Seeing Crimzon

I guess the "z" is supposed to make the title a tad hotter.

I have only found out about Crimson Clover yesterday while I was browsing the Internet, researching Personal Computer shoot-'em-ups. The game is a combination of Layer Section, with its similar looking player ship as well as lock-on system but without the two separate planes of play, and the bullet-cancel, score multiplier mechanics usually found in Cave shooters. Crimson Clover is an independently made game by Yotsubane and the trial version of the game is available for download but it is unclear if the final product would ever find its way into the marketplace because the developer's blog seem to have ceased all activities since January of this year.

Break away from that laziness and finish the game already!

Which is shame because of the exquisite quality of this game. The 2D graphics are amazing and though they are not HD-quality - the highest native resolution it could conjure up is 720 x 480 - they easily look very modern. Crimson Clover is a "bullet-hell" shooter and the screen is filled with explosions, shots, and score multipliers constantly. The gameplay is addictive because of its "Break Mode" system. Basically, the more you shoot at the enemies, the more your Break Gauge will fill up and when it's completely filled, you can enter Break Mode where your ship becomes very powerful, invincible (only for a brief time), and you gain higher score multipliers. Using this mode also clears all the enemy bullets on the screen so it's great to use strategically for both survival and for scoring points.

The game rewards aggressive play.

The trial version only comes with 3 stages and a couple of unlockables from the in-game store that must be purchased using the currency you get from playing the game. It's a brilliant system that encourages repeated play, especially the fact that continues must be individually purchased from the store and can only be used once. Crimzon Clover is highly polished and is seemingly ready for sale. All it really needs is the rest of the stages to be included in it and more unlockables to keep the customers happy. From what I have played in this trial, I would buy the final release in a heartbeat. I visited a couple of organized shmup communities and found out that the game is quite popular amongst them so there is definitely a market for the game ready and waiting for it to take over the shmup world.

One of the best shmup bosses ever! Especially with its wicked arrival sequence.

FIRST IMPRESSION: 5 out of 5