by Amr (@siegarettes)

• Ghost Blade HD
• Developer: HuCast Games
• Publisher: Eastasiasoft 
• Switch, PC, PS4, Wii U

Made in the mold of CAVE’s DoDonPachi shooters, Ghost Blade HD takes on its familiar shooter staples, and replaces its anime schoolgirls with cheesecake pinup girls in lingerie. But that’s about as much color you’ll see from Ghost Blade. The problem with imitating the best in the genre is that you’ll be judged on the same standards. By comparison, Ghost Blade can come off as the bar top touchscreen version of a game you already know. Its fine–entertaining and solidly made, but otherwise aggressively average. 

Small details continue to hold it back. Artwork is clean, with backgrounds given a good amount of attention, even looking great at moments, but enemy ships and animations are underwhelming. Ships are composed mostly of combinations of simple geometry, lacking strong silhouettes or evocative designs. Animation is similarly sparse, with only a little tilt or rotation on most enemies, and even bosses. 

Sound design is where Ghost Blade suffers the most. Explosions give off low rumbles instead of fiery bursts, and collecting medals sounds more like opening a cash register than obtaining a satisfying pickup. I don’t often talk sound design since its a factor that only stands out to me if its either impressive or deeply disappointing, but Ghost Blade served as a reminder of how much sound can support the percussive rhythms of an action game. 

Ghost Blade relies mostly on its bullet patterns to add movement and draw interest.This is where it’s most successfully. The patterns themselves are rather standard, without the standout variations that make up more memorable games, but they work. They keep you moving and make each space dynamic.

That dynamism kept me playing Ghost Blade through its short runtime. There was enough in the simple ebb and flow of bullets to keep me engaged and returning for another run, seeing if I could achieve better combos and scores. Ghost Blade is beyond conventional–every idea here has been explored, and much better, by plenty of other shooters. But despite that it remains enjoyable, even if it won’t exactly linger in the memory past its runtime.