DN8 Solomon has come to judge your game!
Alright, in all seriousness, and speaking as a completely unbiased critic, the gameplay is your standard bullethell. Simple graphics on the baddies add a retro feel and keep them from dragging down the processor so that crazy amounts of junk can be flying in every which direction. The visuals are nice, but not jaw dropping - and I wouldn't want the graphics too high as the speed of things would slow my toaster of a computer down to a crawl... but we don't come to bullet hell shooters for the graphics do we?
No, the meat of the game, the raw, satisfying nougat center of the insanity is always the game play. You can't go wrong with the basic formula, there's enemies flying around in patterns, shooting bullets in patterns, and your job is to shoot them all before being turned into metallic Swiss cheese. The rub is that you have to dodge just right, learn your hit box, and still supply enough bullet of your own to take them down. In essence, you have all the elements of a fun, addictive danmaku. Here's the rub, though.
The game... well... is too easy. You don't make it so that people have to learn the hit box, you announce it with a red dot. The side pods block bullets, giving you a sense of cover, something I don't want in my bullet hell. The best part is that deep awesome feeling you get for dancing between bullets like a Gunkata master and then putting on your shaddes and walking away from the explosion as you blow up the final boss (usually after much blood, sweat, and tears). I didn't have that feeling. I was just like... meh.
Another thing, you took one of the basic mechanics of a good bullet hell, narrow dodging, and made it kind of a challenge. You encourage flying close to the bullets just to give you some extra lives instead of saying "Hey, here's the bullets. Dodge or die." There was plenty of space for me to dodge, making the sense of cramped, narrow dodging seem like an optional thing. The only parts I felt the danger was the boss battles.
Oh yes, your bosses. I was actually quite happy with them. The patterns were call backs to a lot of great mid-bosses I laid to rest in Touhou and Gradius... there were only a few things wrong, I feel. First off, they all felt like midbosses. I didn't get a feeling I was fighting any major baddies. Sure, they took a few hits, but the patterns were easy to learn and dodge. The ones that shot lines of bullets were a little interesting since they ndid one-hit kills if you messed up, but if you dodged just right, you got an EXTRA life from the graze meter maxing out. I ended the game with 30 lives just from those guys alone. I loved the boss rush at the end - which was a sweet call back on your part - but I really was hoping for a big bad boss at the end.
All in all, fun. I sat through till the end, but it felt short, and was way to easy to be up in the ranks of greatness with Touhou and the like. I give it a 4/5 despite all my criticisms. It's not a BAD game, it could just be better.
I look forward to your future submissions.