ANDRE XAST·FRIDAY, JULY 26, 2019
at first glance. this seems like a typical side scrolling shooter. but its more of a side scrolling bullet hell-endless runner style with infuriating controls. you play one of the available characters. and the screen moves to the right even if you don’t. slowly moving you towards one of the mini bosses until you reach the end and fight the stage boss.
Graphics are so far. a simple but endearing pixel style. not too bad. but there’s nothing good or memorable about it either. the music is reminiscent of SNES era Wild Guns. and i mean it. if you’re familiar with that game. you’ll think you’re playing wild guns because the music is so damn similar. and i don’t mean it as a bad thing. Wild Guns music is actually good. it has a pretty good somewhat random upgrade element. as you earn coins the more you play and shoot things. and you can use those coins to buy one out of 3 upgrades that you have a chance to get from bosses. the upgrades either add effects to your guns. affect your characters. and so on. i managed to find a kind of a poison effect, more hp, more character speed, shooting speed, and other upgrades.
the performance is what you expect from a 2D game. its smooth. but for some reason. it has some kind of frame hiccups that happens when more than one enemy spawn at the same time. or when the screen is filled with bullets. which is weird considering this game isn’t that impressive graphically.
it actually have a co-op element. and you can play it with your friend in a local multiplayer. just hand em one of the joycon and go nuts
However. when it comes to the gameplay. its rather a weird combination of hit and miss.
let’s talk about the good and bad things at the same time
-Good: it’s a bullet hell style shooter. avoiding those slow moving bullets that could fill up the screen is the charm of these games
-Bad: the control is awkward. movements are clunky. you cant change direction mid-jump. you cant really move as fast as you’d like in between platforms. and your character is very awkward. add this to the recoil system that apparently propel your character backward each shot makes for a horrible gameplay where precise bullet-avoiding-controls are critical to not dying. i dont know if its on purpose to make it hard. but it feels more annoying than actual difficulty.
-Good: there are many different characters. each with their own weapons, the first character has a straight line gun that apparently shoot 3 bullets at every 4th shot. the second is a chicken with a spread shotgun that has massive knock-back each shot. and you can unlock 3 more.
-Bad: some characters are clearly way better than the others. instead of adding replay value. you’ll just stick to that one character that makes the game easier. in this case. spread shot. there are no way to “aim”. so a gun that reach the whole screen is always easier. there are also no guide or hint on how to unlock new characters. they just have that lock icon on them.
-Bad: speaking of guide… this game literally has no hint or guides to do anything. i was stuck in the first chest reward because i have no idea how to unlock said chest. it doesn’t even look like a chest. it looks like a weird pixel rock of sort. took me 5 mins to realize i have to stand on top of it and press shoot. later on i found the upgrade card. and since there are no button prompt. i clicked the “A” button believing its the universal accept button. nope. it kicked me out of the upgrade screen and i missed out on it. for those intending to play this game. the “shoot” button apparently doubles as “accept” button
-Bad : the hit-box is jarring. i find myself in a situation where the enemy hits me even though its still about a considerable pixel distance off my character. and i was sure i positioned myself in between bullets that moves straight. only to get hit anyway. combined with the awkward control. this makes the game infuriatingly hard.
-Bad / good? : there are no checkpoints. if you die. you restart. no continue either. maybe an attempt to make it a roguelite?
-Bad : when i tried to use two joycon to test the coop. there are (again) no button prompts. i clicked “A” button and suddenly it kicked me out to “press button to join”. in which i proceed to tap every single available button in the joy-con and it does nothing. i had to go back to main menu and re-select co-op. and this time. press the shoot button instead. and it finally works.
would i recommend this game? sure. if you’re looking for a short time-waster. like 5-10 minutes of waiting in line or something to that effect. you’ll play. you’ll die. that was fun. next. but if you’re looking at this like say. bindings of Isaac type of replayability. you’ll be disappointed. this is more of a Flappy Bird instead. not that i’m saying flappy bird is bad, mind you. people get addicted to that game just to see how far they can get before they die screaming.
Score : 6/10 – it has potential. but awkward control and game elements held it back. nevertheless. its a pretty fun short time-wasting game.
Special Thank You for Keybol Games and Spaceboy Games for providing the game code!
