Pawarumi - Manufacture 43

We were very happy to get the chance to play on Pawarumi at this years EGX Rezzed, and artist Alex Lutz was more than happy to talk about the game. If you love the classic SHMUPS of the Dreamcast era, then Pawarumi is right up your street.

Shoot-em-ups have been around since the early days of gaming and is a genre that carries a large ever growing fan base. Sadly in todays market theres a serious lack of modern Shmups available that can capture the player in the same way the old classics do.  Manufacture 43 however have stepped on the scene with Pawarumi, a modernised Shmup that plays just like the classics we love.

Taking inspiration from the likes of Ikaruga, Bangai-o and other Dreamcast classics, Pawarumi is a game thats set out to modernise the Shoot-em-up genre and set new standards. The idea was to create a game that was easy and entertaining to play, yet constantly stress the player into a frantic state. Every level is designed to perfection and theres a multitude of enemies that each carry their own patterns and behaviors for you to study.
The Trinity System is a new mechanic introduced that adds a tactical layer to the game and can change your overall outcome. Using 3 weapons and the Wheel of Trinity, its upto you to figure out which one has the best desired effect. Enemies and weapons each carry their own colour, and dependent on which mix of colours you use could have one of 3 outcomes. Crush: Causes double damage, Boost: Heal your shield yet makes the enemy more aggressive and Drain; charges your super attack. When it was first explained to me i was a little confused and unsure of what lay ahead of me, but everything is easily explained in game and it doesn't take long before your experimenting with the tools at hand.
As you can expect from any great Shmup, theres plenty of boss battles to encounter, and like true fashion they will fill the screen and have you panic as a swarm of bullets come flying at you. This isn't a game your ever likely to get through on 1 credit, though i was assured that even though there are patterns to learn for each enemy, they are far easier than you expect to master and have been very cleverly designed to trick the player into meltdown. I have to say it worked well, even artist & level designer Alex said at one point i was giving him heart attack just watching.

The game itself plays like a dream, the controls are fluid and responsive and everything feels natural. Many modern Shoot-em-ups feel very slow to play and this takes away a lot of the gameplay, but Pawarumi is a fast and frantic game that has you on the edge of your seat, yet somehow at the same time feels very easy to play. Its a great combination and an effect that the developers were hoping to achieve.
I've played a lot of Shmups over the years and like many i always revert to age old classics like Sonic Wings and Castle Shikigami, after the death of the PS2 it seemed that although there were still many great games being developed, nothing could capture the same experience earlier systems had to offer. It was almost at a point where graphical capabilities had outdone gameplay, and perhaps thats why many major developers steer clear of the genre today? Manufacture 43 however has created a beautifully looking game with an almost hypnotic use of colours which not only adds to the gameplay, but is part of the whole heart-racing experience set before you.

As you can tell i loved the game! Im not dismissing the fact that there are other great modern Shmups out there, but i haven't seen or played any that captured me in the way Pawarumi did. It felt new, yet played like a retro classic. I cant see why any fan of the genre wouldn't love it, and if this review hasn't convinced you then take a look at the Pawarumi Kickstarter Campaign for more detailed info.

Pawarumi will be released soon on PC, Mac & Linux systems, but the Manufacture 43 team are hoping to bring it to home consoles at a later date. Follow the progression of development over at the Official Pawarumi Discord group.

Check out the Pawarumi Main Website