Girls do their best now and are preparing.

February 1, 2005 8:15 AM

The Touhou, or Shrine Maiden, series of "curtain fire shooting games" start off challenging and quickly become hard enough to satisfy any hardcore gamer/masochist. They're also gorgeously crafted works of art, and were created in their entirety by one man, ZUN. If you want to play them you'll have to import them* from Japan, but you can download the demos here.
* site sells naughty things as well. Don't order at work.
posted by squidlarkin (10 comments total)

Direct links for those not wanting to wade through Japanese text:
Embodiment of Scarlet Devil
Perfect Cherry Blossom
Imperishable Night
posted by squidlarkin at 8:16 AM on February 1, 2005

Also, at least one of these was mentioned in a previous post, but I thought they deserved their own.
posted by squidlarkin at 8:18 AM on February 1, 2005

What is an lzh file?
posted by odinsdream at 8:27 AM on February 1, 2005

It's a compression format. WinRAR should be able to open it for you. (maybe new winzip too)
posted by NinjaPirate at 8:35 AM on February 1, 2005

The third link should point here. And it seems badly designed, anyhow.
posted by Plutor at 9:32 AM on February 1, 2005

Have I just stepped out of my normal, everyday reality and into the world of fucking maniacs?
posted by luckyclone at 9:48 AM on February 1, 2005

Dunno, what's your definition of fucking maniac?
posted by bugbread at 9:51 AM on February 1, 2005

Neat games, but ow, my retinas.
posted by hypersloth at 9:58 AM on February 1, 2005

I'm really enjoying Mono. It's a very clever little hypnogogic shooter.
posted by Nelson at 10:44 AM on February 1, 2005

If you want more wacky Japanese shooting games, I'd also suggest the work of this man:

ABA Games

They're all incredibly hypnotic and set to funky trance music. His design style is interesting as all the games use abstract polygon thingies as characters and vehicles.

My personal favorite is TUMKIKI Fighters, which has a neat twist that whenever you kill a bad guy, you can catch his falling ship and add it to your own.

And Parsec 47 is like playing an acid trip.
posted by InnocentBystander at 2:41 PM on February 1, 2005