Cloudphobia
Posted by Derek Yu Tue, 16 Dec 2008 05:41:00 GMT
Cloudphobia is a gorgeous horizontal shoot ‘em up from Marsbound that’s been in development a few years and just came out yesterday. As MischiefMaker (thanks!) pointed out to me, it’s one of the few doujin shareware titles that comes as a download rather than in a CD (for 1575 Yen or around $18). And since the game and its website are in English, it’s pretty accessible to non-Japanese.
CP is broken up into five 3-minute stages (two included in the demo). There are three ways you can lose in each stage: 1. by losing all your health, 2. by letting too many enemies get by you, and 3. running out of time before you defeat the end boss. To succeed at the game, you have to balance the use of your boost, which lets you get to the boss faster, but makes it more difficult to destroy the enemies who are after you and your mothership.
Like many good shoot ‘em ups, you have to play each stage over and over to get a feel for your abilities and the enemy patterns. But with the life bar and short stages, Cloudphobia pretty forgiving for beginners. And did I mention that it’s a really pretty game? The illusion of speed that CP manages to pull off with relatively minimal production is pretty astounding, in my very humble opinion.
To top it off, there’s a second character option that uses a “vibroblade” instead of a gun. His name is Núllpunktur. Wow.
TIGdb: Entry for Cloudphobia
Wow,I remember when I’ve downloaded one of beta demos of Cloudphobia two or three years ago. It kicked my ass. Good to see full version.
They were still making this? It was on a coverdisc that contained one of my games years back. Nice stuff.
I’m “Sexy” on the Highscore boards. It’s fun to be able to play a game for score right when it comes out. You’re on an equal footing with all the obsessives who have yet to memorize the optimal scoring path. I will enjoy my #3 spot on the episode 3 scoreboard while it lasts.
Whoa. Really surprised/glad to see that this actually got developed into a full game. Some of these doujin shmups are really slow-burners.
May well buy this one. Not too expensive. It’s short, but the whole thing seems built for score attack play, rather than long-haul challenge.
awesome, but i haven’t a credit card :\ (still)
Meh, not as good as Ether Vapor.
Hehe.
utterly awesome!
I remember playing a 1 level demo of this like a year or so ago and thought it was actually good.
Núllpunktur sounds Icelandish.
Wow, I actually thought that one level beta was intended to be the full game back in the day. Guess not!
Though I should mention that the lowest difficulty of the first level is all the gameplay I can handle.
Woot.
Well, that was … boring. Sorry.
“Núllpunktur sounds Icelandish”
Looks more Norweigan to me: http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:af9Z2sxjf98J:www.holar.is/routes/framl.xls+N%C3%BAllpunktur&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=6&gl=ca&client=firefox-a
What WHAT? Hardcore shooter fans only apparently. Also not as aesthetically pleasing as the youtube suggests.
I thought Núllpunktur was German, like the original word for zero-point energy, Nullpunktenergie.
Nullpunktur is the Icelandic version of the word nullpunkt (which can be found in several germanic languages, including the nordic ones).
Er. Whatever.
yes… YEEEES! MUUUST BUY! I loved the old demo, and thought “ok there isn’t more…” but now there is! thanks for posting it :3
Reminds me of Seventh Sky.