Otakuism

None of these gameplay videos are my own. I’m not that good.

Ether Vapor is one damn fun game. I first knew this a year ago when I played the trial, and now finally the full version is released. Ether Vapor is an old school shooting game with a twist; the stages can be horizontal, vertical, or 3D, often in the same stage. The 3D parts are really interesting and involve you shooting down a bunch of missiles for bonus points or attacking a giant battleship. The only problem with the 3D sections is that there’s so much going on it’s hard to tell if that laser or missile will actually hit you or not, so you end up just dodging randomly. Even that is still fun, though.

The more traditional sections are just as good, featuring a good array of enemies and bosses to challenge you. In the game you get three weapons: your main gatling that when charged fires a giant laser, your winder that fires off to the side and when charged blows up like a bomb with the added effect of neutralizing any attacks in the area, and your lock-on laser which will lock onto a single target and fire away. Great for bosses and enemies in the background you can’t hit. The game is very good looking for a doujin 3D effort and almost looks like something that would come out of professional studios. Don’t ask me what the story is. It’s probably the normal “the enemy is so advanced only this single fighter can get in to destroy them.” There is a pink-haired loli piloting a spider mecha, though.

The game is pretty difficult so far, but for pros it probably wouldn’t be that difficult. After you reach a stage in the main game you can go select it to play for practice, but you have to beat it in the main game to advance. There’s also this cool little feature called Over Kill that gives you more points based on how badly you own an enemy. It’s pretty fun to use giant lasers on small airplanes. It’s not a Touhou shoot ‘em up, but it is a great shooter. It has enough creativity, challenge, and explosions to keep me interested. Now I just have to beat the game. Damn pink-haired loli spider boss.