Karous is a shoot 'em up with RPG elements published by Circle Entertainment and developed by Klon. Shoot 'em ups are much like fighters: they have their fans, particularly in Japan, but are somewhat niche.  Karous, a shooter from over in japan, comes in with a mecha and a sword. Unfortunately, shooting or slicing and dicing turn out to be more boring than they should.


Karous makes an attempt at storytelling, but it is so poorly done that it's almost not worth mentioning. Everything is told by text boxes on the bottom of the lower screen, away from the main action going on. Various anime avatars will either give out advice, or they will blurt out lines like "I don't even know if they're an opponent worth fighting or even an enemy at all" randomly. There is no context for what is going on, you don't learn who your anime avatar friends are, nor why they are saying what they are saying.


While the storyline is bizarre, the gameplay keeps it simple. Pressing A shoots, R swings your mighty sword and L drops bombs. The game is mission based. You'll be shooting your way through over 100 missions over several areas called Degrees. After choosing a mission, along with the firepower, sword, shield, and assist item you want, you're ready to go. These missions vary from staying alive until the timer runs out, slicing 100 opponents with your sword, or defeating a boss battle after the end of a Degree, in which you move to the next one to do more missions. Be careful because you can take only 3 hits before your mech explodes and you fail the mission.


After failing or accomplishing your objective, any weapon or shield that you used during the mission will be leveled up to make them stronger. Occasionally, you will alsoreceivet a new weapon or assist item to try out. Upon being killed, some enemies will drop an item. These items can vary from increasing your experience points to healing you. Also aiding you are the Assist items, of which you can take only for that mission. These asist items include taking some extra hits from enemies and making your bomb gauge go faster.

The mission based gameplay does attempt to keep the gameplay from getting stale. However, it doesn't take long for the game to get boring. It is mindless fun no doubt, but the gameplay it's unexceptional. Much like a fast food burger, it will do it's job, but isn't anything special. Eventually, the missions themselves start to feel like deja vu.


The graphics in the game are passable, but nothing special. Enemies look and animate fine enough, but the backgrounds are forgettable. The game doesn't use 3D at all, which will no doubt disappoint some. Despite the game being relatively simplistic, it also has regular framerate drops when there is too much on screen. A fast paced game such as this having frequent framerate drops is inexcusable.

The best part of the game is the music. The music is catchy and upbeat, befitting the fast pace of the game itself. However, there are only a few tracks in this game, which is a shame.


Karous is an alright at best shooter. It doesn't really do anything wrong, besides it's confused bizarre contextless story. However, it also doesn't do anything exceptional. The music is good and the graphics aren't bad, but there is nothing to really grip your attention for too long. Superfans of shoot 'em ups might have some fun, but it'll be a surprise if these devotees and anyone else manage to remember this game a few days after playing.



Review Copy provided by: Circle Entertainment