Demo Review 27: Kyotokei

In Kyotokei, we're brought to anime-style characters dressed in a Victorian style (I might make a mistake here, correct me if I'm wrong). You start the demo and get the choice between Easy, Normal and Hard.

This game is a horizontal Shoot'em up. That means the character is on the left of the screen, monsters come out from the right, and you have to shoot them by pressing 1 or holding it to produce a constant flow of bullets. However, this isn't an ordinary Shoot'em up; there's something very special about it. You see, in the game you can press 2 to switch between a blue fighter and a red fighter. Each fighter shoots their own bullet color. Same goes for the opponents: There are blue monsters and red monsters, and each monster shoots bullets of its color. Now, here's the special thing: If any fighter touches a monster, a life is lost. However, if the blue fighter gets hit by blue bullets, he doesn't die. Same for the red fighter with red bullets. However, the blue fighter will lose a life if hitting red bullets, and the red fighter will lose a life if hit by blue bullets. This is a very cool idea that makes this game a little easier, since both characters are impervious to half the bullets tossed at them (just not the same half). But, on the other hand, it becomes a little more difficult to keep track of which kind of bullets you must avoid.

All in all, the demo is quite fun. I'm a fan of vertical and horizontal shooters like this, even though I reviewed negatively the only game like this that I reviewed before on the blog. The graphics are nice, the music's pretty cool too.

You get to try only one level in the demo, which is not enough in my opinion. But it does give you an idea of what's in store for you if you buy the full version. Even in the demo, you can have a second player join by pressing 1 on a second Wiimote. A multiplayer horizontal shoot'em up? Cool idea. Also, as you battle the first boss in the game, you'll notice it first uses blue bullets with a group of red enemies behind, then red bullets with blue enemies behind, and returns to blue in the third round, with red enemies behind. I guess, as you progress in the game, these bosses use even more of these techniques, switching from a color to the other depending on your current character's weakness. Also, it's very difficult to get high scores, as bonuses are extremely difficult to get. There are no power-ups (in the demo anyway; I can't speak for the full game), and the bonus points reset each time you hit an enemy of a different color than the preceding one. Also, you have 3 Continues.

Maaaaaaaaayyyyyyyybe I'd buy this game. It's really not a certainty. But I acknowledge it's fun. On the other hand, there are plenty of games like this on Internet... Oh, tough choice. Anyway, try it out, and if you like it, you know what to do.