“When the people shall have nothing more to eat, they will eat the rich.” – Jean-Jacques Rousseau Black Bird is one of the most enthralling shoot ’em ups I’ve played in a long time. There are no space ships, aliens, shrine maidens, here; rather, Black Bird casts you as a …
Bullet Hell
Ikaruga is the rare sort of game that comes around once in a generation. It’s famous for its difficulty, even among bullet hell shoot ’em ups—a genre known for being brutal and unforgiving—but it’s so much more than that. It’s not just a game with clever systems and creative level …
It’s been almost 30 years since the original Raiden helped give birth to the modern shoot ’em up. With Raiden V: Director’s Cut, the series finally makes its debut on PlayStation 4. The core ideas haven’t really changed even since the 1990 arcade game, but they don’t need to—the …
The original Bullet Soul was a game with some neat ideas, but it didn’t execute on them as well as it could have. It was a typical bullet hell shooter in a lot of ways, but it emphasised the negation of enemy bullets as much as it did evasion and …
Rabi-Ribi cleverly combines the Metroidvania and bullet hell genres, using a silly but heartfelt story and adorable pixel art to seal the deal. Two of the very finest game genres are Metroidvanias and bullet hell shoot ‘em ups. (This is a fact. Don’t @ me.) When you take two of …
Ghost Blade HD goes back to the roots of the bullet hell genre, and what it lacks in originality it makes up for in polish. There’s an impressive amount of innovation in the bullet hell shoot ‘em up space. It’s such a niche genre that developers are always looking for …
I’d never really thought about before I heard about Drifting Lands, but RPG and shoot ‘em up are two genres that should go together really well. Take the hectic action of a shmup and layer RPG loot and progression systems on top of that, and you’ve got a fresh new …
A few years ago, I tried a demo of Ikaruga. I liked the concept of the game, and I had fond childhood memories of other shoot ‘em ups like Raptor: Call of the Shadows and TwinBee, so I thought for sure that Ikaruga would be a game I would like. …
Touhou Genso Rondo: Bullet Ballet has the unenviable position of being the first game in the Touhou Project series to see an official Western release. As a fan-made spin-off of a franchise with a rather niche following, especially outside Japan, it’s an odd candidate for localisation. It was the first …