If you trace the history of bullet hell games, you're bound to encounter Project Shrine Maiden, better known as the Touhou Project. It's a manic shooter series popular for its beauty, difficulty, and for being written, designed, and programmed by only one man.

Now Wiibrewer SquidMan wants to bring the danmaku genre to Wii gamers with Touhou Fangame, now on its second beta release. (In case you were wondering, "danmaku" means "bullet curtain" in Japanese, an evolution of the shoot 'em up genre.)

If you want to help with development, the author is actually looking for some assistance with the game's graphics. If you want to help out with the game's development, you can visit the Via link after the article to find out how.

The second beta release has a lot of updates, including the addition of a multiplayer feature and save option, among others. Here's what's new in Touhou Fangame Beta 2. Be sure to read the rest of the documentation included in the download archive!

• Added multiplayer!
• Using WPAD now, so no more 1&2 nonsense.
• Sound Effects.
• Much more hellish patterns.
• Added option saving. You MUST create the directory /saves/Touhou/ and create a blank text file called Touhou.xml in that directory.
• Speed settings.
• Rumble settings.
• God mode setting. (Doesn't save)
• CANCER&AIDS setting. This is actually Wiimote pointer, but because it is so terrible, this is what it is called.
• Couple graphical adjustments.
• Many background things fixed. Performance is much better now.
• After game ends, returns to loader. This must be done because I can't free some resources created during the game, and it will eventually crash after starting the game multiple times. Sorry, hope to get that fixed next release!
• After game over, displays how long it took you to die (or win).
• Shiny menu :P
• New HBC Icon. Thanks LowLines!

Download: Touhou Fangame Beta 2