Peace has ended and civil war begins in Kozan thanks to these low-life left-wing extremists the SPASDOT. It’s up to two kids, The Real Driller and Princess Kagami to stop them. Drillimation Systems Chuhou Joutai Is a crazy action shoot-em-up- also known as danmaku- that will have you flying past a barrage of bullets and clusters of foes. Good luck!

Chuhou Joutai Is a top down arcade style shooter that has old skool 8-bit art and music that really takes you back to the classics. You can play as either The Real Driller or Princess Kagami, both of which have two different weapon styles. The two guns don’t visually look different t instead they have different effects such as homing bullets and wider range. There is four difficult levels from Easy to Lunatic (which has the preface “you won’t survive this”) I played the game through Easy mode cuz I just wanted to enjoy it without too much challenge but just for laughs I tried Lunatic mode and the preface was correct, I didn’t make it past the mini boss. You will be happy to know though that Easy mode is nice and easy for beginners and “casual” players like me 

There is a Arcade/story mode and Free Play mode where you can basically replay the levels again. You can only play levels you already unlocked in Arcade mode in Free mode so might as well start with the story, plus it’s a fun story to follow. You can’t switch characters, gun style, or difficulty level once you start story mode though which is a bummer. You can also use different controllers to play or just use the ole keyboard – it all depends on preference but if you want a more real arcade feel then use a Bluetooth controller. You can also use keyboard and controller and play two player co-op!

Despite how the story sounds, Chuhou Joutai is very silly. The characters are silly, the battles are silly, the enemies are silly (such as a caterpillar that falls down and turns into a moth to kill you), and there are lots of pop references especially to a certain plumber who likes to wear overalls. You will also notice a lot of references to horror, romcoms, and other storylines to add to the parody silliness. So pay attention to the dialogue and boss descriptions that you might usually skip over because it’s half the fun of the game!

The music in Chuhou Joutai Is very reminiscent of the old Atari and NES games that have that mono sound. Combined with the classic feel of the art style and classic Japanese game art it really makes you nostalgic. The one issue I had was the music, enemies, and level design stay the same for each level in a stage. There is a nice map that tells you where you are in the stage at least or else you might feel like the whole game was the same.

There are eight stages and each stage has a mini boss and regular boss (who is actually the same person but it’s harder the second fight,) The bosses all have a unique fight style and pattern you need to learn to survive. As you fight, enemies drop collectibles like health, point coins, and stamina which lets you use bombs. They come fast but luckily they don’t disappear from the screen, though they will slide down off the screen slowly and you actually get more points the higher up you grab them!

So if you are a classic shoot-em-up Danmaku can they you should definitely check out Chuhou Joutai! It’s crazy, fast-paced, silly, and fun! You have to get used to repetitive level designs and music for a bit and using the same character and settings, but I think you’ll get over it. I give it four out of 5 baby dragons!!

Chuhou Joutai is available now on Steam for $9.99. For more info check out Drillmation. Happy gaming!