#shooter
#shooter
by Amr (@siegarettes)
“A game ultimately based on capitalism”. That’s the way SEGA producer Yosuke Okunari described Fantasy Zone, in an interview on its 3DS remaster. Given its roots as an arcade game, that’s not too far from the truth. Amidst its cute aesthetics is a game not scared to play rough, to rob you of both your quarters and the in game currency you use to keep yourself capable of fighting back. The SEGA AGES release gives you ways to adjust how rough you want to play, but it’s still that same arcade game, and it’s gonna make you work. Instead it finds an interesting new way to rebalance the game: creating generational wealth.
by Amr (@siegarettes)
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.
by Amr (@siegarettes)
Pawarumi
Developer: Manufacture43
Publisher: Manufacture43
Switch, PC, Xbox One, PS4
Sporting a multiple weapon system and three color polarity system, Pawarumi might immediately bring to mind Treasure’s shooter diptych of Radiant Silvergun and Ikaruga. But while it clearly draws inspiration from the two, Pawarumi is both simpler and more complex. It frequently overwhelms, but is balanced by allowing some messiness. Pawarumi might be balanced around a triangle of weapons, but it’s often a game of dichotomies.
At the heart of Pawarumi is its three color weapon system. Red lasers home in on enemies, the green wave beam hits a wide area directly ahead, and the blue laser inflicts direct, steady damage in a small area. At first, Pawarumi seem follows the usual STG weapon balance, trading off between covering wider angles and doing direct damage. This is unfortunately undercut by two factors.
by Amr (@siegarettes)
From mechanics, aesthetics, down to the extra modes and gameplay options, Devil Engine is saturated with homage to arcade shooters, new and old. It’d be easy to catalog them, and breakdown every influence it takes from its arcade family. But in the heat of the action, Devil Engine gave me an almost racer like vibe. Momentum is deeply important, and losing it feels a lot like running yourself off the road. Knowing how to control my speed and where to attack the stage’s corners and enemy formations is key. Explaining exactly why is complicated, so let’s break it down.
by Amr (@siegarettes)
Presented entirely in white silhouette, SilverFrame translates the acrobatic combat and wild missile trajectories of anime space operas into streaks of white that cut through the shadow of space. Each encounter is a dance between missiles, with your craft changing between jet and mech form, easing from and moving into being the leader.
by Amr (@siegarettes)
For my money the war in the Middle East, at least within fiction, is separated by two eras: The Bush and Obama Eras. The first marked by “shock and awe” bombing campaigns and boots-on-the-ground military action, and the latter defined by the increase of drone warfare and escalating tech fetishism. Insurgency: Sandstorm is strictly rooted in that Bush Era, War on Terror understanding of the Middle East, and while it’s not any more morally comfortable, there’s a certain fervor to the era’s perspective that feels anachronistic today. It’s in the very name: the idea of an insurgency feels outdated, and its presentation of the insurgent enemies certainly is.
by Amr (@siegarettes)
By the time I’d got around to playing games, I’d associated Atari more with middling licensed Dragon Ball Z games than their early videogame contributions. By the time the last generation ended, Atari had pretty much become a company failing to capitalize on those early games with middling remakes and reboots. So it’s a trip to see the Atari logo on a new game, let alone a new Tempest. Doubly so, considering it was just three years ago that the previous incarnation of Atari had threatened legal action against Jeff Minter for his work on TxK for its resemblance to Tempest 2000, a Tempest remake he created for Atari.
Given that context, Tempest 4000 almost feels like an apology to Minter. It’s recognition of the absurdity of the situation created by the previous holders of the Atari name, and an invitation to make it good by paying Minter to return to the well. And Minter isn’t shy about returning to the source.
A storm of pulsing beats and raucous feedback, Rym9000’s psychedelic visage obfuscates what is otherwise a straightforward shooter. Its draw is in the aesthetic exercise. Its unrestrained use of color creates an intense energy that never lets up, and the soundtrack continues that high. The waves of enemies come in familiar patterns, smartly placed to provide a steady rhythm. Each explosion lets off another burst of blown out sound and feedback to complement that rhythm. All of this is covered in severe visual artifacts, distorting the view and giving Rym9000 the look of an image file trying to constantly recover its data from corruption.
