Pineconeattack!

Okay this game is probably best described as the primary example of Dreamcast shovel ware done right. Only because it’s a compilation of three different shmups and two of them never saw a release here in North America. Released back in February, the “Ultimate Shooting Collection” has proven to be a pain to find locally but worth the time and money to be in your Wii collection.

I was “graced” with Chaos Field back during the GameCube days but this definitely is not game that made me remotely intrigued in searching for a copy of Ultimate Shooting Collection. Actually I downright hated Chaos Field due to over-sized ship model and bullet hell style shmup should never be mixed together.  So I was a bit hesitant because my appeal for this collection just fell by 33%. The redeeming game that made me want to hunt down a copy of this game also turned out to be my most disappointing of the three.

You see I’ve wanted to try out Radio Allergy for a while now because the cartoony style looked interesting, too bad when I actually started playing through the game, I wasn’t feeling the love. This by no mean makes this game bad; it just could not live up to my high expectations. This is why kids you don’t hype up anything because all it will lead to is utter crushing disappointment.

So disregarding Chaos Field from my pathetic previous attempts and having my hopes and dreams whisked away with the let down that was Radio Allergy, I felt very bitter about my budget purchase and begrudgingly tried out Karous.

Tenno was the one who even put a tiny blimp of interest on my gaming radar. He was going on about how Karous was similar in gameplay to Radio Allergy and like most time in life, I dismissed his opinion and forgot about the game until I discover it on my own terms. At the time I was like why would anyone want to play this knock-off shmups if I can have a go with the better looking game like Radio Allergy. So for over a year now I’ve completely had NO expectations for Karous. Ironically, it is the one game that I love the most out of this trilogy.

Karous is very much a clone of Radio Allergy with the similar sword mechanic but the game feels much tighter and the action is more intense. The game rocks hard in the visual department and I’ve been putting the most time and energy into Karous. The D.F.S bomb system is what separates Karous from a Radio Allergy clone. The more enemies you kill the quicker you bomb meter raises and if you release a bomb in the middle of a large group of baddies you’ll wipe out the cluster but you’ll also regain more energy to refill the bomb meter. It’s a vicious cycle that makes this game a blast. (Pun intended) So now that I have an invigorated interest in this compilation I went back and played through the previous two games.

My second time through of Chaos Field was more enjoyable, but I still suck hard at bullet hell shmups and Radio Allergy has proven to be more enjoyable.   have to say, this collection is well worth the time to hunt down locally but I strongly suggest ordering this on the cheap at Amazon. If you decided to hunt down each of these games separate, then good luck because Chaos Field for the GameCube still goes for in the ball part range of $40 with Karous for the Dreamcast goes for $80-120 and Radio Allergy for the GameCube/PS2 is in the range of $40-70.  You can find them but they are not cheap.

I paid $25 for my copy but I had to bounce from store to store to find the last copy at Game Stop at the Boulevard Mall. This game for some strange reason has been taken off of Game Stop’s computer system so pick up your copy now before they become very scarce. Sadly, this good compilation has fallen under most gamers radars and should be given a chance. You have been warned because I have a feeling you will have a hard time finding a cheap copy of this game come a few years from now.  Pick it up now!

–Jangofatt