Pawarumi

Pawarumi is a tough-as-nails shmup with a unique central mechanic that takes time to master. Stick with it though and you'll be rewarded with a slick, fast-paced shooter that looks and sounds amazing and will test your skills to the max. There's really nothing else like it out there right now and, even with slight reservations over the difficulty, a lacklustre story and paucity of game modes, this is an easy recommend for fans of the genre looking for a proper challenge.

Pawarumi for me is how you should produce a modern Shoot’em up. It’s fresh with new ideas in terms of its colour coded firing system, 3D global locations, which offer a real sense of purpose. The game has excellent sound effects and an awesome soundtrack which adds to the feel of the game. Pawarumi is a game that captures you, with it’s thrilling and exciting attitude and pace, with good use of important replayability features. My only criticism is that the game is a little short, and would have been better had the developers included an rpg levelling up system for your craft.

Pawarumi shows the shoot ’em up genre has new directions to go besides just improving the visuals with each passing decade.

Pawarumi has an interesting combat system that takes a little getting used to, but it’s fun once you do. Having to always restart from the beginning of the game upon death makes it certainly more repetitive, though. However, its greatest flaw may be that it handles difficulty in a much more punishing way than Rolling Gunner does. That game is a bullet hell, and yet much less grueling than Pawarumi. If you don’t like punishing difficulty, then you will likely want to pass on this game. If you’re a fan of the genre and harder games in general, then it may be a good fit for you. I’ve spent about 4-5 hours blasting through foes so far across two difficulty levels. The game is available on the Nintendo Switch, Steam, and Xbox One for $14.99. Do you have what it takes to get all three story endings, and uncover a dark secret?

The Switch is already home to a variety of shooters, but Pawarumi makes a solid case for being a worthy addition to a shooter fan's library. The gimmick of having three different-colored guns and enemies makes the game more cerebral while also not punishing players who just want to stick with one weapon type. The three main game difficulties make it accessible to everyone, while the difficulty levels determining the number and order of the stages mean that playthroughs may feel familiar but not exactly the same. It could have used a few more modes to round out the package, but thanks to it doing just about everything right, Pawarumi is worth playing for shooting fans.

The gameplay itself is enjoyable, so if the repetition doesn’t bother you, you’ll probably enjoy it. If it does, you’ll probably just have a few fun hours and that’s about it.

Pawarumi lands in a busy field amidst any 2D shoot'em ups on the Nintendo Switch catalogue but it does a very good job at standing out. Thanks to its 'rock, paper, scissors' system which makes the gameplay more involving and challenging, Pawarumi is also a game with a strong personality and it's certain to appeal to fans of 2D shooters.

Pawarumi is a good old-fashioned "shoot everything that moves" game which engages the player right from the start; I had an adrenaline rush going the whole time I was playing. At $14.99, it's a great addition to your Nintendo Switch catalog of games.

Pawarumi is a solid shoot 'em up in both challenge and its creative design.

Even if its level design is nothing worth writing home about, Pawarumi understands what makes a treasure-esque shmup unique, doubles down on such features and offers a satisfying technical shmup that has its own twists.