Written by Patrick Orquia
Title: Pawarumi
Developer: Manufacture 43
Publisher: Manufacture 43
Genre: shoot ‘em up, arcade
Number of Players: 1
Release Date: 24 July 2019
Platform Nintendo Switch
Price: $14.99
Also Available On: Steam
I like shoot ‘em up aka shmup games, though I have to admit that I’m not very good with them. I remember playing some when I was a kid, games like Twin Bee, B-Wings, Macross, and 1942. I don’t remember finishing any of them, because they could be tough as nails especially on latter levels, and kid me wasn’t really that keen with my hand-and-eye coordination yet and avoiding lots of enemies shooting at me from all angles could easily beat me down. Adult me nowadays have come to like other genres, particularly platformers and metroidvanias. I’m not the best player around with those genres, either, but I fare better with them.
I found out about the shmup game Pawarumi just recently, and from the early video clips that I’ve seen about it, it seemed rather an interesting one. It has one unique shake-up of the proven formula of the shmup genre: aside from shooting tons of enemies on the screen, the game also utilizes a rock-scissors-paper mechanic, referred in-game as the Trinity System, that seemed awesome on paper but rather unnecessarily tedious during actual gameplay. In this game, the ship that you control, the Chukaru, has 3 guns of different colors (red, green, and blue, mapped to A, B, and Y, respectively) and characteristics, matching the 3 available colors of the enemies, and shooting an enemy using a specific gun color results to either filling your shield meter aka Boost (the number of hits that your ship can take before getting destroyed), filling your super meter aka Drain (special attack, mapped to X, that unleashes a barrage of bullet in all direction) or doing more damage to the enemy aka Crush. It’s a bit too much to remember which gun does which to such and such enemy, so just go through the tutorials to know them. If you’re too cool for tutorials, go right ahead and go through the Arcade mode, where it is shown on the HUD which gun does which, so you just have to press your desired button.
This game has a very steep difficulty curve, even on easy (the other difficulty modes are normal and hard), so you will probably die a lot. You have to really spend some time in honing your skills and maybe, in a couple of hours, you can beat the game. Maybe. To help you in getting good at any of the levels, there is a Training mode where you can tackle any level that you have already played (and probably failed in) so that you can memorize enemy attack patterns, etc. that can give you the advantage the next time you play it.
By the way, there is an actual story in this game, albeit unnecessary and bland. You play as Axo, the pilot of the ship Chukaru. Upon the start of every level, a quick cutscene is shown to show a bit of the story. I skipped most of them, to be honest, as they don’t interest me and I just oftentimes want to jump into the action right away. I mean, you control a spaceship, you shoot your gun at enemy ships, rinse and repeat. That is all I would like to see, thank you. Nonetheless, I appreciate the developers throwing in a story and making animated cutscenes to shot it for those who want it, so kudos to them.
To wrap everything together, this game looks quite good. It is a shmup, but the level and enemy design is better that most of the same genre. There are also some section wherein you fly from one part of the level to another and this is shown in full 3D graphics and the transition is seamless. Well, there some occasional frame rate drops here and there (a lot of them during the inter-level cutscenes) but they are tolerable. The soundtrack and sound effects are all also good. The game is supposed to be set in a retro-futuristic pre-Columbian world and the music kind of give that sort of retro-futuristic pre-Columbian vibe we all know and love… ok, just kidding on that one, but the bottom line is the game do sound good.
Overall, there are a lot of things to like in this game. The game is similar to most shmup games out there but it does feature it unique Trinity System that adds complexity and strategizing to it. This game has a very steep learning curve but anyone who would be willing to put in time and effort to master it would be able to do it. So buckle up and take the Chukaru to battle and to victory, if you have the heart to dare it.
REPLAY VALUE: High
PROS
- Good visuals and level design
- Good music and sound design
- Very steep learning curve that encourages you to be good at the game
- The Trinity System gives the game added complexity and strategizing that makes the game stand out in the crowd of shoot ‘em up games
- Ideal for playing in short bursts of gameplay in handheld mode
CONS
- Bland story
- The unique ship design exclusive to Switch doesn’t do anything different other than be in the color of your Joy-Con
- Infrequent yet very noticeable frame rate dips, but tolerable
- Only has 5 different levels with the game padded by the very high difficulty
- No local or online multiplayer options
RATING: 3.5/5 retro-futuristic pre-Columbian madness
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