M2 used the same M2 Shot Triggers 10th Anniversary Festival in Tokyo on October 10, 2026 that produced yesterday’s Devil Blade Reboot and Data East announcements to confirm a home console release of Senxin Aleste (戦刃アレスタ), its vertical scrolling shooter that has been running in Japanese arcades since July 2021. The home version ships on March 18, 2027 for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 5, with physical and download editions on both consoles; a PlayStation 4 download version is also planned.
Senxin Aleste is the spiritual successor to Compile’s 1980s and 1990s Aleste series (Power Strike, Gunplex, GG Aleste), after Compile closed in 2002. M2 picked the series up under its M2 Shot Triggers brand with the blessing of the original creators. The arcade version has run on SEGA’s ALL.Net P-ras MULTI Version 3 board since July 15, 2021. The home release collects a faithful arcade port and a new mode built for consoles.
The package includes two modes. Senxin Aleste ORIGIN is the arcade game as it ran in Japanese game centers, plus M2’s signature M2 Gadget info overlay and a wallpaper mode for clean-screen play. Senxin Aleste BLADE is a new arrangement mode that adds the Blade Missile, a weapon that clears both enemies and enemy bullets at once. Players can also swap between the four playable characters on the fly instead of locking in a leader at the start. A training mode and a new strategy booklet, Latona’s Absolute Strategy Note, round out the package as a first-print bonus.
Pricing is set in yen only for now. The download version is ¥4,950, the standard package is ¥7,480, and the limited package is ¥11,880 (all tax inclusive). The limited edition adds a Cassio Matsushita-illustrated package, a Senxin Alesta Official Archive booklet, and a special soundtrack. CERO is listed as under review, and M2 has opened pre-orders on Amazon Japan for the Switch and PS5 physical editions.
This is a third announcement from the same October 10 M2 event, alongside the Devil Blade Reboot PS4 port and the Edward Ragtimeshow Data East Collection for Switch announcement. M2 president Naoki Horii opened the festival by thanking fans for ten years of M2 Shot Triggers, the company’s brand for retro ports and new shmups. Coverage from GameSpark and Denfaminicogamer is below; the official M2 site has the press release and screenshots.
Can you play it in English?
Not announced. M2 has not confirmed a Western release, and Senxin Aleste’s official pages exist only in Japanese. Switch and PS5 hardware are region-free, so an Asian import would boot on Western consoles, but PSN digital purchases are region-locked to the buyer’s account. M2 has published English versions of its Cave shmup ports on Switch, and Devil Blade Reboot is already in English on Steam, so an English localization is plausible but not confirmed. We have added Senxin Aleste to the Coming West? tracker as japan-only and will update the entry the moment M2 or a Western partner announces a release.
Our read
Senxin Aleste is the only brand-new shmup in the M2 Shot Triggers line, and the only one whose home version adds a new mode rather than just porting an arcade title. Every previous M2 Shot Triggers home release has been a faithful retro port: the Cave shmups, the Data East collection, the Egret II Mini lineup, and the recent Devil Blade Reboot PS4 port. The BLADE mode is the first time M2 has built console-exclusive content for a Shot Triggers game, which makes this a quiet test of whether M2’s audience will pay ¥11,880 (about $80) for a limited package that includes an original arrangement. Western shmup fans who import the standard download will get the new mode either way, but the limited package is the one to watch for whether M2’s brand can grow beyond faithful ports.
Edited by Kerwin Stewart, Editor-in-Chief · How we report
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