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The Lowdown
Pros: Gorgeous style and accesible for those new to Cave style shooters.
Cons: No new gameplay additions make Mushihime-sama seem uninspired.
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at Play-Asia
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at Lik-Sang
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Bullet-hell shooters, as they are often called, are something of an
acquired taste - they're the epitome of twitch games, wherein a tiny,
single ship must navigate through narrows walls of enemy fire. Some will
see an endless cavalcade of bullets blossoming out in hypnotic patterns,
and view it as the most beautiful visions ever displayed onto a
television.
Others will just see impossible amounts of stuff on the screen and
wonder what kind of maniacal freak would have the reflexes to survive
for more than ten seconds. Japanese developer Cave is more or less the
master of this delightfully sadistic subgenre, and it's only suiting
that their latest release, Mushihime-sama, continues to amplify their
explosive reputation as one of the best old school developers around.
Mushihime-sama (or "Insect Princess") is Cave's latest home release,
published by Taito. At its heart, Mushihime-sama is barely any different
from any other Cave shooter. There are two methods of fire - a spread
attack that has a wide range, or a concentrated attack that focuses all
your strength in a small area and slows down your character to allow for
easier dodging.
There's also a bomb button, which is useful for overwhelming situations.
The only new addition are Gradius-like options, which spread out your
destruction even more. There are two option types - one that shadows
your opponents and one that always stays in formation. Unfortunately,
you can only switch between them by grabbing designated power-ups - it
really would've been nice if you could change them on the fly. Considering Cave's last game, Espgaluda, had a neat little gimmick that
allowed you to slow down time whenever you want, it's a little
disappointing that there's no great feature that really sets
Mushihime-sama apart from its brethren.
In spite of its unoriginality, the graphic design is a far cry from a
vast majority of shoot-em-ups. The heroine is a purple-haired lass named
Princess Reko, who rides her gigantic beetle friend through five stages
of insect fury. Ditching the usual sci-fi theme, Mushihime-sama draws
far more from the likes of Miyazaki's Nausicaa, with each landscape
filled with neon insects and gigantic creepy crawlies. The third level
is an ode to the gigantic battleship trend first started in R-Type -
except instead of a space cruiser, you're fighting an enormous, multi
segmented creature with more legs than you could possibly imagine. The
animation in this whole level is gorgeous, and this same level of detail
shows through on other boss creatures. While the aesthetics may be
pleasing, Mushihime-sama does falter a bit on the technical side. Due to
the change in resolutions between a TV and a vertical arcade monitor,
previous PS2 ports of Cave games included a filter that rendered the
graphics less pixilated. Unfortunately, there is so such savior here,
so the visuals end up losing much of their splendor. The only real
solution is to put the game in TATE mode, which gives an aspect ratio
much closer to its arcade original, and looks much cleaner to boot.
Almost every Cave has demanded near-impossible reflexes that made them
rather off putting to all but the most dedicated gamers. They must've
realized this with Mushihime-sama, as the game's difficulty is far
gentler than before. That's not to say that Very Easy mode is actually a
cakewalk, but the comparison is all relative - it's actually possible
for a casual shmupper (shoot em upper) to beat the game on a single credit, if one sets
their minds to it. Cave didn't completely sell out to cater to the
newbie crowd, as the higher difficulty levels still provide insane
amounts of challenge. The "Ultra" mode is so intimidating that a warning
screen actually pops up before you're allowed to play it. Mushihime-sama
does have a tendency to slow down quite a bit on the more challenging
settings, which is likely to annoy the fans but give a welcome breather
to anyone that considers themselves human. It is rather amusing to see
Sony's almighty PS2 choke to death on a measly 2D shooter. There are a
few other bonuses to the PS2 though - in additional to a nice artwork
gallery, there's also an "Arrange" mode specific to the PS2 version.
Arrange mode not only arms Reko to the teeth right at the beginning,
makes the game a bit easier by automatically using a bomb when you get
hit (if you have any left) To balance this all out, you're denied any
extra credits, which should silence any complaints about the ability to
continue infinitely in the regular game modes.
But these additions are, for the most part, fairly minor, and the port
as a whole seems a little bit lacking compared to its predecessors.
There are no choices for borders in the default YOKO mode, and there's
no map screen anymore. Also missing is an arranged soundtrack, although
to be fair, the original soundtrack is still excellent. Dodonpachi
Daioujou and Espgaluda also came bundled with bonus DVDs which included
perfect runs of the game. There's nothing of the sort for Mushihime-sama
- although, to be fair, its retail price is a bit cheaper than those
two. A limited edition package also comes a gigantic box with a plastic
figurine showing Reko as a little girl. It's cute, but isn't nearly as
nice as the figurine that came with the soundtrack.
Other than the ending and the warning screen, Mushihime-sama is
entirely in English, including the menus.
US Bound?
Unless some budget publishers picks this one up (like Castle
Shikigami 2 and the unfortunately titled Mobile Light Force games), it's
highly unlikely this will ever see light outside of Japan.
Overall
Like most every shoot em up, Mushihime-sama is an unfortunately
brief experience - after twenty minutes, you've seen all there is to
see, and the extra modes don't really add a whole lot. Still, for
diehard shoot em ups fans, this is one of the most gorgeous,
well-balanced title that Cave has put out, and is a good starting point
for gamers put off by the extreme challenge of Dodonpachi Daioujou.
- Kurt Kalata
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