Bulletgba - Free Danmaku Trainer for the GBA

Overview


Bullegba is a free, downloadable danmaku trainer for the gba. (psp in my case thanks to emulators) Unlike other bullet-dodging trainers, this game simulates one long boss fight for each level. Think of an extended version of the Tohou bosses on normal and you'll get a pretty good picture of what I mean. I'd recommend playing the game on a real GBA, a DS, or a PSP if you can for maximum enjoyment.

Game Modes

The game features multiple modes of play. There are five "shooting levels" with different bullet patterns and increasing difficulty; there's a 'BulletsMorph' mode where you cannot shoot back and are forced to dodge random bullet patterns, but wherein you can't die either. "Select Barrage" allows you to practice on bullet patterns from various danmaku style games including, but not limited to Noiz2sa, Progear, Storm Caliber, Strikers and the cult-favorite, Tohou. You can also view and save replays for the bragging rights :3

Graphics

The graphics are very basic and it feels like the creators just put them there as representations and nothing more. That said, they do their job well and do not affect the gameplay one bit. You control an orange '@' symbol and get constantly assaulted with the different shaped green bullet sprites with a constantly scrolling black and gray screen background.

Sounds

The usual blip blips you'd expect from a modern 2D shooter; nothing really fancy, but they do their job just like the graphics. The music is a mix of techno and old school 8-bit nes style. The tracks are very upbeat and fit the fast-paced action of the game very well.

Homepage: http://www.pqrs.org/tekezo/gba/bulletgba/

Gundeadligne

This time, I'm going for another slightly older doujin title, "Gundeadligne." If you're familiar with Progear no Arashi for the arcade, you should feel right at home with this game. Gundeadligne is basically a horizontal scrolling 2D shooter. The kind where bullets swarm in on you from all directions. Being more used (though not that good at all) to vertical shooters, it took me a while to adjust to the gameplay.

The game features high quality character artwork, smooth-scrolling graphics and snes-style sprites coupled with 3D effects. What is most noticeable about this game is the amount of depth (or potential depth) it has for hardcore gamers. I have yet to even figure out half of what the bars and numbers on the gameplay screen stand for. Fortunately, it's easy to pick up and play for casual gamers as well. The game features an auto-bomb system which automatically detonates any bombs you might have whenever you're in a pinch. The collision detection is very forgiving and you can actually do some very risky dodges without getting hit, unlike the hair trigger collision of most other 2D shooters.

The levels seem to rely more on memory rather than fancy dodging, especially the bosses whose bullets can trap you into a corner if you don't know what to expect. The action is extremely fast-paced even though enemy bullets travel relatively slowly. Thankfully, colliding with enemy sprites doesn't seem to do any damage to your character. Controls seem to be the standard Z,X,C. Holding down Z makes your character focus-fire for more damage (probably at the expense of your score). There are intitially three characters to choose from. The first two control normally while the third one, Nagi has one of the wierdest control schemes I've ever seen. Her line of fire rotates in reverse correlation to where you move her (ehehe! It's kinda hard to explain. It's best if you try it yourself.) I suppose this character is able to hit enemies who move in behind her more easily, though I'm not sure how to control her line of fire. Two players can play the game simultaneously.

In the game's instruction manual, there are explanations of the deeper gameplay aspects like reload time, flip turn, and slow mode (unfortunately, I have no idea what they're talking about and I'm to lazy to try translating it.)

Each character also seems to have a story (written in ZOMG mostly kanji).

Lastly, the bgm tracks are fantastic. They sound like modern remixes of old-school nes shooter themes.

homepage: http://www.murasame.com/

Bullet Philharmonic Orchestra - Bullet Dodging Sim

Here's a minimalist game that will keep you entertained... for a few minutes anyway. BPO is a bullet-dodging simulator for danmaku games that creates its bullet patterns according to the background music that you choose to put inside its "music" directory. It supports most of the popular sound formats (mp3, ogg, wav, mod, mid etc.) although I would recommend converting your mp3 files to wav or ogg with a program like audacity because the game doesn't seem to be too compatible with mp3.

But enough of that, on to the actual game. There are two modes to choose from. BPO is the default mode, where a group of white dots circle on top of you and spew random bullet patterns at you based on the music. The only controls you have are the directional keys. Of course, it goes without saying that the object of the game is to avoid getting hit. You control a red dot with a large green circle around it. Remember that only the red dot can be hit, the green circle is most likely for gauging the distance needed to graze a bullet. A buzz indicator on top of the screen counts how many times you've been hit. Getting buzzed means that you'd be dead in a normal shooter game. You get a bonus score via the bscore indicator if you graze bullets without getting buzzed. Then there's the self-explanatory rank indicator and frames-per-second counter. You get a summary of all your statistics after the music has finished playing.
The other mode selectable from the main menu is AL, which is a slightly harder version of BPO because the white dots now circle around you and shoot from all directions. You can choose to have the cpu play the game to see how the AI handles the bullet patterns, although it doesn't seem to be very good.

The difficulty level of the game is selectable, but even "normal" feels like playing on the insane difficulty levels of most modern doujin shooting games. The bullets come in fast and in large clusters giving your mind no room to process all the projectiles onscreen. Changing the music to something softer doesn't really help. The white dots just shoot less frequently, but the bullets still travel at the same speed.

As shown in the screenshots, BPO's graphics are very basic and it's best treated as a trainer for real shoot-em-ups rather than a full game. The best part about it is that it's a small download at about 1 mb and it's totally free. The author also provides English instructions inside the archive for those who can't read Japanese(like myself).

This game is freeware
Download Page: http://www.vector.co.jp/soft/win95/game/se282205.html

Note: The creator's homepage seems to be down. Oh, and if you're getting buzzed a lot, try not to focus on the red dot too much. You might be falling prey to this optical illusion. Sorry about the awful screenshots. I was too lazy to edit them properly.

AIR Tennis - Breakout Clone

AIR Tennis is a generic breakout clone with a twist of tennis. You move your character horizontally in order to prevent the ball from passing you and attempt to break all the bricks in the stage to advance to the next one. The twist is that instead of just catching the ball, you have to hit it with your racket and depending on the timing of your hit, the ball gains momentum and is able to break multiple bricks at once.

As its name implies, the game uses the characters of AIR. You can select one of the three female leads from the visual novel/series each with their own strengths and weaknesses in Speed, Power and Hyper (lol! I can actually read the moonspeak coz it's just engrish in katakana) although, I'm not sure how much of a difference it actually makes since they all control the same way. Z for left swing, C for right swing and the directional keys for left and right.

The graphics are nothing to write home about. Generic cute sprites matched by colorful backgrounds. I must say that the character art looks a bit unpolished (but it might be intentional), although the sprites of the characters are quite well-made. The animation is also not as smooth as I'd prefer for a modern 3D game. The shadows flicker a lot on my system, but then again, it could be due to my PC's configuration.

Sounds are the generic smack, smack, thwack sounds plus some fun little forgettable background tracks reminiscent of AIR's soundtrack. Certainly not at the level of Tohou OSTs.

The gameplay is nice. After all, it's based on a classic game. They've added quite a few things to make this a unique experience. A power bar on the right of the screen determines how well you've hit the ball. It depletes with each brick or obstacle that it hits. A hyper bar on the right of the screen slowly builds up as you keep hitting the ball and when it fills, you get a temporarily hyper-mode wherein the ball cuts through any bricks that it hits without bouncing back. Each character is equipped with a set number of specials, where they throw projectiles to break more bricks, represented by an "S" sign at the left of the screen which you can activate by pressing... S. There's also combo-hit counter that counts how many bricks you've hit repeatedly. Other than that, it's really just a glorified breakout clone in a pretty AIR package. I'm not sure, but the game seems a bit short. It seems there are only three stages which are all selectable after you've chosen a character.

So that's AIR Tennis for you. A fun, short doujin game for anyone. No Japanese comprehension level necessary to enjoy it. The main menu only has three choices. Start, Ranking and Quit.

Homepage: http://www.geocities.co.jp/Playtown-Queen/4603/

Liberation Army - Shooter/Strategy Game Hybrid

Liberation Army is the Gundam game for gamers on a budget. While, it's a bit dated, I don't think this game gets the attention that it deserves compared to other freeware titles like Warning Forever. It's a real-time-strategy/shooting game hybrid that plays like a 2D Dynasty Warriors clone. This game also reminds me of an old dos shareware game called Gladiator. You control a single unit while leading an entire army of humanoid mechs that look distinctly like mobile suits and engage an opposing army on a 2D battle map.

The gameplay is divided into the preparation and combat phase. During the preparation phase, you are shown the map of the next battle showing your formation as opposed to the enemies. You can buy upgrades for your allies, technology, new units, ships and choose the mobile suit pilot who will participate in battle. You can also customize your pilot's mobile suit by changing/adding/upgrading his/her equipment. In the combat phase, you control your own unit while having the ability to issue commands to your allies. Going rambo straight into a swarm of enemy fighters is the fastest way to get killed, thus, if you're thinking of showing off your Seed Mode or Newtype shooting skills, the game punishes you severely. Zooming straight into enemy territory makes it easier for enemy fighters to land critical hits by shooting you from behind. While your own unit is considerably tougher than normal units (with stronger upgrades), and is equipped with one sub weapon of your choice(even includes the beam saber... though it's kinda hard to use without taking damage), it does not have the ability to take down the entire opposing army all by itself. If you find yourself in a corner of the screen surrounded by enemy units with no allies in range, you'd best retreat to save your pilot from suffering too heavy damage to fight in the next battle.

Umm... this is what happens when you try flying in solo. The one being focus-fired on near the upper-left of the screen is me

Your territory grows in percentage as indicated in the preparation phase every time you win a battle by either making the enemy retreat or destroying all enemy units onscreen. The focus of the game is on slowly gaining ground and destroying enemy ships that deploy more enemy units while keeping your own ships protected. As your territory increases, the difficulty level also increases, with elite enemy mobile suits equal to your own joining the battle, each equipped with their own special subweapons. Luckily, you also earn powerful allies called escorts with their own special weaponry depending on the number of battles you've participated in. That aside, the AI for your escorts is not very good at dodging enemy bullets nor as powerful as the special enemy units, so you'd best not rely on them too much.

The battles seem to go on forever as I've yet to reach anything that indicates that there's an ending to this game. This gives Liberation Army a high replay value but unfortunately, after the novelty has worn off, it can get a bit repetitive.
The graphics are nothing special but work well enough for this type of game. Up to 600 units can fight onscreen at once, which effectively gives you the feeling of being inside a great gundam or macross type war. There's also a variety of midi tracks included in the game and you can manually replace them with your favorite mech-anime theme if you want. Surprisingly, the character art is a bit subpar for a japanese anime-type game as I've noticed that some of the facial proportions on the character portraits are a bit off. Luckily, it's not too noticeable and is not something that will distract you from having fun with this game.

The version of Liberation Army reviewed here is freeware visit the author's homepage here.
http://www.infoseek.livedoor.net/~koushi_okada/

The game has been completely translated into English by Aeon Genesis
http://agtp.romhack.net/project.php?id=libarmy

The Sight of Autumn - Original English Kinetic Novel

This is an Original English Language Visual Novel and technically not a game, so to dispel any prejudice you might have, please read this before continuing: http://www.fleurdelis.com/desiderata.htm I'm a bit biased regarding this "game" because it's in the genre that I prefer.

All done? Good. The Sight of Autumn is a non-branching visual novel in 3 chapters (meaning linear story with no choices) made in flash. The story is about a protagonist who is slowly losing his sight both literally and figuratively speaking and his fated meeting with a blind female counselor. The story is told in the contemporary first-person present-tense style from the protagonist's perspective.

From the introductory logo, it's easy to see that the author put a lot of effort into his creation. I won't mince too many words on this VN nor write a detailed review, since in my opinion, it doesn't deserve that kind of treatment of being analyzed and taken apart piece by piece like some uninspired research paper. While being in essence a semi-animated short story, from the exposition and style of writing, one can tell that this is a very emotional piece meant to impart an experience. This experience should be very different for each individual.

While the individual elements are far from perfect, the art works well for this VN and even features some limited animation.The music is near-professional in quality and has a sad, nostalgic feel to it. I love the instrumental and vocal versions of the main theme. Some might compare this work to japanese doujin such as Narcissu and Red Shift, and while it cannot match up to them in terms of professionalism, the indefinable cathartic quality of The Sight of Autumn does not pale in comparison.

Read this free VN with an open heart.
Download Page http://www.renai.us/game/autumn.shtml
Author's Homepage http://www.eltania.net/m12/

Hmm... oh yah, allow me to shamelessly plug some of my own works here. I'm kinda partial to TSOA because the author's style is very similar to mine.
http://www.renai.us/game/wings.shtml
http://www.renai.us/game/hikariRibbon.shtml
Please read some of the other VN's by Radical Dreamers 2002 on the archives too ^_^. I'm nearly finished on my latest one right now. http://www.renai.us

Suzumiya Haruhi no Chourantou

Suzumiya Haruhi no Chourantou is a 3D free-for-all doujin fighting game by Souvenir Circle that plays like
Powerstone for the Dreamcast or a 3-Dimensional Super-Smash-Bros. It features the characters from
Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu, specifically, the SOS Dan characters plus Asakura Ryouko and Tsuruya
as the unlockable character.

The game features an Arcade mode, Network Mode, Free Play Mode and the obligatory Story Mode. Arcade mode is
pretty much self-explanatory, you can select which character you wish to play as. The Story Mode,
like in most japanese doujin games, is told in linear visual novel style, with no branching
paths, using half-body portraits of the characters, which is followed by a fight pitting Kyon(the
only playable character in story mode) and one or two AI controlled characters against two or
more members of the SOS Dan. The story is in Japanese, but knowledge of the language isn't
necessary to enjoy the game. Free Play allows you to choose which characters to have on your side, which ones to fight and where to fight. A total of six characters can fight simultaneously. I have yet to try the network mode.

The character graphics and backgrounds in the actual game are fully 3D. The characters are in chibi-form equipped with their own unique weapon (Haruhi with a fan, Mikuru with a broom, Kyon with a schoolbag ... Asakura with her favorite knife) that they use to knock the stuffing out of enemy characters. The character select screen is also a nice touch; featuring the Haruhi characters inside the literature club room just the way you'd expect from the Light Novels and anime. Over-all, the graphics are excellent, and the 3D animation is on par with commercial PS2 titles.

You have free-roaming
control of your character using the keyboard directional keys and the following buttons (ZXCV is
standard for Japanese games) Z = Attack, X = Jump(hold) or Dash(tap), C = guard, V = Special
Attack. Each character controls the same way, but their unique melee attacks and specials requires a different fighting style for each character. You can also interact with objects that randomly materialize in the background. You can pick up a hammer that stuns your opponents, a loudspeaker, and the coveted glowing sphere that transforms your character into a super-powered version of themselves for a limited time (bunny-girl Haruhi, waitress Mikuru, Itsuki... in an outfit that looks very gay indeed :P). Using melee attacks also increases your SOS meter for performing special attacks and each character has a high-damage area-of-effect super(Z+V) that can be used when the SOS meter is over 50%(not sure if this is accurate). Jumping also changes the special moves for some characters.

The gameplay is a love-it or hate-it thing. While it's fun for a Haruhi fanboy like myself to play as the SOS Dan characters, there are some issues with this game that might bring it down a few points for casual gamers. My number one issue is with the controls. It might be because my system is kinda dated, but most likely, it's in the game's coding. There is a bit of a time-lag from the moment you press a certain command until the character actually performs it on-screen. This makes targeting your enemies a chore because you'd need to estimate where a certain enemy sprite will be, and start hitting the attack button before the enemy actually gets to that spot. This kind of guesswork is kinda risky because if you miss and someone else hits you from behind, you take more damage than usual. However, since doujin games are constantly updated, this issue might be fixed in an update patch. Secondly, because the interactivity with the background is quite limited, there's very little variety in the gameplay. Also, the final stage in story mode is isanely difficult, pitting you and Tsuruya against all the SOS Dan members including the brigade chief, Haruhi. If anyone has any tips on beating that stage, please tell me.

The music is fine for this type of game, using only one looping track as the battle BGM.

Generally, this game is a must-have for all Haruhi fans, but if you are, you don't need me to tell you that. For anyone just looking for a fun little 3D fighter/beat-em-up for the PC, you might consider this game if you're not into more in-depth 3D fighters such as Fatal/Fake, Fate Axis, Line-Kill Spirits or Hinokakera.

Souvenir Circle Homepage

This is a bit unrelated... but I do Haruhi fanart too. Here's my Haru-nyan!

Twin Seeds DX - Tohou Style Vertical Shooter

This is a cute vertical shooter with some catchy tunes and tough boss battles. This is basically danmaku with cute characters where the focus is more on stylish bullet dodging and grazing rather than shooting down your enemies. You know the drill, dodge if you can, bomb when in a pinch. In fact, You can also focus shoot to slow down your character for precision dodging and increased damage but at the cost of your score. Each stage features a 3D scrolling landscape with 2D characters and unique boss battles, each with their own special abilities. There are four levels of difficulty (been a while since I played so this might not be accurate) but all of them are actually quite hard once you reach level 4, which is as far as I can get in this game, because of the way the bullet patterns swarm in on you until you have no place left to dodge. You can continue from the level where you last died even after you exit the game.

This game is freeware, so you can download it from the author's homepage http://www.geocities.jp/pooytwo/

Also, there's another game on the same page, KagaMI, but it seems to be a beta right now.

Idinaloq - Commercial Quality Vertical Shooter

More screenshots plus downloads for the game here:

Game Homepage
http://www.namikaze.org

Ah! Idinaloq! A game that I'd recommend more for its aesthetic appeal rather than the actual gameplay which is actually quite bland. Featured prominently on freeware gaming sites a few years ago; the controls are a bit sluggish and the collision detection is unforgiving. However, you do get unlimited continues, so you can beat this game at any level of play and there's at least 1 unlockable character. Just expect to die a lot if you're more used to the dodge-fest of danmaku games like Tohou Mountain of Faith.

This game is total eye-candy. The anime-style characters are professionally drawn, the 3D graphics (though a bit dated) look stunning, and this is about the only freeware game I know that comes with it's own vocal opening theme complete with a fmv sequence.

Over-all this is game is more of a collectors download for occasional play rather than anything else.