First Impressions - Heavenly Guardian for PS2

A week or so ago I picked up a few video games for fairly cheap at a (semi) local trade shop. Okay so it wasn't local at all, but when you live an hour away from any proper shops you take what you can get. Anyway, one of the games that I purchased was a PS2 title named 'Heavenly Guardian'. It was very cheap (about $2.50) and the back of the case promised adorable, anime shooter goodness so there was no way it was not going home with me. Of course it's taken me a week to actually sit down and play it, but that is way besides the point.

In it's One Player mode, Heavenly guardian is about a Snow Goddess (and her majorly cute Snow Rabbit) who are trying to save a boy who has been cursed, and is now in a comatose state. Our main lady, Sayuki, is pretty fond of this kid and runs off to find a bunch of ingredients so she can counter the curse and save the lad. Naturally, it's not that easy and you have everything from mummies, witches (who look very similar to YuGiOh's Dark Magician Girl), and ghosts with fancy hats trying to get in your way. It's a run and gun, shoot 'em up game with cuteness everywhere. PLUS it has a 2 player mode, which is exactly the same game but with a slightly different storyline.

 

image from ign.com

Heavenly Guardian has a gorgeous anime style, bright colors, and catchy music. It starts off fairly easy to play, but once you beat that first boss and move on to stage 2 the difficulty raises considerably. Needless to say I died pretty quickly, but with this game you just want to keep hitting continue to try and get further in the stage. The bosses are pretty straightforward with easily patterned attacks, but they are enjoyable nonetheless.

image from gamestop.com

Reviews for this game were (and are) horrible. Personally, I really enjoyed it and think that if this had been a Super Nintendo release (an earlier version was originally supposed to be a sequel to the SNES game 'Pocky & Rocky') it would have had much higher praise. But for a PS2/Wii release, it wasn't retro and/or innovative enough to be given much of a chance.

Overall, this game won't make you wet your pants, but it is a very fun way to pass some time, shoot some monsters, and enjoy all the Snow Rabbits. <3