“hey dorks. this game? well. it rules.” –Super Joe
Houkai Mura by Peposoft (developers of Sennyuu and Minishooter RS) is also known as Houkaimura, Breaking Town, or as MrPodunkian calls it, “the most Japanese game”. It plays much like Ghosts and Goblins, with a double jump and similar controls, but with some modern appeasements, such as infinite lives. The variety of weapons you can find in the game is incredible; the video shows very few of them. The bosses and stages are pretty hard, although some weapons make them easier than others. I had a lot of fun with it, although its difficulty may not be to everyone’s tastes.
I learned about this game on one of MrPodunkian’s indie game livestream nights, and watched him attempt to play through the game from start to finish. It took him hours, and he must have died several hundred times. I thought surely it can’t be that hard, but I tried it and died even more than he did. Nonetheless, I couldn’t put it down until I had made my way through the entire game.
Unlike many games with a variety of weapons (like Gunstar Heroes and its “Lightning + Chaser” heat-seeking laser gun) there’s no best weapon; they really did a good job at giving every type of weapon uses in some situations, but not having any weapon absolutely required for any situation; there are no very overpowered or very underpowered weapons.