Caramel

Another Chun concept, even though Petters directs and programs it, Caramel Caramel is an early shmup, very akin to something like Gradius, but with a twist, as a lot of UFO Soft games are like. It’s a side scrolling shmup where you control a cute little spaceship and her friend as they explore the galaxy, checking out all the different touristy attractions, with her new CAMERA! She got a camera, and now she wants to take pictures and go on a vacation. That’s it, that’s the concept.

It’s very Gradius, but without the Option system or power up system. Instead, you’re JUST your ship, no power ups to be found here at all. You instead have your camera, which you can snap a photo with to stun and weaken enemies. Most normal enemies you can kill in one hit with this, as a big clump. You can also take pictures of weird background phenomina to make crystals spawn for points. Your camera has a battery, which charges slowly, though you can also pick up green crystals to recharge it. The crystals will fly towards you, but fly VERY fast if you’re not shooting, so there’s quite a lot to focus on if you want to play at a really high level. Which is cool! High level shmup stuff is neat. The game is very challenging though, with lots of enemies, and you move soooo sloooowly. Your ship is slow as fuck, and it makes it very hard to shoot and also dodge shit.

Caramel

You have a few other tools, too. As you hold shoot, you also have a charge shot, with throws disks up and down, useful for getting some hard to reach turrets. And of course, you have your friend. This is a thing that REALLY confused me. When you die, you immediately respawn, as your friend. Then, when you die again, that uses a life, and you restart the entire stage, no matter where you’re from. It felt like, to me, the game was doing both isntant respawns AND checkpoint respawns, which confounded me, but if you think of the lives as just continues, it changes everything, cause that’s how the game treats them.

Caramel

This game is hard as fuck. Like an ol fashioned Gradius! But at least it doesn’t have the power up problem of dying loses your powerups and makes it almost impossible. No, it’s just ALWAYS hard, no matter what. It is fun, and very cute and charming, and the music is legit amazing, but I cannot deny that this game is a pretty hardcore not for everyone shmup. If you like shmups of this day, and this energy, you’ll prolly have some good to find here, but I think compared to other shmups, even in this collection, it’s just okay.

Tao Nemuru appearing again as a special thanks. We’ll get to him soon :)

6/10