bullet hell arcade

AAARGH MY BRAIN!

Relatively game-free day today so this evening I took a break from body slamming the undead to play some more Resogun, one of the introductory offerings on the PlayStation Plus service. A blistering light show still burned onto the surface of my eyeballs it manages the double trick of being a showcase for the new system as well as being an insane twitch-fest.

Basic premise sees your lone ship fending off waves of enemies intent on wiping out the last humans. A thin premise to be sure but it's all this game needs. All the essential ingredients are here, a colourful pulsating visual scheme,  satisfyingly responsive twin stick controls and a rising irresistible surge of adrenaline as the mass of enemies on screen become increasingly harder to evade.

Its the stop-and-you-die mentality that feeds these type of games their appeal. A seemingly never ending battle against escalating odds where victory seems just beyond your grasp. At worst games like these are exercises in bleak futility, at their best they to draw out the drama out just long enough before the player emerges from the maelstrom victorious. This'll be one of those then.

Completed it last weekend via online co-op and returned to it tonight for a second go-around on the harder difficulty. Not played many games in the bullet hell arcade but this one gets my recommendation. Especially online where the grief can be shared equally with others. Crikey my brain is still processing it all minutes later and wondering whether luck or skill prevailed tonight.

Perhaps that sums up the experience best, a neat trick for any game really. A fine way of introducing the system too, a technical showpiece where a million things are happening at once and you're too fixated on your own survival to take it all in. So there you go, an elaborate neon soaked diabolical game played between my wits and the screen. Think I'll put it down now before my brain melts.