Whether you refer to them as the "manic shooter", "curtain fire" or "blanket shooter", the undeniable fact is that it produces some of the most intense responses a genre of games can. Both on an impressive visual scale, and the more personal, adrenaline-based impulse reaction level. And it cannot be denied that the Japanese have a stranglehold on all things "manic shooter".
The Flash-based Pararalyzer, from Japanese developer Heriet, is no exception. From the opening screen, there is action galore and soon enough amazing bullet patterns criss-cross the screen in a dazzling kaleidoscope of colour. Through it all the [Z] key will be your best friend, as you unleash a seemingly endless stream of bullets toward the equally endless droves of enemies who are bent on destroying you.
Every so often a boss turns up, usually with three different stages of destruction to battle through before it is dispatched. The action never lets up as the ballet of enemies and their bullets once again resumes with you, the star, caught in the middle of it all. Fortunately, the intensities can be alleviated somewhat with the [C] key, which provides temporary relief in the form of a shield, provided you have some in stock. The [X] key not only provides sweet bullet respite in its main form as a spray of electric enemy disabling bombs, but as a multifaceted tool for organising pick-ups.
By launching the [X] bombs into the pick-ups, they change in a sequence through life>shield>vanish>force and back again. In order, "life" increases your health, or 200 points if your health is already full. "Shield" gives you another stock of shield (mentioned above and deployable with the [C] key) or 200 points if that stock is full. "Vanish" is the most immediately useful as it clears the screen of any bullets. And "force" temporarily increases your attack power. Another, "Extend" is only available at the end of a level and gives you the ability to hold more health. Playing with all these rules in mind not only deepens the gameplay, but adds another layer of strategy. Quite an achievement for a fast paced flash shmup.
Analysis: It's not difficult to understand why games like this continue to be so exciting. There is something inherently gratifying about being stuck in a surely deadly situation only to suddenly find a few pixels of maneuvering space and escape. Then it happens all over again. With the unique option of being able to double the screen size, or to turn the background to black, this shooter, despite its relative length, provides a very intense and exciting game play experience. I'd love to write a bit more about it, but for now, it's back to this incredibly enjoyable game.
first post *does first post dance*
Easy mode felt like hard mode.
lolz, looks liek touhou
Woah... that's hard! This is the most hetic shooter i've seen thus far. Great find.
I actually managed to get up to the final boss. I should've saved more of my shields though cause' they get rid of all shots on the screen when you get hit with one on.
The game ran really slowly for me. I thought it was just unexciting but hearing people say it's hectic makes me think that it's actually supposed to run a lot faster.
It might help to note that shooting the powerups with the [x] gun causes them to change type; lifeup becomes shield becomes vanish (whatever that does) becomes force (major temporary gun upgrade) becomes lifeup again.
Also, as a regular Touhou player, I can say that the amount of bullets on the screen is high even by that standard once level 2 on normal rolls around.
Hmm, you really should have mentioned a bit more on the gameplay than simply just calling it a maniac shooter.
There's a reason why it's called pararalyzer. Use that x button. Paralyzed enemies have different (99% weaker) attack patterns and often don't do suicide attacks. I believe it also weakens their defense. In fact, not using it could be seen like a challenge run.
Using it on powerups changes it from life->shield->vanish->force and then back around.
Life gives you 1/2 of your bar or 200 points if it's full. Shield gives you a shield or 200 points if it's full. Vanish removes all bullets from the screen. Force gives you a more powerful attack for a while. Extend is a special powerup you get after beating a level which fills and extends your life bar.
You should almost always get a shield or force, unless you are playing to score and go for life for the points.
That should be enough to get you started.
You see, I never used those things. For the longest time I didn't realise they were there and when the review was nearly complete, I figured that temporarily disabling the enemies it hit was the only thing it did.
I went through the game without them.
Perhaps you could play it again and revise the review, or at least add a little onto it? Leaving up a review that completely misses half the mechanics of the game is rather poor form, particularly when the review lists the supposed basics of playing the game.
For those with safari watch out, this game wont run at all well. It will very rarely respond to your button presses and will be unplayable. At least it was for me anyway. Firefox or internet explorer seems to be the only way to fly.
Not to mention it makes it very difficult then to actually beat anything other than easy. In fact, it's probably easier to go pacifist (not shoot) on normal then try to deal with all the suicide bullets. And since people seem to be familiar with touhou here, I would say with that, normal is comparable to (roughly the last three stages) touhou normal. In fact, because of it's short length and generous amounts of powerups, I would consider it easier.
Oh, and a few mistakes I made on my previous post: (99% of the time weaker), 1/2 of A life bar
And a few more details: you can only have 1 status at a time. Those status are Shield, Force, and Paraylzed. Getting a new one overwrites the old one. At the end of shield, or if you get hit, all the bullets disappear. Not really so secret secret char (somewhat overpowered).
Hint: If you play as the 4th character (Cartan?),
when X is pressed, a 'vanish shield' also activates, which makes bullets disappear around that character.
Update