The cute'em up is a sub genre of the shoot'em up, a style of game consisting of a spaceship, lots of enemies and endless shooting, where the cute part comes in, is the aesthetic of mostly cute anime girls but can just as easily fall into just cartoonish design, the sub genre taking it's roots from Konami's Twinbee and Sega's Fantasy Zone. We have three to show all come backs from previous generations.
Sister's Royale: Five Sisters Under Fire
As a spin off of Castle of Shikigami, this is the only title that you can honestly say is from this generation, you play one of five sisters who battle each other for the right to marry the player controlling them, if achievement ratios are anything to go by this is considered the easiest of the three titles to finish but that's not saying much as the genre is still infamous for being difficult by default.
C-Tier Game
Cotton 100%
I never realised how extensive this franchise is until I tried it recently, bribed into saving the world with the promise of candy called willows, Cotton the little witch and her sexy fairy sidekick fly into battle, the game already feels 30 years old and no amount of remaking is going to improve it but I do appreciate the 90s anime look and the fact that Cotton is about as heroic as Darkwing Duck.
B-Tier Game
Deathsmiles
Cute gothic girls fly into one of the most terrifying games in the entire genre, nightmarish Halloween music provides the tone for the literal bullet hell experience. You play any one of four girls taken from their own world to stop Jitterbug from summoning Tyrannosatan, the name says it all, you'll be smiling to death, be prepared for 999 death mode! Very few games are harder than this one.
S-Tier Game
