Demolition Gunner: In Seek And Destroy

My Next review is another freeware shmup called Demolition Gunner: In Seek and Destroy by the doujin circle Dark Hell Company. They later transformed into Astro Port one of the most well known doujin shmup circles. This version of the game is a black label (update) of the normal Demolition Gunner with a remix mode added. As you can see it has a helicopter for the players craft instead of a spaceship or some cutesy character, of which in a doujin game it’s not seen often compared to euro shmups which tend to use the helicopter a lot more. Rather then been fixed forward facing the helicopter rotates slightly when moving left or right which makes a change from the norm plus makes play easier as due to the large amount the screen scrolls left and right, that forces the player to make long left/right sweeping movement to destroy all the enemies that are off the screen.

The graphics are ok for a 2d doujin shooter, although I do which there was a little bit more variety in the enemies you fight as they all look similar. Even the bosses just looked like larger versions of the normal popcorn enemies. I would have like to see the bosses at least look better. But in the bigger scheme of things this is just a minor gripe I have as the main aspect of any shmup is the playability and bullet patterns. While DG is not a bullet hell in the same sense of Cave, there are plenty of bullets thrown towards you rather then a maze of bullets to navigate through. With this DG is fun to play and will always keep you on your toes. From what I’m able to gather the scoring system is simple. Kill as many baddies as possible and don’t die, plus there are stars for you to collect which increase the score multiplier so collecting these is very important. The other main scoring aspect is the usual end of level tally. You only have the scatter gun for you’re primary weapon which you are able to collect power ups to boost its strength. There is also a secondary weapon in the form of a napalm bomb, which only has a small blast radius and weak power, it won’t cancel any bullets so it’s an offensive weapon only. To balance out its weakness you do get a lot to use in the course of the game. The helicopter has a shield which you are able to upgrade 3 levels by collecting items, each upgrade allows for 1 hit.

This system makes DG a hell of a lot easier then other shmups of its ilk, in the same way Blue Wish Resurrection uses the auto-bomb to make the game easier. Due to this 1CC the game is pretty easy infact to beat the game is to 1CC due to the game giving you no continues. Many will want to play the game on hard mode to get a real challenge. There is also an even harder mode for those pro shmuppers. For those of you who want a chance there is also a remix mode. Which changes the bullets patterns more like a Cave game? Instead of a napalm bomb you have the standard beam attack that also slows the ship down to allow you to weave through the bullets. Playing this in normal I found it to be even easier then the normal mode, finishing the game only on my 2nd attempt. So even novices will find themselves playing remix in a harder mode most of the time.

Rating

Even for its short comings Demolition Gunner ISAD is a lot of fun to play and just like the Blue Wish games suit a gamer who is relatively new to shmups before they move onto more complex and challenging titles. Given that this game is freeware it is good quality and not a game to be missed if you like PC shmups. 3.7/5