About Area 52:
Do-mo review-reader-san. I’m Ezoe desu. This game is based on the fictional ninja novel “Ninja Slayer”. In the novel, Y2K problem hit the world so hard we run out of IP addresses. That catastrophic event cause a massive reality mutation so we are now living in a Neo-Saitama. Where heavy metal acid rain fall almost every day and those who has no immunity get sick within half an hour. Most people, except for makegumi(loser-class) off course, wear the cyber sanglasses which is a very advanced VR display. Many people are genetically modified or inplant cybernetic gears(including illegal one). And the most important cybernetics are off course, human-body LAN which allows you to connet to the network directry to the neuron. The existance of the ninja is rumored, but off course, these are just rumors. There is no ninja at all. If you witness a ninja, you have serious health concerns anyways. Because of tremendous fear of witnessing a ninja, you got a NRS(Ninja Reality Shock). The usual symptom of NRS are incontinence, fainting, and in the worst case, death. Now, real ninjas were those Heian-era people who trained so hard to become the real ninja. But their ninja soul is somehow released in the wild and possess the people. A person who was possessed by a ninja soul become a ninja. At least, so I’ve heard. Anyway about this game. This game is indeed cheap, but difficult. If the reader has ninja-eyesight, it should be trivial for you. But most of the ordinary people who don’t have a ninja-eyesight, genetically-moddified, nor illegal cybernetics modification, you will struggle to beat this game. This is a usual top-down view shooter. Very short. It has just 5 stages. The player characters are Yakuza Tengu who demand the donate to everybody, Evil Yamoto who is kawaii, and Goth Rock pank girl. The enemies are clone-yakuza, genetically modified animals and other motor-bots from Yorosi-san Medicine, one of the dark mega-corp. One of the most incredibly underrated games on here, it’s like an alternate timeline Hotline Miami if it was directed by Suda and had bullet hell patterns. That pretty much sums it up, a twin stick shooter mixed with danmaku elements. There’s three distinct playable characters with their own attack methods, and with each comes a primary attack, melee, and special bomb once you build it up. Grazing close to bullets builds your multiplier, and the final boss was fantastic. My only criticisms are that the music seemed repetitive, and the game clocks in at about 1 hour (5 levels). There’s replay value though as you’re scored on each level, and the character designs and environments are grade A stuff.
