PAWARUMI Reviews
Pawarumi is a tough-as-nails shmup with a unique central mechanic that takes time to master. Stick with it though and you'll be rewarded with a slick, fast-paced shooter that looks and sounds amazing and will test your skills to the max. There's really nothing else like it out there right now and, even with slight reservations over the difficulty, a lacklustre story and paucity of game modes, this is an easy recommend for fans of the genre looking for a proper challenge.
How this hadn't been done before I will never know, but Pawarumi's melding of rock, paper, scissors to a shooter is quite frankly, a blast.
Pawarumi is a vital, beautiful and utterly enthralling entry in the Shmup genre. Its trifecta of concepts might seem daunting at first, but this is an instinctual shooter that will blow fans of the genre away.
Pawarumi takes the idea behind the classic Ikaruga and tries to exploit it even further... buf without the refinement of the Treasure gem. It has great ideas, good graphic design, personality... but often you won't know what you are doing because it's a little bit confusing. Even worst it's that it lack content (only 5 levels).
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Pawarumi is a smart and intoxicating shoot'em up that will surely delight old school gamers.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Pawarumi lands in a busy field amidst any 2D shoot'em ups on the Nintendo Switch catalogue but it does a very good job at standing out. Thanks to its 'rock, paper, scissors' system which makes the gameplay more involving and challenging, Pawarumi is also a game with a strong personality and it's certain to appeal to fans of 2D shooters.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Pawarumi shows the shoot ’em up genre has new directions to go besides just improving the visuals with each passing decade.
Pawarumi is a good old-fashioned "shoot everything that moves" game which engages the player right from the start; I had an adrenaline rush going the whole time I was playing. At $14.99, it's a great addition to your Nintendo Switch catalog of games.
Pawarumi is a solid shoot 'em up in both challenge and its creative design.
Unless you’re a score chaser, your fun with Pawarumi is likely to be a short-lived affair.
The Switch is already home to a variety of shooters, but Pawarumi makes a solid case for being a worthy addition to a shooter fan's library. The gimmick of having three different-colored guns and enemies makes the game more cerebral while also not punishing players who just want to stick with one weapon type. The three main game difficulties make it accessible to everyone, while the difficulty levels determining the number and order of the stages mean that playthroughs may feel familiar but not exactly the same. It could have used a few more modes to round out the package, but thanks to it doing just about everything right, Pawarumi is worth playing for shooting fans.
Ultimately, Pawarumi is an inventive and engaging STG that's held back by a low frame-rate. Considering the genre, a lesser game would completely fall apart if it ran at 30 FPS. At least with this one, its admirable qualities still shine through. The art-direction is quite interesting and the Trinity Mechanics are really well-executed. That said; dealing with the handicap of having less reaction time is liable to be too much for some players. It's advisable to wait for a possible 60 FPS patch, or check out the version that's available on Steam. Otherwise, expect at least some frustration and anger in your future.
Pawarumi does a lot to satisfy shoot 'em up fans while also offering a gimmick that makes it more exciting than the average shmup.
Pawarumi for me is how you should produce a modern Shoot’em up. It’s fresh with new ideas in terms of its colour coded firing system, 3D global locations, which offer a real sense of purpose. The game has excellent sound effects and an awesome soundtrack which adds to the feel of the game. Pawarumi is a game that captures you, with it’s thrilling and exciting attitude and pace, with good use of important replayability features. My only criticism is that the game is a little short, and would have been better had the developers included an rpg levelling up system for your craft.
Among the genres that have become quite well represented on the Switch arcade-style shooters are most definitely holding their own...
Pawarumi is one of those original concepts that tries to do something different. The rock, paper, scissors concept is cool, but sometimes confusing. Still, it gives players a great challenge and keeps you on edge at all times.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
Pawarumi has an interesting combat system that takes a little getting used to, but it’s fun once you do. Having to always restart from the beginning of the game upon death makes it certainly more repetitive, though. However, its greatest flaw may be that it handles difficulty in a much more punishing way than Rolling Gunner does. That game is a bullet hell, and yet much less grueling than Pawarumi. If you don’t like punishing difficulty, then you will likely want to pass on this game. If you’re a fan of the genre and harder games in general, then it may be a good fit for you. I’ve spent about 4-5 hours blasting through foes so far across two difficulty levels. The game is available on the Nintendo Switch, Steam, and Xbox One for $14.99. Do you have what it takes to get all three story endings, and uncover a dark secret?
I was recently allowed to try out the newly released Nintendo Switch version of Pawarumi, by Manufacture 43. Pawarumi is a modern shoot’em up set in a pre-Columbian inspired futuristic universe. You play Axo, pilot of the ship named Chukaru, the most powerful vessel in this world. Think of this game similar to arcade-y games like Ikaruga and Gradius V.
The gameplay itself is enjoyable, so if the repetition doesn’t bother you, you’ll probably enjoy it. If it does, you’ll probably just have a few fun hours and that’s about it.
Even if its level design is nothing worth writing home about, Pawarumi understands what makes a treasure-esque shmup unique, doubles down on such features and offers a satisfying technical shmup that has its own twists.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review