Shoot em’ ups (shmups) are some of the truest forms of the term “coin guzzler” in the arcades of yesteryear. Hard yet fun and addicting, they were like pringles, “Once you pop, you can’t stop!”. Each coin gets you closer to the end, learning bullet patterns and enemy placements till eventually you can run through the whole game on one token. Sadly arcades are a rare sight and even if you do come across one, usually the majority of the games in it are ticket redemption games. However in the past couple of years, shmups have been seeing remasters/re-releases/sequels/etc and that is awesome. This is especially true with Cave shmups.
For those not familiar with Cave, Cave is a Japanese developer that is famous for its “manic shooter” games or as they are more commonly known, bullet hell games. If you’ve been in an anime convention’s arcade area you’ve seen one of their games in there: tiny character/ship sprite dodging wave after wave of neon projectiles filling up the screen. Chances are that’s a Cave game. Seeing a Cave arcade machine that’s not in a Japanese styled arcade in the West is pretty rare, so whenever a Cave game gets re-released/remastered either in physical or digital form fans get really excited. Which brings us to the latest Cave game to get a re-release, Mushihimesama on the Nintendo Switch.
Mushihimesama, aka Bug Princess, is a bullet hell/manic shooter developed by Cave for arcades in 2004. While most stories in shmups are pretty minimal and not really memorable, Mushihimesama’s story is pretty interesting. The world of Mushihimesama is wild and untainted deserts inhabited by large insects called Koujuu. Upon death, the Koujuu leave behind their shells, where lush forests grow around them and other organisms, aka humans, are able to live. However the life force of the Koujuu is poisonous to humans and only a few select villages are able to survive in exchange for a sacrifice of a 15 year old girl every 200 years. In the village of Hoshifuri, it’s the local princess Reco’s turn. Wanting to end the cycle for good she heads into the Shinju Forest, where she received a golden bracelet as a young girl, uptop on riding the golden Koujuu beetle Kiniro to meet the Koujuu God. The story is alright for a shmup, not what most fans are here for but good none the less.
After you get over the blinding neon bullets that fill the screen, Cave shmups have really great looking graphics. From the sprites to the various backgrounds, the art in Cave shmups is top notch and Mushihimesama continues this trend. Even the rainbow neon wall of death looks amazing in motion. In addition to filling the screen with wave of neon bullets, Cave is also known for the awesome music that goes along with the chaos in the game. Each track gets you pumped up and heightens the tension as you fly ever so close though the small gaps in between enemy fire. Its a shame that there is no jukebox option to listen to the music without getting shot at.
What makes this version of Mushihimesama different from previous releases of the game is that it contains all of the versions of the game that have been released. These include novice, original, arranged and ver. 1.5. Novice is of course the easiest of the bunch, original is the original arcade version, arranged is the version of the game that was released on the PS2, and ver. 1.5 is the 2011 arcade release. There are differences in each of the versions, for example in the novice version of the game bullets are a bit slower and spacing between each shot is wider, making it easy for players to dodge through them. Original has no changes or additions. Arranged puts the player at full power, allows players to switch between shot types and if the player has at least one bomb, the bomb will be automatically used instead of losing one of their lives. As for Ver. 1.5, the speed of enemy bullets is a bit faster and the space between each shot is reduced. Players are also given a choice to either start with basic fire power or fire power maxed out. If they choose maxed out, enemy bullets will be fired even faster and more often. Each version, with the exception of Arranged, can choose which mode to play in: original- a basic mode with less bullets, manic increases the amount of bullets but are able to earn more points and ultra-the hardest mode which fills the screen full of neon bullets. While this might sound like a lot of modes, other than the traditional score attack, training, replays and the normal play mode, the game is lacking in extras. Sure you can change options like what music plays, aspect ration and button remaps, but there’s no dip switch options where you can really customize your experience, there’s no gallery or jukebox or any other extras.
Mushihimesama is a Cave shmup (and shmup in general) that should not be missed out on. The visuals, the music, the various ways to play, everything is solid. I did have a few minor nitpicks but they were so small that they didn’t take away form the funstration (fun + frustration) I had with the game. If you like Cave games, shmups or what to know what the fuss about bullet hell games is all about, then give Mushihimesama a shot.
