Racketboy

Ok — every time we think we have seen the last of the commercial Dreamcast shooter releases, another one gets announced (not that I’m complaining).

The newest entry in the Dreamcast shmup library comes from Warashi, which shooter fans may know from the Saturn shooting game Shienryu.



The Dreamcast port of the fairly recent Naomi arcade game, Trigger Heart Exelica, will be released on the Dreamcast in February 2007, under the name “Trigger Heart Extension”. As with many of the other late Dreamcast shmup released, the game will get the standard premium and normal editions, according to Arcadia.

To give you a brief overview of the game, I turn to Wikipedia…

“The game involves playing 1 of 2 anthropomorphic fighters to battle against 5 stages of enemy ships. Exelica specialized in wide area attacks, while Crueltear uses concentrated front shots. Player can fire anchor to catch enemy ships, then use the caught unit as shield or throw it to inflict more damage. Like Zanac, this game dynamic adjusts difficulty based on player’s in-game performance.”

Insomniac.ac also adds some nice commentary about the Naomi arcade version in its rather lengthy review…

“Triggerheart Exelica is a shooting game where, ideally, you do very little shooting. What you have to do instead is lock on to and capture enemy ships, and then use them as shields and/or throw them at other enemies. Although you do get to use your main shot on occasion, Exelica in fact feels and plays a lot like a puzzle game, and while that in itself is not a bad thing, it goes a long way towards explaining why shooter fans don’t seem to like it. The fact that it looks like shit goes the rest of the way.

In any case the capturing mechanic is undoubtedly the game’s outstanding aspect, so here’s how it works. Much like in Psikyo’s Zero Gunner (1997), by holding down the so-called “anchor shoot” button you lock on to whichever enemy you are facing. While in lock-on mode your fire is automatically aimed at your target, regardless of where you are on screen, and your flying speed slows down to a crawl (this is especially useful during boss fights because, similarly to the focused shot in Cave’s shooters, it helps you navigate dense bullet patterns with more accuracy)…

But wait — there’s more! Warashi has designed what it calls a Variable Boss Attack System (V.B.A.S.), which is nothing more than their version of what everyone else calls rank. Basically, the more items in your possession when you reach a boss, the more manic the bullet patterns he throws at you. Again here Warashi should be congratulated for making the workings of this system clear (on their website), so that players can adjust their strategies accordingly, instead of having to waste endless hours experimenting, as is normal with other rank-heavy shooters (e.g. Raizing and Yagawa-designed Cave titles).”
Read Full Review

From some of the first screenshots I’ve seen, it doesn’t look quite as slick as some Dreamcast shmups like Ikaruga and Under Defeat, but it does feature real-time 3D animation and sports some screen-popping animation effects that keep it from looking like just another shooter.

The buzz in Japan and the arcade shooter community seems to be pretty strong with this one, so it will most likely be among the Dreamcast’s best once it arrives.

To get a really good feel for this upcoming shooting experience, here is a clip of the first stage of gameplay.

Full Review of Trigger Heart Exelica
Download the High-Quality Videos (Torrent)
More Gameplay Videos

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