Quick Review: Shutshimi

Oh hey, I know this guy- er, this fish! He was in Indie Pogo!

I'd be tempted to play the Guppy version
to start. But no, real fishes start on Standard.

Developed by Neon Deity Games, published by Choice Provisions and released on August 25th, 2015, Shutshimi is the story of, well, Shutshimi, a fish with a cigar and very muscular human arms, who packs heat against all sorts of underwater invaders. There’s only one problem; he has poor memory and can’t stick to one thing long enough to save his life.

This game could practically be called a party shmup, as you can have four players participating in any game, and the tone is very comical. The gameplay is split in two sections of 10 seconds each – a wave spent killing enemies, and a section called Shop Time in which you pick the next upgrade that will be applied to Shutshimi.

This is the sort of shmup one would make
after snorting ground-up Skittles.

I'm not sure what that thing is, but I bet it's
somewhere in H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos.

The upgrades have a wide range that help give this game the party feel I was talking about at first. There’s the usual for a shmup (alternate weapons, greater movement or shooting speed, shields and protection, etc.), then there’s all sorts of silly things like an item that doubles Shutshimi’s size, one that surrounds him with baby fishies (who shoot too!), one that makes him invisible, one that applies gravity to him, one that flips the screen 180° or reverses the controls... Other elements change the battlefield; it can be set during a heavy rainstorm, take place at a rave, on a bouncy castle, or replace the background and enemies with butts. Yep, butts. Last but not least: Hats, which sometimes give a bonus during rounds. There’s more than 30 of those and you should catch them all. Also, the descriptions are randomized with funny bits of sentences.

None of this makes sense! (For the record, the power-up is
"enhanced time dilation", it makes everything twice as
fast for a single round, and it's got nothing to do with
hard-to-reach places.)

You can grow giant? You can have a school of
fish that shoots with you? And THE FISHIES
GROW GIANT TOO?
Holy crap, best game ever!

The game is technically endless, and you face wave after wave of enemies, which are sometimes replaced by a boss fight. Since the waves are so short, sometimes you won’t be able to beat a boss in a single wave – no worries, it’ll return in a later wave! You will, however, fight the bosses always in the same order This goes on until you fight and defeat the sixth and final boss, after which the game keeps going until you lose. Shutshimi has only one Hit Point and three lives, though he gets points for killing enemies and earn an extra life every 2500 points.

There are extra modes; one is a Guppy “training” mode that ends after the second boss, with 1/4th of the points. You also unlock a hard mode where points are worth 1.5X more. Then, there’s also a Boss Rush mode. In the latter two, you start with only one life, so it’s going to be tough!

Everything in the game is coated with comedy.
Like those stats.
Seriously, don't use this much TP!

Asses! Asses everywhere! Too bad April 1st
was Thursday, or this would have been a
great April Fools article.

This one is fun, silly and enjoyable in a lot of ways. I like the twist on the otherwise somewhat tired shmup genre (then again, I might not have played enough to talk clearly on this) and how it’s turned into a party game. Playing in single-player is a lot of fun too, although you have to live with the whims of the randomly-generated upgrades. Some of those can be detrimental to your progress - looking at you, invisibility cloak. You rather quickly learn the buzzwords that indicate which upgrades are actually good or which ones you prefer. Getting all of the hats can be tough as well, since like everything else they appear at random. Although, granted, this means that rarely will two waves feel exactly the same, and that’s nice for replayability. I probably should try to play it with friends to see what it’s like in multiplayer.

Shutshimi is available for 4.99$ USD.