Sometimes, when you get a game's sequel, it's... lackluster in comparison. Sometimes, it's more of the same. And sometimes, it makes sliht improvements on a good formula.

And then sometimes it completely outdoes the original, like Shoot Shoot Nitori The Golden does to the first Shoot Shoot Nitori!



SSN:TG... ever heard of Blast Works? Probably not. But these guys did, and then turned it into Touhou! In each stage, Nitori Kawashiro (or one of many others you can gradually acquire) shoots away at anyone in range, freeing various junk that sticks onto her. Slowly adding more types of junk and their pieces, you turn your tiny anime girl into a juggernaut of bullets, demolishing anything in your path as you fight through eight unique stages. Each stage has its own boss, who themselves has a wild variety of attacks but are often little match for how much junk you've built up by then.



Whereas the original Shoot Shoot Nitori was a linear run through seven stages, SSN:TG features a stage select system, allowing you to branch out and pick stages to clear after you've done the first one. You can do several of the stages out of order, and you don't even need to do ALL of them to reach the final stage... but why would you skip one? No need to do that. Probably the thing that most sets each stage apart is the items - thanks to the nature of the stages, you wind up with unique items in each one! The only disadvantage of the non-linear run is that you can't become a screen filling juggernaut like the first game, but it's still quite fun.



Where Golden shines the most over its predecessor: Characters. Shoot Shoot Nitori has only one character, Nitori. The Golden, though? Twenty of them! Nitori comes first, but as you earn money by clearing stages you can unlock Reimu, Marisa, Sakuya... the list goes on, and each one has unique abilities. You can have a five-way default shot instead of straight forward only, many more lives but a much easier time losing them, massive firepower but unable to hold onto items in front of you... the characters are really what makes this game shine in my view. They're a wonderful source of replay value!



Speaking of replay value, though, whether or not you enjoy this game will come down to whether you're the type who likes doing the same stages over and over to get better at them or not. Unlocking the characters is fun, but the only way to get more money is repeatedly playing the eight stages, and if that doesn't carry your attention you won't much care about Golden beyond its first playthrough. It's a lot like main Touhou in that way, really! It's not inherently a bad thing, but it is worth noting in case it makes you decide to look elsewhere.



Overall, The Golden is an example of a game that takes what the first game does and works on making it GREAT. It's a fantastic and worthwhile sequel!

THE VERDICT
With a solid core gameplay, eight fun and unique stages (a lot more enjoyable than the first games, I honestly feel), and a wide variety of characters to keep more future playthroughs fresh, Golden is all about making the pretty okay Shoot Shoot Nitori into a stellar game! I've only played the first one a few times, but I've played this game plenty of times from start to finish, more than I can even remember at this point! I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to try a unique form of horizontal shooter, and give it a solid 4 Reimus out of 5.

Wow I had no idea that this version had so much more to it. I played the original Shoot Shoot Nitori and found it a bit lackluster so I decided to skip over this title, expecting it to just be same but with character skins and some UI improvements.