116. Fray: Shuugyouhen | Game Gear | 1991 | 7/10
Fray: Shuugyouhen is a Japan-only on-foot cute 'em up, developed and published by Micro Cabin, released in 1991, for the Game Gear. This little vertically scrolling shmup stars a cute little wizard named Fray. She's shooting magic death bolts at tons of monsters and bosses, and I don't know why. Yes there's cutscenes, in Japanese, which I can't read. But, Fray can also jump! Jumping is interesting, as it adds platforming elements to the shmup portions. At the end of stages, Fray's senpai teaches her new magic powers. Magic powers when used cost mana, but unleash hellish fury upon the land. Mana balls and life balls are dropped by dead enemies, filling their respective banks. For some strange reason, the player is not allowed to use Fray's powerful spells against bosses. But, after every stage, Fray can visit a store to buy power-ups, and said power-ups do help against bosses. Not that it really matters, as Fray: Shuugyouhen is a piece of cake. I beat it on my first try, only dying once. Graphically Fray: Shuugyouhen is pretty decent, although the sprite counts often slow the Game Gear's processor noticeably. (The vertically scrolling crawls as well, I think to help with LCD blur, and keep difficulty low.) Fray: Shuugyouhen's OST can only be described as "eclectic" and we'll just leave it at that. There's plenty of stages, and beating Fray: Shuugyouhen will probably take you about thirty minutes. So if you're in the mood to be the magic girl, put on a skirt and panties, grab your nearest death wand, and cast Fray: Shuugyouhen into your Game Gear.
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