Actually, the Interstate/Kaneko shooters on the PC Engine are Star Parodier,
Super Star Soldier, Aero Blasters, Nexzr, and Nexzr Special. Quality stuff,
that's for sure. However, Red (of Genjin/Bonk fame) did Gate of Thunder, as
well as Winds (Lords) of Thunder...and those are two favorite shooters on the
system (their other two shooters were PC Denjin and CD Denjin).
Unfortunately, the only real significant visibility of Red nowadays seems to
be Sakura Taisen...and I'm not even sure of the scope of their contribution
to that any longer, as Overworks seemingly was the main developer for Sakura
Taisen 3 on Dreamcast. I think when most people think of Red Company, they
think of Bonk...but they are responsible for other bits of gaming joy...from
the Tengai Makyo series to Galaxy Fraulein Yuna to games like Thousand Arms
on PlayStation and Hagane (a really great action game) on Super Nintendo.
I've seen mention here and there of Red doing a new Tengai Makyo game for
Sony...but that rumor has been floundering about for quite some time. I also
read somewhere that Tengai Makyo was also coming to GameBoy Advance. Bah...I
won't believe any of it until I see it...especially given that Tengai Makyo
III was originally coming to PC Engine...then PC-FX...then nowhere, thus
skipping a game in the sequence and causing some people to start referring to
Fuun Kabuki Den as Tengai Makyo III. Given that it's been around eight years
give or take since the last "Thunder" game, I suppose we shouldn't hold our
breath for another chapter of sorts. Some people will, though. I once knew
a guy who, upon the realization that Data West was making PlayStation games
awhile back, "knew" that Rayzanber IV was coming. Uh...yeah. Wishful
thinking is all good and well, but small companies will only enter
development cycles with game genres that will make money (some disprove that
and release crap all of the time...and go out of business)...and certainly a
shooter (without big Gradius-like recognition) isn't an entirely good move in
today's market (unless, of course, Capcom will handle your
distribution...heh) if you are small and release relatively few games (and
you aren't known for your shooters...like Cave, Psikyo, Takumi, and 8ing).
God, I'm rambling on here, but, although we are talking about two different
companies here, it sure is nice to be able to go back and play quality games
from two companies who cared about the PC Engine. By the way, what ever
happened to Kaneko anyway?