The carnage begins...

A few years ago, one of my friends introduced me to a game he came across and sent it my way. It being completely Japanese didn’t help, but we were told it was called “Samidare” so the name stuck. Whether or not it was right doesn’t matter. Now, this little gem is a short danmaku (bullet hell). I did play some shmups before, but the only thing I really had that was close to a danmaku was Ikaruga, so I had no idea what I was really getting myself into.

Samidare has a pretty basic system. Shoot things, collect falling stars to power up your basic gun. Use a temporary shield to absorb enemy fire and make your gun incredibly powerful and get tons of point bonuses. Don’t let anything but stars hit the red hitbox. That’s it. ...oh, and there’s a lot of stuff trying to kill you, but that’s standard in every danmaku to date. Anyway, the mook in question is the final boss of the Normal Game portion, whom you have to beat along with the rest of the game in one continue to unlock the Extra Game--a whole different can of torture. I had been trying for a while to finally get Extra Game unlocked, but I kept falling short (I even got obliterated by the second boss, what the hell?). It was late night and I was giving it yet another go. None of that “I was feeling lucky” crap, I just happened to succeed...somehow.


Don't worry, it's not that bad.

The final stage also has an interesting setup. These big spiked balls shoot down the screen forcing you into a narrow corridor with slight movement. All the while, enemies appear outside of the corridor and fire V-shaped beam spears at you. The corridor narrows once again, and the spiked balls start swirling around you--they’re destroyable, and are one last chance to power up your weapons before the final showdown with SMD-00x.


Thump thump.

It looks not much different than a recolor of your ship and way bigger. It starts off by firing a wide formation of thin green lasers a few times, then a salvo of missiles, repeating a few times and ending with a thin beam down the middle of the screen. The second phase has it spreading a lot of yellow bullets around itself in a wide radius that disappear, then it fires four columns of raining blue shots, and finishes up with multiple straight-line beams to the edges of the screen to itself.


Yeah, that's not too bad either.

The next phase is my most hated, because I came into the boss with two spare lives, and this single phase took both of them. It gets Gradius-style options, six of them. At first, the formation is wide and the furthest one on each side fires a continual beam down the screen while it and the Options fire short bursts of green laser. Then the Options take a tight formation and it fires beams in five directions while sending shots toward you, finishing with a beam cloud before returning to the wide formation. I dunno, I have difficulty tracking the shots this way for some reason, probably because I watch everything but the shots.


RAGE RAGE RAGE RAGE RAGE

Defeating this phase brings us to the boss’ second form, and the music changes too, a melancholy piano tune over the driving techno beat of the first battle. Even to this day it gives me goosebumps. It flies to the top of the screen and stays there, now growing large wings and raining bullets down. Phases here kinda lose meaning because they’re so short and there are so many, so I’ll just break down what happens. It starts with a light rain that’s maneuverable, then it adds the pink Vs that move like bird’s wings to restrict your play area, while raining down slower blue shots in with the regular mix. Mind you, you can shoot off the wings, but they regrow, and I kept myself trained on SMD-00x the entire time, with only the two angled shots of the maxed gun hitting.


Who likes confetti with their ass-kicking?

It finally ditches the wings and stars to assault you with bullet spirals. Strings of bullets going different speeds fall upon you, and it throws in directed shots of green bullets between the spirals. This is probably my favorite part of the entire boss battle, because this really clenches the “game as art” idea for me. That, and without the use of a shield, you have to really maneuver between the bullets because they fall at different rates, so screwing up is incredibly easy.


Tell me this isn't just pretty. Pretty death.

Boom. I have to admit, it’s probably one of the top adrenaline-fueled boss battles I’ve faced in any game, but especially shooters. Remember when I said I lost my only spare lives before the boss’ final form? Yeah. Everything was riding on that battle, and I did the best when I should’ve done even poorly (as I suck under pressure). I got the ending I couldn’t understand, and I finally earned the right to Extra Game!


:D <--My face as soon as I saw this. Massive relief, and happiness too!

Shame that I never play it, though. I’ve seen replays up to the final boss in that mode, and it is totally insane. I can’t hope to polish myself that good.

SMD-00x. We salute you, crazy-ass final boss.