Game Review: Damikira

By Al

Players: 1-2
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, XBox, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5

Every so often a game comes around that manages to surprise me in just about every way. These kind of games usually come from the most unlikely of places, and they're often ones that no one really talks about. The game we're going to discuss today fits that bill perfectly. Enter Damikira, a fast and frenetic shooter that's available now on all major consoles by way of publisher EastAsiaSoft. This quirky little game has lots up its sleeve, and hopefully I'll be able to share some of that with you today. This is going to be a wild one, so let's dive right in!

There is a plot to Damikira, but I'm not sure how relevant it is to all the action going on. I guess I should at least give it a mention for the sake of being thorough. Perhaps in a not-so-distant future, an evil corporation is hard at work creating would-be perfect soldiers by attempting to perfect animal/human hybrids. These creatures are known as "Dummies", and it didn't take too long for them to completely overrun their captors, and take control of the facility that housed them. Fearing what would happen if the Dummies managed to escape the lab, an elite team is sent in to eliminate them. You take on the role of a member of said team, and it's up to you to save the world from the Dummies. That's pretty much all the story you're going to get here, but it honestly was more than I was expecting in the first place. More interesting that the game's plot, is the story of how the game came to be in the first place. Damikira started life as indie game titled "Doomies". The game was created by a sole programmer named ElRichie, and the Doomies series expanded into at least three games that I know of. The Damikira title came later when the game moved to wider distribution. A slightly more modern visual style, loads of gameplay tweaks, and even the story I just mentioned, were all added to the game over its many iterations. What we have here is the culmination of years of work, and it really shows in ways we have yet to get to. I can go on a bit more about all that, but I think it's time we moved the discussion towards gameplay.

Damikira has a very simple premise: kill everything that stands in the way of you completing your current mission. Each stage gives you a goal, with there only being a handful of variants to them. These goals can be killing a certain number of regular enemies, hitting a particularly high combo, saving hostages, or killing a specific number of special enemies. These goals do raise and lower as you continue on in the game, but those are pretty much all of them. Limiting though it may sound on paper, the simplicity gives plenty of room for the game's fast and frenetic action to take center stage. There aren't any bosses in the proper sense, but the game moves so fast that you probably won't notice that you're mainly completing the same tasks over and over again. Oh, and don't worry about having to kill all the Dummies, they're never-ending.

Not quite a twin-stick shooter, and not quite a standard run-and-gun action game, Damikira sort of defies genre labels. I guess it would best be described as an arcade-style shooter, but it really is more than that. That said, the arcade title still fits as getting the highest score possible is really the ultimate goal. Each game in Damikira starts with you picking one of three characters, who each have their own weapons. Emily (the girl) has a powerful shotgun, Henry (the alien) has a machine gun, and Eric (the guy) has a handgun that acts like a longer range, but weaker, version of Emily's weapon. You can run, jump, and use a grappling hook to get you out of areas where a simple jump isn't enough. You can aim your gun in any direction with the right analog stick, or press the auto-aim button and hope for the best. Your main gun has unlimited ammo, so it's best to always be shooting since the waves of enemies never let up. Points are awarded for every kill, with multipliers added if you're able to kill several enemies in rapid succession. The action can sometimes move into bullet time, but I have yet to figure out how to trigger that. The game actually advertises several hidden mechanics, and I guess that's just one of them. You're awarded power-ups from defeating certain enemies, and by rescuing hostages. Said power-ups can be more powerful weapons with limited, special timed bonuses like a berserk mode, or even a healing item. That pretty much covers the basics, but there's plenty more to discuss if you dive deeper.

I have to admit that I wasn't too fond of Damikira when I first booted it up. The tutorial barely explains anything, and my first run was over in a matter of seconds. Enemies come at you constantly, and they can deal heavy damage in a short amount of time. Add to this the fact that things devolve into and audio/visual mess after just a minute or so, and you have something just short of chaos on your hands. There is a method to the madness though, and I eventually learned that you have to always be on your toes. Standing still means death, so you have to take the term "run-and-gun" very literally. If you want to really master the game, you have to enter that gamer version of a Zen state where the controls become second nature. That may sound a bit like an over-exaggeration, but I'm sure arcade players will know exactly what I'm describing. Once I realized this, I found myself completing objectives like they were nothing, and getting high scores that numbered in the millions. I actually was the only person on the leaderboards for a couple days outside of the game's creator ElRichie. It was then that I truly fell in love with the game.

Even when you're good at Damikira, runs can still end in disaster rather quickly, and that's half of the fun. Some objectives are harder than other, with the rescue missions probably being my least favorite. This is a game that allows friendly fire, so you're just as likely to kill the hostage yourself if you're not totally aware of their location. Outside of that, everything is a blast. The grappling hook adds an extra layer of platforming that you aren't expecting, and it can even be used as a secondary weapon of sorts. Power-ups are also really fun to grab, as they often lead to some insane situations where your character is literally floating in the air from a powered-up gun's recoil. Some weapons even deliver AOE damage, and I think you can actually damage yourself with them too. There's also something of a level up system here, as you can gain additional max health if you pick up extra healing items when your life is already full. Also, even though the three characters might not seem all that unique at first, they're each tailored to different styles of play. I came to favor Eric personally, and ultimately realized that Emily was my least favorite of the bunch. Your mileage with them will vary of course, but the variety is there. There's something about this game that just kept me playing despite the many deaths. I'm sort of reminded of the Musou (AKA Warriors) series of games where you take out hundreds of enemies on your own, and the therapeutic relief one can get from that experience. I'm not saying that Damikira might be a great way to relieve the stress of a long day, but I'm also not not saying that either.

Graphically, Damikira is a beautifully messy game. The retro-inspired visuals are neat, and remind me of the type found in games like Death Road to Canada. You can also customize the characters a bit with hats that you can purchase with coins collected in the main game. There are a lot of referential ones too, include a Link hat, and one I think is meant to be Sonichu. It's not just characters and hats, as the enemies are all a unique bunch too. It may seem like there isn't a lot of variety at first, but there are several enemy types that don't even show up until you get to later stages of the game. Then there's the gore. This is a bloody game in every sense of the word, and every single thing that dies in it goes out in a blaze of messy flesh. The gore doesn't simply fade away either, it stains the level until you've completely. Unfortunately this may be why the game seemed to chug at times on the Nintendo Switch (the platform I played it on), but I could never really be sure. Despite those few performance issues, I must say that the Switch handled the game well. I'm hoping that a later patch fixes it completely though. Going back to the issue of gore, I have to admit that it might be a deciding factor of why one doesn't like the game. Not everyone can appreciate this level of violence, and that's understandable. If you're not squeamish in the least, or if you live and breathe anything that sort of resembles '90s Doom, then you're going to love Damikira.

The soundtrack of Damikira is all metal all the time, and some of the songs even have vocals, if you can call them that. I dug the music, even if I don't think I'd ever listen to it outside of the game. At the very least you can say that the music is neither bad nor repetitive. It's good, it fits the game, and there's plenty of it. More interesting than the music has to be the voice acting. Not only is every character voiced, but they never shut up. You character is constantly making quips, some enemies scream, hostages always have to complain or be jerks, and there's even an announcer who has to throw in their two cents every so often too. It can be kind of hard to make sense of everything being said in the heat of battle, but there are thankfully subtitles that help out a bit. It should also be mentioned that most of the dialogue is very cheeky and rude, and there are tons of swear words sprinkled in throughout it all. This probably more than the gore is sure to put off many potential players, but I found it to be humorous for the most part, and harmless overall. Though I probably would've liked it if the audio samples were just a little clearer, I have to admit that they had me chuckling more than once.

I've put in several hours of Damikira, and only really stopped so I could get this review out. There's something about the sheer energy of the game that continues to draw me in, and I'm willing to bet that the same spell will come over you if you give the game a chance. Each run is a different experience, and you can only ever truly blame yourself when one ends in an early death. There's a level of unpredictability to everything that should be a negative, but it's a total non-issue here. The game is quite easy to jump into once you get the hang of it, and you'll spend hours attempting to mater it. Sheer fun aside, there are also some unlockables. I mentioned the hats you can buy earlier, but there are also weapons you unlock that enter the power-up rotation. The game also keeps stats on everything, and there's always the leaderboards to work towards as well. There’s a surprising amount of content here, and it comes in at the very fair price of just $7.99. Admittedly that might be just a smidge above what I was hoping for, but I'm not about to begrudge an indie developer a couple dollars. I didn't even get around to discussing the multiplayer either!

Though some may be put off by the game's gore and off-color humor, I still have to give Damikira the fullest of recommendations. It's a must-buy for fans of action games, arcade style shooters, and anyone who likes to let off steam by mowing down countless enemies in a video game that lets you do exactly that quickly. There really is something for everyone here, and I think even the most casual of gamers will have plenty of fun. It truly is an easy game to learn, but a tough one to master. I for one can't wait to get back to it, and I'm glad that we're reaching the end of the review. Take my advice, and pick it up now on whatever platform you can. You can thank me later. See you in the next one.

Check Out Damikira on Nintendo Switch:
https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/damikira-switch/

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Story: B
Gameplay: A
Graphics: A
Music/Sound: A
Value: A

Overall: A-

Pros:
+ A fun action game that truly captures that arcade spirit of giving it one more try.
+ Though there is a bit of a learning curve, the fast and furious nature of the action is sure to keep you invested in the game.
+ The music is great, the visuals are neat, and there's plenty of variety in the characters.
+ Besides working to place high on the leaderboards, there are plenty of unlockable items to work towards.
+ Multiplayer is a wild romp in the best way possible.
+ Very reasonably priced at just $7.99.

Cons:
- The gore and off-color humor might put off anyone who doesn't care for such things.
- Might come off as a bit repetitive for those who aren't charmed by the game's antics.
- There are some performance issues at the time of this writing on the Nintendo Switch.

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

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Proof that I was at one point the #2 player on the leaderboards!