''Karous'' (カラス, ''karasu'', "raven") is a vertical-scrolling shooter video game developed by

MileStone Inc. MileStone Inc. was a Japanese video game developer. The team was composed mostly of ex-Compile developers who left to form their own company. They were best known for shoot 'em up games developed for the Dreamcast and its arcade counterpart, ...

for the Sega NAOMI platform and released in Japanese arcades on November 15, 2006. The game was later ported to the

Sega Dreamcast The is a home video game console released by Sega on November 27, 1998, in Japan; September 9, 1999, in North America; and October 14, 1999, in Europe. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, preceding Sony's PlayStation 2, Nint ...

, becoming the system's last officially licensed title when it was released in Japan on March 8, 2007.

Gameplay

The weapon system is based on ''

Radio Allergy ''Radirgy'' is a shoot 'em up video game developed by MileStone Inc. and released for the Sega NAOMI arcade platform in 2005. The story follows schoolgirl Shizuru Kamigusa in an age filled with radio waves which she is allergic to. She must save ...

'', but it uses a unique D.F.S. bomb system. Bombs can be used when SP gauge is full. When a bomb is activated, a barrier surrounds the player, which can damage enemies within the barrier. For the duration of bomb activation, the player is invulnerable. Enemies destroyed by the barrier provide more experience points to the player. The player's shot, sword, shield can be upgraded by using experience items dropped from enemies, with a maximum of 100 levels. Weapon levels also act as score multipliers.

Characters

*Karous (カラス) – Player's ship pilot *Shigi (シギ) – Navigator *Akahara (アカハラ(赤原)) *Hakugan (ハクガン(剥眼))

''MileStone Shooting Collection Karous Wii''

On April 8, 2008, a Nintendo

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other Regional lockout, regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major ho ...

version of the game was released in Japan, titled ''MileStone Shooting Collection: Karous Wii''. The collection includes both ''

Radirgy ''Radirgy'' is a shoot 'em up video game developed by MileStone Inc. and released for the Sega NAOMI arcade platform in 2005. The story follows schoolgirl Shizuru Kamigusa in an age filled with radio waves which she is allergic to. She must save ...

'' and ''

Chaos Field is a 2004 vertically scrolling shooter arcade video game developed by MileStone. The game consists entirely of boss battles, featuring five stages with three bosses each. The player can choose to play as one of three characters, each with their ...

'' as extras. This collection was released in the United States in February 2009 by

UFO Interactive Games UFO Interactive Games, based in City of Industry, California, is an American publisher of interactive video game content, developing on multiple platforms with a focus on original and mass-market gaming software. As an official third party licensee ...

under the name ''Ultimate Shooting Collection''.

Reception

Famitsu formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the fo ...

gave the Dreamcast version a review of 6, 6, 6, 7, while Edge gave it 6 out of 10.Edge issue 175, dated May 2007 The game marks the last official third-party release for the Dreamcast platform.

References

External links

MileStone page
(in Japanese)
Sega Dreamcast page
{{MileStone Inc. 2006 video games Sega arcade games Dreamcast games Nintendo 3DS games Nintendo 3DS eShop games Video games featuring female protagonists Video games about revenge Vertically scrolling shooters Sega video games Video games developed in Japan Single-player video games MileStone Inc. games