BONUS: Earthion Review (Steam / Steam Deck)

A new Mega Drive game being released in 2025 is hardly something that would shock anyone that's been paying attention to the indie and homebrew scenes. But, what if I told you said new game was developed by Yuzo Koshiro's company Ancient? Yes, THAT Yuzo Koshiro.

In this bonus episode, we're taking a look at the Steam version of Yuzo Koshiro's brand new shmup - EARTHION.

Yuzo Koshiro is a legendary name in the video game space. Most people associate him with Streets of Rage, Shinobi, maybe Etrian Odyssey for Atlus fans, and several other iconic soundtracks, including Shenmue and 8-bit Sonic the Hedgehog.

The legend is back and this time he decided to develop a brand new game for his beloved Mega Drive. A side-scrolling shoot'em-up built from the ground up to run on SEGA's 16-bit machine, called Earthion. For that, he teamed up with Makota Wada, the game's director, planner and programmer.

Earthion is, first and foremost, a Mega Drive/Genesis game. But to make sure everything's up to scratch for the cartridge release, Koshiro's Ancient decided to first release it on modern systems in emulated form. The Steam version is out at the time of this recording, with Switch, PS5 and PS4 and Xbox Series releases planned for September 2025. The 16-bit cartridge comes out in 2026 through Limited Run Games. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like the Mega Drive ROM will be sold in digital form, which is a bit of a shame.

The story is fairly straightforward, as it's to be expected from the genre. In the year 265 of the Sol Calendar, Earth's resources have been depleted and humanity has decided to leave the planet and settle on Mars. As they're migrating, mysterious invaders take advantage of this and take control of Earth. You're an environmental researcher turned fighter pilot who joins space force EARTHION to get revenge and take back the planet, aboard the newly developed YK-IIA.

Earthion is a beautiful game with gorgeous pixel graphics, reminiscent of the best we've seen on the Mega Drive. The eight stages are varied and colorful, and the game runs perfectly on my Steam Deck. One minor complaint I have, however, is the occasional lack of distinction between foreground and background elements, especially when some of them are just decorative, and others are obstacles you need to avoid. That is especially annoying when things get busy on screen, but something you'll eventually learn and remember as you replay the game.

A nice addition to the emulated versions is more options in terms of screen filters and frame overlays. You can choose graphical presets like CURVED or FLAT CRT, and SQUARE or SCALED PIXELS. And you even get granular control over how each of these look so you can create your own custom presets.

Shmups aren't really what I consider to be my jam. Don't get me wrong, they're usually awesome, especially ones released on the Mega Drive. Amazing graphics, tight gameplay, superb soundtracks, and that frantic feeling of "OMG what's happening, everything's on the screen at the same time". The issue with shmups is my lack of skill.

Earthion is quite challenging as well. When everything is coming at you at the same time and the screen is filled with enemy projectiles, environmental hazards and alien bogeys in the later stages, I believe even the more seasoned shmup fans will break a sweat.

That said, gameplay is fairly simple, with a main weapon and a sub-weapon, which can be fired individually or at the same time. You collect different sub-weapons and can swap between the ones you have equipped at any given time. Solrium gems, which are crystal-like collectibles of various sizes dropped by defeated enemies, power up your main and sub-weapon attacks. If you take damage, both your shield and shot power will decrease, but your shield recharges fairly quickly and collecting more gems helps you recover your attack power.

If you manage to collect and finish a stage with an Adaptation Pod equipped, you'll be able to upgrade one aspect of your ship - more shot power and shield slots, more sub-weapon slots, increased shot power, or a simple 1-UP, are all within your reach.

What makes this more interesting is that your progress can be carried over to subsequent playthroughs, whether you get a game over or if you manage to beat the game. You are given a password you can enter at the start of a new game to just pick up from where you left of in terms of ship upgrades. And as you collect more Adaptation Pods, you can just keep upgrading until you max out the different parts. This reward players regardless of their skill level, and motivated them to keep playing the game, even if they're finding it too challenging.

Sure, a save system would be preferred, but it's not like you can't take a screenshot of your password and save it for later. Having a password system also makes it completely optional to use, so if you're looking for more of a challenge, you can just skip that altogether. There are also optional challenges you can complete, which increase the replayability of the game.

As for sound design and music, Earthion is, to no one's surprise, amazing. Yuzo Koshiro was able to come up with a high energy sound signature, with hints of hope and dread at the right parts. I was reminded of Thunder Force and even Gunstar Heroes while playing this game. Certain sound effects also reminded me of previous Koshiro works. The man's still got it and Earthion's probably one of the best soundtracks on the Mega Drive, which is saying a lot.

I've played the game on my Steam Deck - both in handheld and docked modes - and thoroughly enjoyed (and am actually still enjoying) my time with it. Earthion is definitely recommended to both hardcore shmup fans and less skilled gamers. It will be interesting to see how the game runs on actual hardware when it comes out for the Mega Drive next year. For now, this is an incredible 16-bit shmup and all signs point toward a Mega Drive masterpiece being released in 2026.