Layer Section & Galactic Attack’s First Update Comes Early to PS4 Version

The first update to Layer Section & Galactic Attack S-Tribute is out on PlayStation 4, bringing a few quality of life upgrades to the Saturn classic.

The patch dropped today ahead of a previously announced June release, with publisher City Connection promising it would come to the Switch and Xbox One versions “soon.”

There’s no mention of the Steam version getting the patch — presumably, that’s just an oversight on their part.

According to the official website, the new version adds the following adjustments and features:

• Modified the button configuration function. Super Rapid (Shot 30/s) can now be assigned separately from the normal shot (Shot 15/s). In addition, shortcut commands such as Laser 10/s, Rewind, and Quick Save can be freely assigned to buttons.
• You can now use Super Rapid (Shot 30/s) in the online ranking mode.
• Support has been added for both 90° and 270° screen rotation functions. When rotating the screen (when SCREEN is set to ARCADE), the screen rotation direction can be changed by switching Screen Flip in Screen Settings.
• Added the ability to swap playing sides. You can now start on the 2P side when only 1 player. This can be set by toggling Player under Extra Option.
• Adjusted the appearance of some wallpapers. The boundary between the main game screen and the wallpaper (background outside the game) has been made clearer.
• Reduced darkening of the game screen when the menu is open to make scan line settings more visible.

Aside from the early release, none of these features were a surprise — they were announced when the game launched in the West on April 28.

The game is on the PlayStation Network here. And the eShop here. And the Microsoft Store here. And Steam here. It costs US$29.99 on all platforms.

Galactic Attack is a vertically scrolling shmup known by many names. It was developed in 1994 by Taito for arcades where in Japan and North America it was called Rayforce, and in Europe it was called Gunlock. It was ported to the Saturn by Ving in 1995 as Layer Section in Japan and as Galactic Attack in North America and Europe.

City Connection’s release includes modern features like rewind, slow mode, save states, rapid fire settings, tate mode, scanlines and online leaderboards.

During an April 2 livestream announcing Layer Section & Galactic Attack, City Connection announced their intention to bring several other Saturn games from Taito to modern consoles: Puzzle Bobble 2X & 3, Elevator Action Returns, Metal Black and Cleopatra Fortune.

City Connection released Cotton 2, Cotton Boomerang and Guardian Force on the Switch and PlayStation 4 last year under the “Saturn Tribute” banner.

Saturn Tribute — or now “S-Tribute” — games are the Saturn originals running on what City Connection calls the Zebra Engine, which dataminers have found appears to be a modified version of the SSF emulator.