Apr 20, 2018

DEEP SPACE WAIFU: FLAT JUSTICE Review

This second arcade vertical-scrolling bullet hell shooter by Neko Climax Studios and Hammerfist Studios features King bear again on his space bike where he is sent by the president to investigate corruption on the Metrololitan Police in futuristic Japan in 2069 due to space aliens and space waifus. Over 14 levels, gameplay involves destroying enemy ships and collecting stars to build score up to 5 stars, shooting at various relevant parts of each girl's clothing where hit boxes with a number will be shown until it reaches zero where a tear or hole will be created. When the clothes or underwear are torn sufficiently, it will flash with each hit until it breaks off entirely. Earning 5 stars in a level will unlock additional levels, while reaching progress of 100% by breaking off all available girl's clothing will enable one-handed mode(auto-fire mode) on King bear's space bike making it easier to score more points and unlock certain achievements.

As King bear questions each space waifu (anime girl featured in each stage), King bear will unlock various clues to shed light on the organization behind the corruption on the Metrololitan police and additional new space bikes that will have different modes of fire.

The game closely follows the same gameplay and graphics with its earlier title DEEP SPACE WAIFU as a standalone title by being an arcade old school retro shooter with pixelated graphics which look similar to the EGA (Enhanced Graphics Adapter) 16-colour graphics used by computers nearly 3 decades ago in the 80s, equally fun and interesting gameplay where in addition to shooting at enemy spaceships and a boss ship, an additional optional goal in each level are to shoot and deal enough damage to break off each girl's clothing where there is sufficient clothing, shape and scripted level route variety in each girl's stage.

For players who prefer a more challenging arcade bullet-hell shooter, players can also choose to play the stage in Gentleman's Mode where the stage will immediately be over if any part of the girl's clothing is torn or a hole is created. This challenging game mode is entirely optional and is not required for Steam achievements or additional further unlocks.

The game has more than 900 positive reviews at the time of this review and is a short casual game with fan service and decent amounts of tongue-in-cheek humour. Having played and completed the previous title DEEP SPACE WAIFU, the game has better vaporwave music by having 3 songs with vocals by Funny Death which are both pleasant and stirring and is appropriate for the 80s arcade themes with an attractive album cover in soundtrack DLC. There is also more humour in this game as King bear questions each space waifu and obtains items over the course of his investigation, although it is not to be taken seriously as the game plot and storyline is intended as a parody rather than as a serious detective mystery or spy thriller.

Full BGM with soundtrack list on YouTube by 狐美羽-KitsuneMiu Gaming

The game is now slightly harder where there are more enemy spaceships with additional new enemies and enemy weapons such as space debris, searchlights and proximity triggered mines and the last 2 levels require completion in one playthrough without running out of lives, although it is still relatively easy to complete and get all achievements.

The Steam achievements feature cute anime girl portraits and pink letter icons, making it attractive to showcase on profile with cute Steam profile backgrounds and emoticons. The achievements are also easy to obtain without spending too many attempts as a short casual and relaxing game with fan service.

For players who prefer to uncensor and play with the adult content, it can be done easily by simply creating a blank text file with a certain name in the game's data folder (published Steam community guides are available to describe and walk players through the method).

Overall, the game is recommended with soundtrack DLC for those who like an arcade vertical-scrolling shooter with great soundtracks, easy and forgiving gameplay mechanics (the game allows playing each level with up to 10 lives) and like or don't mind the fan service (In censored Steam version, all girls will be wearing indestructable skin-matching underwear to hide all adult NSFW content) and tongue-in-cheek humour in the game.