Overview: Vertical shooter and part of the ALLTYNEX trilogy. It is the first to be released and the third in the story.
20191109:
Today I played KAMUI for the first time and initially I didn't understand it. After playing it for a while, I didn't feel any good at it but at least I came to understand the game mechanics.
Setup: Controller - my settings must be wrong because it seems to be acting like a mouse and if I push the controller too far it'll exit the window. I later played again and somehow fixed it.
Some Game Mechanics: I don't understand how to generate Shield but the player has a shield that takes damage first. If the player takes damage with no shield, the the player will lose a life. As for attacking, the player has a standard shot and a beam which is fired when pressing the alternate fire while holding the standard shot. The player also has a multi-target lightning strike which is used when only the alternate fire button is pressed. This lightning strike can be used to take out or deal damage to enemies which are not otherwise cannot be targeted. Finally, using the beam seems to destroy incoming fire (hence can be used as a brief invincibility.
Steam Game Time: 30 minutes (total game time)
20191110:
I tried to press ALT+ENTER to make the game fullscreen but it didn't work.
In any case, I played the entire campaign today (normal) and managed to get relatively far on one credit (I don't remember how far though).
Setup: I switched from controller Settings 1 to Settings 2 which allowed me to have the Lightning Attack and Standard Attack along the vertical alignment of my thumb.
Some More Game Mechanics: As I played today, I got better at using the Lightning Attack on enemies in the background.* I also got better at switching between using the Lightning Attack and using the Beam Attack. Finally, I previously didn't understand how the Shield is replenished, but realized today that there are Shield drops which will replenish the shield when picked up.
Steam Game Time: 64 minutes (total game time)
*Actually, it didn't immediately occur to me that even enemies flying in from the background are targetable. In particular, the enemies flying in at the very beginning of the first level can be destroyed with the lightning attack.
Thoughts:
Pros:
+ Great Soundtrack
+ Unlimited continues
Neutral:
~ Initially difficult without Instruction on Attacks
~ Old, yet modern feel
~ Power-up travels just quickly down the screen and can be hard to grab when not anticipated.
~ I suppose like any shooter, success at KAMUI requires practice and memorization
Con:
- No ability to fullscreen. Despite the low resolution, I think I should be able to play fullscreen
Summary:
While my first impressions of the game were negative, I grew to enjoy what the game had to offer with respect to gameplay. I was, however, disappointed by the lack of ability to enlarge/scale the window.
KAMUI (PC) (1999)
Relevant Links:
KAMUI (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
KAMUI (Steam Store Page)
20191109:
Today I played KAMUI for the first time and initially I didn't understand it. After playing it for a while, I didn't feel any good at it but at least I came to understand the game mechanics.
 |
| Lightning Attack |
Setup: Controller - my settings must be wrong because it seems to be acting like a mouse and if I push the controller too far it'll exit the window. I later played again and somehow fixed it.
Some Game Mechanics: I don't understand how to generate Shield but the player has a shield that takes damage first. If the player takes damage with no shield, the the player will lose a life. As for attacking, the player has a standard shot and a beam which is fired when pressing the alternate fire while holding the standard shot. The player also has a multi-target lightning strike which is used when only the alternate fire button is pressed. This lightning strike can be used to take out or deal damage to enemies which are not otherwise cannot be targeted. Finally, using the beam seems to destroy incoming fire (hence can be used as a brief invincibility.
Steam Game Time: 30 minutes (total game time)
20191110:
I tried to press ALT+ENTER to make the game fullscreen but it didn't work.
 |
| Basic Attack |
In any case, I played the entire campaign today (normal) and managed to get relatively far on one credit (I don't remember how far though).
Setup: I switched from controller Settings 1 to Settings 2 which allowed me to have the Lightning Attack and Standard Attack along the vertical alignment of my thumb.
Some More Game Mechanics: As I played today, I got better at using the Lightning Attack on enemies in the background.* I also got better at switching between using the Lightning Attack and using the Beam Attack. Finally, I previously didn't understand how the Shield is replenished, but realized today that there are Shield drops which will replenish the shield when picked up.
Steam Game Time: 64 minutes (total game time)
 |
| Beam Attack |
*Actually, it didn't immediately occur to me that even enemies flying in from the background are targetable. In particular, the enemies flying in at the very beginning of the first level can be destroyed with the lightning attack.
Thoughts:
Pros:
+ Great Soundtrack
+ Unlimited continues
Neutral:
~ Initially difficult without Instruction on Attacks
~ Old, yet modern feel
~ Power-up travels just quickly down the screen and can be hard to grab when not anticipated.
~ I suppose like any shooter, success at KAMUI requires practice and memorization
 |
| Combat Result |
Con:
- No ability to fullscreen. Despite the low resolution, I think I should be able to play fullscreen
Summary:
While my first impressions of the game were negative, I grew to enjoy what the game had to offer with respect to gameplay. I was, however, disappointed by the lack of ability to enlarge/scale the window.
KAMUI (PC) (1999)
Relevant Links:
KAMUI (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
KAMUI (Steam Store Page)
Date/Time
Saturday, November 9, 2019
@
16:46
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