Pawarumi is a brand new shooter set in space by Manufacture 43 and it sets a new bar when it comes to hard shooters. On the cover, it looks much like regular space shooters which send plenty of bullets your way however it comes with a little more twist in the game mechanics that allows for more complex gameplay and increased challenge. This is our review of Pawarumi and we will tell you how Pawarumi sets itself apart in this dense space shooter genre.
Starting with the controls, Pawarumi is a very simple game and the controls are fairly simple to remember. You have three weapons to shoot at your enemies that you cannot change at any time. You also have a super attack which unleashes bullet-hell on your enemies while you can move around the screen to avoid enemy bullets which are colored green. Apart from this, there is nothing else to remember about the controls.
Four buttons on the controller are each assigned to a weapon which includes your superweapon. They are pretty straight-forward so you can remember which button fires what in the first 20 to 30 seconds. Each weapon is assigned a specific color which is blue, green and red. You can think of these colors as elementals. Now, coming to the enemies in the game. Similar to the weapons, the enemies are color-coded as well.
You have red, blue and green enemies. The fun part of Pawarumi starts here that you can mix and match these colors to create three unique attack instances that allow you to different bonuses. This is something that really makes Pawarumi special in its case as none of the other top-down space shooters come with this feature. You can perform Crush, Drain and Boost with your weapons which are advanced attack moves.
I will recommend that you start playing Pawarumi with the tutorial as it will teach you everything however I can say and stand by my word that once all hell breaks loose in the main game, you will hardly remember which weapon to use where because Pawarumi is a not a forgiving title at higher difficulty levels. Using the same color weapons will allow you to Boost which grants you shield.
Similarly, by mixing and matching colors of enemies and weapons, you can land Crush which allows you to deal extra damage and Drain which recharges your super attack. You can stack your super up to three times to unleash a deadlier super attack which can land extreme damage even on bosses. This mechanic adds another level of challenge because you will be required to use these mechanics to make sure that you survive in the game.
There are no continues or checkpoints in the game so if you die in a level, you will have to restart right from the start which is a serious nod to the classic arcade games. At higher levels, your chances of survival will be very grim because Pawarumi will unleash everything it has against you. Enemies will shoot a lot more bullets at your and the escape windows will be extremely tight so you will need extreme precision to survive in the game.
I managed to complete the game only on Easy and Normal mode. I tried Hard mode numerous times but I want unable to clear even the second stage of the main story. I don’t claim to be one of the best players out there but I have played a fair share of space shooters like Pawarumi and I did complete quite a few of them.
I was able to master the controls after nearly an hour of gameplay and the colors sort of just sit in your mind after some time which makes it really easy to remember how to recharge your shield or super in the game as you are playing it. However, even with all this, the Hard difficulty is just brutal.
There is also a story in Pawarumi however it is really boring and you don’t really know what is happening most of the time. In addition, the soundtrack is also not very impressive. Pawarumi excels at gameplay and it really shines when it comes to gameplay. It is challenging, brutal and beautiful to look at. The visuals are pretty decent and the special effects in the game are very nice to look at.
Visually, Pawarumi is not going to disappoint you. Only the dull story and the unimpressive soundtrack lets down the mood, however, the story is not why you will want to play this game. The solid and challenging gameplay is enough to keep you bringing back for more. It is an excellent title for simple pick n play sessions. If you are a hardcore fighter, you can play each mode again and again and strive to reach the top of the global leaderboards.
Pawarumi does not come with any sort of multiplayer. There is no online or split-screen in the game. The only time you will see players from around the world in Pawarumi is on the Leaderboards menu. You can see which player has the highest score on all 3 difficulty levels and then strive to beat their score. Apart from this, the game offers no sort of online or multiplayer. It is a shame that Pawarumi lacks multiplayer because it would have seriously added replayability to the game.
Final Verdict
Pawarumi is a solid game when it comes to gameplay. It does lack in a few departments like soundtrack could have been better and the multiplayer would have made the game really amazing. Apart from this, Pawarumi will really test your skills and is a pretty challenging game. It will give you a tough time to master but once you have gotten the hang of the game, it will keep you occupied for hours as you try to reach the top of the leaderboard.
Final Score: 8.1/10
