Mega-rare shmup Kyuin arrives on Japanese PlayStation Store!

Another mega-bargain in the Game Archives!

By J.D., January 14, 2010

Kyuin: one of the best cute PlayStation shmups, and no longer ridiculously expensive!

I’ve spent the past hour flying a vacuum cleaner and shooting frogs. That’s right, I’ve been playing Kyuin! This is almost up there with Harmful Park at the top of the cutesy PSX shmup tree. Kyuin (the sound made by a Hoover) is completely daft, has delightful music, runs at 60fps without any slowdown, scrolls in all directions, has a nifty two-player mode that doubles the fun, and is just generally charming throughout. All this from a virtually unknown developer with the generic name of “Media Entertainment”.

Kyuin was originally released in Japan in 1996 (there was a re-release in 2000), but it’s never been cheaper or more easily accessible than it is now: as of yesterday, anyone with a Japanese PSN account can get it for 600 yen via the Game Archives section of the J-PS Store. I’d suggest that’s a much more sensible option than paying 16,000 yen (£107/$175 – no, really!) for this sealed original copy on Yahoo! Auctions or even blowing $50 on this eBay import. At 600 yen this is absolutely essential. If you have the means, get it now!

This is the bridesmaid boss at the end of Level 1. Not quite sure of the premise, but you have to shoot her with your vacuum cleaner until she shrinks. What a game!