Sounding a bit like something to do with a programming language than a game, “WispLisp Array of List” is a side-scrolling counter-point to yesterday’s vertically-scrolling shoot-’em-up (shmup). It’s a fast and frantic shmup, and unforgiving in some ways and very forgiving in others. Let me explain.
The game has no english instructions, not even an english description on the Dashboard as of this writing, but pulling together some info from online translation sources, some chatter about the game in the nether regions of the internet, plus my own experimentation, I’ve figured out the following: you have infinite lives, but not infinite time. Each time you take a hit, you lose time. Run out of time, and it’s game over. Kill mini-bosses to gain time, and have more time when fighting the major bosses. What’s interesting here is that each individual loss of life is less frustrating than in a game with a finite amount of lives, at least it was for me, which makes it a loss more approachable than your typical bullet-hell shmup.
But it still has the rockin’ tunes, the high difficulty ramp-up, and all the other tropes of bullet-hell games. It also has enemy… sheep? And other stuff? I must admit I didn’t pay a lot of attention, aside from noting it was all odd. There’s something charming about the game, its lack of english all the more so, and it’s a fun diversion for 80 Microsoft Points.
Here’s what the developer (DK Alpla) has to say about the game:
“Translated: Now, you need a certain Kusoge. Kill off the game and enjoy the shooter by far dodged a bullet shot in high-speed volume stations. I have. The firepower is a mandala. The mandala is the amount. WispLisp newborn birth. Copyright 2011 あるふぁ～秘密基地(Alpha Secret Base) & DONG. All Rights Reserved.”
Writings of Mass Deduction 