Aside from Zun himself, あうとさいど (Outside) are the best modern shmup devs on the market, and their third title here simply continues to show why as they further establish their dominance. Their formula is pure Touhou, all the trapping from wide shot, focus shot, point items, PoC, bosses with multiple spell cards... it's all Touhou by another name, but Outside is the first dev I've seen to apply the formula in both a pure sense, *and* make it their own. Their visual style is unique, unmistakable, and charming, trading out Touhou's sincerity for whimsy. At times the art feels like upscaled PC-98 era Touhou.

This game specifically is a bit different than Cosmo Dreamer and Like Dreamer in the sense that this is a pure boss rush. No stages, no popcorn, nothing but boss after boss after boss, each with 2 to 3 spell cards making it a quick clip as you blast through them. My first run was 31 bosses and I'm assuming there is at least 1 more as a TLB, and then there's a second mode that itself has 32 more bosses.

Any fan of Touhou, hell, any fan of shmups, owes themself to play Outside's entire catalogue. I feel like this game is probably best saved for after Cosmo Dreamer and Like Dreamer, as this feels like a celebration of the other two games, bringing back past bosses as well as community bosses, and familiarity with the other games will make this one a bit more fun as you catch the various references.

It may not be as "full featured" as Cosmo Dreamer and Like Dreamer, being just a quick full-on boss rush, but it's no less fun, and is the perfect game when you just wanna quick injection of pure danmaku into the veins in seconds with no fuss. You start it up and within a few seconds you'll be dancing around bullet patterns.