Apidya Special Key Art
Image: Team Apidya, ININ

While 'Euroshmup' might be a term of derision in some quarters (usually referring to arcade shooters with bullet-spongey enemies and chunky hitboxes, rendering you very vulnerable to bullets), there's something to be said for the Amiga's best, featuring some very creative visuals, often great music, and strange concepts. Apidya - a game where you play as a very angry little wasp, blasting through a miniature world - ticked all three boxes, and it's getting a chance to do it again with yesterday's release of Apidya' Special.

Developed by the original Amiga crew plus one dedicated fan, Apidya Special isn't just the game running in an emulator. Rather, it's a full remake built for modern systems, but using many of the original game's assets. While you can play this version in classic 4:3 mode with the original art, the big feature here is native widescreen support, featuring all-new background art, mostly taken from a cancelled '90s console port. They're lovely backdrops too, and a significant step up over those iconic Amiga gradients, too.

The remake also adds co-op and some additional graphical details, like drop-shadows to help differentiate bullets and player sprites from the backgrounds, but this one seems to be a surprisingly authentic remake. More of an idealized version of the original Amiga release than a reimagining - the game that the original team would have made back in 1992, with the only major additions seemingly being some secret bonus areas and some random events like a visually remixed 'night mode'.

Despite being book-ended with anime-inspired cutscenes blaming all of the game's weirdness on an evil wizard, there's little to hint at that in Apidya's very non-anime levels. It's a very Amiga-esque psychedelic trip through a stream-of-consciousness world. Your little hero-turned-wasp gets to fly through lush gardens, modern-day sewers (including one particularly grisly boss fight against a parasite-infested rat corpse), and an alien space station seemingly populated by enemies lifted from the Turrican series. It is never explained why wizards and sword-swinging anime heroes in thatched-roof cottages coexist with modern sewer systems and aliens. Don't think too hard about it.

Speaking of Turrican, Amiga musical legend Chris Hülsbeck (also known for his work on Turrican) returns for this remake, providing new modern covers of his original tracks. Same classic melodies, but now free of the Amiga's distinctive but low-fi audio hardware. There are some other audio upgrades here, with crisp and clear new sound effects, an enthusiastic Japanese-accented narrator yelling at the start of each stage.

Apidya' Special is out now for £17.75/$20, with a 10% launch discount. While not an unreasonable price for a retro arcade remake (I remember when shmups were premium $60+ games), that's perhaps a bit steep for the casual market these days, which might explain why there are only eleven user reviews at the time of writing. All eleven are glowingly positive, though, so it seems this one stuck the landing.

Apidya' Legends is also available in a bundle with the remake of X-Out, another German-made Amiga shooter which has been well received within its niche, too.