Akai Katana Shin 1cc, Type-1 Tsubaki Shinjo, (Xbox 360), player JAM

Описание: This is my first 1cc of Akai Katana Shin. I recorded this live playing on the Chewlix cabinet, so the audio and video quality is not great. After dying in the fourth stage I didn’t expect to get the clear on this run, but I managed to pull it together. The timing of the 2nd score extend was perfect and helped me get through to the end. I was hoping for a cleaner run with less mistakes, but I’m still stoked to have cleared this awesome mode. There is no commentary, but in the future I might upload a video capture of this one (or any subsequent clears) and include my usual text commentary.

GAME BACKGROUND:
Akai Katana was released in arcades in 2010. It is Cave’s fourth horizontal shooter. In 2011 the game was released on Xbox 360 with additional game modes including Akai Katana Shin. A new arcade version was released in 2020 by exa-Arcadia which included the 360 game modes plus higher difficulty selections. In 2022 the Xbox 360 version was also ported to Steam and other consoles. The Akai Katana Shin game mode is in my opinion the most fun and accessible version of the game, but your mileage may vary.

Like most shooting games your ship has two shooting modes, auto shot and concentrated shot. The shot type affects the speed of your ship, but also affects which pickups you receive. Using your concentrated shot you will fill the green energy (guiding) gauge, and using the auto shot you will gather steel (hagane) items. The amount of steel you have gathered is represented by the red circle gauge around your ship. You also have access to a stock of bombs you can use in an emergency.

When you have enough guiding energy you can transform into what is called phantom or ninja mode. Your ship will basically turn into a Ninja!. When you use your concentrated shot in this mode you can collect katana swords depending on how much steel you have collected. You can then release these katanas at your enemies to cancel bullets, do extra damage, and collect gold for scoring. Scoring is also affected by your chaining combo. It’s a fun and very satisfying mechanic that can be used for scoring, attacking, and even for defence because of the bullet cancelling.

Akai Katana Shin is a natural evolution from the Progear and the Deathsmiles series. It looks great, sounds great, and is very playable on modern systems.