Professionally localized Japanese shooters are a rare breed, even in the indie scene, and an even rarer sight on Steam. Three landing all at once as a $10 bundle? Well, that’s just something special. But outside of high-profile stores, such games (at least in their native language) are ten a penny. Does the Gundemonium Collection have what it takes to stand out and draw attention from those who might not be existing fans of the genre?

Originally released in the mid 2000s, the three games in this pack – Gundeadligne, Gundemonium Recollection & Hitogata Happa – are all the creation of one-man studio Platine Dispositif. While western localization group Rockin’ Android have brought some additional talent on board for the Steam re-releases (most notably a professionally remixed soundtrack), these games are about as indie as you can get, and more than a little reminiscent of the famed Touhou series, also by a similarly focused solo developer.

All three games share several key traits. First and foremost is that they’re remarkably complex, challenging and flexible score-attack shooters. While each game brings a unique set of quirks to the table, all the games share a notably punishing Normal difficulty level, but also offer a much more forgiving Easy mode that allows newcomers to get their teeth into the gameplay without having to wade through hell. It’s quite possible to achieve the coveted ’1cc’ (1 credit clear – beating the game without continuing) on your first or second play on easy mode, even if you’re not a shmup expert.

Another key thing the games all share is comparatively amateurish art. While the gameplay in general is tight as a drum and the bullet-patterns you’ll be weaving through are often beautiful, the sprites themselves are (while chunky and charming in their own way) neither particularly well drawn nor well animated, with most bosses being a static sprite wandering around the screen, dumping waves of bullets in your direction. Also, there’s no laser-toting spaceships to play as here. Not so much a negative point as a divisive one, but in two of the three games you play as flying girls (carrying big guns, admittedly) and in the third you control an army of suicidal plush dolls.

But in the end, visual quirks don’t matter that much. These games know their audience – they’re shmups, made by a shmup fan for other lovers of the genre. All three games are set in the same world – a cartoonish steampunk universe populated by a seemingly all-female cast with a great affectation for enormous firearms. The first two games – Gundeadligne and Gundemonium – are side-scrolling shooters with big, chunky sprites (although the player characters boast tiny hitboxes, delineated by small accessories hanging from the characters neck) and nonsensical enemies. What little plot there is seems to revolve around Earth being invaded by the armies of Que Pholith, a parallel hell-dimension primarily populated by gleeful looking bunny-girls with no knickers – don’t worry, it’s all very silly and far more funny than raunchy, as you can see from the screenshots.

First up is the flagship game of the trio, Gundeadligne. Easily the most complicated of the games. It offers full two-player cooperative play (it’s the only multiplayer game of the three, in fact) both off and online, and the defining quirk of having enemies attack from both left and right sides of the screen, forcing you to use an additional button to shoot behind from time to time. Of the three games, it’s also the most forgiving. Eschewing a traditional stock of smart-bombs in favor of a constantly recharging bomb bar, your choice of character/bomb affects the charge speed, and there’s a small mark part-way through the gauge indicating when your life-saving auto-bomb will be charged. If you take a hit while the bomb gauge is sufficiently full, it’ll save you from losing a life at the cost of automatically firing your bomb prematurely. It goes a long way to making the game more accessible to newcomers, as you don’t have to always be quick on the bomb button to save yourself.

Of all the gameplay elements, the dynamic difficulty system is probably the heart of both the side-scrolling games. Play well (avoid fire, clear bosses quickly, eschew using smartbombs) and your Phase Level will gradually creep up, increasing your score multiplier. However, this comes at the cost of enemies becoming more aggressive, numerous and tough. At the highest phase levels, even the smallest of enemies will pin you down with a massive barrage of fire, and die in a cloud of equally lethal bullets, too. The better you play, the tougher the game becomes and the greater the rewards become. All three of the games have full Steam-integrated global leaderboards, allowing you to compare performances with friends and the general public. On top of that, you can view the full replays of anyone on your Steam friends list, allowing you to see exactly how they dodged each and every bullet thrown their way, and dispelling any accusations of cheating that you might feel like making.

Next in the spotlight is Gundemonium Recollection. Technically a prequel to Gundeadligne, story-wise, it’s actually a remake of one of the developers first games and is simpler in general gameplay (no more shooting backwards) but more refined in almost every other aspect. The art is a little bit sharper and better animated than Gundeadligne, and the pacing of the gameplay feels a little tighter, too, with level design being more playful and boss encounters often being quite creative. Gone is the recharging bomb gauge and auto-bombing system (autobomb is relegated to easy mode only this time) in favour of a more traditional smartbomb stock. The phase level system is a little more restricted too, not offering quite as much flexibility as before. It’s a little more hardcore, a little more pure, and a somewhat tougher challenge on Normal difficulty and above. While I personally preferred the auto-bomb gauge of Gundeadligne, it’s an interesting change to have such varied play mechanics even when comparing the two most similar games of the trio.

Both of the side-scrollers are notable for having tons of bosses. While the games aren’t long, and there aren’t many stages, expect 3-4 major fights each stage, and depending on your phase level, the bullet patterns you’ll have to deal with can vary to a huge degree. A simple, linear spray of bullets on one of the lower rankings can turn into an erratic, spiraling nightmare if you’ve built up the difficulty enough, making even familar fights into new challenges if you’re improving your game. It’s probably worth noting that both side-scrolling games are ideally played with a gamepad, due to their comparative complexity, but all three games are perfectly fine on keyboard-only if you don’t have any additional controllers.

Switching up on the third game of the pack, Hitogata Happa is the odd one out. Vertically scrolling, rather than horizontal, and entirely based around a bizarre gameplay twist. Inbetween levels, you buy extra lives of various sorts (the player characters are various plush dolls), and throw them at the enemy like confetti. After keeping a doll alive for more than a few seconds, it becomes primed and ready to fly into a boss or large enemy formation and self-destruct, dealing huge damage and allowing for another doll to fly in to take its place. Each type of doll has different stats and weaponry, and while some absolutely excel at general combat, others are designed entirely around saving up for that one almighty suicide-strike. While it doesn’t have quite the depth and complexity of the other two games, the unique twist makes Hitogata worth a play.

While a good game, Hitogata isn’t quite as finely tuned as the side-scrollers and is probably the weakest of the trio. The game has a particularly bizarre difficulty spike right at the beginning, with the introductory prologue level being significantly tougher than the first proper stage, especially as you’re not given the option to buy any dolls before starting. The first level forces you to learn the kamikaze bombing mechanics, or you just won’t be able to get past the first boss in time – the suicide attacks are the only way to break off most larger boss armor sections, and you’ve got a much more limited stock of bombs to work with in that first level. Still, the difficulty curve evens out a lot after that point, and like the other two games, there’s an Easy mode that’ll let even beginners enjoy the ride, although it’s definitely the hardest of the three on easy, due to timing out during bosses being a larger threat than just dying.

While originally released elsewhere (and even on the PS3) the Steam re-launch of the Gundemonium collection really goes to show that Rockin’ Android are willing to go the extra mile. While the translation itself isn’t that amazing - there’s only a couple of pages of text split between the three games, and it’s coherent but workmanlike - it’s the new features that really sell the games. The addition of online play to Gundeadligne is a nice headline feature, but probably the biggest improvement is the music. They brought in DM Ashura (one of the composers on Konami’s hugely popular Beatmania music series) to do the music for the two side-scrollers and he in turn brought along Woofle – a friend – to remix Hitogata. The results are excellent. One of the weakest points of the original releases was the poor instrumentation on the soundtracks, and if you’re going to be replaying a game dozens of times, then having to endure the same midi-esque warbles every time is liable to drive you mad. The new music is catchy, memorable and hasn’t gotten old after a great many playthroughs here.

All three games, while short (only about a half-hour for a single playthrough), have huge replay value. They’re score-attack games, intended to be played dozens of times on a variety of modes and mastered thoroughly over time. Gundeadligne and Recollection in particular have a raft of additional bonus modes unlocked at various points, hidden characters and more. Hitogata has a few additional modes and a second library of characters to throw into bosses as well. They’re still fairly old games, though, and run at 4:3 aspect ratio. Good for those on older monitors, but widescreen folks are going to have to play with the image pillarboxed or windowed, but at just $10 for the whole set, you get a lot of arcade shooting for your money. These three might not be the prettiest shmups out there, but they’re exceptionally well engineered and a must-have for fans of the genre.

The Gundemonium Collection is available on Steam now for $10 or your regional equivalent along with demos for all three titles. Alternatively, you can buy the games separately for a slightly higher price each.