Developed By: Tennen Sozai
Localized By: NYU-Media
Published By: Capcom
Date of release: March 29, 2012
Price: $9.99
Ahhhh, Bullet Hell. How I've missed your intense patterns of glowing death. The eXceed Collection is here, and it delivers the frenetic action that we danmaku fans crave. Consisting of 3 doujin shooters, this collection chronicles the war between the Catholic Church and the vampiric legions. These indie games have been localized by NYU-Media and published by Capcom.
The first title in the collection is the controversial eXceed: Gun Bullet Children. Because of the main storyline's theme of the Catholic Church training children to trade their lifespans in exchange for magical powers with which to combat the vampires, they had to unfortunately leave the game untranslated. NYU-Media has posted a complete fan translation of the script on the game's site however, so players will not be left in the dark. The gameplay in eXceed GBC is typical of the genre, and is quite satisfying to play through. With 3 characters to play as, there is enough variety here to keep players busy for a while.
With the second title things definitely take a turn for the different. The game's single protagonist Ria File is a human/vampire hybrid who fights on the side of the vampires, trying to bring an end to the rekindled war between the humans and vampires. The gameplay is quite reminiscent of Treasure's Ikaruga, in the fact that you can switch polarities and absorb like-colored shots while dealing double damage to the opposing color. Fans of Ikaruga should feel quite at home playing eXceed 2nd- Vampire REX.
This brings us to the third and final title, Exceed 3rd- JADE PENETRATE- BLACK PACKAGE. This mouthful of a title goes back a step in terms of gameplay, using the standard bullet hell formula once again. Our heroine this time is the dragon/demoness hybrid Raine Lindwurm, and the story chronicles her attempt to take over the underworld. Along the way she has to contend with the current heir, her own sister Celestia.
Each of these games could stand decently on their own individual merits, but as a bundle the combined value is quite phenomenal. Considering that the 3 games can be had for $9.99, there's no reason to miss out on them. Anyone who is a fan of the genre should pick up the eXceed Collection today!
