Triggerheart Exelica

It looks like it’s been a quiet few weeks for demo’s and arcade games for the Xbox 360 while I’ve been away but I noticed there were a few new titles to try out.

Originally released in the Japanese arcades a couple of years ago (2006) Triggerheart Exelica, now on Xbox Live Arcade for 800 points, is a traditional top down vertical shoot ‘em up with the usual formulaic mix of hordes of enemies, end of stage boss encounters and an obscene amount of enemy weapon fire to dodge.

The trial game allows you to play the first stage of five, choosing from one of two humanoid weapon systems known as “Triggerhearts”. There isn’t too much difference between the two apart from the onscreen representation of these cute anime inspired mecha girls and the different fire patterns employed. Exelica uses a wide fire pattern while Crueltear has concentrated straight forward fire only.


The novelty of this game is the use of the anchor. Fired straight ahead via the “B” button this allows the player to grab enemies, spinning them around the triggerheart before hurling them back to cause damage. If an enemy is too large the anchor acts as a lock-on allowing you to concentrate on dodging incoming shots which is extremely useful for the end of stage boss encounters.

Triggerheart Exelica takes no prisoners and it won’t be long before all but the most proficient shoot ‘em up players see the “continue” screen. As a result of the difficulty it’s hard to see how this could appeal to the casual gamer, but if you’re a die hard fan of shooters then this is worth a try.