Triggerheart Exelica screams onto XBLA on February 27

by Griffin McElroy { Feb 23rd 2008 at 12:00PM }

Triggerheart Exelica, everyone's favorite debris-flinging, vertical scrolling shooter, will finally make a move onto a console that hasn't been dead for seven years next Wednesday, when a translated and updated port will go on sale on Xbox Live Arcade for 800 MS Points, according to developer WARASHI Inc.. The above video gives a pretty good idea of what to expect -- It's one part Ikaruga, one part Olympic Hammer Throw, with just a dash of the near-constant screaming of generic Anime cyborg/heroines. Sounds like a winning combination to us!

Tags: anime, arcade, dreamcast, port, scrolling, shooter, triggerheart, triggerheartexelica, XBLA

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Arttemis @ Feb 23rd 2008 12:17PM

Hmmm, I just might have to pick this up to tide me over until Ikaruga.

Commence Anime cyborg scream-imitation!
Ayeeeeeuh!

Fernando Rocker @ Feb 23rd 2008 12:22PM

Nice! I love schmups! This is looking good... nice shoot em ups in Live Arcade... Aegis Wing, Omega 5, this... soon Ikaruga.

Star Soldier R for WiiWare is looking good too =)

http://www.wiiwii.tv/2007/10/12/star-soldier-r-wiiware-looking-shiny/

TheQuagster @ Feb 23rd 2008 12:56PM

I hope there's an option for vertical scrolling because I'd prefer the Galaga feel.

SabreCat @ Feb 23rd 2008 1:12PM

I think it is vertical scrolling (as said in the post itself), just for some reason this video is turned on its side.

Looks too hardcore for me, though. Stuff on the level of Gradius III I can handle, but fill-the-screen-with-bullets shmups are beyond me. @.@

waynski1457 @ Feb 23rd 2008 1:17PM

awesome with the dreamcast ports on xbla! this game is pretty sweet to boot!

Tyrus @ Feb 23rd 2008 1:28PM

Aw, I was more excited when I thought it was called Tiggerheart.

Yourself @ Feb 23rd 2008 2:57PM

Throwing enemies seems like a pretty interesting concept, but I just can't appreciate bullet-hell shooters. It's not fun, challenging, or clever. It's just irritating (Ikaruga, I'm looking at you).

The Virtual Console has become quite the haven for awesome shooters, though.

Chase @ Feb 23rd 2008 4:15PM

Looks interesting, but I'd much rather have Ikaruga.

FidliousWong @ Feb 23rd 2008 7:23PM

You know, I watch this video and my immediate response is "And developers of these games wonder why they are rapidly becoming extinct."

I mean, I hate to sound like a dick about it but this game will only appeal to the absolute hardest of the hardcore shump fans. I hate to sound egotistical but personally, I'm learning from their mistakes and making my shmup support multiple difficulties. Essentially I'm aiming for slightly easier than Life Force (Salamander) for the easiest difficulty then giving bullet hell fans all they want.

Maximilian Lockwood @ Feb 23rd 2008 8:14PM

I've seen some shmups that I've been impressed with because you pit your bullets against their millions, but this just seems to cheap. Too repetitive to be fun for long.

Sony's quality over quantity thing is true for the most part (minus maybe PixelJunk Racers), and I can see that Microsoft really just wants to flood the Marketplace as much as possible. Which is good, you get some variety, but really though. Spend some time on games, a la Castle Crashers. It's anticipated because it's actually taking a while to make it a good experience and a good game all around.

Microsoft isn't really known for their variety though, a Microsoft-made game needs a main character with a gun or it's just not worth their while.

On that note, too many games these days depend on guns. Even JRPGs! Arg. I want my 1st-party spin attacks back.

rudimentalist @ Feb 23rd 2008 11:15PM

Shooters that fill the screen with bullets are more bark than bite. As far as actually being able to reach the end, a lot of shoot em up fans agree that Gradius III (arcade version) is still the hardest of all time. Even games like those Touhou "bullet-curtain" games work because eventually you can memorize the patterns, the bullets almost crawl towards you, and the hitboxes of you and the bullets are actually really tiny so you'll find yourself doing a lot of near-misses. In addition you usually have firepower that's 10 times stronger and faster than your enemies when it's at max power. Don't take my word for it, try the demo of this game. Trigger Heart should be better for beginners than Ikaruga was anyways. No polarity and chaining by colors to worry about.

J.Goodwin @ Feb 24th 2008 11:30AM

Ikaruga's about as far from a bullet hell shooter as you can get. There are plenty of bullets, but the collision zone on your ship is tiny and any individual "enemy projectile" is just a weapon waiting to be wielded.

ark_keeper @ Feb 25th 2008 9:54AM

Watching videos like this, I've always wondered about the slow bullets. It always seems to slow down when there are thousands of bullets on screen at once, like the hardware can't keep up. When it is run on a more powerful machine, are the bullets going to keep their speed and make it harder?