Touhou Project Rundown

By: Derek Yu

On: November 29th, 2007

Caltrops has a rundown on Touhou Project (aka Shrine Maiden Project), the series popular “bullet hell” shoot ’em ups by Team Shanghai Alice (aka the mysterious Zun)! (So popular, in fact, that people apparently drop big bucks on arcade cabinets to play them in!)

Michief Maker, the author of the article, gives a brief overview of each of the games, which is accompanied by a YouTube video of the game in action. At the end he provides some info on how to obtain full versions of these games online.

See also: Doujin Shmups, an Introduction

Posted in Doujin, Shoot-em-ups, Windows | Tags: TeamShanghaiAlice

dai jou bu

There’s a problem with this article, as it’s leaving out the games Tasogare Frontier contributed to this series. While they do not belong to the shmup genre, they are part of the series’ universe, since ZUN himself has approved of them (as they have their own TH numbering scheme) AND composed music for these two games.
Splinter of Chaos

I can’t believe someone played Mischief Makers and then was so taken by the game that s/he so blatantly stole the name. Not even an obscure reference to it. The (almost) exact same name!

Aside from that…
Am I the only one here who likes a good bullet shooter, but not Touhou?
dai jou bu

I’m fond of shmups myself but dislike the majority of the Touhou ones, with Shoot the Bullet being the only one that I absolutely like without a shadow of a doubt because it feels like something that Treasure would make (heck, I even did a review about the game a long time ago in the shmups forums), so you’re not alone on this one.
Utrak (original name!)

#2: And I can’t believe someone calling himself Splinter (Cell) of Chaos (Theory) can complain about someone ELSE stealing game names. Dork. :p
Mischief Shai-hulud

Wow! Spheres of Chaos goes freeware, Space Tripper’s once again for sale cheap, and now my article gets frontpage treatment at tigersauce. Next thing you know the new mediaVPs for FS2 Open will be up at Hard Light Productions.

Thanks for the mention!

I’m less concerned with Shard of Entropy’s dig at my silly internet name’s originality than with dai jou bu getting uptight about me not citing all the obscure details right in an article about a game series he openly admits he dislikes.

I like Bullet Hell games!
dai jou bu

I may not like the majority of the Touhou shmups (the official non-shmup releases I love to death), but I can appreciate the impact it’s made within the doujin community, and this is why I’m being rather uptight about your article. If you claim to talk about the entire Touhou series, then you must talk about all of the offical games released. The least you could’ve done was mention Tasofro’s contributions to this series and that they’re fighting games since you’ve done so for the PC-98 releases.
Beyonceluv88

Wow, why don’t you nerd out some more nerdiness, you nerd?
Splinter of Chaos (original name!)

Utrak (original name!):
God, the most annoying thing I ever put up with is people assuming that Splinter of Chaos is a reference to Splinter Cell Chaos Theory. I thought of the name in my third year of high school because it was going to be the name of a webcomic I was going to create about some screwed up nihilists who fuck reality and turn surrealisms into realism in the real world. In other words: chaos. The main character was the one who liked reality as it was. The SPLINTER in the chaos. I’ve to to find somewhere online where I can just write that and link it instead of saying it over and over.

So, more on topic…
Would anyone here be fanatic enough to put a game like Gunroar in an arcade box? It’s personally my favorite shooter, but I don’t think I’d even like that game enough to pay that much for such a novelty.
Pyrrhon

I’ve never really been into shmups, but Cho Ren Sha is a great game! Its beautifull to look at and the gameplay is very simple but alot of fun. The game is a bit too hard for me though, i can’t get past the third level yet, but that’s probably because i don’t have any experience with these kind of games.

I also tried Perfect Sherry Blossom and similliar games. They have some insane bullet patterns, but they are not as fun as Cho Ren Sha. You don’t need to aim at all, just hold the button and your bullets cover the entire screen. The hitbox is also a bit off, alot of times the bullet seems to hit me but i don’t die.
Mischief Shai-hulud

Geez! Nothing but a big heapin’ casserole of Bullet Hell hate at tigersauce.

Pyrrhon: The hit box isn’t off, it’s just smaller than the character sprite. If you need an explanation to prevent the game mechanic from jarring your suspension of disbelief in a game about little girls flying through the air and machine gunning prayer scrolls and christmas trees at each other, pretent they’re rolling slightly to the side like that scene in “True Lies” where the incoming harrier contemptuously dodges the terrorists’ rocket.

dai jou bu: You make a valid point and I have issued a correction in the forums:

http://www.caltrops.com/pointy.php?action=viewPost&pid=71648

Splinter of Chaos: Here I thought you were being intentionally meta-humorous when accusing me of stealing my nick from a video game. Now it’s clear you’ve mortgaged that glass house and therefore my internet cred is on the line, so sorry I have to do this:

Is your real name Jay Schilling?

http://www.caltrops.com/article0015.php
Utrak (pretty lousy name!)

Splinter of Chaos: Okay then. Hmm, you may have ripped off the Ninja Turtles instead, though. (Master) Splinter of Chaos! :(
Splinter of Chaos

Wasn’t the guy is Ninja Turtles Shredder? Or are there more and exciting characters I have forgotten?

Mischief Shai-hulud:
Noo! How did you find out? I thought I kept it a secret!… Actually no.

So is Touhou supposed to be the best of the commercial curtain-fire games, or just a notable one? Like how Melty Blood isn’t the best commercial 2D fighter (Guilty Gear is), but it’s notable.