PixlBit

I’m a big fan of shumps. Always have been and always will be. So it’s nice when I’m able to find any given shump that has enough of a theme to be considered for an Octoberween gaming list. Though most might say that Halloween inspired shumps are few and far between, which I would agree with, there are a few that could fit the bill for any Octoberween gaming night. They might not be all survival horror scary or graphic violence and gore, but they hold the spirit of Halloween that you can’t help but consider them for Octoberween. After all Halloween isn’t just all jump scares, spooky stories and the darker aspects of unknown curses and unspeakable hauntings. Halloween can also be a time of harmless fun and harvest celebration in the most simplest and enjoyable terms. It doesn’t have to be spooky and scary. It can also be zany, silly and just another excuse to play dress up. Sure the reasoning being dressing up has supernatural roots but given how society likes to whitewash things it doesn’t hurt to indulge every now by not look too deeply into the inner meanings. Ghost don’t have to be damned souls and witches don’t have to be old croon wanting to eat children. Call it a more child friendly Halloween if you will but they have their place in my Octoberween celebrations. Which is why this game has to be revisited this year. I did select this game in previous Octoberween Game Titles list but at that time it was just a mere paragraph and I didn’t give it it’s just due. So I figured I’d rectify that given this year theme is “digital only” games. So without further delay here is my next pick for my Top 11 Octoberween Game Titles for 2015: Trouble Witches Neo for Xbox 360 off XBLA!

 

Trouble Witches Neo: Episode 1 - Daughters of Amalgam actually started out as an indie title on PC that eventually got an arcade release, then caught the eye of SNK and found itself getting the big publisher treatment with the Neo title added. Though you do get the chance to play the original version on your Xbox 360, I mostly focused on the newer version given how I didn’t much care for the art style of the characters in that mode and the 4:3 screen ratio. At first glance Trouble Witches Neo may look like yet another bullet hell shooter like other titles offered in the same genre. But unlike those shumps this game offers its own style that makes it stand out amongst them. To mistake this as a “Deathsmiles” knock off would be a grave mistake. The story to Trouble Witches Neo is your basic fair. The magical country of Eihemland is at peace and all is well until the witch Amalgam steals a ring (no not THAT ring) which happens to seal away an evil being of the name Draupnir who then corrupts Amalgam. (Okay so it’s KINDA like THAT ring) Amalgam then divides the ring into pieces and gives them to her “daughters” where as you’d expect, begin to cause civil unrest throughout the kingdom. The King being unable to stop Amalgam and her “daughters” alone, sends out flyers all over the kingdom offering a reward to any who could stop this madness. It is here that you pick your magical girl to play as and begin their story.

What I really enjoyed about this title is that despite the fact of the dire circumstances the kingdom of Eihemland, it really doesn’t come off as anything major is at stake. This is helped along by the girls and their respective stories where it explains their own reasons why they take up the king’s call for help. They are not powerful witches that mean to go on a quest to rid the world of evil, they are just your basic girls that pursue this course of action just for the reward. Though you do get to unlock more characters to play as, who have their own sinister objectives, the game doesn’t really take itself too seriously and to its credit that fits the games narrative and setting just fine. It’s because of this setting that Trouble Witches Neo is able to keep that light hearted tone throughout the whole game with its plot, level settings and boss fights. The plot is whimsical at best and can be downright silly at its worst. The level design is colorful and cheery but doesn’t come off being too sweet to the point where it can give you diabetes or make you feel like you’re playing a “cute-em up” than a bullet hell shooter. And while the boss’s fights become more sinister as the game progresses, they don’t feel out of place by the time the credits roll. The overall package to the game is still able to feel Halloweenish but still be able to keep itself firmly grounded in the lighthearted mood one can expect of a Halloween game.

Thankfully Trouble Witches Neo is easy to control with no sluggish movements or giving you the feeling that you have to fight the controls to move your character. The playstyle is one where you’ll find it easy to understand but difficult to master. Your respective magical girl has their own unique shooting patterns based on their persona but you’ll find that it might not be enough to rely on that alone to get by. You also have the ability to use your witch’s familiar who is able to cast a protection circle around you for a short duration of time. Not only does this give you a breather when the bullets get too intense but it gives you the option to be able to convert the enemy bullets into gold once you defeat the enemy who shot them at you. This tactic serves a dual purpose so that your able to survive the hail of bullets coming your way (especially in later levels) but also gives you a chance to gather more gold to use in the floating pumpkin girl shops that appears off and on in each level. Though you are able to get gold from fallen enemies without the use of this move from just shooting down enemies, this helps you gather more so that you can buy special magic cards that can be used by your character as special attacks. They range from being able to deploy a decoy to different patterns of fire with varying degrees of increased attack power and/or screen coverage. These magic attack cards also help convert gold into special star coins that help boost your game’s overall score. Nothing majorly needed in gameplay mind you but it’s something you have to keep in mind if one is interested in unlocking certain achievements that require the collection of a certain number of these star coins. For all I know there might be a reason game wise to collect star coins but I never bothered with them too much.

Though your familiar’s protective circle is good only for a limited time, your magic meter recharges so you can use it more than once during a level. You can even short cancel the time duration of the protection circle activation if you wish to use it tactically during particular heavy fire fights. I found myself using this method plenty of times just to see how long I could make it, even though the story mode has unlimited continues. Sadly I had to learn the hard way that my protection circle didn’t protect from all projectile attacks, as well as that if you don’t destroy an enemy in time their bullets can end up homing in on you once your protection circle drops.

I said before that I wasn’t a big fan of the original Trouble Witches that is offered with this game so I ended up playing the upgraded version most of the time. It might depend on your view of graphics but I found the 360 enhanced version to be more enjoyable to look at with their 3D draw environments and colorful design. The only downside to it though is that there are times when the animation and enemy characters don’t look exactly well defined as the rest of the set level. Though your character and some enemies are animated well enough, there are times when they look like there are ripped from a flash game: all flat with barley any specific movement to them. Their color design is still pretty but it just comes off a tad shy of being considered a cookie cutter place holder. Trouble Witches tries to make up for it by adding a little bit of character to each of your magical girls by adding specific button actions that can make your character from laugh to shouting an exclamation in-game. Though this does have a use in helping you gather gold further away from you, I found myself not using those commands if only to gather gold than to hear Pril go “heh-heh”.

So if this game is so full of Octoberween gaming goodness then why is it so high on the list? In truth it has nothing to do with any possible negatives about it. It just so happens that this year I found this game to be more of a gaming primer than other titles on this list. It’s a fun little game to play when you want a taste of some simple fun Halloween goodness between other heavy hitting Octoberween titles. By no means is this a knock against the game. It’s one of those nice games you can sit down and enjoy for a while in one sit thru. You might feel compelled to go for a higher score or try to unlock other characters which is a bonus for replayability. In honesty whatever negatives I have to say about the game doesn’t really hurt it in any particular way. Oddly enough it seems to add more to its quirky charm. The best examples of this would be the English voice acting for the story mode. I don’t know if they meant to do it intentionally or if it was accidental but the horribly delivered dialogue and bad pronunciation of words in the story mode is so bad that it’s good. It kind of reminds you of bad engrish translations back in the day on the Neo Geo AES. Given this was published by SNK seems to make it all the more fitting.

Another nitpick that some might find odd is that your able to “hit” the pumpkin shop girl in the floating store if you happen to place your pointer over her and hit the action button. It does seem kind of odd that she likes to be handled in that fashion but I usually ended up doing that action if only to keep the frequency of the pumpkin girl shop from showing up in levels. Though I know it vexes her older sister when I hit her younger sister, the appearances of the pumpkin girl show can get in the way sometimes when I’m too in the zone trying to gather gold and dodge enemy fire. It’s an odd way from keeping the pumpkin girl shop to show up more often than usual. Another oddity that some may notice that one of Amalgam’s “daughter’s” really isn’t a daughter at all but her son dressed in a woman’s outfit. It took me a few replays to realize that this was the case, especially when Malcolm could almost pass as a girl given his pretty boy looks. Though in the story mode it kind of explains why Malcom is dressed that way, the reasoning behind it doesn’t seem to make that much sense to the overall plot of the game. I just ended up ignoring it and focused on why his boss summoning was a giant gold fish…..

Aside from that you can rest assured that despite the game being about magic girls, you’ll find very little in the way of fan service. Despite their costume designs being a bit odd they don’t veer into the direction of being uncomfortable to look at. Aside from one particular daughter of Amalgam and Amalgam herself, everyone else dresses decently enough that you won’t find yourself feeling this game is a guilty pleasure.

If I had to pick out some negatives about this game it would have to be the fact that you have to buy one character as DLC and how two player mode can feel a bit too hectic. I found it to be an odd choice to have most of the characters be able to be unlocked from various replays but to have Luca you have to pay a little extra to get her. The reasoning for this it would seem is that she’s quite a powerful character to play as, but I’d much rather have to play a more difficult setting in the game than have to play a small amount to get a full roster of characters. For some that might not be much of an issue for some given this day and age of DLC, more since your gaming experience isn’t hampered without her, but for me just having to buy a character to quiet the completionist in me just rubs me the wrong way. And as much as I enjoy playing some of my games in local or online co-op two player modes, I found trying to play Trouble Witches NEO to be just too chaotic in trying to keep track of my partner’s movement patterns, my movement patterns, our rate of fire AND trying to dodge enemy projectiles. Even with the use of my familiar’s protective circle spell, I found myself taking hits despite my star shaped hit box being so small.

Overall Trouble Witches NEO is a great choice of shump to have for an Octoberween gaming list. Its style and design make it a fun Halloween gaming to play in short sittings be it the original version, regular arcade or challenge modes. During a time when most Octoberween games have to be violent, scary or give you jump scares, it’s nice to find a game title that just seems to embody the spirit of a kinder, gentler Halloween celebration. I maybe a “Virtual Reality Sociopath” but I too can take the time and enjoy a game that seems to harken back to a simpler time of Halloween enjoyment. It’s that reason alone why this game ranks so high on this list. It’s not because of anything bad like spotty controls or questionable content. It’s just a nice game to play around with before you start hitting up on the headier Octoberween titles that’ll make their way onto this list soon.

NopeNopeNope! Not going to put a "Frozen" reference here!

Among most of the digital titles I’ve bought, Trouble Witches NEO was bought at full price of $9.99 with the Luca DLC for $1.99. Normally I’d try to wait in buying most of my XBLA games to see if I can get a deal or at least a Gold Member discount, but given my love for shumps I had to pick it up once I found out about it years ago. If anything you can try out the demo to see if it’s a game you might like. But for me though it was $9.99 well spent! Now I just have to keep waiting for episode 2 to come out….

My Top 11 Octoberween Game Titles for 2015

11) Zombie Panic in Wonderland – 1000 Wii Points

10) Trouble Witches NEO - $9.99 + $1.99 DLC character

BONUS VIDEO!

Need more info before you decide to consider this game for an Octoberween game consideration? Why not check out this episode of Bullet Heaven that goes more in depth on what this game has to offer!

 

BONUS BONUS VIDEO!!!

In the episode 2 we found out what made the Camera Obscura tick and how it worked against supernatural threats. Now we get a message from beyond the grave in this episode in “Camera Obscura” episode 3. Enjoy!