Incredible port of one of CAVE's best arcade shmups - take my review of the original DOJ and paste it here. What's new is a maybe-too-easy Super Easy mode, some varied, tricky alternative arranges, and an array of quality of life features like M2's signature info gadgets, hitbox indicator toggles, and in-depth practice options for individual areas.

Lately I've been using shmups as games I only play while exercising on my spin bike - the focused required for these games keeps me in the zone and prevents me from getting bored and quitting my ride early. Some of the trickier bullet patterns become way more challenging this way, however the approach is quickly making me a better player overall and opening up the fun of the genre through repeated play. For now this one goes back on the shelf as I explore more shmups but there's definitely plenty more here for when I eventually circle back.

Unique, ambitious, and far ahead of its time, SOS (aka Septentrion) is an adventure platformer that thrusts you on a sinking ship. Over the course of a real time hour, you have the option to save several passengers or leave them behind. Depending on who you save, you get a different ending. As the time progresses, the ship wobbles and tilts, sometimes 45 degrees, sometimes 90, sometimes more. With this in mind, platforming becomes focused on strategic maneuvers to prevent characters from falling to their death. The Mode 7 work here is really impressive, rotating the sprites around in a way that I haven't seen before on the SNES.

With that all said, this is a game to be appreciated from afar, through longplays and such, rather than playing it in my opinion. The controls are quite cumbersome and the NPC AI is really clumsy and often feels frustratingly suicidal. The concept and mechanics here are really cool though, the devs of this would go on to refine a lot of what's here for their later games like the beloved Clock Tower.

Pro-tip: you can freely reroll your drink selection by Save+Quit then Continue. Tune the game to your difficulty by re-rolling abilities as needed.

Definitely a grower, OTXO is a tough as nails twin stick roguelike inspired by Hotline Miami. The ability modifiers really open this game up in cool ways, dual wield SMGs, get a support drone, splatter enemies. All paired with a combo system that rewards wreckless aggression. Sprint from enemy to enemy to rack up a combo, then use that gold to buy more abilities so you can build a better combo to get more gold etc etc etc.

There's a few balancing issues with some abilities being near useless while others being almost required for a good run (I'm looking at you drone support and dual wielding). Additionally readability can be a bit tough due to the limited color palette.

Overall though, this hooked me hard for a couple of days, a solid experience.

It seems a bit silly to complain about readability when talking about a bullet hell shmup, a subgenre known for overstimulating maximalism, but it's one of the things that keeps Crimzon Clover from reaching the highs of top tier shmups like Ketsui and Mushi. With Cave's best stuff, while the patterns may be intimidating, they've always felt fair to me - on the other hand Crimzon Clover adds collecting stars that cover the screen and multiplier numbers popping up, muddying up the screen and making things seem unfair at times. Sure it's probably partially a skill issue, but the overload makes it hard to convince me to 1cc, even on Novice.

Picked this up immediately after getting my PS5, then went on to immediately 1cc Super Easy mode? Maybe I am godlike at games??

Ketsui is shmup perfection - Cave firing at all cylinders. On its face its quite accessible - one button to fire, one button to auto-fire, one button for limited use bombs (which clear the screen of any bullet patterns and do damage to enemies) and the option to hold the fire button to shoot homing fire with an extra laser beam (at the expense of shot spread and speed). From the simple controls, Ketsui shines through its excellent enemy arrangements, bullet patterns, and upgrade/scoring mechanics. The art is incredible, pulling inspiration from mecha anime like NGE mixed with a sort of Metal Slug-esque military vibe that looks great in pixel art form. Paired with some really excellent techno / d'n'b in the score, Ketsui just feels really satisfying to look at and fall into.

I joked about being super good at games at the top after 1cc'ing Super Easy mode but I have to say Super Easy mode is really accessible and surprisingly clearable for newcomers - the biggest two draws here are more reasonable bullet patterns and the auto-bomb feature. On super-easy you start with six bombs per life (and three lives) - auto-bombs will automatically deploy one of these bombs if you are hit - meaning that you essentially have seven hits per life, with six of those clearing the board for you. Paired with additional bombs on stages and extra lives stemming from score rollover and hidden in stages, you can easily take 20-30 hits in one credit. Compared to arcade mode with no auto-bombs where you have 3 hits per credit, it feels like a great way to begin your journey into shmups without feeling like you need to enter the matrix.

M2 did a sublime job with this remastered port - adding some great additional modes (super easy as well as a rearranged "Deathtiny mode), challenge modes where you practice stages in chunks, and Bonds of Growth where you can practice areas you specifically have struggled with (based on your gameplay data). The packaging of all of this is really clean and accessible with some great art and additional stats and resources.

I can't wait to see how the DoDonPachi DaiOuJou remaster turns out later this year - M2 has shown that they're well equipped to knock it out of the park.

Somehow managed to 1cc novice on my first try - and I thought I was bad at games.

I really dig the slowdown mechanic here - there's a nice risk / reward of slowing bullet patterns down to avoid damage but lose gems vs tanking damage and maintaining your resources. Speaking of tanking damage - this is a bit different than the other Cave shmups I've played so far insofar as you have a visible health bar rather than instantly falling to a single shot. This combined with the slowdown makes Espgaluda II much more accessible for those learning shmups and looking to dive in further.

The Switch version runs great, this feels like a great game on the go - if you're a real freak you can pick up a flip-grip to play portably in vertical mode.

+ the atmosphere of the office space in this version is very liminal, with its wood paneled walls and green carpeting
+ the core conceit and themes that Stanley Parable would go on to refine and retell are all here
+ the writing and narration is nearly as great as the final version

- some of the reused half-life 2 assets feel a bit haphazard and detract from the theming a bit
- the narrator is more directly antagonistic here which makes it feel a bit more flat
- the branching paths are here, but much more limited, which in turns limits the comedic potential

Overall a solid prototype for what The Stanley Parable would become but this should only be played by completionists as the later versions cover the same ground much better.