Difficult, Yet Delightful
Nanami Shindi’s Bullet Hell Heroes is as incredibly difficult as it is immensely fun to play. Like other games in the bullet hell genre, Heroes requires players to attempt a near-impossible feat: avoiding and defeating bullet-launching bosses. Players fire projectiles or bullets at enemies as they approach while building up a significant amount of gold.
Once lesser enemies are vanquished, a difficult boss character appears with three health bars. To complete the level, players will need to survive each phase of the boss battle. This is no simple task, as each phase is more difficult than the last. More bullets and less room to avoid them make for an extremely tough fight. Rewards of gold for upgrading are great, but getting past even the first few levels can be a challenge.
Toil Worth the Temptation
Bullet Hell Heroes features an interesting and addictive upgrade system. Using the gold earned through successful runs, I upgraded my characters and eventually beat the earlier levels with relative ease. However, doing this for each character can be a bit of a hassle, since teams consist of three characters. Over time, players will need to thoroughly upgrade each team member to tackle the harder levels. My journey to the final level was much more difficult than I expected, since the game’s difficulty spiked quite often. While the repetitiveness of replaying levels for gold might have turned me away, I found that Bullet Hell Heroes was entertaining enough to keep me coming back for more.
In terms of sound and aesthetics, Bullet Hell Heroes’ choices feel just right. In a game about avoiding and firing bullets, I did not expect to hear a pleasant lute-like song playing in the background. However, the title’s music provided the perfect atmosphere for the game’s fantasy setting. The boss music was also well done, bringing a slightly more intense string accompaniment when the enemy appears. Additionally, the game’s brilliant use of sound and animation was excellent and only added to my gaming experience. If anything could be adjusted, it would be the repetitive scenery for the first few boss fights. These battles feature lots of grassy terrain that looks great but seems to go on forever.
While bullet hell games can be difficult to play due to the sheer number of bright colors and bullets on screen, Bullet Hell Heroes does a good job of preventing distractions. This, along with the game’s overall pleasant fantasy-like atmosphere, kept me entertained while I conquered the game’s most difficult challenges.
