Okay, first of all, I want to clarify: I’m going to be reviewing this game as a piece of art and not as a jam entry. Considering the games I’ve reviewed so far this is easily a TOP 5 for me and I consider this game to be beyond a jam entry.
This game is, very likely, the winner of this Black and White Jam. So if you’re reading this, don’t pass on the opportunity to give excellent game a shot!
THE GOOD PARTS
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You’re not going to get bored with this game. This game starts slowly and goes full Sonic mode really fast; it indeed represents what a bullet hell should be and the little “rogue-like” element added to it ties it perfectly. There are not enough words to praise the game design of this game, seriously.
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A strategic challenge. I wasn’t expecting this game to have such a well-rounded strategic challenge; I’m impressed. The winning strategy for this game is to always shoot for a “perfect bullet”, which is a bullet that’s shot in such a way that it covers most of the map while leaving some corners open for you to move freely and dodge enemy bullets. Sometimes choosing not to fire equates as equipping one power-up or the other in a rogue-like game which why I’m amazed at how much is accomplished in a single game design. Think well before you shoot, but most importantly THINK FAST!
THE BAD PARTS
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As with any challenging game, this is not for everybody. This isn’t inherently a bad thing [all games have a target demographic], but I put it in this section because there will be some players that won’t be able to differentiate between their lack of skill and lack of polish from the game, will become frustrated quickly and will very likely make the rating suffer which can be unfair for the game.
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Some minor bugs 1. Sometimes, the loops are not played 1:1 as their original counterparts in the same room size which led me to die a couple of times unexpectedly; not a big deal and it only happened literally two times in my 1 hour-ish playthrough and I was REALLY pushing the limits of the loop there so this is the edge case of the edge case.
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Some minor bugs 2. In the browser version, the walls on the side go missing after a while (I’m guessing it’s because they go a little bit too far off the screen) but MAN DO I MISS THEM WHEN THEY DO THAT because my brain interprets “white in the border = expect a bounce” and when they go missing I have to subvert that natural expectation which led me to die more times than I’d like to admit.
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Thanks for the unlockables, though. The palette unlockables are not really that impressive (although I’m deeply grateful for the one that’s “easy on the eyes”); something more noticeable like a skin change or skins for the bullets would have made it feel more rewarding when it came down to overcoming those dreaded 10+ loop levels.
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Maybe one more color would have helped?. I want to clarify, this one is way too subjective and it’s more like a suggestion to experiment because I’m not 100% sure if it would work well; maybe adding a third highlighting color would have helped me see many bullets because the screen gets clogged with elements really quick and since there are no actual patterns (like in most bullet hell games) it becomes a necessity to SEE the bullets coming at you instead of PREDICTING where the bullets will be based on the pattern they’re following. This applies particularly to the enemy bullets.
CONCLUSION
[Please remember that my previous comments to the game were made thinking of this as a piece of ART, because I consider this game to be beyond a jam entry.]
I can only applaud this game. Seriously. It has potential to be sold (with some additional polish), you have a gem here and I hope you keep developing it into a full game! You’re one of the best designers in the jam! Congratulations!