Mamorukun ReCurse! – PS5 Review

Mamorukun ReCurse! is a remaster of Mamorukun Curse! a shoot ’em up that was released in Japanese arcades only back in 2008.  Developed by G.rev for Sega NAOMI hardware, it never really had much of a profile over here aside from a 2013 release on the PS3 in North America (us Europeans/ex-Europeans didn’t get to join in though).

Unlike many shoot ’em ups, this one actually has a bit of a story to it.  You play as Mamoru, who has recently died and finds himself waking up in the Netherworld which doesn’t sound like a great place to be but it’s about to get worse as a mysterious darkness is trying to infiltrate and open up a gate to the ‘World of Darkness.’

It is, of course, a load of babbly nonsense all presented in the standard Manga style with high-pitched characters making the same three or four noises that all these type of characters make in these type of games.  But, thankfully, the plot is very much secondary to the main game itself and that is a vertically-scrolling shoot ’em up but one where the screen only scrolls when you move upwards.

This shoot ’em ups little shoot ’em up gimmick comes in the form of cursed bullets.  These create an area that you can enter and then you’ll temporarily have amplified damage against all enemies or you can charge the shot which will then curse any enemy it hits, letting you do even more damage but also this causes them to fire back way more shots than normal.  We’re always up for a little bit of risk vs. reward gameplay and it’s a very powerful tool, even if it can be a little bit of a faff to do during heavy combat.  It’s pretty essential though as it can also slow down environmental hazards.

When playing the Story mode, what you get are five levels with some branching routes and, as you’d expect, you move upwards shooting anything you see.   While the original’s fussy control system is included, the first big upgrade in this remaster is that you get twin-stick controls.  Move with left, aim/shoot with the right.  Perfect.  And interestingly, when you lose a life, you’ll simply switch from Mamoru to one of his four friends.  Each of which has a slightly different shooting style and so that makes things a bit more varied.

There are straight forward shots, homing attacks, spread fire.  All the usual things.  It’s quite a good way of ensuring you mix things up.  Even if, as you’d expect, some aren’t as useful as others.

If all five characters are killed, you can continue from the start of the stage but only with the amount of characters you started that stage with originally.  So it’s not like you can brute force your way through this mode.  This wouldn’t be an issue apart from a serious difficulty spike with the fifth and final stage.  This level adds a ton of environmental hazards which can, and probably will, end your progress.   It’s such a ridiculous step up in difficulty.

Arcade mode seemed a lot easier as it is shorter and more direct.  There’s none of that multiple character stuff either.  You pick a character (which includes all the previous DLC ones that are now just included as standard) and go.  The only downside is that you lose the widescreen aspect of the Story mode.  But you do get to choose your stages, even being able to replay them multiple times as long you ultimately clear five of them.

There are some issues with the game though.  Firstly, we’re not sure that it’s actually all that fun to play.  G.rev aren’t necessarily known for making the best shoot ’em ups.  Border Down, Under Defeat and Senko no Ronde have their fans but we’re not necessarily in that group.  And also, the presentation isn’t amazing.  The graphics look dated and sloppy with bland character models and clipping when your bullets hit things.  It doesn’t have an arcade look but rather one better suited to a cheap indie release.  The music fares a lot better with a bold soundtrack that would fit into any number of noughties arcade games.  The incessant chirps and squeaks of the characters do start to grate though.

In the end this is an alright shoot ’em up and is no doubt now the definitive way to play Mamrukun, not that there are many alternative options.  It’s a bit rough around the edges and certainly not all that impressive but there’s a solid shoot ’em up core in there and it can be enjoyable to experiment with its mix of characters and stages.