CRIMZON CLOVER

Revisiting a shmup that rivals the genre’s best.

- Will Freeman

Back in 2011, the global shmup community was awash with murmurings about a new creation within Japan’s ‘doujin’ hobbyist game development scene. Its name was Crimzon Clover, and after a complete build first appeared at a Japanese fan convention in the closing days of 2010, a swirl of rumors suggested that it was very special indeed.

Fortunately, it turned out that the speculation was spot on. Crimzon Clover takes the form of a typically frenetic bullet hell shmup—or shoot-’em-up, to use the more traditional term—and it does it very well indeed. Like many of the best shmups, it blends a hyperactive, overwhelming pace with tremendous scoring depth, and is challenging, rewarding, and wildly exciting in equal measure. If you’re imagining sweeping, terrifyingly dense bullet patterns realized in neon colors that intersect as a player ship weaves through unfeasibly small gaps while gunning down a barrage of enemies, you have exactly the right type of game in mind.

And it is available to play once more. At the close of last year, doujin studio Yotsubane’s creation arrived on Steam under the title Crimzon Clover: World EXplosion—given a thorough polish and a range of new and tweaked modes. Its return made it hard to resist pondering the mystique around the original release, and just how well this hobbyist curio turned cult hit holds up today.