Hi, Seon King from indie publisher Nyu Media here.
Today we launched a trilogy of STG (or shoot ‘em up or shmup games) called The Tale of ALLTYNEX by Japanese indie developer SITER SKAIN. To promote the release, over the next few days I’ll be taking the liberty of providing some commentary and insights into each of the games in the fervent wish that you’ll become an ALLTYNEX believer and support the games by picking them up.
The first game in the series is KAMUI (“Divine Menace”) which was released way back in 1998 – a long time ago to be sure, but KAMUI is a case study in age and beauty going very nicely together indeed. Almost 15 years after its release, it looks stunning and plays extremely well. Visually, the game is deliciously old school (& we at Nyu Media LOVE it for that); while the sprites may be simple by today’s standards, the love and affection that was lavished upon them and the animation truly shine; from the signature barrel roll in the first stage, thrusters fire, exhaust is emitted, enemies bank in to attack and bosses with multiple parts get blown to bits – gorgeous.
Gameplay is the real aspect in which KAMUI excels. Taking a good deal of influence from Taito’s Layer Section series (known in the west as the Gunlock/Ray series), the action unfolds over two altitude planes. The sheer sense of destruction and awesomeness you get thanks to the action taking place in two planes at the same time is immense.
KAMUI features a pretty refined scoring system that makes you take full advantage of the weapons at your disposal, which are a power-uppable forward shot, a shield system, a lock-on lightning attack used to destroy enemies in the lower levels and, an extremely powerful ‘Lightning Katana’ that can instantly clear out most bullets and destroy enemies. Rabid STG fans can go hog wild with the score attack gameplay, but lesser STG players (such as yours truly) can just enjoy a really fun arcade game and eventually beat it to death with continues.
The story for the game comes from GOD KNOWS WHERE, but it is GREAT. Fantastical stories are a shared element in all three of the ALLTYNEX games and one of the points that really sets them apart from other shooting games.
The story to KAMUI goes like this: a professor working for the military is forced to transfer the living brain of his daughter to an advanced fighter craft. This sends him insane and he transfers his own consciousness to a massive orbiting weapons platform with plans to avenge his daughter by destroying humanity. He doesn’t get to follow through with his vengeance due to an intervening war (that’s another fantastic story that rolls out in the game RefleX), but centuries later he wakes up from his dormant state and prepares to pick up where he left off. The only thing that can stop him is the fighter craft powered by his daughter’s brain which has also reactivated. She’ll do this because her dear, batshit-crazy dad allowed her brain to retain consciousness when he transplanted it to the ship and she prefers to protect humanity. And so, she heads out to save the world by destroying the weapon of mass annihilation that is her dad. Awesome.
The pre-brain transplant KAMUI pilot
In localizing the game, we’ve translated the story, in-game titles and menus, etc. of course, but the massive kanji that accompany new levels are boss ‘WARNING’s that add so much to the flavor of the game are still there. Also, new to the English version we’ve added TATE (arcade style) display mode, Xbox 360 controller support and increased resolution options.
WARNING + Kanji = Get ready for a fight!
KAMUI is a fantastic game that has attained legendary status amongst independent devs in Japan and both core & casual shmuppers can really enjoy. We’re honored and excited to present KAMUI and the entire Tale of ALLTYNEX series in English for the first time to gamers around the world. If you like arcade shooting games AT ALL, we’re very confident you will enjoy KAMUI, but don’t take my word for it – check out the demo at ALLTYNEX.com!
That’s it for the KAMUI. See you in a couple of days to shine a light on the second game in the trilogy: RefleX!
The Tale of ALLTYNEX is developed by the Japanese indie dev SITER SKAIN and localized and published by Nyu Media Limited. The games and original soundtracks are available for $7.99 each or all three games are available together for $19.99. Visit ALLTYNEX.com for more details, demos, and where to purchase, and please take a moment to vote for the Tale of ALLTYNEX on Steam Greenlight!
This post is part of the Tales of ALLTYNEX series sponsored by Nyu Media.
Published: Jun 6, 2013 12:00 am