first shmup i just beat rn, the genre is very intimidating (rightfully so) and most of the time i dont see the appeal. lately ive been interested in some due to presentation and this hit a sweet spot, i highly recommend it just a neat game all around
FROM THE STUDIO THAT PLAYED PARODIUS
HARMFUL PARK!!!
Giant idols? Check. Big variety of weapons where the homing one is way better than the rest combined? Check. Power up balloons out the ass? Check. Secret things to shoot? Check. Wacky food items? Check.
This is basically an easier Parodius game all around, right down to floors not killing the player upon contact. And given the last shmup I 1cc'd was RADiant KINOgun which is (zero hyperbole) by far the hardest game I've ever beaten in my entire life, I think I'm ok with this. It's the kind of game that one could 1cc after only a handful of attempts. I didn't even know how the chaining system worked until the 2nd last stage nor did I know where the last hidden item was. Yet I still ended up with 2.3m points on my 1cc after not touching the game for a year. If I had a bit more knowledge going in, I could have even gotten another extend or 2 to make the game even easier.
The game's powerup system really fucks. My strategy of choice was to power up the JERRY I mean JELLY to max level immediately and spam its bombs when I felt I might die. When I ran out of bombs, I switched to the French Fries so that I wouldn't lose the Jelly's much needed power. It's very reminiscent of Japanese Contra Hard Corps in that way! So, the homing weapon is by far the best one in the game, but there's still very good reason to use the other weapons.
The visuals are genuinely amazing, some of the absolute best 2D spritework ever. The wackiness is perfectly highlighted with the use of bright colours and large sprites. A giant idol boss, a wedding the player can crash while speech bubbles fill the screen, and my personal favourite, 2 mooks just sharing 1000s of gallons of beer in the background. It's peak https://i.imgur.com/KqHzrUL.png
The music is also pretty good! Very energetic and jolly, though I will admit I think it peaked at the first stage. Not much more to say beyond that https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ3Bg79goVU
I also really appreciate the story emphasis. In between every level, there are anime cutscenes that bring Dirty Pair to mind. It's nothing deep or super memorable, but it's really cool how they're there. Really one of the reasons I love cute em ups is how prevalent these tend to be.
Ultimately however, it's an extremely short game that is perhaps a bit too easy for its own good. The kind of game I would have been pissed if I had spent $50 on even before adjusting for inflation. And yet? It's the exact kind of game that was perfect for receiving a 2nd life in the digital age of emulation and so forth.
These kinds of AA productions are just straightup a thing of the past. This is the kind of game that would never be made nowadays, and is the perfect arcadey embodiment of the 2D games of its era. Short and sweet, arcadey, zero padding. It's no wonder it never got a localization as I am positive magazines of the time would have shat on it for not having much to chew into. But it's the perfect game to just plug and play on a rainy night. One of my favourite PS1 titles for sure.
I strongly recommend setting L1 and R1 to cycling weapons backwards and forwards in the options menu, BTW! Makes the game a lot more accessible IMO. Overall, a fantastic experience for any cute em up fan. Special thanks to Hilltop for the hard work with the fan translation.
HARMFUL PARK!!!
Giant idols? Check. Big variety of weapons where the homing one is way better than the rest combined? Check. Power up balloons out the ass? Check. Secret things to shoot? Check. Wacky food items? Check.
This is basically an easier Parodius game all around, right down to floors not killing the player upon contact. And given the last shmup I 1cc'd was RADiant KINOgun which is (zero hyperbole) by far the hardest game I've ever beaten in my entire life, I think I'm ok with this. It's the kind of game that one could 1cc after only a handful of attempts. I didn't even know how the chaining system worked until the 2nd last stage nor did I know where the last hidden item was. Yet I still ended up with 2.3m points on my 1cc after not touching the game for a year. If I had a bit more knowledge going in, I could have even gotten another extend or 2 to make the game even easier.
The game's powerup system really fucks. My strategy of choice was to power up the JERRY I mean JELLY to max level immediately and spam its bombs when I felt I might die. When I ran out of bombs, I switched to the French Fries so that I wouldn't lose the Jelly's much needed power. It's very reminiscent of Japanese Contra Hard Corps in that way! So, the homing weapon is by far the best one in the game, but there's still very good reason to use the other weapons.
The visuals are genuinely amazing, some of the absolute best 2D spritework ever. The wackiness is perfectly highlighted with the use of bright colours and large sprites. A giant idol boss, a wedding the player can crash while speech bubbles fill the screen, and my personal favourite, 2 mooks just sharing 1000s of gallons of beer in the background. It's peak https://i.imgur.com/KqHzrUL.png
The music is also pretty good! Very energetic and jolly, though I will admit I think it peaked at the first stage. Not much more to say beyond that https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ3Bg79goVU
I also really appreciate the story emphasis. In between every level, there are anime cutscenes that bring Dirty Pair to mind. It's nothing deep or super memorable, but it's really cool how they're there. Really one of the reasons I love cute em ups is how prevalent these tend to be.
Ultimately however, it's an extremely short game that is perhaps a bit too easy for its own good. The kind of game I would have been pissed if I had spent $50 on even before adjusting for inflation. And yet? It's the exact kind of game that was perfect for receiving a 2nd life in the digital age of emulation and so forth.
These kinds of AA productions are just straightup a thing of the past. This is the kind of game that would never be made nowadays, and is the perfect arcadey embodiment of the 2D games of its era. Short and sweet, arcadey, zero padding. It's no wonder it never got a localization as I am positive magazines of the time would have shat on it for not having much to chew into. But it's the perfect game to just plug and play on a rainy night. One of my favourite PS1 titles for sure.
I strongly recommend setting L1 and R1 to cycling weapons backwards and forwards in the options menu, BTW! Makes the game a lot more accessible IMO. Overall, a fantastic experience for any cute em up fan. Special thanks to Hilltop for the hard work with the fan translation.
so cute AND quirky in a very real and genuine way. reminded me a lot of three separate times in my life. being like 9 and playing the genesis sonic games in my father's room w him. being like 15 and working under the table for this video game/dvd/music store where i mostly just priced items, it was dirty and dusty and the pay was basically nonexistent, the owner was like hella sexist and racist but to my 15 yo brain that just wanted to learn about everything in regards to media it didn't matter in the moment bc i just got to gawk at rlly rare stuff every couple weeks. and then like playing automata near its release date and it was the first new game i picked up since like 2013 and just being so amazed at what games could actually be when made w passion and love and not just for profits/to be consumed. all rlly important moments in my life when it comes to actually understanding what matters to me in terms of art. literal perfect length for a game like this too. usually i get sooo bored of 2d side scroller stuff bc it just never rlly ends and it's all just variations/reskins of the same layout, this is like different and special. it never gets the chance to be boring or to outstay its welcome bc it uses its time in such a smart way. and all the worlds are so cute and colorful and lively and most importantly diff from each other. there's like a weirdo carnival stage and a jungle stage and haunted castle one, one of the stages ends w a boss fight in front of a drive in theater, it's so gorgeous. and there's so many interesting characters, ice skating faeries and the flatwoods monster and frankenstein, so much life and detail is happening in the backgrounds of scenes that u go through so fast, love this <3
An exceptional horizontal cute-em-up, exclusively for PSX.
I was waffling between 3.5 and 4, as the scoring in this game is both super compelling on its surface and--at times--very annoying to actually execute. It revolves, primarily, around damaging large enemies just enough to almost kill them, and then bombing when a ton of smaller enemies are onscreen to finish them off and cash in on a huge multiplier (which increases for every enemy killed with a single "projectile").
Figuring out just how much damage to do to these larger enemies takes some trial and error, and you'll often overshoot it and frustratingly miss out on a jackpot. Luckily, there are plenty of opportunities, and you get an extra life every 500,000 points, which is extremely generous; so, after some practice, the system becomes a bit more lenient, because with more score comes more bombs, and more bombs equals more attempts at massive cash-outs. (On my clearing run I scored around 6 million points, which is 12 lives on top of those I started with!)
In addition to the addictive gameplay--in which you cycle between four different shots that have four unique bomb types--the sprites, backgrounds, and music in this game are Konami-esque in quality. Beautiful animations, a huge and gorgeous palette of bright colors, massive bosses, silly gags--it's all just as delightful as it tries to be.
There's an English patch out there, and the game actually does have a story, ridiculous though it may be; so check that out if you don't speak Japanese and want to give this a shot.
I was waffling between 3.5 and 4, as the scoring in this game is both super compelling on its surface and--at times--very annoying to actually execute. It revolves, primarily, around damaging large enemies just enough to almost kill them, and then bombing when a ton of smaller enemies are onscreen to finish them off and cash in on a huge multiplier (which increases for every enemy killed with a single "projectile").
Figuring out just how much damage to do to these larger enemies takes some trial and error, and you'll often overshoot it and frustratingly miss out on a jackpot. Luckily, there are plenty of opportunities, and you get an extra life every 500,000 points, which is extremely generous; so, after some practice, the system becomes a bit more lenient, because with more score comes more bombs, and more bombs equals more attempts at massive cash-outs. (On my clearing run I scored around 6 million points, which is 12 lives on top of those I started with!)
In addition to the addictive gameplay--in which you cycle between four different shots that have four unique bomb types--the sprites, backgrounds, and music in this game are Konami-esque in quality. Beautiful animations, a huge and gorgeous palette of bright colors, massive bosses, silly gags--it's all just as delightful as it tries to be.
There's an English patch out there, and the game actually does have a story, ridiculous though it may be; so check that out if you don't speak Japanese and want to give this a shot.
Why do we have hands? There are many reasons:
- Pat Dr. Tequila
- Hold the Dr. Tequila
- Cherish the Dr. Tequila
- Forfeit all mortal possessions to Dr. Tequila
- Pat Dr. Tequila
- Hold the Dr. Tequila
- Cherish the Dr. Tequila
- Forfeit all mortal possessions to Dr. Tequila
An Easy Shmup with enough variety to keept it interessting. Also includes some minigames made by the intern probably
If you saw my review of Pop'n TwinBee, you may notice that I gave heavy praise to the game's aesthetics and accessibility - Tonight, in one sitting, I played through Harmful Park and felt mostly the same - In risk of repeating myself, I supposed I should just say that you should read my Pop'n TwinBee review for how I feel about the overall aesthetic and accessibility, although I will say that contrary to Pop'n TwinBee, this game is considerably funnier and a lot more ridiculous. It's chock full of silly things for every moment that passes and it never gets old mostly due to how short this game is. This game is also considerably easier if you're able to not die and get all of your weapon types to level 4. Like, it's kinda piss-easy.
If you like silly or humorous games, and games with very bubblegum or otherwise "poppy" aesthetics, this is definitely up your alley. It may have not been obvious, in what I've said in the review so far but I do adore this game and I think you should play it. It's nice and short, and you can easily knock it out in a bit over an hour, and all of those minutes are for sure worth your time.
If you like silly or humorous games, and games with very bubblegum or otherwise "poppy" aesthetics, this is definitely up your alley. It may have not been obvious, in what I've said in the review so far but I do adore this game and I think you should play it. It's nice and short, and you can easily knock it out in a bit over an hour, and all of those minutes are for sure worth your time.
Something finally surpassed Akai Katana as my favorite shoot-em-up. Aggressively colorful amusement park aesthetics combine with clown-core weaponry like throwing pies and homing jelly beans to make a relatively easy but deeply memorable time for fans of the genre and newcomers alike.
The sprite work here is immaculate, the music is consistently energetic...it's all good here. And for higher level players, the bomb mechanics can be used to generate massive kill combos to make your score sky-rocket. I highly recommend this one to anybody who can get their hands on it!
The sprite work here is immaculate, the music is consistently energetic...it's all good here. And for higher level players, the bomb mechanics can be used to generate massive kill combos to make your score sky-rocket. I highly recommend this one to anybody who can get their hands on it!
First GOTM finished for June 2023. What an absolutely charming game! Easily my favorite shmup I've played so far. Lots of variety in the "weapon" types, fun and cute visual gags, and great artwork and level design. The soundtrack was also pretty catchy. Just enough of a challenge in the difficulty. Super weird and super fun!
This is such a fun shmup (or cute em up). While it isn't the hardest one I've played, the cute art style, insanely good ost, and fun as hell weapons system had me itching for more. High high recc especially if you wanna branch into the shmup genre one day!
A nice shmup reminiscent of Parodius with its lighthearted and whacky stages. Gameplay was solid, quite liked the fully upgraded ice cream beams in particular. The fully-voiced cutscenes were a nice surprise and they looked pretty good even though I had no idea what they were saying.
jugablemente es la cosa más normal del mundo, pero lo compensa teniendo vibes de anime de canal sur 2
It's a pretty accessible shmup without unwinnable continue states or complicated upgrade systems, you just cycle between three weapons and upgrade them with use. Super cute and vivid, not too replayable.
cool title, amazing art and backgrounds.
Charming, fun and good difficulty level. Play harmful park.
Leagues from the best shmup I've ever played, but I'll cherish it more than more objective successors because Harmful Park expertly plays its part as a haunted house ride of nigh-megalomanic visual creativity and sprite art. Every inch of its stages feel rich and inhabited and you just wanna fuckin live there as you stuff your face with "Pop Cown".
the colorful cartoony space shooters have always been my favorites, possibly due to air zonk being one of my first games (actually the first game i ever OWNED). but since then i've had a soft spot for various twin bee games and especially the fantasy zone series. they're just so full of creativity.
this one doesn't really get remotely challenging till level 6, but when a game is such a joy to play, challenge doesn't mean that much to me.
this one doesn't really get remotely challenging till level 6, but when a game is such a joy to play, challenge doesn't mean that much to me.
stopping in the middle of this 50 minute-long video game to eat a fast food burger that tasted like nothing but grease ended up feeling like a vital requirement to the whole experience
An absolute delight from start to finish.
The game just oozes joy from the beginning cutscene with colorful characters and goofy anime voice acting.
Liked the lush art style and the cute-looking enemies, and you fight an inflatable dinosaur as a first boss, so that's a win in my book.
The weapons were all pretty good, although not on the same level of usefulness. Being able to change to a certain weapon at the press of a button without having to cycle through them made the gameplay that much more enjoyable.
The game was a little on the easy side for a shmup (It might as well be the only shmup I'll ever beat without using continues), but that didn't make it any less fun.
The game just oozes joy from the beginning cutscene with colorful characters and goofy anime voice acting.
Liked the lush art style and the cute-looking enemies, and you fight an inflatable dinosaur as a first boss, so that's a win in my book.
The weapons were all pretty good, although not on the same level of usefulness. Being able to change to a certain weapon at the press of a button without having to cycle through them made the gameplay that much more enjoyable.
The game was a little on the easy side for a shmup (It might as well be the only shmup I'll ever beat without using continues), but that didn't make it any less fun.
GOES SO FUCKING HARD, i got it on a pure whim because the cover looked interesting i didnt even realize it was a shmup when i got it but WOAH
W OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAH this shit rulES
You get a nice little bit of story about these girls going off to stop the supergenius "Dr Tequila" (yeah) and u ride around in aircrafts beating the shit out of everything in your way
what makes this otherwise 1:1 saturday morning OVA story have nice cherries on top is theres a little bit of japanese voice acting in the cutscenes and there's a cute bit of whimsy going on with lightly touching on where the girls need to head next
And whimsy is like
the understatement of the century
there's genies, flying squirrels, lumberjack robot, a tall idol girl, a drive in movie theater, clowncore OUT THE A SS S SS S SS, power upgrade balloons thatre so plentiful tht even if you die and get your fully upgraded weapon knocked out, chances are youll still go into a boss having atleast your lvl 2!! AND THE WEAPONS ARE SO FUN TOO YOU GUYS OMFG YOU GET A FRENCH FRY BLASTER THT LOOKS LIKE YOUR DEFAULTTT THE HEATSEEKING JELLYBEAN BLASTERS, THE ICE CREAM BLASTERS THATRE MORE CONCENTRATED AND SACRIFICE SPEED FOR MORE THICK LASERS GWAHAHAHAH AND THERE'S A PIE THROWING ONE YOU CAN THROW CREAM PIES AT THE ENEMY... uh.
unfortunately i think the pies were the trickiest weapon to use though lmao
I still thought they were fun for heaps of damage but mjost of the time i hated using them for the larger clumps of enemies when i mostly had either jellybeans or icecream at lvl 3 and pies at only lvl 1, ick.....
BUT U CAN USE ANY OF THESE AND THEYRE REALLY FUN AND THE SPRITES ARE SOOO NICE
NOT EVEN JUST THE SPRITES OF SHIT YOU FIGHT INGAME BUT THE BACKGROUNDS HAVE CRAZY SHIT GOING ON LMAO THERE'S PEOPLE OUT HERE DYIN
TRAGIC DEATHS EVERYHERE WITH THE GRUNT ENEMIES
EVEN JUST GUYS CHILLIN TRYING TO DRINK SOME TALL GLASS OF BEER U CAN JUST SHOOT THE SHIT OUT OF BECAUSE.. REASONS!
but the best part of it all
its NOT. HARD. its very easy actually as far as OLD shmups go like i died a lot but i was supremely enjoying and plowin through most of this
I dont even think there was at any point a boss that took me more than atleast one or two tries, especially because you get different super special attack charges in the game that vary depending on what weapon you have equipped :) !!
It's so lovely and weird and silly
I guess my only gripe is like, i GUESS the shortness and easiness is a double edged sword because i wanted more!! but! im okay with a reasonably good 1hour to 2hour experience
i guess this just means i need to look into the genre more :)
definitely try this out even if you dont normally fw shoot em up games <3
W OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAH this shit rulES
You get a nice little bit of story about these girls going off to stop the supergenius "Dr Tequila" (yeah) and u ride around in aircrafts beating the shit out of everything in your way
what makes this otherwise 1:1 saturday morning OVA story have nice cherries on top is theres a little bit of japanese voice acting in the cutscenes and there's a cute bit of whimsy going on with lightly touching on where the girls need to head next
And whimsy is like
the understatement of the century
there's genies, flying squirrels, lumberjack robot, a tall idol girl, a drive in movie theater, clowncore OUT THE A SS S SS S SS, power upgrade balloons thatre so plentiful tht even if you die and get your fully upgraded weapon knocked out, chances are youll still go into a boss having atleast your lvl 2!! AND THE WEAPONS ARE SO FUN TOO YOU GUYS OMFG YOU GET A FRENCH FRY BLASTER THT LOOKS LIKE YOUR DEFAULTTT THE HEATSEEKING JELLYBEAN BLASTERS, THE ICE CREAM BLASTERS THATRE MORE CONCENTRATED AND SACRIFICE SPEED FOR MORE THICK LASERS GWAHAHAHAH AND THERE'S A PIE THROWING ONE YOU CAN THROW CREAM PIES AT THE ENEMY... uh.
unfortunately i think the pies were the trickiest weapon to use though lmao
I still thought they were fun for heaps of damage but mjost of the time i hated using them for the larger clumps of enemies when i mostly had either jellybeans or icecream at lvl 3 and pies at only lvl 1, ick.....
BUT U CAN USE ANY OF THESE AND THEYRE REALLY FUN AND THE SPRITES ARE SOOO NICE
NOT EVEN JUST THE SPRITES OF SHIT YOU FIGHT INGAME BUT THE BACKGROUNDS HAVE CRAZY SHIT GOING ON LMAO THERE'S PEOPLE OUT HERE DYIN
TRAGIC DEATHS EVERYHERE WITH THE GRUNT ENEMIES
EVEN JUST GUYS CHILLIN TRYING TO DRINK SOME TALL GLASS OF BEER U CAN JUST SHOOT THE SHIT OUT OF BECAUSE.. REASONS!
but the best part of it all
its NOT. HARD. its very easy actually as far as OLD shmups go like i died a lot but i was supremely enjoying and plowin through most of this
I dont even think there was at any point a boss that took me more than atleast one or two tries, especially because you get different super special attack charges in the game that vary depending on what weapon you have equipped :) !!
It's so lovely and weird and silly
I guess my only gripe is like, i GUESS the shortness and easiness is a double edged sword because i wanted more!! but! im okay with a reasonably good 1hour to 2hour experience
i guess this just means i need to look into the genre more :)
definitely try this out even if you dont normally fw shoot em up games <3
This is one of my favorite PS1 shmups and maybe one of my top entries in the genre overall. It's easy but in a genre so filled with tough games it's actually a nice break. The music and graphics are awesome.
Are shmups good actually? It's a genre I don't have much knowledge or experience of, but this game makes me want to explore the genre more. It's wacky, strange, and over the top, full of charm and some absolutely gorgeous pixel art. I love the visual humor throughout as well. The difficulty was challenging but not oppressive like I expected from a genre that people tend to talk about in hushed murmurs. Really charming!
This really was the Heartful Park, what a great game! filled to the brim with charm, a fun and cozy adventure that combines an amazing visual style with a great soundtrack and really fun weapons. The backgrounds, animations and character designs are top notch.
i am bad at shmups but this game makes me feel that is ok : )
colorful and fun shmup on ps1. the pixel art is amazing
no rush to replay it as it has a very flawed idea of 'difficulty' -- instead of the traditional focus on bullets / enemies, you'll find yourself the most at odds with how huge certain level enemies' health bars are! also, having most of the shot types fire directly in front of you doesn't really balance them well. i'm assuming the game wants you to cycle through all of them since the shot type you died with is the only one that loses all of it's power, but they all really only cover what's in front of you reliably. everyone i know who has played this game admits they only really use laser and traditional peashooter gun shot types and dont bother with the other two.
what it lacks in SHMUP balance it makes up for in OST, sound design, and graphics. stage 2 is a really amazing looking haunted house, and stage 4 and stage 6 specifically have amazing level themes.
what it lacks in SHMUP balance it makes up for in OST, sound design, and graphics. stage 2 is a really amazing looking haunted house, and stage 4 and stage 6 specifically have amazing level themes.
Has cemented itself as one of my favorite shmups. This game is a blast the whole way through and I also love that the game stars two cute anime girls wearing aerobics outfits in jet scooters. This game rules, highly slept on game.
This is probably my favorite shoot 'em up I've ever played. Unlike most other games of the genre, the difficulty isn't super hard, it's actually perfect to me. I also love the weapon system for this game for it being simple, each weapon is useful in some way, and they're just fun to use. The story is goofy fun and the graphics/aesthetic/music of the game reflect that well. The only problem is that it was stuck in Japan, but that's not the game's fault. It's just a fun game.
Super good shooter with immaculate spritework
Great shmup for a beginners. Relatively easy and very fun!