Shooting Heart is a great freeware side-scrolling shooter from Japanese freeware group Asys. Choose to play as one of three main characters from To Heart, a popular anime series about romance in high school, starring both humans and androids. There are many fun things about Shooting Heart. For starters, fans of the anime will immediately recognize the weapons of each of the three characters as being very true to the series. Multi the cute cleaning robot, for example, rides her white broom that shoots lasers, surrounded by two helper brooms. Akari, the orange-hair girl, rides a boar with two surrounding kiddie boars, and the mysterious Serika rides a witch's broomstick and deploys little cats as her weapon. The animations are very smooth, the music is excellent, and the gameplay a lot of fun. Shooter fans might regret the lack of variety in power-up items (most of the things you can collect are for bonus point), but the challenging gameplay (two hits from a end-level boss can kill you, even on Easy) more than makes up for it. Definitely one of the best shooter games I've played, this obscure underdog is a must-have for To Heart fans and shooter lovers alike. Highly recommended! Reviewed by: Underdogs |