Natsuki Chronicles

Natsuku Chronicles is a seriously entertaining title, which fans of classics like Border Down and R-Type Final will absolutely lap up.

Natsuki Chronicles takes the high quality shoot 'em up gameplay of Ginga Force, flips it ninety degrees and delivers a great shoot 'em up with a rewarding upgrade system. Newbies might struggle a little but genre fans will have a blast.

Natsuki Chronicles is a great shmup that was clearly developed by shmup fans. The game has a refinement to it that eases any pain points someone might have had with other titles in the genre. The accessibility of the systems and constant rewards creates a challenging but approachable experience. The only setback is a few hard-to-spot enemies and a frame drops, but you’ll probably be having too much fun to notice.

If you love shoot 'em ups as much as I do then you'll have an absolute blast with Natsuki Chronicles. Its clever and vastly different modes make for top-notch shooting entertainment whether you prefer the steadily-paced story or action-packed arcade gameplay.

In the end, Natsuki Chronicles is a solid shoot-'em-up. The action provides a nice balance between hardcore and novice-friendly gameplay, while the various tweakable options are welcome for players of all skill levels. Despite a lack of modes, there is some replayability thanks to an online leaderboard system and various difficulty levels and items to unlock; it gives players a reason to return despite the lackluster story. If you're a shoot-'em-up fan, Natsuki Chronicles is well worth checking out.

An exciting shoot-’em-up with plenty of depth, dressed up in a bright, colourful art style. In its story mode, Natsuki Chronicles cleverly balances the challenge inherent in the genre with a sense of constant progression, as it pointedly explores questions around authority and use of force. With arcade mode, you’ve got the pure fun of trying to perfect your runs and post the highest scores you can. In both, you’ve got a rock-solid shooting game that’s a whole lot of fun.

Overall, there is plenty of game here and enough to challenge even the most hardened shoot-’em-up fanatic, but also enough tricks up its sleeve to cater for newcomers. Natsuki Chronicles will be on my ‘pick up and play’ list for a while.

A visually extremely unsophisticated horizontal shooter that shines mechanically: The amount of weapon systems as well as the ballistic trajectory feature make this an insiders’ tip.

In spite of the game’s assists, I wouldn’t recommend it for someone new to the genre. It will simply be too difficult and frustrating for anyone who doesn’t come into the game with some shmup skills on their resume. Shmup veterans will have a better go of things, but will find themselves challenged for the reasons that I’ve outlined. I wouldn’t call Natsuki Chronicles a “must play” for fans of the genre, but some will find the visuals and ship customization an interesting change of pace and will enjoy checking the game out.

In some ways, Natsuki Chronicles is a slight thing. It’s certainly not going to be the game that makes people who never play shoot-em-ups reconsider that stance, nor is it the sort of thing that you’re likely to devote months of play to unless you have a burning desire for a new shooter and this is the extent of your options in that regard. However, there’s nothing wrong with it being slight in that regard. What the game seeks to do, it accomplishes well and with aplomb, missing some minor technical issues with its presentation. And it certainly has more than enough content to keep you engaged as you challenge higher difficulties, grinding your stage level up for a little more defense, trying to earn up the credits for a new primary weapon. So it’s a little thing, but it’s a fun little thing. That’s what it wants to be, and it deserves good marks for aiming at a simple target but hitting it with notable skill.

I’m often horrible at these types of games, finding that the skill jump from easy to medium to be too much of a challenge but I found Natsuki Chronicles fares as a good starting point for beginners. In saying that, this game isn’t easy either and will require a ton of play-throughs of the same level, especially the later ones and on higher difficulties, to best determine which weapon types work the best and also your strategy. But even so, fans of the bullet hell genre should most definitely add this game to their library.

While Natsuki Chronicles doesn’t add anything new to the genre, it definitely has a lot to offer those who are fans of bullet hell games. Despite a very distracting story mixed with equally distracting visuals, the game is a real fun time with plenty of unlocks to keep the replay value high.