So this was my first step on the way down the rabbit hole called “Bullet Hell”: Danmaku Unlimited 2, easily available on Steam (current price: EUR 4.99). There are versions for Android and iOS as well, but because I don’t really have a gaming phone, I will focus on the PC version here.

What I like…

The first thing that catched my eye was the music. Wait, that sounds wrong. Anyway, the soundtrack by Japanese indie band Blankfield is what I like best about this game. I suck at categorizing music, but it’s some metal industrial thingy. Look, it has electric guitars in it. The entire soundtrack is on Spotify and probably other streaming platforms, so just judge for yourself. It is loud, it is fast, it is exciting.

And so is the game. You essentially have three attacks on your hand: The basic shot, which you will use all the time. The beam, which destroys enemy bullets and transform them into a higher score modifier. And lastly, Trance Mode, which gives you a huge boost to damage and score modifier for a while, but needs to be charged by “scraping” bullets - i. e. bullets hitting your ship but missing the hitbox (which is, as per Bullet Hell conventions, smaller than the actual ship and displayed as a big glowing dot). Using those special attacks at the right time is crucial to getting a good score and adds another layer of complexity over merely beating the game without dying over and over. The pacing is tight, enemies don’t take too much time to eliminate and bosses don’t stay at the same pattern for too long, either.

That being said, Danmaku Unlimited 2 is very forgiving when compared to other Bullet Hell games. Usually, you have three to five lives and if you get hit just once, you die. In Danmaku Unlimited, a single ship can take up to five hits before exploding on the sixth one, and you can have five lives - giving you the ability to eat thirty bullets in a single playthrough! You do have to give up a lot of firepower for that, but even in a balanced build, you still can take way more damage than in other games.

But that does not make the game easy: It makes up for that in the design of its bullet patterns. They are varied, creative, good-looking and hard - especially those of the later bosses (or “Valkyrias”). My personal favourites are a couple of patterns where a handful of bullets “eat” other bullets and clear your path through another, nigh-undodgeable pattern.  But of course, those vaccum cleaner bullets will still damage you if you hit them.

…and what I dislike

When I played this game first, I found it overwhelmingly good. Today, I am a bit more ambiguous on it. Yes, I still like it and yes, I still recommend it, but there are other Bullet Hell games I like better.

My quarrel with the game is that it looks a bit bland. The backgrounds are completely forgettable and the enemies somehow all look the same. The game does have a high level of visual clarity, which is certainly a good thing, but it does have some disadvantages. Also, the sound effects don’t really give you the feeling of sitting in a space ship and shooting other spaceships, but rather sound like shooting a Nerf blaster at a concrete wall. Believe me, I am an expert on shooting Nerf blasters at concrete walls. Especially in contrast to the great music, those sound effects just are a bit… meh.

Still, it is a really good game. Just not the best one I ever played.

A word on smartphones

Danmaku Unlimited 2 is actually a port of an earlier mobile game version - and it doesn’t feel like that for a bit. It looks great on the big screen (with the issues I mentioned before) and works great with both keyboard and gamepad controls. That history does, however, take a bit of an edge off my earlier criticism, because clearly a high degree of visual strategy is far more important on a smartphone.

And yes, the game actually works on Smartphones! I gave the demo a whirl and even though my phone lacks the power needed for a decent gameplay, the controls actually feel far more smooth than I expected. I still think touch controls are not really the way to go for games like this, but if you are a mobile gamer, you might still want to check it out. Otherwise - I recommend getting the Steam version. For five bucks, you really get a good game with a lot of long-term fun included.

Next game to be reviewed: Crimzon Clover WORLD IGNITION.