Super impressed with how polished this game is. Controls are fluid and easy to get used to. Really has a Gungeon kind of vibe.
The enemies in the first few waves are way too thick, it throws the pacing of the game off for me.
Upon death i would like a chance to restart from the top rather than top of the round so i can see what other abilities you added into the game. I would buy a full release of this game if it were on steam. Please keep up the work! :)
Reviews for "Bullet Hellween"
Hmm, decent and cute little bullet hell shooter! For a game jam game, I was quite impressed at the general level of polish and craftsmanship, what with the cute and animated presentation and especially with the great amount of enemy variety with all sorts of unique attack patterns to look out for! The boss was a great cherry on top as well, what with his very extensive attack patterns and telegraph animations for each.
While I do feel like the game is pretty neat, there were plenty of aspects that dragged it down for me unfortunately:
The enemies felt like they were incredibly spongy and became such unsatisfying slogs to defeat when you've gotta pepper each of them with so much gun fire (er, wand fire). I understand that, near the beginning where enemy density is low, high health for the skulls can be necessary to ensure they live long enough to get some attacks off, but when the game ups the enemy density, that sponginess becomes incredibly frustrating.
Speaking of enemy density, it does get rather overwhelming in the later levels and becomes a real unfair nuisance due to the way that enemies will stack on top of each other and not only become a spongy mess, but with the way that they will hide each other, making it impossible to see bats charge up their tackle attack, among other things.
Another subtle aspect of the feeling of sponginess present in the enemies is the lackluster sound design and feedback for kills: the game overall feels very quiet, muted and bereft of exciting notes which really dulls the satisfaction of combat. Screenshake is also very repetitive and just reduces the screen into a vague mush of confusion.
Powerups were ok, but rather unexciting and basic. But even more so than that, they felt silly and unfair: you'd think adding bullets onto your wand would be an additive powerup, but no, 2-shot or 3-shot are separate powerups that don't stack and override each other. Similarly, the powerup to transform your shots into larger shots can show up despite you already picking it up, yet if you pick it up again, nothing will change.
Checkpoints were a mixed blessing, or rather a curse: if you make a bad powerup choice or end a round with very little health, you could now be stuck in a very bad situation with no way out for recovery. I'd much prefer if the game were to just restart completely upon death to allow for the player to make better choices and get to where they were with more health, especially since it is already short enough.
Finally, as much as I am getting this game some considerable stick, it was a rather short game and it did make me want more! If this game wasn't a game jam game and got to have some more time in the oven, I could see it being incredible: while it isn't balanced in this iteration, I can't overstate how impressed I was with the sheer creativity and diversity in your enemy design! Would love to see more games in the future.
Meiallu responds:
Me and Nagasaki may do a bigger version of this game, if this actually turn to be true, I'll 100% fix everything you just said. Thanks!
Fresh off of an obsession with Vampire Survivors, I've gained a newfound love of bullet hells. I've seen similar criticisms with this that the basic skull enemies are way too tanky. I feel like more satisfying gameplay would be more skulls that die in one hit than two on screen that take 15 or so slow shots to start with. The two upgrades across 5 waves don't feel substantial, and the bats spawn hidden behind large enemies so you don't see them coming before they suddenly bolt into you and end your run. After wave 5, enemies stopped spawning so I guess it was the end? Nothing signalled that but it felt like it was over. Needs work, but I love the aesthetic and theme. I'll come back for an updated version!
Put Dash on RmB
Nice polished game!
legal mas é dificil de jogar no chrome book kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk