Japanese shoot-em-ups: Short, simple and a lot of fun

Shoot-‘em-up-style games, which require players to blast everything that moves while avoiding enemy fire, have been around since “Space Invaders.” But the genre, while producing excellent titles such as “Ikaruga” and “Rez,” stopped being a hitmaker long ago.

That said, a couple of recent Japanese titles, “Deathsmiles” on the Xbox 360 and “Sin & Punishment: Star Successor” on the Wii, pack plenty of rewards for gamers who miss playing a short game over and over in a bid to get the high score.

“Deathsmiles” (rated T, $50) might be the year's strangest retail game. It's a two-dimensional affair that scrolls at a fixed speed and requires players to negotiate a “bullet hell” minefield with lightning-quick reflexes and memorization of attack patterns.

But where past titles in the genre featured spaceship protagonists, “Deathsmiles” stars “gothic Lolitas,” essentially flying teenage girls in frilly dresses. (For the most part, it's less perverse than it sounds.)

Why gothic lolitas? Dunno. One can only assume that it's because the Japanese, who've always played more shoot-‘em-ups than us Americans, became jaded by playing spaceship game after spaceship game, and flying, school-aged girls with animal companions seemed like a great way to shake things up. Don't question it. It's delightfully odd and fantastically Japanese.

But the strangeness goes far beyond the five heroines, each of whom plays slightly differently. The girls have been separated from their families, trapped in a world overrun by flying eyeballs, malicious dancing couples and fire-breathing demons.

At one point, you fight a giant cow that looks like it was designed using an entirely different game engine, then dropped into “Deathsmiles” in the video game equivalent of a bad PhotoShop job. And who's responsible for all this evil? A man named Jitterbug.

It takes maybe an hour to finish, but the game ships with several different modes and difficulty levels. Online leaderboards and saved replays allow you to download videos of the top players, both a useful learning tool and a tremendous way to feel inadequate.

“Deathsmiles” is a great introduction to an often overlooked genre. It lets players continue an unlimited number of times, ensuring anyone can “beat” the game, but it resets the score each time you continue, ensuring its leaderboards aren't compromised. It's got plenty to offer for casual and new players, even if gamers used to big-budget games with high production values and dozens of hours of unique missions might claim it doesn't feel like it's worth $50.

Boasting in-game movies, voice-acted dialogue and a longer campaign, the Wii's “Sin & Punishment: Star Successor” (rated T, $50) might look like a more fleshed-out experience. But don't let those facts fool you. The graphics look as if they've been run through some kind of muddy, “2001” filter, and the confounding, meandering story seems to have been written by a 4-year-old.

Yet to harp on these shortcomings is to miss the point of “Star Successor,” a sequel to a Japanese Nintendo 64 game that didn't get its first U.S. release until 2007 on the Wii's Virtual Console. Like “Deathsmiles,” this is a game about shooting lots of stuff and scoring a ton of points.

You play as one of two characters. There's Isa, an effeminate boy with a taste for thigh-high boots, or Kachi, a girl with thigh-high boots who appears to have the same haircut as Isa.

It eventually becomes clear that Kachi only appears to be a girl. She's actually a sort of alien in disguise. Isa, originally sent to kill her, had second thoughts, either because of her non-threatening, inquisitive nature or the fact that she's got some cute clothes he hopes to borrow.

Anyhow, they're both on the lam from Isa's bosses, who've sent several fashion-forward assassins known as the Nebulox to hunt them down.

Unlike “Deathsmiles,” “Star Successor” plays out in three dimensions, but it's still what's known as an on-rails shooter.

(The genre is so named because the player-controlled character progresses through levels automatically, and the player is never given full control over level progression.)

You'll run or fly, using Isa's jetpack or Kachi's hoverboard to move around, avoiding danger with jumps and a “dash” maneuver as you blast away. Kachi's more tuned for rookies, with a reticule that locks onto targets automatically as long as you keep the trigger button held. Isa allows for players to point the Wii remote anywhere and fire at will.

As in “Deathsmiles,” the game features a number of mid- and end-level battles that represent the toughest parts of the game. A Nebulox assassin in the third level, for example, requires players to perfectly time dodges and counterattacks, even on the “easy” difficulty.

Because “Star Successor” lacks the mid-battle “continue” of “Deathsmiles,” players who die start over at the beginning of the fight, with the boss at full health.

Some players may get this far, lose patience and quit, but I'm the sort of masochist that'll keep playing a tough stretch over and over until I get it right.

Staff Writer Eric Wittmershaus blogs about video games at gamewit.blogs. pressdemocrat.com. You can reach him at 521-5433 or eric.wittmershaus@pressdemocrat.com. Follow @gamewit on Twitter.