For some months now, I’ve been playing a bunch of Bullet Hell Games. For those unfamiliar with the genre: It’s a subgenre of 2D shoot’em ups, characterized by a whole bunch of bullets being on screen all the time. These games require pattern recognition, concentration, dodging skills and some memorization. Also, they are totally awesome and you should play them, which is why I will review every single game of the genre I played so far in the coming days. But first of all, I’d like to tell you why I, personally, like the genre so much.
They are hard, but not frustrating.
I have heard of Bullet Hell (or Danmaku - Japanese for “Bullet Curtain”) before, but quickly got the impression that it was for really good video game geniuses, and I do not consider myself one of these. But it turned out it actually is possible to play them without a diploma of gaming handed out by Dark Souls U. Yes, all of these games are really, really hard and even on the easier difficulty settings, beating a game on the first try is not something that’s going to happen. The elusive 1CC Run (beat the game without using Continue) and the even more elusive No Miss run (which is a non-indicative term for not being hit even once) are completely out of reach for hacks like me.
But even when getting smashed in the face, I found I still enjoyed every second of it, because usually there was a sense of progress. With every run, I get better and reach something I haven’t reached before. Got to chapter 4 for the first time, learned how to use my least favourite ship, no-missed level 2, and so on. And after twenty hours, I was actually able to 1CC Crimzon Clover on Novice difficulty. Yay me.
Also, the games are easier than they look - your ship has a tiny hitbox, and you usually don’t need to focus on single bullets - just on the lines, cones or circles in which they move. And once you’ve gotten the hang of a level, you can make it a lot easier by saving up your special attacks for those enemies that give you trouble, or evade their danger zones entirely.
A whole bunch of stuff happens in them.
With all those ever-changing bullet patterns on screen, “popcorn” enemies that explode after just one or two hits, your high rate of fire and at least one special attack in every game in the genre, those games never have a boring moment. Well - some of them have, but I will come to that later. Also, these games are all about presentation - there is, apparently, a law stating that they have to have awesome art and awesome soundtracks and lots of explosions with lots of noise. The soundtracks can be in any genre - orchestral arrangements, industrial metal, trance, anything really.
They are highly diverse.
Not just music-wise, Bullet Hell games are “anything goes”. They do have a certain formula, yes, but each has their own approach to level and boss design (multistage? multiple hit zones? focused on popcorn or on minibosses? timed bossfights?), to special attacks (beams, rockets, firepower boosts, shields) and to their visual style, and all this means that Danmaku Unlimited 2 and Crimzon Clover (two games I am going to review) are about as similar as Team Fortress 2 and Modern Warfare.
And they have a plan.
Sorry, but I couldn’t resist making that lame joke. Anyway, that’s about it. If you haven’t played Bullet Hell stuff before, I hope I could make you a bit more interested, and I certainly will try to get you to buy some stuff in the next days.
(Title Image: Danmaku Unlimited 2. Review incoming tomorrow.)