No, that’s not a typo in the title. That’s the actual name of level three in Ghost Blade HD from Hucast Games out of Germany and published by Eastasiasoft. Normally, I’d think it was a translation error from Japanese, as this is a Japanese style bullet-hell shmup, but since it’s out of Germany, maybe it’s a veiled reference to something naughty. I really don’t know, but it certainly caught my attention!
Ghost Blade HD is the latest offering from Hucast Games, a studio primarily known for publishing Dreamcast homebrew games including Dux and Alice’s Mom’s Rescue. Ghost Blade was Hucast’s first in-house title and was originally released on the Dreamcast as well. I could go into detail about euroshmups and the way that hardcore shmup gamers analyze games, but I don’t really want to bore you. Instead, let’s take a look at Ghost Blade HD! The first think you’ll notice is that Ghost Blade is a spectacularly colorful game. Noticeably inspired by the designs of Cave shmups, Ghost Blade HD uses primarily pink and blue bullets with large ships and colorful sprites. The entire game is a vibrant, living world that has so much going on that it’s hard to even see it all. As with most bullet-hell shmups, there are often so many bullets on screen that there is no way to truly enjoy the background graphics or enemy designs.
This is part of the issue with Ghost Blade HD. It plays much like a traditional vertical shmup, but there are subtle differences. The difficulty is too low, for one. I’m a moderately skilled player and I managed to get to level 3 on normal difficulty on one credit within a few plays. And those enemy ships? With a powered-up fighter, they die so fast that you barely even see them, much less see the detail of their designs. There are also a surprising number of what are referred to as ‘popcorn enemies’, enemies that just fill the screen for something to shoot while you’re getting to the real baddies. What’s more is that many of those popcorn enemies drop suicide bullets, one of the most irritating attacks in shmup gaming. Kill an enemy and it shoots a bullet at your current location or fires a bullet or spread of bullets in a pre-established pattern. In other words, you’re dodging bullets fired by the deaths of your enemies, not by the enemies themselves. Suicide bullets are a cheap way to raise difficulty in a game without clever AI programming and other design elements. They’re a shortcut, and not a great one.
If all this wasn’t enough, well, there are a few other issues, including the lack of enemy variety, the lack of boss complexity, and worst of all, the bullet patterns. For anyone who’s played a lot of shmups, it’s hard to overstate the importance of good bullet patterns in a bullet-hell shmup. And Ghost Blade HD has bullet patterns with holes so big, you could drive a semi truck through them. Most of the boss patterns and many of the mid-sized ship patterns have overly simplistic patterns that are easily discerned with little practice and quickly defeated. Sure, the Switch controller isn’t the best for this type of game, but even with the Switch analog stick (and I hate analog for shmups), it was pretty easy to dart through all but the most dense patterns. It’s always disappointing to see the potential in a game wasted, as I like the way Ghost Blade HD plays and controls, but there’s no reason to have patterns like this in a hardcore shmup.
Ok, I’ve hit hard on the last few points, so let’s take a breath. Regardless of the points above, Ghost Blade HD is actually also a fun game. It’s playable, it has tight controls for an analog game, and it’s a great introduction into the shmup world. It introduces bullet-hell gaming in an approachable way to mainstream gamers and isn’t incredibly frustrating. Will it present a challenge for veteran gamers? No, absolutely not. But it still has an excellent framerate and well-designed ships. This is one of the better entry level shmups I’ve played in terms of overall design actually. The more complicated shmups have equally complex scoring systems with challenging multi-part combos required and significant practice. For reference, check out Hellsinker, possibly the most complicated shmup ever made.
Scoring in Ghost Blade HD on the other hand is a simple combo-based affair and the closer you are to enemies, the more gold stars they drop. You also get bonuses for background item pickups, which are plentiful in some areas. Each ship has a different bullet pattern, standard on shmups, as well as a focused shot and bombs, also standard. It’s fairly easy to earn extra lives as well, so with a little practice, you’ll be slaughtering enemies with nary a glance. Even dodging bullets has been somewhat simplified in Ghost Blade HD by making your hit box visible (the tiny circle in the center of your ship). If a bullet passes through your ship and doesn’t hit the circle, it doesn’t hit you. It takes some practice, but allows for fine navigation of complex bullet hell patterns easily, especially in a starter shmup like this one.
Ghost Blade HD doesn’t really have much else to offer. The story is minimal at best and doesn’t allow for much in the way of resolution. You get 5 continues and if you run out, game over, too bad, so sad, start over. I found that remapping the firing buttons made a significant difference in gameplay for me, especially the way the default focus and firing buttons are configured. Mapping focus fire to the ZR button was a godsend for the Switch controller design, allowing for nonstop switching between focus fire and spread shots without compromising my control over the left analog stick. You can also adjust the background on each side since Ghost Blade is a horizontally oriented shmup. I found that the black background was the least distracting, but it’s a preference thing. You can adjust the aspect of the screen too, switching to different zooms and vertical mode, but without a rotating TV or monitor it isn’t very useful. Ghost Blade HD is however compatible with the Flip Grip, making it actually almost playable undocked. Without a Flip Grip, forget it, as in horizontal mode on an undocked Switch, everything is so small that it’s essentially unplayable.
Ultimately, Ghost Blade HD is a passable beginner’s shmup that has some moderate flaws but is fun to play. While it’s not up to par with things like DoDonPachi DaiOuJou , Armed Police Batrider, or Ketsui, it’s still a fun game that you’ll get some good play out of, and it will train you up to play the serious shmups out there that are slowly coming out for the Switch like Esp.Ra.De. At only $15, it’s a pretty good deal too, and you’ll definitely have a fun time unless you’re an expert level player. Give it a shot (pun intended)!
This review was based on a digital copy of Ghost Blade HD provided by the publisher. It was played on a Nintendo Switch in both docked and undocked mode. Ghost Blade HD is also available for Steam, PS4, Xbox One and even Mac. Pink bullets will haunt your dreams. Pink bullets will haunt you dreams. Pink bullets will haunt you forever…