Cosmo Machia announced its Makuake crowdfunding campaign for the Nintendo Switch version of Triggerheart Exelica opens on July 7 at 10:00 JST. The campaign’s imminent arrival comes just two months after Cosmo Machia acquired intellectual property rights to the vertical scrolling shoot ’em up
After establishing development and publishing duties for Triggerheart Exelica, Cosmo Machia confirmed it would seek licensees for the franchise. The studio plans on respecting all of the original creators for the title while creating new content. New projects for the Triggerheart Exelica IP will be revealed at a later date. Currently, Triggerheart Exelica for Nintendo Switch is planned for a release before the end of 2023.
Triggerheart Exelica was originally developed for Japanese arcades by Warashi, and the game first launched in May 2006. The game would release on SEGA Dreamcast in 2007 and Xbox 360 in 2008, followed by PlayStation 2 in 2009. However, the Xbox version is the only version that saw a release in the west.
Here’s an overview of Triggerheart Exelica, via Gematsu:
History of Triggerheart Exelica
Triggerheart Exelica is a vertical scrolling shoot ’em up game released by Warashi Inc., marketed as an arcade game at the end of May 2006.
Unlike other shoot ’em up games of the time, the game featured a “mecha girl” design, in which the character of the ship was a beautiful girl equipped with a mecha. The appeal of these characters also attracted attention, and the game was featured in articles in magazines related to bishojo characters and mecha-girls. The main character, EXELICA, was ranked No. 1 in the “Monthly Arcadia” character poll of 2006, published by Enterbrain Inc. at the time.
Later ports were developed, with the Dreamcast version released in 2007, the Xbox 360 version (Xbox Live Arcade only) in 2008, the i-appli version in 2008 and 2009, and the PlayStation 2 version in 2009.
There are two types of ship to choose from, with different shots depending on the EXELICA and CRUELTEAR (either a diffuse shot that spreads out like a fan, or a narrow shot concentrated forward).The game is vertical screen, vertical scrolling, and overhead view type, but the most distinctive feature of this work is the ability to eject (shoot) “anchors” at enemies and use their wire connections to knock them down and destroy them. The controls use an eight-way lever and three buttons: the A button is used for the “shot,” which fires in rapid succession; the B button is used for the “anchor shoot,” which captures enemy aircraft for use in attack and defense; and the C button is used for the “bomb,” which attacks enemies across the screen.
