Monday 19 February, 2007

So I dusted off my old CH050820 folder and took this for a spin again. After playing Perfect Cherry Blossom and Ikaruga so much, I noticed a few things about this game that made it different from the others. This game is an interesting mix between manic shmup and classic shmup. There are certainly enough bullets on the screen to be considered manic at times, but the patterns are very very simple to dodge. The catch is that the volleys come at you so fast you really have to have your shit down if you want to make it out alive. The other thing that I noticed is that if you're hit, you're hit. There's no leeway that is so common with the traditional manic shooter. If any part of your ship touches any part of any bullet, you are hit.

So in this outing, I got to ... the end of level 2. Yeah, pretty pathetic considering I used to be able to get to the end of lv 6. Being used to the much more thought-inducing PCB and Ikaruga, I just didn't have the reflexes I needed at the time to take on the 2nd boss.

All in all, this is a very cool game. It has a very neat and fitting soundtrack, which I always love, very nice pixel animation, tight controls (perhaps a little too tight?), and very challenging gameplay. Most shmup fans will be right at home with this game. It's got the traditional fire and bomb buttons; use a bomb if you think you're gonna get screwed soon. This game has a shield powerup, which allows your ship to get hit one time without losing a life. However, you can only carry one at a time, so if you get hit, the next hit will kill you unless you find another. You have your weapon powerups and extra bombs to collect as well. Very solid. My only complaint is that the background never changes. Oh well.

Got to Stage 7 (2-0) today. I can solidly say that I am very impressed with this game. The background finally changes at stage 7, and so does the difficulty. The boss(es?) are no longer mere ships. Somewhere around 7, they change into fully fledged destroyers. They no longer even fit on the entire screen. Considerably difficult.