Theme parks sure are dangerous places in the world of video games, aren't they? I guess we just love the idea of a place that's supposed to be fun and safe turning out to be not so fun and safe. Such is the premise of Harmful Park, a horizontal shooter that can easily be compared to Parodius, Keio Flying Squadron, Cotton, etc.

Good news for chumps at shmups like myself... For like the one time in shmup history, the easy mode in this shooter actually is pretty easy! This is nice because while the gameplay is serviceable, the real reason you're here is to see all the strange enemies and the silly things going on in the background. If you don't think you're ever going to play this one, I recommend watching a playthrough on Youtube and enjoy all the silly nonsense this game has to offer. Wonderful pixel art, and great little animations for everything. I could list a bunch of examples of weird things you'll encounter, but no sense spoiling the fun.

Is it one of the greatest shooters of all time? Probably not, since it's so simple and short. I also find the scrolling of this one to be incredibly slow -- which to some degree is understandable (you need enough time to see all the funny things happening), but it's still kind of a drag in replays.