( Double posting from the glorious shmup thread... )
There is a new
Japanese shmup release for Switch and Xbox One that seems to have been completely ignored in STG communities.
Its name is '
Alien Cruise', and it's
one of the weirdest shmups ever made.
The game is a love letter to the '
Gradius' and '
Parodius' series, being a horizontal shmup in which the obstacles in the scenario are a significant part of the level design, following a tradition of memorization shmups from the mid 80s and early 90s.
It remembers me A LOT to '
Cambria Sword' in its WILD spirit: it's a flawed game, far from being a classic, with some disappointing things like the sound design (probably, the worst sound design that I have ever found in a Japanese shmup).
But oh man, like 'Cambria Sword', this game is one of the most insane accumulations of crazy and weird ideas, with every segment of the game blowing your head with its level of madness.
A showcase of fucking gigantic enemies after fucking gigantic enemies, with a level of surrealness on par with '
PuLiRuLa'. And tons of homages to
Konami classics like the volcanoes from 'Darius', and constant changes in the gameplay mechanics with every crazy idea from a brain consumed by psychedelic drugs thrown into the mix.
With a distinctive comic look, making of this one of the most creative artistic designs that I have found in a shooting game.
It really remembers me to some of the most obscure titles released for the
PC Engine, with echoes of '
Cho Aniki', '
Hana Taaka Daka!?', '
L-Dis', '
God Panic'... YEAH, that level of madness.
The weapon system sucks, with TOO many weapons, every one intended to play a different segment... I think that a system with less weapons, but upgrading these through the accumulation of power-ups, should have worked much better.
And because the sub-par sound design, the feeling of destroying things which is a seminal part of the shmup experience, it's not very accomplished.
But the game is so damn creative and weird, and so varied and surprising with each level feeling completely different in a '
Genetos' way, that at the end of the day you will forgive its flaws, playing this with a smile of pure happiness on your face.
And it's one of the rare contemporary shumps with
a two players local co-op mode.