And the award for the greatest Cute-Em-Up of all time goes to...
Trust me, I wasnt expecting this either! But holy crap this game absolutely blew me away, it is such an achievement in game design that I had to put aside grievances and come back to r/shmups to talk about it a little.
For starters, this game is basically "Zelda 1 x Geometry Wars" which on paper sounds okay, but its one of those crossover bangers which completely eclipses the source material. Visually/aesthetically, it kind of does its own thing while not having a super strong style. I would actually say that the art itself is arguably the *weakest part of the game* and its not bad in any way, its just fine.
The sound design is kind of where I started to lock on and think "okay this is unusually good for a small indie game" and it just keeps getting better as you go. Everything from ship noises, rocks breaking, item pickup, its all perfect. Then theres the score/soundtrack. My god, its just sublime. This is an all time great soundtrack! This game is the reason headphones where invented!
Now onto the part where I take everyone who ever wanted to design a game in their life and force them, Clockwork Orange style, to play through or watch a playthrough of Minishoot Adventures. It should be required material for any game design program, because the lessons here dont just apply to 2D games.
Honestly the closest game I can think of to compare it to is ELDEN RING yes the Fromsoft game which is mostly renowned for being incredibly long, obtuse, and hard to finish. Minishoot Adventures isnt long! It isnt even hard! But it can be obtuse, in just the right ways which make the player feel smart when they figure out what to do and where to go. Youre breadcrumbed just enough to fumble your way into the next section of the game. And if you cant figure it, just go explore! The world is EXACTLY big enough that you wont totally get lost. The areas are PRECISELY blocked off so you can see something without being able to reach it.
The combat itself, is fun and not at all punishing on Easy/Normal and many players here would cruise through Hard. But actually, one of the only flaws of the game is, it should really have both a Very Easy and Very Hard difficulty.
Other than that, all I can say is I owned this game for 2 years and barely touched it, mostly due to its weirdly generic name, kind of generic art style, and the fact that exploration games require a certain level of player commitment (I kind of avoid Metroidvanias). This is an exploration game which could turn even the most jaded heart of stone into flesh.
Looking at the history of Cute-Em-Ups, its basically all arcade games. I think if anything, its a deeply underappreciated and underdeveloped genre of game. Frankly, as much as I love Sexy Parodius and Muchi Muchi Pork, and whatever else you want to throw on the top of the pile, none of the games offer the same kind of immersion into a fully realized world that Minishoot does. While I think the art style of both those games is incredible and arguably superior, I dont find myself thinking about playing them often or wanting to revisit them. Theyre novelties.
Minishoot Adventures is a Cute Em Up I want to return to again and again - its not just a novelty or a fun diversion, its actually an instruction book for game design and creating a non narrative, gameplay based world which demands your attention and feels nostalgic and new at the same time.