Vacuum Kids (Playstation)

Horizontal
Checkpoints ON
2 Difficulty levels
7 Stages
Ship speed fixed
- - - - - - -
Developed by Media Entertainment
Published by Media Enterntainment in 1996

It's easy to poke fun at some games, especially if they're old, obscure and relegated to Japan. Unless you have the chance to actually try them, the superficial debate leaves plenty of food for thought as to why some developers come up with the wildest ideas, such as the one presented in Vacuum Kids, mostly known by its Japanese spelling Kyuin, Kyuiin, Kuinn or Cuin (Google translator came up with this last one). Clearly inspired by the likes of Parodius, the game is a cute'em that also includes a few throwbacks to several older titles and unique mechanics that are actually quite amusing. 

There is a foolish backstory to the game shown in the low-res animated intro: two siblings who love reading and cleaning (!) are challenged by a magical fairy to defeat an evil wizard from one of their books, choosing as vehicle their vacuum cleaners. And off they go mounted in their apparatus, flying across all sorts of environments taken directly from fairy tales while freeing well known characters that have fallen to the ominous spells of the evil wizard. This pretty much defines the colorful visuals and the whole enemy gallery, in a remarkably long adventure (for shmup standards that is) that spans seven stages.

Shooting down all sorts of creatures and weird flying objects is possible by pressing button ×, while powerful bombs can be triggered with button ○. There is a third type of attack activated with button □, where the power cord of the vacuum cleaner is used to attack enemies coming from behind. Unfortunately the reach of this cord attack is so short that it's honestly not recommend at all. By far the nicest feature of your flying gear is the cleaner frontal hose, which is always wavering slowly and sucks regular bullets and specific enemies on contact. On top of shielding you against harm, this results in lots of extra points and also refills your bomb stock, which can be stored up to three. When maxed out (level 3) the bomb is at its most powerful, whereas at level 1 it's at its weakest. Bombs are great to get you out of hairy situations, just don't count on them to protect you against enemy lasers.

Colorful vibes of Castle of Illusion in stage 3

The default weapon has decent power, but it can be enhanced by collecting any of the weapon items the game might randomly send your way: rapid shot (R), laser (L), homing (H) and 3-way vulcan spread (V). Most of the time these items appear at fixed, specific spots, but every once in a while an extra item might cross the screen. Recovery aids (+) will either appear in the place of a regular item or show up at random if you happen to get hit, a situation that takes away the cleaner hose and leaves you at the brink of death. Any extra damage while in this condition costs a life and sends you back to a checkpoint. The recovery token restores the vacuum cleaner hose and the default shot, and only then weapon items will start appearing again.

Getting used to the weapons is half the battle of conquering Vacuum Kids. Some of them are of course more adequate than others in certain areas. Homing is great for the 3rd stage (forest) and the 6th stage (village), but absolutely dreadful in the 4th stage (snow). The laser is devastating at point blank distance, as is vulcan to a lesser extent. And even though it lacks lateral coverage, rapid tears down enemies pretty fast and is definitely the best choice for any boss fight.

One valid concern in the game is the hitbox. After all, the characters (the game allows co-op, boy as player 1 and girl as player 2) look larger than your usual avatar in any horizontal shooter. Of course dodging is the bread and butter of any shmup and it's absolutely no different here, but the ability to suck bullets with the cleaner hose is what ultimately allows players to deal with enemy spreads that seem impossible to evade. However, if you do reach the halfway point in stage 4 you'll come to a section where the game explicitly shows your hitbox so you can weave through a series of moving snowflakes with more confidence. That's quite educational for the whole game, I must say, too bad it's so far into it that some people might not see this part at all. The third level represents quite a leap in difficulty already, requiring a good amount of memorization to be properly mastered.

By all means, don't let the cute graphics trick you into thinking Vacuum Kids is a walk in the park, because it definitely isn't. Not only does it lack any sort of extends, but it's also completely devoid of slowdown and cleverly places several treacherous segments designed to take players by surprise, particularly when they get greedy. The more you advance the more mid-bosses you'll encounter, each one as creative as the main bosses themselves, with random attacks that will keep players on their toes at all times. The good news is that their health is always visible so you know how long it will take to defeat them. Each encounter is unique and original, and I can definitely say that these moments – boss and mid-boss fights – are the true highlights of the game. With 27.000 health points and a plethora of different randomized attacks, the evil wizard final boss certainly provides an epic battle for those brave enough to get there and have a chance at the 1CC.

1st stage demonstration of Kyuiin / Vacuum Kids
(courtesy of YouTube user and PSN publisher monkeypawgames)

While memorization is certainly the best strategy both for survival and scoring (by proactively using the cleaner hose to suck waves and waves of enemies and bullets), I did come across odd situations against the second and the third bosses where their health would suddenly spike out of nowhere once or even twice, unexpectedly prolonging the fight beyond its regular duration. At first I thought this was some sort of rank mechanic triggered if you played well enough up to that point, but then it also happened when I was having a lousy run so go figure. I must also comment, of course, that this happened in the Hard setting, which was my exclusive choice when playing and is the basis for this whole blog essay (there's only "Easy" and "Hard" here). Easy mode is, well, relatively easier since recovery items almost always come right after you get hit. That definitely isn't the case in Hard mode.

A few hints about scoring higher: after destroying the two walls in the second stage get close to their debris without shooting to collect lots of points with the cleaner hose; even though it can be risky, destroying snowflakes at point blank distance in stage 4 is better than just sucking them because they release a ton of bullets; the snoozing signs of the sleeping bears are worth a lot of points in stage 4, as well as the coconuts fired by the floating guns halfway into stage 5; finally, most weapon items are worth 5.000 extra points, so try to collect them all if your strategy allows it.

If I had to point negative aspects about Vacuum Kids, I could say that a few dead spaces break the flow of the action, but fortunately this only happens in the 1st level and in a part of the 4th to a lesser extent. Some people could say that the soundtrack is a mixed bag, but I think both the OST and the sound effects fit the game well and are totally in line with the exquisite variety at display. Each stage is unique in tone, design and required approach to be beaten, and truth be told: not every shmup is capable of delivering this as well as Vacuum Kids does. Granted, it's a tad long and punishing at times, but it's also quite fun and rewarding.

Below is my 1CC result in Hard mode. Every text in the game is in Japanese, but the main screen descriptions can be easily figured out. The lower choice is always Options. In the first screen the upper left choice is solo play and the upper right is co-op play. In the second screen the upper left choice is Easy mode and the upper right is Hard mode. Continues are unlimited and a secret code allows stage select for practicing (highlight Options, hold L1+R1 and press Start). Unfortunately it's not possible to select the final stage. High score saving is included.

Note: the game saw a worldwide re-release for the Playstation Network circa 2011, I just don't know if it's actually playable in the most recent generations of Sony consoles.