This multiplayer-focused crossover spinoff wasn’t the direction I was expecting for the Umihara Kawase series, but I don’t mind it!
After reviving the series again with Fresh, it looks like Saizensen and Success reused the engine and art style, while building on the minor crossover elements, to create Bazooka. It effectively uses the mechanics of hooking and swinging (along with a default double jump, legend) but changes the setting to fast-paced action in small, cramped rooms and adds a projectile combat element… and it works!
The catch copy for the game drops the word “e-sports”, perhaps facetiously, but it signals the direction of this entry: competitive multiplayer. Creatures both familiar and new (and immobile bombs) spawn into these arenas, and you hook and capture them. The Bazooka element then comes into play, as you can store one object and then launch it out as a bouncing, explosive projectile. The idea in multiplayer is that you try to hit other player characters with this, or otherwise use special attacks, drawing from your generous recharging special bar. This tweak to the formula makes for a fun mechanic that is then built around with different kinds of projectiles and each character’s abilities.
Being mostly a solo player, I stuck to the challenge mode (which can also be tackled in co-op or even simultaneous competitive modes). In this context, the game becomes an arcadey single-screen action game rather than a platform (slash rubbering action) fighter. Your goal is to defeat waves of creatures as they appear, testing your grasp of the movement and bazooka mechanics against the clock. The difficulty ramps up considerably over the course of the 40-stage mode, although it’s arguably not as brutal as any other given UK game.
The selection of characters is charmingly eclectic (and depicted super-adorably), drawing mostly from Success’s stable of IPs. Umihara Kawase has the three from Sayonara and three prominent NPCs from Fresh. The Cotton series gives two variations of the eponymous witch, and her rival. Doki Doki Poyatchio (a life sim RPG with design by Saizensen’s founder Toshinobu Kondo) gives another three. The rest is filled out by guests from a visual novel, a steampunk RPG, a Japanese Farmville clone, a wrestling management game, oh and a random Youtuber… plus five original characters, which may point to this game perhaps having a partially-developed concept grafted onto it with this sub-cast and the Bazooka system.
But who knows, either way as I keep saying it somehow ends up feeling cohesive. I cleared challenge mode in an afternoon, and am unlikely to try the multiplayer out much, so I’m glad I got it on sale as much like Fresh they are asking a pretty penny. But the concept is fun and well-executed so I don’t regret it. It’s a fascinating offshoot of the UK saga.