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I found this shmup when I visited Babarageo for the banner game reviewed recently on JIG. The instructions are in Japanese, but it didn't take long to figure out what to do.
Uchuwars is a classic-style shmup with weapon power-ups and bombs. Control is with the mouse for movement and left click to shoot—you can hold it down for continuous fire; the low RSI factor is nice. Bombs are used with [B] key on keyboard.
You start with 5 shield and 3 bombs on each level, and whatever weapon level you had from the previous level. In addition to weapon power and bombs, supply ships also can drop shield points (recovers one shield). Once you lose all your shield points, it's game over. Actually, you just get returned to the splash screen.
On the splash screen, clicking on the little square next to "STAGE" will cycle through the stages you've been to, and you can retry those stages with the weapon power you had upon entering those stages. If you're up for extra challenge, after you've chosen a stage you can click the square next to "POWER" to lessen your firepower.. :)
The only downside I found so far is that bombs are not very effective, and you can have, at most, 3 of them.
Overall, I thought it was a nice casual shmup with nice execution and a good look-and-feel. Click.
[Jay: very kind cheers! to Alan for submitting this review for Uchuwars. If you have a game suggestion for us and want to try your hand at writing a review for it too, it's as simple as clicking the Suggest a game link just under the JIG banner on every page.]
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Comments (may contain spoilers)
Bombs:
Posted by: KojieroSaske
|
June 15, 2006 3:58 PM
Yay! What a wonderful shooter! I LOVE these old arcade style games. Great find, Alan!
The beauty in these types of games lies in the simplicity. When you only have one or two weapons, one of which is a last-resort weapon, and every enemy is affected the same way, a very special kind of gaming occurs. Holding down the fire button and avoiding enemy shots is pretty much my bread and butter; I may not be very good at it but it's incredibly fun.
Thanks for the find!
Posted by: Scramble125
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June 15, 2006 5:22 PM
Great Find Alan. Awesome Game!
My highscore is 98810!
Can you beat that?
Posted by: lyman | June 15, 2006 6:35 PM
KojieroSaske: thanks for the tip! About those shots that circle your ship..
lyman: mine is 333640! :)
Posted by: Alan | June 15, 2006 7:48 PM
I'm not really sure what my high score is? I think it's like 1,073,000 or something but that can't be right. It says that under Hi-score but I think that's cumulative or something.
Posted by: Scramble125
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June 15, 2006 8:28 PM
Something that bugs me about this game is that occasionally the game freezes my ship along a particular axis. Sometimes I can only move vertically, sometimes I can only move horizontally. I'm not sure exactly what causes it.
I'm using Firefox 1.5.0.4.
Has anybody else had this happen?
Posted by: Jake | June 15, 2006 10:18 PM
It needs a pause. A volume control would be nice, too. But definitely a pause, so when I realize there's no way to turn off the sound, I can kill my mp3 player without myself dying in the game.
Posted by: N@ | June 16, 2006 1:33 AM
this game is quite similar in style to a game for nintendo's gamecube called Ikaruga. it's kind of a short play, but a very nicely done game. check it out if you can.
Posted by: jeff | June 16, 2006 1:33 AM
Nice game! Anyone gonna tell me how to get past the boss at the end of level 8? He's the big red ball with two orbiting metal balls :)
My high score is apparently 1071860.
Posted by: RobG | June 16, 2006 6:43 AM
From what I can tell, the only way to damage the boss on level 8 is by shooting at the metal orbs. The red mass itself seems to be indestructible.
The problem is, between dodging the flames shot out from the red body and shooting at the metal orbs, it's very easy to die off fast.
The easiest thing to do is make sure you don't lose any shields before getting to the boss, or at least trying to. You can use bombs to take away crossfire up until the second big box-ship. After that, save them for the boss.
I find it also helpful to memorize where the next enemy will come from, so that when it finally appears in sight, if you've already begun shooting in it's direction, it will be at half-life or near-dead.
I still haven't beaten the boss though. I managed to destroy one ball but was dissapointed when the other one was still swinging away, mocking me...
Posted by: Oak | June 16, 2006 3:05 PM
I have a habit of trying not to use my bombs ever and sometimes I even forget about them haha~
http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/3172/untitled7wv1.jpg
1417250! :D
Posted by: devstrider | June 16, 2006 3:33 PM
Finally beat the game! And it only took about 20 tries on the level 8 boss. Great game. Going to try out some of their other games shortly.
For level 8 boss:
When the warning sign comes up get as close to the front as you can and begin shooting at the first orb moving from right to left. When it starts shooting fire immediately move to the back and begin focusing your attention on the second orb coming around.
When shifting from left to right to meet the approaching orb maintain fire on the main part, as you will need to destroy that too.
If you stay in the back and read which direction the fire is shooting you can do a decent job of avoiding it. In the event you do get hit you can use it to your advantage. You should save your bombs for when you get hit. After you get hit you get about 2-3 seconds of invincibility. When you sense the invincibility is almost up fire a bomb. This will give you a total amount of about 7 seconds to unload on the orbs.
Keep firing away and good luck.
Posted by: Jondoogin | June 16, 2006 8:05 PM
I swear it's not a 'shop.
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-3/965547/uchu_wars.jpg
I've found that if you play in Opera and zoom to enlarge the flash, it causes enough slow-down to make enemy weapon fire easier to dodge; especially with the final boss.
Posted by: gir_taquito | June 18, 2006 8:07 PM
Sometimes, in addition to the usual powerups, I see a little...creature? Pilot? Baby chicken? after I blow up one of the larger ships. It seems to boost both shields and bombs. Has anyone else seen these things, and if so you you have a better idea of what they are and what they do?
Posted by: jere7my
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June 18, 2006 9:51 PM
I decided to try playing again, and I'm still getting that problem with the ship freezing along an axis.
Things this game needs: Fix the axis-freezing bug. Implement a pause feature. Volume control.
Posted by: Jake | June 19, 2006 1:24 PM
Jake: is your pointer going outside the play area when your ship gets stuck on one axis?
Posted by: jere7my
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June 20, 2006 7:41 PM
Miscellaneous level 8 tips:
Posted by: jk | July 3, 2006 12:57 PM
36460 was my score on the 4th try. (took me ages to get the stage one boss)
Posted by: Zack | August 21, 2006 11:31 AM
40450 my 5th try!
Posted by: Zack | August 21, 2006 11:36 AM
how to get lvl 9 power on level 1 in 3 steps
2 click power till its on 9 WARNING! dont click level!
3 click start
voila! level 9 power on level one!
Posted by: andy the game master!!! | November 29, 2007 7:53 PM
it seems like my above cheat/glitch works on any level.
so you can die on any level and increase lvl 1 power to hightest available level
Posted by: and the gamemaster | November 30, 2007 3:14 PM