In February 2012 Under Defeat HD was released in japan for the Xbox 360 and PS3 and the same year's fall, will mark the first time Under Defeat HD is released worldwide courtesy of Rising Star Games. The original Under Defeat is a game that have been throughout arcades and the dreamcast, released about six years ago in japan(seven when it comes to the arcade version), and it was developed by G.Rev, a developer mostly known for their collaborations with Treasure for the development of Ikaruga and Gradius V, and while Under Defeat HD isn't close to the quality of those shooters, it is certainly a great game.

Under Defeat is a vertical shooter, that relies on bullet pattern and not so much on environmental threats nor physical attack patterns from enemies, that would lead to think the game is a bullet hell, but it isn't, the hitbox is not nearly as big and the bullets barely cover the whole screen, it is only close to be a bullet hell at the final boss fight.

The game relies on a few simple mechanics that are easy to understand but doesn't make the game necessarily easy; these are the machine gun(which is the player's main attack), bombs(which will attack all the enemies on the screen) and options(which are weapons assist, these can be released by pressing the attack button at any time, and once destroyed the player will have wait until they are ready to be released again). The latter can be changed through out the whole game by taking the objects that enemies leave after being destroyed, with three different kinds of options available. The scoring system relies on those too, with "point modifiers" that will multiply the score the player gets by killing enemies with the amount of enemies killed(or objects destroyed) at that time by the option, leading to a easy to learn hard to master scoring system. Another main mechanic is the ability to rotate the helicopter to attack in different angles, but it doesn't mean the player can completely rotate the helicopter to attack from behind since this movement is limited; if the player moves without shooting, the helicopter will turn to that particular angle, and shooting will lock its position.

While the boss fights are certainly a highlight of the game, they are also limited to a certain amount of time before the boss is destroyed and not by the player, this lead to a either "survive" or "defeat it" boss fight that might not be appreciated by every STG fan, but also feels incredibly rewarding to defeat a boss fight before the time runs out. The difficulty of the game is well balanced, and the game rewards players with more credits the more playtime they have(similar to gradius V), but just like most of the other arcade shooters, once a credit is used, the game resets the score. Progression in the game is similar to other arcade like shooters, it’s al about completing a stage and moving forward to the next one, with the game featuring 5 stages and harder variations.

Under Defeat HD features extra content, including the ability to use the dual analog stick to attack in different angles, as well as a new order mode, which will use the whole widescreen to be played, and with more space, G.Rev added more enemies to this mode.It is no secret that the game was made over half a decade ago, and its HD version barely tries to hide it, with incredibly simple details in the enviroment and water animations, yet it manage look really good in HD, specially the new order mode and the particle effect remains impressive even after all these years. G.Rev's love for great explosions effects is still notable in the game regardless of the amount of time that have passed since the game's release. It's hard to deny the effort G.Rev put to make Under Defeat, it's a polished game with some unique mechanics and great boss fights, but with such mechanics and design it's not hard to see why some people won't be able to get into it.

(All the information previously mentioned was written with the japanese version in mind)

Under Defeat HD Deluxe Edition(name that RSG chose for the American and European releases) will feature all the DLC available for the japanese version, a soundtrack disc, a digital art book, and a letter from the executive producer of the game, Hiroyuki Maruyama; and it will be released for 30$ on the PS3 and Xbox 360 in Europe and exclusively for the PS3 in America.