Pawarumi

Genre: Shmup

Players: 1

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Review:

Pawarumi is a Shmup released on PC in 2018, ported to Nintendo Switch in 2019, then ported to PlayStation 4 in 2020. This game has players piloting a ship that fires three different color-coded shots that they must swap between depending on their enemy and what they’re looking to accomplish.

This mechanic is the centerpiece of the game, and acts a bit like a combination of paper-rock-scissors, and Ikaruga‘s black/white color-swapping mechanic. Your ship has a green rapid-fire shot, a blue laser beam, and red homing missiles, which work in a green->red->blue paper-rock-scissors manner, and depending on your enemy each shot will have a different bonus associated with it. If your shot is the more powerful one in the chain, you’ll do extra damage (referred to as “crush”). If it’s the less powerful one in the chain, you’ll charge up your super attack (called “drain”). And if it’s the same color, you’ll slowly refill your fighter’s health, though this will cause the enemy to fire faster while you’re doing it.

If that seems like it will be a lot to remember in the heat of a fast-paced battle… yeah, it is. It means that when you shoot an enemy, there are nine different attack-result combinations that could happen, compared to Ikaruga’s four. You’re probably going to use the wrong weapon for what you want to do a lot. Thankfully, since each combination has some benefit, it’s not like your actions will be wasted – either you’ll kill the enemy quicker, charge your super weapon faster, or gain health.

Also thankfully, the rest of the gameplay here is pretty good too, making for an overall solid Shmup that has added depth if you want to try to make the color-coded system second nature, but not absolutely requiring you to do so to enjoy the game.

The presentation here is pretty good too, combining decent 3D visuals with a synthesized soundtrack. I don’t think any of this stands out as especially noteworthy or memorable beyond the three-color mechanic, but it all looks decent enough.

In the end, that’s pretty much what I think of Pawarumi: it’s decent enough. This is a solid Shmup with a mechanic that’s not very practical, but isn’t necessary to engage with to enjoy the game. And however much you want to engage with it, like choosing to stick with shots that can heal you or shots that can take out enemies faster, you’ll get out of it what you put into it. If you’re a Shmup fan, this is worth a look.

tl;dr – Pawarumi is a Shmup that has you swapping between three color-coded weapons to take on color-coded enemies, with each color combination having a different effect. This mechanic is a bit too much to keep track of in the heat of battle, but the core gameplay here is good and the game doesn’t punish you for just shooting enemies with whatever weapon you prefer in a given moment. Overall, this is a solid Shmup that fans of the genre should enjoy.

Grade: B

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