A cute little high score-based arena shmup. The gameplay loop itself is perfectly fine - just shoot a bunch of dudes - the presentation is clean, the player character is responsive and the obstacles are always clear and fair. The reason it doesn't get a higher rating from me is because it is just a bit bare - there is no variation in the environment at all, you're always playing in an empty rectangle, and what variations there are of the enemies don't make much of a meaningful difference in how they require you to engage with them. The biggest problem I have, though, is the audio mixing! This game is damn loud!! Even when I had my computer's volume down to a fraction of a fraction it's normally at, the sound when you get hit is still approximately 200% louder than the rest of the game (and I'm not exaggerating). It makes the game very, very difficult to keep playing. This might have been the kind of thing I come back to every now and then to beat my high score if the audio wasn't so violent. Solid title otherwise - would bump up the rating a little if there were volume options!!

The fact that everything is red is an interesting gimmick, but unfortunately makes it pretty annoying to play. The bullets, the backgrounds, the power ups and the collectibles are all the same white-and-red, which makes it terribly difficult to distinguish what's what once the screen starts filling up - and it fills up often. It also has a surprising amount of "scripted" sequences, which is to say, moments where the game stops so some guy can throw out a couple lines of annoyingly tedious dialogue that sounds like if Marvel movies were a little more liberal about swearing. I wouldn't mind if the dialogue happened in-between levels, or happened alongside the gameplay à la Katamari Damacy, but the game halts everything so you can mash through this stuff every single playthrough. The dialogue wasn't worth reading the first time, and it isn't worth reading the 20th time, I'm sorry! On top of all this, every single common enemy feels like it has a little more health than it should, possibly to account for how ridiculously overpowered the OVERLOAD mechanic is (an admittedly innovative take on a shmup's usual bomb mechanics). Because of this, none of the weapons really feel that great to use until they're completely powered up. So in total, we have a game that does a terribly job of visually communicating much of anything, with poorly written stop-and-go dialogue sequences that break the pacing every playthrough, with weapons that feel bad against these damage-sponge enemies... Maybe there's a good time to be had here if you're better at discerning between the exact same shades of red and white than I am, but even if the game made sense to look at I can't imagine anything here would really retain my attention for very long.

Controlling the player character with just the mouse was a fun idea that I was pleasantly surprised by. Unfortunately, the character has some kind of "easing" property which means it won't follow your mouse 1:1, but instead follows your mouse's inputs in a slower, "smoother" calculated line like a photostop brush. You can imagine that in a game like this that would be frustrating, and it is. At first it was inoffensive, a pretty uninspired shmup with the absolute fewest assets needed to make a game but by no means "bad," maybe just "lacking?" Until I reached the second level and saw it was basically identical to the first; which is to say, exactly one enemy type with exactly one bullet pattern, all bunched up at the top of the screen in the same area, just kind of sitting and waiting to be destroyed. The only difference in the second stage is that there were more of them, which shown a gigantic light on the problem with this method. A shmup lives and dies by its bullet patterns, and most games take great care to design them to be these beautiful, thoughtful math equations that guide the player to making deliberate decisions. This game, as I mentioned, has exactly one bullet pattern and just copy/pastes it all over the screen. This is "difficult," sure, like shmups are "supposed to be" (which I resent the notion of, but the notion does exist), though it's only "difficult" because there's no consideration for anything. It's "difficult" because there is no design, no art, just a whole bunch of Stuff happening all over the screen. The boss on the second stage was, predictably, the exact same as the boss on the first stage; same sprite, same bullet patterns, same lack of anything to make you care. The only difference this time is that, for some reason, in my playthrough it just stopped shooting bullets at all for maybe a minute or so and then the game crashed. Nothing in this game has inspired me to boot it back up ever again.

Far from being polished to a sheen, but that winds up actually being in the game's favor. Muddy colors on chunky pixels, groggy chiptunes with a gritted edge, and unceremonious, matter-of-fact information displays coalesce into a single monotonous-yet-classy adaptation of classic casino gambling games. Cards are presented without any animations and numbers go up or down in the blink of a single calculation. The uninterrupted repetition of these actions lulls into a sleepy malaise of simply going through the motions and observing which ways the numbers go. In a way it's hypnotic, almost trance-like or meditative, compared to other gambling games that chase the adrenaline high of screaming celebratory noises and flashing light shows upon hitting the jackpot on a slot machine. It's a good thing the PC Engine can't run real transactions with my actual money.

I just kinda can’t bring myself to finish this game. I played three hours (about half the game’s total runtime) over a month ago and found some shockingly honest themes and concepts which I was truly impressed by, but it’s so dismal and cruel that thinking about picking it back up again is exhausting. It’s too well-written to the point that the game definitely knows it’s well-written and lavishes in itself. A poignant critique of people who think they’re doing good and people who know they’re doing bad, strangely balanced by an oppressively bleak world view that seems to revel in pointing to someone new and saying “oh and by the way, this kind of person sucks too.” Feels a little like the kind of person who touts how intelligent they are by constantly talking about how awful the world is. Like yeah, you’re right, but going so far out of your way to find the flaw in everything kinda just makes me not want to talk to you.

Le vert colibri, le roi des collines,
Voyant la rosée et le soleil clair
Luire dans son nid tissé d'herbes fines,
Corme lm frais rayon s'échappe dans l'air.
II se hâte et vole aux sources voisines,
Ou les bambous font le bruit de la mer,
Ou I'aoka rouge aux odeurs divines
S'ouvre et porte au cœur un humide éclair.

Vers la fleur dorée il descend, se pose,
Et boit tant d'amour dans la coupe rose
Qu'il meurt, ne sachant s'il l'a pu tarir.

Sur ta lèvre pure, o ma bien-aimée,
Telle aussi mon âme eut voulu mourir,
Du premier baiser qui l'a parfumée.