lots of pews, but this ain't no church.
July 28, 2009 1:28 AM   Subscribe

Pixelvader = minimal vector graphics bullet hell shmup flash game with upgrading system.
posted by juv3nal (18 comments total) 12 users marked this as a favorite
 
Incidentally for anyone with a passing interest in bullet hell shmups and for some reason has not heard of/checked out the brilliant Kenta Cho/ABA Games shooters, ignore this post and go now. His own site I don't think has any mac or linux versions, but there are some ports: [mac] [linux, links to more at bottom]
posted by juv3nal at 1:48 AM on July 28, 2009


Yay bullet hell! It's not really bullet hell for you though. Once you get all the upgrades you turn into the most amazing explodey ball of laser goodness.

Fans of the genre should also check out Ikaruga and the Tohou series of shmups. Great games.
posted by Submiqent at 2:13 AM on July 28, 2009 [1 favorite]


Yeah, it's pretty easy because you can grind upgrades.

Still, the "bonus" boss attack starts to get difficult by the penultimate boss (I've gotten to the last regular boss you encounter in the bonus level, but haven't beat him yet so I don't know if there's any special extra boss after that).

I like how it autofires for you like "you're being assailed on all sides by a constant stream of enemies and have an unlimited supply of ammo, what kind of n00b would ever stop firing!?"
posted by juv3nal at 2:29 AM on July 28, 2009


Addictive. Nice find.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:08 AM on July 28, 2009


Note that it's essentially two different games, playing on the keyboard versus playing on the mouse. As keyboard, you have a fairly standard autofiring ship, and it's the usual tetchy controls like you've seen a million times.

With mouse control, particularly in late game with lots of upgrades, you have a pulsing mouse cursor of doom.

tl;dr version: pick mouse. You want mouse. Mouse is FUN. Keyboard bad, mouse good.

:-)
posted by Malor at 3:25 AM on July 28, 2009


Bullet hell? I am the bullet hell!
posted by Magnakai at 4:29 AM on July 28, 2009


Curiously like this bullet hell game. Good thing I like bullet hell.
posted by mrmojoflying at 4:42 AM on July 28, 2009


Fans of the genre should also check out Ikaruga and the Tohou series of shmups

Video of someone playing P1 and P2 Ikaruga at the same time.
posted by permafrost at 5:25 AM on July 28, 2009 [2 favorites]


I like this game better than the last one posted.
posted by mathlete at 5:38 AM on July 28, 2009


I don't think this can really be called bullet hell. There wasn't a single bullet on the first level until the boss, which was ludicrously easy. I know, first level, but that's not what a bullet hell game should be like. (Also, between-level upgrades? Not typical in bullet hell.) Frantic, linked above, is a little nearer the mark, but Flash games suck for bullet hell -- it lacks the speed and power needed to render the amount of bullets you should be seeing.

If you're on Windows, check out this website and say goodbye to the rest of your day -- Blue Wish Resurrection, Cho Ren Sha 68k, and Samidare are highly recommended. Also, as linked above, Kenta Cho's entire output is textbook bullet hell (available on almost any platform). I'd pass on Touhou, personally; I always found them far too long-winded, but they are certainly a good introduction to the genre, especially if you're into loli, and who isn't, right? There's also a whole wealth of arcade bullet hells -- for varying definitions of bullet hell -- you could emulate through MAME if you were that way inclined (and owned the original game, of course): Donpachi, DoDonPachi, ESP Ra.de, Dangun Feveron, Raiden (also available on various other platforms), Battle Garegga, Guwange, and so on.
posted by nostrich at 5:49 AM on July 28, 2009 [3 favorites]


Man, I never thought bullet hell could be boring. Is this the game "Upgrade Complete" was trying to make fun of?

I find myself not bothering to use the defensive shield at all because it's just so useless - I'm used to hitting smart-bomb and clearing a major hole in the oncoming wave of pulsing pink dots of death, that I can then use to dodge out of the pattern. This just kinda farts a hole in it.

The other thing that makes it really barely qualify as a bulletstorm game is that there's no way to do something with the torrents of electric death the enemies constantly vomit (once you get past the insultingly empty first levels). I wanna graze them for points/bomb refills/whatever, I wanna hold down the mouse button to suck them into my gravity shield and then send them swirling out into a supercharged burst of return fire, I wanna interact with the bullets.

And now I know why Minter's Gridrunner++ (and his forthcoming Gridrunner Revolution, which has me soaking my panties in fangirly anticipation every time he posts teasers to his LJ) is the only game that removes the need for a fire button. It only works when you're a firehose of shots right from the start; having to line up your shots without being able to time them yourself is annoying.
posted by egypturnash at 6:06 AM on July 28, 2009


Gets kinda amusing around level 7 - the part of my brain that processes bullet patterns and finds the holes finally got enough input per frame to wake up - but it's really tedious getting there.

I have probably been playing shmups longer than the author of this game has been alive so maybe I shouldn't be expecting as much, I dunno. But this is really just making me wish I'd spent the time playing it before work booting up GR++ or Esp.Ra De instead...
posted by egypturnash at 6:39 AM on July 28, 2009


permafrost: Video of someone playing P1 and P2 Ikaruga at the same time .

what
posted by shakespeherian at 6:49 AM on July 28, 2009


that's... nice
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 7:36 AM on July 28, 2009


I don't think this can really be called bullet hell. There wasn't a single bullet on the first level until the boss, which was ludicrously easy. I know, first level, but that's not what a bullet hell game should be like.

The bosses on the later stages definitely qualify in terms of bullet pattern complexity. I think the problem is that unlike most bullet hell games you actually have a life bar and can take more (depending on how you've upgraded, possibly many more) than one hit.
posted by juv3nal at 9:19 AM on July 28, 2009


I appreciate that my slow ship speed is part of the (upgradeable) challenge. But the mouse control just feels like molasses.

Shield low!
Retreat!
posted by Nelson at 10:14 AM on July 28, 2009


> I find myself not bothering to use the defensive shield at all because it's just so useless

Yeah, but once you've gotten a bit further and (almost) completely upgraded the two defensive shield things it helps. I don't think I would have managed to beat the bonus stage without it. Sure, it doesn't do much, but it gives you that fraction of a second of breathing space, which is nice.


And while it's not exactly bullet hell, I must to recommend Warning Forever to any shmup fan. None of this boring stuff between the bosses; just you and the bosses, which evolve based on how you shoot them.
posted by bjrn at 12:38 PM on July 28, 2009


Years of my youth spent playing Tyrian made this a bit simplistic and easy, and has also made me start desperatly googling ways to get Tyrian to run usefully on Vista...

(The DOS version with DOSbox is the answer.)
posted by Dysk at 3:18 PM on July 28, 2009


« Older Fountains of Wayne Hotline   |   enjoying Wikipedia Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments