What should
I post about? Something very niche might do...
I’ll give you a brief (or not?) introduction to a game series I like a lot:
Touhou Project.
I’ll give you a brief (or not?) introduction to a game series I like a lot:
Touhou Project.
I’ll assume
most of you have played some video games during your rich yet brief life on
this Earth, but have any of you ever played a “Shoot’em up”? Games like 1942,
R-Type, Space Invaders, Galaga, Metal Slug and the like. Games where you take
control of some sort of craft or character and shoot many targets while dodging
their fire, usually in a 2D perspective.
Games like this:
Games like this:
Yeah, I know they’re old examples, but I hope you get the idea anyway. Goodness, Space Invaders is from 1978…
In Japan, this genre of games was, and still is, widely popular. Most of the good ones I can think of come from over there.
I think that over the years, Japanese gamers and creators began to crave for faster games, packed with more action and, maybe, more difficulty. By the nineties, a sub-genre was appearing at Japanese amusement arcades, “Danmaku” (barrage of bullets, in english, or “Bullet Hell”, as called) shoot’em up games, seemingly catering to those people with, well, tons and tons of bullets. Take a look into Dodonpachi (1997), a somewhat early example:
In Japan, this genre of games was, and still is, widely popular. Most of the good ones I can think of come from over there.
I think that over the years, Japanese gamers and creators began to crave for faster games, packed with more action and, maybe, more difficulty. By the nineties, a sub-genre was appearing at Japanese amusement arcades, “Danmaku” (barrage of bullets, in english, or “Bullet Hell”, as called) shoot’em up games, seemingly catering to those people with, well, tons and tons of bullets. Take a look into Dodonpachi (1997), a somewhat early example:
(Skip to minute four if you feel impatient)
Danmaku games got as popular as their ‘ancestors’ during the last decade, thousands of titles available, but there is one in particular that caught my attention.
Touhou Project is a series of doujin (amateur, self-published work, or “fan-made”) danmaku games, which combines crazy playing experience, mostly cute anime or manga-like girls for characters (albeit with some drawing, not design, flaws in earlier titles) and highly exploitable content, produced entirely by just one guy who goes by the pseudonym of ZUN (sole member of Team Shanghai Alice).
“Exploitable”? Yes, because Touhou games are almost always published in “Comiket” (short for Comic Market), the biggest anime, manga, games and related stuff convention in Japan, which was founded as a place for fans to publish their doujin , original or based on a pre-existing work (obviously, most commonly an anime or manga). Touhou Project might be the most prominent doujin series, with thousands (literally) of fans taking inspiration from its story, character personalities, music, etc., and making their own works based on them. And sharing those works, over the internet too. In case you're wondering, many of those fans translate the games, and many of its derivated doujin.
Almost two decades running, “official” manga, novels, music anthologies and fighting games are also part of the series.
Since this post has gotten this overly long, I’ll just leave you with a glimpse into one danmaku title (of more than 15), and the latest fighting game:
Touhou Project is a series of doujin (amateur, self-published work, or “fan-made”) danmaku games, which combines crazy playing experience, mostly cute anime or manga-like girls for characters (albeit with some drawing, not design, flaws in earlier titles) and highly exploitable content, produced entirely by just one guy who goes by the pseudonym of ZUN (sole member of Team Shanghai Alice).
“Exploitable”? Yes, because Touhou games are almost always published in “Comiket” (short for Comic Market), the biggest anime, manga, games and related stuff convention in Japan, which was founded as a place for fans to publish their doujin , original or based on a pre-existing work (obviously, most commonly an anime or manga). Touhou Project might be the most prominent doujin series, with thousands (literally) of fans taking inspiration from its story, character personalities, music, etc., and making their own works based on them. And sharing those works, over the internet too. In case you're wondering, many of those fans translate the games, and many of its derivated doujin.
Almost two decades running, “official” manga, novels, music anthologies and fighting games are also part of the series.
Since this post has gotten this overly long, I’ll just leave you with a glimpse into one danmaku title (of more than 15), and the latest fighting game:
I have just scratched the tip of the iceberg here, but you have read too much by now. I mean, I've almost doubled the minimum extension!
PS: There are way harder danmaku games.
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