Developed by: Qute
Published By: Degica
Date of Release: September 18, 2015
Price: $4.99
Back in the pre-millenial days of 1999, there was a cute little Japanese handheld system known as the Bandai Wonderswan. The literal swan song of GameBoy designer Gunpei Yokoi (who tragically died before it's release), The Wonderswan at one point managed to grab 8% of the handheld market and had two major revisions, the second of which introducing a color LCD, before finally being discontinued in 2003. Many amazing games were made for the system, Including the original remakes of Final Fantasy I, II and IV that later found homes on the Gameboy Advance. However one Wonderswan exclusive stands out in particular. That game is JUDGEMENT SILVERSWORD.
Originally released as JUDGEMENT SILVERSWORD -Rebirth Edition-, this was a game that was actually developed for a WonderWitch dev competition, and published officially as a cartridge. Because of the limited release however, it is nigh impossible to find, which makes this Steam release a godsend. Now the entire world has access to this simple, but absolutely marvelous bit of bullet hell. It may be slightly basic and by the numbers at this point, but back in the day it was a technical marvel. The SHMUP genre has existed on handhelds for quite some time at that point, but Judgement Silversword was the first true bullet hell experience on a handheld system, which was probably due to the latency of the LCD screens on other handhelds at the time. Of course it's a moot point now,a s any modern display is up to the task of rendering everything as it was meant to be seen.
The Steam version of Judgement Silversword comes with the main game as well as the time-attack spinoff Cardinal Sins. Both are perfectly emulated with a host of control and visual options, as well as extended soundtracks. Any bullet hell fan would do well to have this title in their library, and at $5 it's a total steal. It's also available bundled with the steam release of Eschatos, which I will be reviewing as soon as I get it running! JUDGEMENT SILVERSWORD -Ressurection- is a good enough title to stand on it's own IMO, and the addition of the challenged in Cardinal Sins just piles on the replay value.
