PAWARUMI

Good shmup, interesting take on different weapons matching enemies. But, like most old school shmups, ultimately falls to memorization. I'm a little too old to spend over 9 hours trying to beat a game on normal. Still, fun.

This is pretty cool. Soundtrack is awesome, bright colors, powerful weapons. The trinity mechanic works but I am not a big fan. I think I would prefer powerups and things, but I am happy they innovated. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAOL6Tfr7xg

Extremely polished, great art while still keeping bullets and enemies visible, and the weapon system is fantastic.

[quote]Just saying, but I do have a curator page. If you like my remarks about games, you can find more of them here: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44130985-TDP%27s-Gaming-Escapades [/quote] PAWARUMI is a very well-made shmup game, and one that I believe is criminally underrated. The game takes several inspirations from Ikaruga, which is one of the best games in the shmup/bullet hell genre, to form its gameplay and presentation. But while it does look great and is fun to play, some unfortunate issues and its reliance on being a classic-styled shmup ultimately cause it to not be a suitable pick for everyone. [h2]Outstanding presentation[/h2] If there's one thing that PAWARUMI absolutely nails, it's the presentation. The soundtrack of the game is very well-composed. No doubts about that. But it's the visual design and polish that deserves the most praise. All of the level backgrounds in the game are very detailed and full of color, with each of them having a dominant shade of color throughout them to set their moods. The same applies to the player ship and the enemies, each having specific designs that make them wildly different to the other types. The cinematic camera shots are done really well and add to the game's feeling of progression through or between the levels; much like the same thing with Ikaruga, only without the possible goosebumps as the result of music and visuals being perfectly synced. I especially love the attention to detail in this game. The default bindings of the game have been set in a way that the color of shots and the color of their respective buttons on an Xbox 360 controller are the same. Each of the fire modes are signified with the facial appearances of Condor, Serpent and Jaguar, and you will see a brief animation of them appearing upon firing the weapons in addition to the playable ship changing its appearance. And the design of the HUD and the characters are very in-line with drawings of Aztecs, a civilization which is a major source of inspiration for this game. [h2]Fun, and yet confusing at the same time[/h2] When it comes to talking about the gameplay and how it feels at a fundamental level, I've got to say it is very fun, well constructed and unique. Sure, the game lacks the punch it needs to make enemy explosions impactful, but everything else work together to deliver a satisfying shooting experience. The game's uniqueness comes in the form of its shot modes, where it takes Ikaruga's polarity system, changes some stuff and then adds more to it. In PAWARUMI, you have access to three color coded shot modes: Laser beam (Blue), homing missiles (Red) and curved shots (Green). The enemies are all drenched in one of these three colors, and attacking them with each of the shots causes you to achieve one of the following effects: [list] [*]Crush (bottom middle of the screen): Attacking an enemy with the opposing shot color, dealing more damage as a result. [*]Boost (bottom right of the screen): Attacking an enemy with the other opposing color, in order to charge your special attack. [*]Drain (bottom left of the screen): Attacking an enemy with a shot that has their exact color, in order to charge your shield. Also causes the drained enemies to attack faster in retaliation. [/list] One one hand, this weapon system gives you complete freedom to decide what you want to do and how you want to progress. But on the other hand, it also makes the gameplay very confusing. If you cannot get a grip on how the weapon system is handled, you will be forced to constantly take a peek at the bottom of the screen and then immediately look back to make sure you won't get hit by the enemies. Not only that, one of the bosses forces you to play a shell game and hit the target with the exact weapon effect he asks you to choose, further making this an issue for the confused. [h2]Not very casual friendly[/h2] When it comes to the difficulty, PAWARUMI is a decently balanced game with very well-designed enemy patterns. However, it's not a game that I would recommend to the newcomers to the genre or casual players as its game design is based on older titles in the shmup genre, not offering any modern quality of life additions. What I mean by such statement is that PAWARUMI is a game that in classic shmup fashion, requires dedication to be finished. The game's true ending is only accessible on the hardest difficulty mode and some enemy patterns, such as certain laser beam enemies in the Industrial Complex, require you to have prior knowledge of their appearance in order to not get hit by them. Furthermore, you are forced to 1CC the game. There is no free play mode, no extra lives system and no unlockable credit points in this game. If you run out of shield meter and die at any point, which can happen a lot as the amount of shield and super meter you have don't recharge between levels, the run is over and you have to restart everything from the beginning. All of these make for a game that requires hours of practice and restarts in order to access its ending, thus not making it a suitable choice for casuals and newcomers, or those with limited time on their hands. The 1CC is especially a problem here since I believe the game unintentionally suffers from a rather big problem. [h2]Oh god not again…[/h2] This is the main reason that much to my dismay, I decided to not recommend this game. If there was a middle ground option I would have chosen that instead, but unfortunately I do not have such leisure. As I have mentioned before, PAWARUMI is a game with a lot of work put into designing its levels, models and other visual elements. But while this works for the game by providing a unique visual presentation, it also works against it by increasing the chances of visual clarity issues surfacing, which is very visible in the Dune Ocean and Xibalba levels. Simply put, the background is colorful and detailed, all of your ship's attacks have visual effects of their own, the animation for special bars filling up takes some space on the screen and some setpieces fill the screen with various moving objects, making some of the levels visually busy. Not only that, enemy projectiles have a dark purple color that makes them hard to notice in busy scenes, with only the faster variants being bright and noticeable. Then there is the fact that all of the enemies in this game deal contact damage and their fly patterns can cause them to come right at you. So basically, you have to watch out for the projectiles that are coming at you from all directions in middle of all of the visual effects (as the game is a vertical shooter in 16:9 aspect ratio, allowing fleeing enemies to attack at you from the sides of the screen), and also watch out for the enemies that are flying around or for the sudden lunge attacks of the bosses, all while you are also keeping an eye on the enemies and the bottom of the screen to determine which shot type you should use against them. This is simply too much, paving the way for many instances when you legitimately don't know what hit you. And need I remind you that you are forced to finish this game in one sitting without continues? [h2]TL;DR[/h2] A fantastic & frankly underrated shmup with lots of care and polish put into its presentation and gameplay. Unfortunately, the game's 1CC requirement and some clarity issues make it hard to recommend.

It's a pretty fun game. The color gimmick for the firing modes and enemies is interesting. It can get pretty dicey. Best to do the tutorial to really understand the colors. Not many Aztec themed games. This is a good one.

Awesome gamefeel and theme. You gotta to love those inter-stage transition <3

Um shooter dinamico e bonito. O jogo e bem desafiador pelo fato de voce ter somente uma vida. Mas tem modos de reparar a nave no jogo. Se voce esta em duvida em comprar e jogar de uma olhada no video em meu canal com as primeiras impressoes do jogo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7ieYrGfoXA&feature=youtu.be

why does this game have no reviews? it's awesome

OMF Instantly love it. It's like playing old school shooters such as the original Silpheed and such just updated and still bad ass, exactly what I was looking for.

Grapics and animation are good. Music is great. Color mechanic is nice. It requires focus to handle it in the action though. It will probably be easier after more hours spent on the game.