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Most people who follow this channel know that there is a significant "lack" of Touhou works -- there exists an almost countless number of fan works and most of them are represented pretty well, but we'll dive into them if necessary, which is why we're presenting today's game: a VERY rare, small Touhou derivative of the original 1986 version of "Kiki Kaikai" (Pocky & Rocky) that also parodies works from other companies. Released at the end of 2012 by the small circle known as "iemu", the game's timetable from the idea phase to the completion phase was roughly two years. The only copy I found was slightly corrupt and couldn't dump the whole data file from the disc, so I had to use a CD Recovery Toolbox program to slowly defragment the file, but the game has been preserved. They are not affiliated with ZUN or Team Shanghai Alice and disappeared shortly after the game's release. After archiving numerous links in the Wayback Machine, it appears a tentative game (Sylpheedry, STG + RPG, 2013 - 2014) was in the early development phase with later usage of the Unreal Engine but never materialized and the dev has dealt with numerous setbacks back-to-back from losing their main computer to a broken AC unit in the middle of Summer to combating cervical hernias and sciatic nerve pain.

The game's concept is simple: As Reimu or Marisa, you'll shoot and sweep your way through a few levels while being bombarded by enemies and bullets. The game is played in a top-down perspective and features more bullets than your typical KKKK/P&R title to keep it more in line with the spirit of Touhou's danmaku nature, but the game doesn't feature the multitude of adjustable difficulties found in most Touhou works and the game is quite easy overall compared to most Touhou titles. The player can upgrade the size and power of their shot, utilize bombs which are quite powerful on bosses (but negate your ability to get score bonuses on different boss phases) and effectively clear weaker mobs, gain talismans for extra points or miniature gohei(s) for extra lives and they can also unearth secret items hidden throughout stages -- in KKKK/P&R, these could be found with projectiles, but they can be only found here by swinging at them, and most of them are in a suspicious spot or hugging a corner.

While each character has their differences, the graphics are okay (albeit very simple with little in the ways of animation) and the music is cool and in the vein of other Touhou works, the cool thing about this game are the cameo references and tongue-in-cheek humor. Between the first mid-boss being Sayo-chan to duking it out with Taito's version of Cleopatra (Cleopatra's Fortune) who even summons "Space Invaders" to dodging an onslaught of Pac-Men (?) courtesy of Ki (Kai) from Namco's "The Tower of Druaga" and more, the game doesn't take itself seriously and feels a bit janky but makes up for it with moments like the above. Most of the fundamentals here are sound such as movement speed, hitbox size (which is sometimes visible but slightly smaller than it appears) and progressive difficulty curve, but some things are also annoying such as the screen positioning in some areas and the overly tanky nature of some enemies (especially if you die and lose your power-ups). The game's illustrations are by Madoka Kadomatsu (角松円さん).

The game was developed using free resources and from a person who had almost no prior programming experience and just an idea and some passion, so I can honestly say it turned out better than expected and I enjoyed perusing their blog and learning about their development journey, but don't expect too much when compared with the overall grand scheme of Doujin works. They attended gaming seminars, divulged quite a bit of their design and gaming philosophy, and even cross-referenced the evolution of Doujins from the 80s with the PC88 and X68000 up until current Doujin works, and this game could've been meatier with some more development time, but it's better to have it than not have it at all.

This is a video of the game in action.

The game can be found below. HOWEVER, do note that the game's .exe comes up as a false-positive in security scans on newer systems (this was sourced from the original disc provided at Comiket and not a third party), so if that's not your jam, then don't download it.

https://www.mediafire.com/file/ul077q9kdk7xt1a/Touhou_Kikikaikai_Rare.7z/file

Enjoy.

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