Mushihimesama

 
Developer: Cave Interactive Co., Ltd

Steam Release: Nov 2015

Hours Played: 5.1

Similar To: Deltazeal / Dodonpachi Res.. / Hitogata Happa / Jamestown / Space Moth DX

Rating: 4/5 Parsnips

GAMEPLAY

Mushihimesama (or Bug Princess as it is known in English) is a well respected and critically acclaimed Japanese bullet-hell / vertical scroller that has attained cult-status among hardcore enthusiasts of the genre. It is not officially an indie game but has the spirit of one and would be conspicuous by its absence were it not included here. With a choice of three different ships, with their three different attacks, you can move anywhere around the screen. Letting go of the fire button will speed you up. You'll be thrown into a world of forests of various kinds while encountering waves of huge insects and bugs which you must gun down with your stream of missiles. You'll also collect numerous gold gems as they're dropped by enemies to help you rack up that high-score. Bombs can be used and there are power-ups along the way. 

BALANCE & PACE

There are three different modes: Novice, Normal and Arrange with the first two having three difficulties namely: Original, Maniac and Ultra. In effect, this gives you seven settings catering to the whole spectrum of ability ranges from base-beginner to kick-ass expert. There are different scoring systems for each mode and difficulty requiring a seperate guide and much brain-work to figure out. Anyway, once you've elected one of three ships to play, you'll be thrown into a five stage adventure with a boss at the end of each. Once a stage has ended you'll rack up a bonus depending on gems collected and then it'll be onto the next stage until you lose your three lives. Action involves sweeping across the screen obliterating enemies while avoiding purple bullet-hell style missiles that get more intense with each boss. 

PRESENTATION & DESIGN

Mushihimesama was originally a Playstation 2 game made in 2004 and finally made its way to the PC, with much rejoicing, in 2015. Many of its fans love the game for nostalgic reasons and of course it has an old-school, retro feel. The gameplay resembles the classic Danmaku Unlimited 2 game while the graphics echo Jamestown with that slightly grainy look. Teenage girls in the manga style will make an appearance as well. Unfortunately, I found the menus to be counter-intuitive and over-complicated. An explanation of the difference between Play, Score-Attack and Training is not revealed; you'll need to constantly wait for pages to load while to-ing and fro-ing between them and it's all a bit fiddly and muddled for such a simple shoot 'em up. I even noticed slight slowdown and stutter when the screen got busy during play.       

PROGRESS SYSTEM

Like Jamestown, this game is about familiarizing yourself with the enemies and bosses for each stage and then working out the most effective way to dispatch those foes. Practice and repetition is a must. First-timers will definitely benefit by trying the Novice mode first and seeing what works best before dabbling with the Normal setting. To set an online high-score with a rank, you'll need to enter a game through the Score Attack path and, of course, you can view these via the Leaderboard path. As mentioned, the scoring system is complicated and will need studying if you are the competitive type. There is also a local high-score chart with up to five slots stored for those who like to beat their own scores. Strangely, at the end of a game you cannot actually see your final score!  

CONCLUSION

With other notable and distinctive titles such as Deathsmiles, Espgaluda and the Dodonpachi games, the revered developers at Cave have garnered a cult following. Highly satisfying explosions and the joy of collecting all the gems in the enemy's wake certainly make Mushihimesama fun to play. The fine balance of having effectively seven settings is also to be welcomed and the controls are fluid and smooth - but with other 2D shooters evolving the genre in the way they have I wonder if the game's nostalgia has helped it become just a tad over-rated. Fiddly and confusing menus with much waiting therein, not helped by a bland soundtrack, might be small niggles but did detract a little from the solid gameplay and may even account for why the game might not be such a big power-house on the PC as it was on the Playstation 2 in its day.