Okay, My Eyes Can't Even Handle Seeing That Many Bullets

Tell me: how the hell is it that I had no idea that Kenta Cho had written not one, not two, but three new shooters since the last time I checked? Well, really only two are of any interest to me because the other one uses Microsoft's XNA framework, but still, someone should be telling me these things.

The newest and shiniest of these shooters is Titanion - which, compared to some of Cho's other games (Tumiki Fighters and Gunroar come to mind) is a fairly traditional arcade shooter. Arrow keys control your movement and the control key fires your weapon. It may not be particularly groundbreaking, but it definitely holds up to the high standards that Cho has set previously.

Let me tell you something right away: Titanion is difficult. Really fucking difficult. Either that or I'm just starting to suck at shooters. After quite a few runs through the game, I'd only made it to stage 9. There are so many projectiles flying at you that whether or not you manage to stay alive seems be about 75% skill and 25% pure luck. But hey, this is an arcade shooter, it's supposed to be that tough.

If you've played any of Cho's other games before (and if you haven't, what the hell is wrong with you?) you're probably expecting top notch visuals, and you definitely won't be let down: Titanion is probably his best looking game to date. I was especially impressed by the way you can see the swarms of attacking insects swoop out of the background into the foreground before they start pummeling the crap out of you.

If you're predisposed to not liking schmups, you're probably not going to like this one. Everyone else: give it a try. At 5.5MB (none of Cho's games are particularly large) it's worthwhile downloading, even if you're still stuck with dialup.