Rolling Gunner (2018)

This a doujin horizontal bullet hell shooter game. Presentation is excellent although not fully optimized for 4K. On the other hand there are plenty of configuration settings, including gameplay, difficulty, screen and controller settings.

You have three ships to choose from: one having a wider shot but being slower to move, another having a narrower shot and faster to move, and another in between. Despite the simple controls gameplay is quite nuanced and sitting through the minute and a half tutorial is a good idea. You always have a firing option that always shoots in the opposite direction from where you move (move left, it shoots right, move up it shoots down, and so forth). This is usually used in slower shooters (R-Type, Gradius, Gynoug) where movement is more deliberate. In a bullet hell you necessarily have to move a lot in small areas, so the option is rarely firing to where you want it to. However, you can set it with the power shot, thus mowing down enemies more effectively. Mastering the positioning of the option and maximizing shot power is key as enemies come from all sides. As always you'll face an easier time if you mow down enemies as they appear and don't give them the chance to fill the screen with bullets. If you get hit, you auto-detonate a bomb to clear the screen so you'll get a fighting chance to start over (as long as you got bombs in stock).

Environments are colourful. Every stage is interset with an impressive cutscene that puts many games with a bigger budget to shame: they look fantastic. This is especially exciting and also gives a sense of progression and journey to the action. The enemy designs are often forgettable, going for a generic science fiction, giant robot style, with bosses usually having imposing design. While visually impressive, the rivers of bullets end up giving the feeling of a very underpowered character, which is unaided by the lack of power ups. As most bosses are generally static, you're basically just avoiding their bullets for as long as you can as your own bullets chink away at their vitality bar at a very low rate. Even in "casual" mode things get very tough indeed from the second stage on.

The patterns are fantastic and bullets are always very visible and not confusing with the background. The presence of a visual hitpoint on the player's character definitely helps maneuvering between bullets, and becoming better and more confident in weaving through. The setting is not as original as something like Mushihimesama but this is an incredibly solid package from gameplay to presentation to settings that, when you strip away its context, is the essence of bullet hell gameplay distilled to a very fine degree - here with the added bonus of excellent presentation and extensive configuration options that help improve one's skills, and even to apply said learned skills to other games of the same subgenre. Thus the game's small failings however are not its own fault but the faults of bullet hell per se. For these reasons it is otherwise probably my ideal recommendation for anyone wanting to get into bullet hell. Additionally, if you're already into bullet hell this might be one of the strongest examples of the genre. True that it isn't an arcade game originally but it has the fine weaving, the amazing bullet patterns, very impressive bosses in one of the most rounded packages available, especially from doujin developers. For those not interested in this subgenre it might be too much but still a solid game and worth a few entertaining attempts.