Why I'm Not Excited for Umihara Kawase Bazooka

[Princess Rescuer]

Please move this to the page for UKB when it comes out.

Umihara Kawase Bazooka comes out for the PS4 and Switch in 2020. As nice as it is to finally have on on the PS4, I'm not confident. Umihara Kawase Bazooka looks terrible. It's a 2D fighting game like Smash, and I doubt it will be able to compete or have any lastability. The characters, although containing a good cast of obscure ones for me, are going to appear interchangeable for most people. And the battle arenas themselves are copy-pasted from Umihara Kawase Fresh. They're way too big, and arenas from fields in earlier games would have been better.

I suspect the game will have little content (especially in single player) and will revolve around collecting random costumes. It won't be enough to keep me hooked on it, especially when the costumes will probably be so standard and generic. How many times can I unlock maid and schoolgirl costumes in games? It's so mundane! The character roster won't bring in new fans and the gameplay style will alienate current fans like me.

If Umihara doesn't go back to basics, I don't even know if I can call myself a fan anymore. There aren't enough games like the original three as it is! I can't even think of fan games or kickstarter projects or anything. I will probably still get it, but possibly at a discount, and I am not expecting multiple purchases or anything. If I weren't as big of a fan, I would definitely pass.

There aren't any (new) games I'm looking forward to getting in 2020. I'm not even sure the PS5 will entice me to replay old favorites especially when I have the consoles. Welp, this was the only opportunity for me to want to continue buying new games next year.

[sol-alpha]

If Umihara doesn't go back to basics, I don't even know if I can call myself a fan anymore. There aren't enough games like the original three as it is! I can't even think of fan games or kickstarter projects or anything. I will probably still get it, but possibly at a discount, and I am not expecting multiple purchases or anything. If I weren't as big of a fan, I would definitely pass.

One game that has caught my interest is Mochi A Girl:
https://youtu.be/O5z8CUV2dEA

It's an indie game and the creator is under the age of 20. His childhood console was the Nintendo Wii and the design of his game came from playing first party games like Super Mario Galaxy and Kirby on the Nintendo Wii. This has an influence on his game design by making the controls accessible, you only use the left stick to aim and the A button to perform actions, the character automatically runs.

I found this stuff from reading a Japan Unity interview of the indie developer since the game runs on Unity and no, he doesn't mention Umihara Kawase at all regarding any inspiration.

Here's the interview: https://madewithunity.jp/interviews/motchagirl/

[Alc]

One game that has caught my interest is Mochi A Girl: https://youtu.be/O5z8CUV2dEA

Damn, that looks pretty good! Thanks for posting the videos, and the Bazooka ones elsewhere.

Princess, I don't think Bazooka is going to replace Smash but then I don't think they are even trying to, to be honest - any more than Blade Strangers is trying to replace Street Fighter or Crystal Crisis is trying to replace Tetris. These are niche, indie games. Personally I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt before writing it off.

[sol-alpha]

One game that has caught my interest is Mochi A Girl: https://youtu.be/O5z8CUV2dEA

Damn, that looks pretty good! Thanks for posting the videos, and the Bazooka ones elsewhere.

I actually tweeted the developer yesterday because someone was asking whether it would release overseas (it's already available on the Japan eShop for Switch).

The developer said there's no confirmed release date yet but he said he's planning to have the game localised in English and Chinese so it will come eventually on the eShop outside Japan.

[KawaseFan]

Please move this to the page for UKB when it comes out.

Gimme about half an hour and I'll create the board.  I've avoided creating boards for BaZooKa and Blade Strangers up until now due to their status as spinoff games, but that was probably a mistake.

If Umihara doesn't go back to basics, I don't even know if I can call myself a fan anymore. There aren't enough games like the original three as it is! I can't even think of fan games or kickstarter projects or anything. I will probably still get it, but possibly at a discount, and I am not expecting multiple purchases or anything. If I weren't as big of a fan, I would definitely pass.

It's a spinoff game; it's not trying to be like the 'main' series.  I get your disappointment after Fresh, but one average 'main' game and a spinoff that could turn out to be average (but could still turn out to be pretty good!) are hardly signs that the whole series is ruined.

Princess, I don't think Bazooka is going to replace Smash but then I don't think they are even trying to, to be honest - any more than Blade Strangers is trying to replace Street Fighter or Crystal Crisis is trying to replace Tetris. These are niche, indie games. Personally I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt before writing it off.

100% agree with this.

One game that has caught my interest is Mochi A Girl:
https://youtu.be/O5z8CUV2dEA

It's an indie game and the creator is under the age of 20. His childhood console was the Nintendo Wii and the design of his game came from playing first party games like Super Mario Galaxy and Kirby on the Nintendo Wii. This has an influence on his game design by making the controls accessible, you only use the left stick to aim and the A button to perform actions, the character automatically runs.

Nice!  Definitely getting that when possible.

[Whendaleksattack]

In my opinion, Bazooka looks decent from the (very small) amount of footage I've seen. Not as bad as Rescuer paints it as, but certainly not perfect. Still like the artwork though, but yeah, they need to fix the music issue.

I'll definitely be waiting for a price drop on both Bazooka and Fresh, I don't really feel like paying that much money for these types of games.

Then again, I'm just a simple Dalek. I could be wrong about it or not, we'll definitely have to see what comes it.

[KawaseFan]

I'll definitely be waiting for a price drop on both Bazooka and Fresh, I don't really feel like paying that much money for these types of games.

On the subject of pricing, hopefully it does release at a lower price point.  I'll buy it in any case because of course I will, but even a price similar to Fresh's on the eShop would probably scare away a few potential customers, who might not bother waiting for a price drop like you're planning to do.