Hell Blasters Reviews

I'd recommend anyone to play this cool shooter, especially if they have any type of mental issue.

Fantastic vertical shmup with great scoring mechanics and challenging gameplay. The story mode is a great way of framing a training mode. The music is also excellent. The score attack mode is tons of fun too.

Very tightly made indie shmup, you can tell the developer is an avid shmup player. The controls and mechanics are spot on, although the balancing between the selectable characters is a bit off. On top of the usual arcade mode there is practice mode, a very addictive score attack mode, and a content rich story mode which also functions as a training mode. The art style is basic but charming and very functional. Same as the music which is retro style but very good.

I have owned and played a ridiculous amount of shmups over the years. This one keeps calling me back. Not sure why but it scratches some primordial itch. New arrange mode is the tits as well!

Feels like the greatest master system game ever made. And that soundtrack is just amazing. The Boss Theme in particular is such a banger. If you like bullet hell, or shmups or even if you have never played a shmup before, this is an easy buy. Support your indie shmup devs

Don't be fooled by the NES-like aesthetics. This is a modern bullet hell shmup with an emphasis on chaining kills (and cancelling bullets), in order to get higher scores (and also there's no screen flickering involved). There's also a good amount of fun game modes including Arcade mode, two characters, a Caravan mode (Score Attack) and even a pretty innovative Story mode. The latter can be seen as huge a tutorial not only for the game, but in some ways the entire shmup genre itself. Here you get to play through small sections of the game, are given instructions and are being taught the basic principles of the game as well advanced scoring mechanics. And the story also has many nods to famous shmup classics. Although I'm not a fan of the entire 8-bit design, the game's look can be quite charming and some tunes are pretty decent. Moreover it features an awesome 9:16 tate mode for fullscreen vertical shmupping. Also the visibility of the bullets is good and it plays very vell. And by the way, you can participate in the currently running running Caravan Competition run by Shmup Junkie by playing the free demo.

Hell Blasters is a more of a classic shmup borders bullet hells to match its gimmick of managing the players bullet canceling shots and bombs. Which may be polarizing for an otherwise mediocre shooter. Hell Blasters is a vertical scrolling shoot 'em up that offers the player a wider 'Rapid' shot as well as a slower moving, narrower focused 'Shot' for its basic attacks. A nitpick of mine would have called 'Shot' Focus instead, as I am too conditioned from Psikyo Games to think of Shot as anything but tap to fire or hold down for charged shot. In addition to these attacks, the player has limited resource bullet canceling large damage bomb attacks common to STGs. What really sets Hell Blasters apart from most shmups is the 'SPC' or what I assume is special attack. This is limited attack based on a recharge meter. It seems to deliver additional damage, but more importantly, it cancels enemy shots regardless of color. As orange bullets are basically popcorn enemies, that become rarer the higher the diifculty. Where as purple enemy shots aren't canceled by the players normal attacks. It's using this bullet canceling special that the player has to master as some bullet patterns don't appear to be dodgable at all. Though, this may happen more frequently due to poor player routing or memorization of the stage that actually getting trapped. This bullet cancel special does make fights, particularly boss fights, much easier even if they aren't needed to get out of a jam. And I think the game's overall enjoyment hinges on this mechanic. I personally don't care for it much. I'd rather search for a path to avoid taking damage rather than have a weapon that clears one for me. Otherwise, I don't see much to Hell Blasters to hold interest. The enemies and bullet patterns beyond making use of the games' gimmick aren't anything special or that memorable. They aren't bad by any stretch. They just don't push anything. The graphics aren't particularly interesting with what feels like 8/16 bit backgrounds with Flash sprites/elements for the ships. And the Flash animation elements largely being simple shapes of various triangles, rectangles and circles. Defeating the stage bosses are particularly underwhelming consisting of some flashing and an image of the a wrecked part of the boss. I found the music and sound fine. The music particular was good with a few tracks, but nothing overly standout. Nice little chip tune type stuff that works well for the game. I've certainly heard worse from the era of games I feel Hell Blasters is trying to invoke. Overall, I don't think Hell Blasters is a bad game. It's just not one that I particularly enjoyed. Well, beyond the Journalist difficulty level, that's funny. While it's pretty simple. Which I want in my shmups. I didn't care for shifting away from dodging to properly making use of your bullet cancel special to clear path mechanic. If that's sounds neat to you, than I actually recommend it. But since Steam doesn't have a neutral option, I'm going to give it a thumbs down. Due to Hell Blasters ultimately not being that fun to me.

I'm fairly new to playing shoot em ups (shmups) to actually be good at them rather than just credit feed my way through an arcade game. I wanted to get into 'bullet hell' shmups but the games are really intimidating. This game was recommended because the designer is an accomplished bullet hell player who made the gameplay the top priority - and made it so you can use the story mode to actually learn to play a bullet hell. It's been an absolute blast and the story mode really delivers bite sized chunks of training and the arcade so you can practice them and learn how to deal with the enemies. I'm also participating in an online score attack competition for the game that is incredibly fun and I don't normally play for score, only survival. While the graphics are rudimentary, the bosses have a nice charm to them, the 8bit soundtrack is actually quite good, but most importantly the gameplay is REALLY on point and I'm absolutely loving it as someone just learning to play a bullet hell.

This is the Bluesmobile of shmups. It may not look like much on the outside, but it's got the cop motor, cop tires, and probably even the cig lighter. Great level design & bullet patterns, a ton of modes, leader board & replays, great shmup tunes, it's all there. Great work, devs!