Gundemonium Collection may be over a year old, but it just released on Steam with a few new features. This package of doujin shmups contains Gundemonium Recollection, its sequel GundeadliGne, and their vastly different prequel Hitogata Happa.

The most obvious changes in the Steam version are the remixed soundtracks. They’re quite a step up from the originals thanks to the talent of DM Ashura and Woofle (Dance Dance Revolution, Beatmania IIDX). You’ll also find a new online co-op mode for GundeadliGne allowing you to play with your Steam friends.

But I’m sure many out there haven’t had a chance to check out these games in the first place since they are a niche within a niche.

Both Gundemonium Recollection and Gundeadline are horizontal shooters with unusually large sprites. This allows for a lot of personality to be put into each character and enemy design. They often approach Cute ‘em Up territory with their goofy pumpkin enemies, Parodius-like women in bunny suits, and other equally wacky things. Of course, it’s all fun and games until somebody gets cut in half.

The large sprites also go hand in hand with the friction system that rewards players for coming in close contact with bullets. The small hit box allows you to squeeze through unbelievably tight spaces while having the rest of your sprite take advantage of this system.

Bombs are pretty standard fare in Gundemonium Recollection. There are a few different variations depending on your character and you’ll acquire more by picking up powerups. GundeadliGne takes a far more interesting approach. A variety of selectable “Matrix Orders” each provide you with a unique bomb function and reload time. Bombs no longer have to be collected and instead must be recharged. This allows you to choose settings that match your play style whether you want weak attacks that recharge fast, strong or wide area attacks that recharge slowly, or anything in between.

GundeadliGne also introduces the “Flip Turn” system, allowing you to shoot in either direction similar to Capcom’s Section Z. Because of this, enemies come from all directions instead of just the right, and bosses tend to move around much more as well. It gives the whole game a different feel than its predecessor and provides a fresh change of pace.

Expect bullet patterns to get crazy. Not only will you be dodging spiraling waves of shots, you’ll also find yourself navigating through tunnels and segmented tracks made of bullets. Luckily, certain secondary weapons can help slow things down and make dodging more manageable.

The black sheep of the collection (though not in a negative sense) is Hitogata Happa. Unlike the other games, Hitogata Happa is a vertical shooter with wildly different mechanics. Unfortunately, these mechanics are not immediately obvious without consulting the game’s manual (which I highly recommend doing). I went from not “getting it”, and practically ignoring it, to finding it the most fun and interesting game in the group.

Many enemies have a “Zone of Control” that acts as sort of an inverse to the friction system of Recollection. Flying within this visible circle around the enemy will cause all bullets that pass through it to slow down and also turn them into gems when the enemy is defeated. It can be dangerous, but often reaps huge rewards.

These gems can be spent on “dolls” which are essentially the different characters you control. There are quite a few different dolls to choose from and each one feels drastically different thanks to a unique variety of weapons, special abilities, and movement speeds. But you can only buy twelve of a single doll and the more you buy, the more the price of that particular doll will rise, encouraging you to spread your money across a variety of dolls. Weapons include focused laser beams, multidirectional drills, a Raiden-esque curving laser, homing missiles, and even swords to name a few.

If you’re wondering how the game retains its difficulty while allowing you to purchase so many lives, it is thanks to Hitogata Happa‘s very unconventional bomb system. Rather than pressing a button to use a bomb, you instead must fly your doll directly into an enemy. This will kill the doll in question, but also explode causing massive damage which is crucial to winning boss battles.

But you can’t just use this attack any time. You’ll have to first let the “Flow Charge” gauge fill completely over time. This can cause some frustrating moments as I often found myself dying the second before the gauge was full. But when you completely destroy an entire arm of a boss by flying into it, it’s extremely satisfying.

In the first level, you will be forced to use the cheapest doll the game has to offer. It’s fairly slow, but has the special ability of slowing down time at the cost of your mana gauge. It can be easy to get turned off by the game when only experiencing the first level, since much of what makes Hitogata Happa great is what’s introduced after it. And when you aren’t intimately familiar with the game’s mechanics, that first level can be a doozy. But persistence is key as you’ll soon find the unique twists on the shmup genre that the game offers as you progress.

I often found I had to abandon everything I learned in shmup school while fighting the bosses of Hitogata Happa. Aside from rewarding you for charging into the enemy, the bosses themselves are usually rather unique. One made use of several searchlights and fired an especially deadly cannon whenever they spotted me. Another inserted a brain into one of three shells, then shuffled them around. I was forced to keep track of all this while simultaneously dodging bullets in order to shoot the correct enemy.

Bosses also have a time limit. When it runs out, they enter “Error Mode” and spew bullets everywhere. Dying at all during this will cause you to lose regardless of whether or not you have any remaining dolls. This is why bombs are especially important since they allow you to take out the boss before this happens.

Gundemonium Collection is worth checking out for the unique gameplay of Hitogata Happa alone. Luckily, both Gundemonium Recollection and GundeadliGne are no slouches either.

This review is based on the Steam version of Gundemonium Collection provided to the reviewer by Rockin’ Android.

Tags: GundeadliGne, Gundemonium Collection, Gundemonium Recollection, Hitogata Happa, PC, Platine Depositif, Rockin' Android, Shmup, Steam

This entry was posted on Monday, October 10th, 2011 at 5:00 am and is filed under Indie Games, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.