Upon booting up indie developer Rockin’ Android’s Gundemonium Collection I was instantly reminded of a classic scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table find themselves staring at a little white rabbit guarding a cave containing the whereabouts of the fabled grail. Dismissing the warning of danger based upon its looks, Arthur sends one of his trusty knights to kill the hare. Here, its true colors emerge as it viciously lunges at the throat of it’s would be assailant, decapitating him instantly.

Like the hare, the three games contained in the Gundemonium Collection look innocent at first glance. Dawning cute and cuddly sprites, one might pass this shoot-em up collection for nothing more than a Gradius for babies.  It’s a mistake like this that caught me off guard. Just like the hare, it wasn’t long before the Gundemonium Collection quickly chomped into my gaming jugular, as I saw my first Game Over screen in a matter of seconds.

Three games round out this bullet-hell bonanza: Gundemonium Recollection, GundeadliGne, and Hitogata Happa. While most of the fundamentals of these shooters are shared, each title offers enough variation from its counterparts to stand out on its own. In fact, all three games can be purchased from the PSN stores individually, but for this review’s sake, they will be covered as if they were purchased in the package.

Gundemonium Recollection

Recollection won’t take long to get your blood pumping (or spilling, for that matter). Classic bullet-hell shooter action, coated in large hand-drawn anime art straight out of the SNES era quickly turns this game from cute and cuddly to cruel and vicious. I consider myself pretty competent when it comes to shooters of this nature, but within in a matter of seconds I was face-to-face with the first (of many) Game Over screens. It’s not that Recollection or the games in this collection are unfair, they just don’t do a very good job of explaining all the tricks at your disposal at their outset.

Trial and error and constant experimentation are really your best solutions in overcoming the hurdles Recollection presents. There are a handful of girls to choose from, each offering a slightly different skill set for getting the task at hand completed, but until you start a game up you’ll have no idea which one will best suite your play style.  Add to that a fairly punishing difficulty on even the normal setting and you may make a few runs on easy until you get a grip on the subtle little nuances of each level and character.  It took a little more studying of bullet patters and less twitch reflexes to be successful in Recollection to take it down on normal. Thankfully, the ability to replay stages ad infinitum until completed allows the game to be a tad more reasonable in terms of actually finishing it.

GundeadliGne

GundeadliGne takes what you’ve learned from its predecessor and mixes things up just enough to keep it fresh. The biggest addition to the second installment is the ability to flip directions. If you’re familiar with the CAVE shooter Deathsmiles, you’ll know just how hectic this can make the genre.  Enemy spray bullet patterns from every direction, fast reflexes, and a sharp memory are your best tools for surviving the onslaught. Learning a little from Recollection, GundeadliGne lightens up the difficulty slightly by allowing mid-stage continues if you find yourself out of hearts. They’re not unlimited, but, when added to the stage continue option from the first game, they allow for GundeadliGne to be slightly more accessible and a little less frustrating. 

Refinement is what this sequel is all about, and it pays off.  Crisper visuals and a less overbearing character selection screen help balance out any confusion Recollection caused. There are two characters to chose from: one specifically for novices and the other with the ability to use helpful matrixes that when summoned can greatly turn the tide of battle. Replacing screen clearing bombs, matrixes are helpful maidens that range in ability from spread shots to gigantic lasers to (my personal choice) protective barriers. Add some co-op to the mix and GundeadliGne sets itself apart as the most complete game in this package.

Hitogata Happa

The biggest departure in the Gundemonium games, Hitogata Happa moves the side-scrolling action of its predecessors to the vertical perspective.  Set before the events of the first two games, the story is the only thing that has regressed. The graphics are finally HD worthy and the twitch gaming is at its fastest. Hitogata is the best in terms of pure gameplay in the collection, but it also provides the steepest learning curve. 

Starting off I had no real clue as to what  needed to be done other than just mowing everything down in my path. However, in Hitogata that only gets you so far. Upon reaching the first boss (something out of Ikaruga with its multiple destructible sections) I quickly found out how unforgiving this game is. Each boss needs to be destroyed within its allotted time or else the difficulty ramps up to near impossible levels and your next death (regardless of remaining lives) becomes your last. This makes strategy with your lives very crucial, as the bomb attacks which are great for quick boss killing cost precious lives. Later in the game this becomes less of an issue, as lives become more plentiful, but the first stage may take quite a few replays to make it through.

After conquering the first stage, Hitogata really opens up. Setting it apart from the other games in the colleciton is the currency earned at the end of each stage. You start the game with only one unique character to make it through the opening stage, but after beating this level, more diverse character selections open up. Each character offers its own strengths and weaknesses ranging from such shooting staples as homing missiles all the way to the less ubiquitous, close-range sword.  This character variety, paired with the frantic boss battles, made Hitogata the game I came back to most in the collection.

Three is not a crowd.

The Gundemonium Collection contains a rare breed of games to grace the PSN library. Compared to the masterful Deathsmiles they come off a little rough around the edges with dated visuals, sometimes finicky controls and music that can sometimes be grating to the ear. These games aren’t going to blow you away, but they pack just enough indie charm to satisfy shooter enthusiasts or someone looking for some cheap arcade action. Throw in trophy support for each game and the original aspect of being able to record and upload your gameplay to youtube and Rockin’ Androids first three forays into the console world hopefully won’t be their last.

Note: This game was reviewed on PlayStation 3.