Silly Shooter Shutshimi Takes Just 10 Seconds To Hook You

I’m shamefully late in bringing up the release of Shutshimi (pronounced “shoot-she-me”). Blame it on my aging, impaired memory – a trait which I happen to share with the piscine hero of the game in question. If you’ve got a dollar and several consecutive ten-second chunks of time, you should probably go ahead and buy this game. It’s a simple, horizontally scrolling shooter at heart, but it’s got a frantic vibe all its own, and it’s clothed in such an amusing package that it’s difficult for me not to grin like an idiot the entire time I’m playing it.

Shutshimi, which I previewed here, looks and feels somewhere between a coin-op arcade classic and a casual mobile game. Despite not (yet?) being available for small screens, Neon Deity Games’ creation seems perfectly suited to mobile devices, with its simple controls and short bursts of action.

Shutshimi is the story of a retired, veiny-muscled action hero archetype who just happens to be a goldfish. There’s a cute opening that works as a framing device where our hero begins recounting his tale. He didn’t want to resort to violence, but THEY wouldn’t let him. He was pushed to the brink, and he had to fight back.

It is said that goldfish have a memory that lasts all of ten seconds, so each level of Shutshimi is only ten seconds long. Your goal is simply to survive each wave and collect a high score by shooting or otherwise obliterating as many sharks, kittens in submarines and other evil attackers as possible. If you manage to survive for the allotted ten seconds, you’ll be teleported to a store that peddles only peculiar items.

You can, and, in fact, must, select one of the three items displayed before you. The items all affect the game in one way or another, sometimes to your benefit, other times to your detriment, and often merely cosmetically. Items have ridiculous names and descriptions that are randomly generated marketing-speak, but you can generally glean the effects from the text. You have to choose one item by the time the ten second timer runs out, or else one gets chosen for you.

You might buy a house and wind up enclosed in a protective fishbowl that takes some hits for you. Perhaps you purchase some growth hormone and end up a much larger target for your enemies. Maybe you’ll get a bigger or faster or weirder gun, or a snazzy hat, or something that increases the amount of enemies in a wave. There are items that create thunderstorms, with flashes of lightning that throw the game into silhouette. There are items that change the game into a pulsing, neon dance party. And those are just some examples.

If you master the wave-based gameplay, there are giant bosses to beat, tougher difficulty levels to brave and new game modes to unlock. There’s a ton of replayability here. You get a lot of bang for your buck. Literally (it costs a dollar).

For a taste of Shutshimi, download the demo and/or feast your eyes (and ears) on the official release trailer below.