees from the two gaming divisions would go on to form Toaplan.
Translation
by Gamengai. ).
Translation
by Shmuplations. ).
Translation
by Shmuplations. ). Shunkō Miki served as the project's

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''Di ...

, who shared the role of

programmer A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software. A programmer is someone who writes/creates ...

with

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

Tatsuya Uemura is a Japanese arcade game musician and programmer. He has composed the following scores for arcade games: *''Flying Shark'' *''Tiger-Heli'' *''Guardian'' *'' Hellfire'' *''Twin Cobra'' *'' Out Zone'' *'' Dogyuun'' *''Zero Wing'' (with Toshiaki ...

alongside

designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exp ...

s Atsushi Kawaguchi, Hiroyasu Kobayashi and Minoru Harada. Uemura recounted the title's development process and history through various Japanese publications, stating that development lasted six months and worked on the project in conjunction with '' Performan'' for Toaplan, who recruited him for

sound design Sound design is the art and practice of creating sound tracks for a variety of needs. It involves specifying, acquiring or creating auditory elements using audio production techniques and tools. It is employed in a variety of disciplines including ...

, while he still formed part of Crux. ''Repulse'' was released in arcades by Sega in June 1985. The game was one of the three titles that ran on Sega's Kyugo hardware. It was later renamed ''99: The Last War'' when licensed to Kyugo, who developed the hardware, and Proma.

Reception and legacy

Though ''Repulse'' saw success in its first few months on the market, the game did not garner attention from arcade players. The project became the last title developed by Crux to be released, as the company was dissolved during its development due to bankruptcy. Most of the former Crux members would later join Toaplan. A bootleg version of the game titled ''Son of Phoenix'' was also released.

Notes

References

External links

99: The Last War''
at

GameFAQs GameFAQs is a website that hosts FAQs and walkthroughs for video games. It was created in November 1995 by Jeff Veasey and was bought by CNET Networks in May 2003. It is currently owned by Fandom, Inc. since October 2022. The site has a databa ...

99: The Last War''
at

Killer List of Videogames Killer List of Videogames (KLOV) is a website featuring an online encyclopedia devoted to cataloging arcade games past and present. It is the video game department of the International Arcade Museum, and has been referred to as "the IMDb for pla ...

''Repulse''
at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Repulse (arcade game) 1985 video games Arcade video games Arcade-only video games Fixed shooters Science fiction video games Sega arcade games Tank simulation video games Video games developed in Japan Video games scored by Tatsuya Uemura