Bullet Heaven- Shoot 1Up Review

In their infancy, shoot ‘em up games (affectionately known as ‘shmups’) challenged players with defeating waves of enemy aggressors, while simultaneously dodging their intermittent attacks. As technologies advanced, the genre became increasing complex, allowing each new iteration of the shmup to bring an ever-increasing amount of enemy shots to dodge. By the late 1990’s the once-popular pastime had reached its awkward teenage years, and disavowed mainstream acceptance with its uncompromising hardcore inclinations.

With this stanch focus, ‘bullet hell’ shooters where born- diversions which required players to dodge clouds of enemy ammunition with relentless accuracy. Like many others who watched the shmup advance- I lacked the time, determination, and razor-sharp reflexes which were a requirement for success in this new bullet-busy realm. Worse, I felt the beloved genre was slipping into an extended stagnancy, as only a few titles introduced any new concepts into the shooter.

Shoot 1Up– the latest release from Mommy’s Best Games offers shmup fans the largest dose of originality seen since 2003’s Ikaruga. The title’s hook is astonishingly simple- certain defeated foes drop extra ships. Instead of banking those crafts for play once your current vessel is expired, they become part of the player’s on-screen arsenal. By using the left and right triggers, gamers can control the formation of the attack armada, empowering the game with a fascinating risk/reward dynamic. Players can dodge enemy attacks with a tight cluster, or expand their collection and fill the screen with a dazzling barrage of offensive firepower complemented by a powerful plasma auger.

One of the game’s other innovations is the inclusion of branching pathways in each stage, allowing gamers to remain in the conventional vertical shooting orientation, or even allow free-directional scrolling similar to the Thunder Force series.  Shoot 1up’s power-ups are equally novel – a ghostly power-up provides gamers with a mirrored cluster of ships that are invulnerable to attack. Considering that formulations can be up to ship ships deep (and 60 in the game’s hyperactive cooperative mode), the game often displays a tidal wave of kinetic energy.

Yet only on the game’s ‘serious’ difficulty does the title ever approach the impenetrability typically associated with ‘bullet hell’ shooters. On the game’s less exacting levels of difficulty, Shoot 1Up doesn’t require the surgeon-like precision in order to see the game’s closing credits. As such, gratification comes from achieving high scores and the brief obliteration of every on-screen enemy rather than managing continues or finding the ideal attack pattern. While some might say that the title’s experience is too brief, I’d remind them of the game’s ridiculous one dollar price, or the length of some of history’s supreme shmups.

Visually, Shoot 1Up more closely resembles full-priced XBLA fare, rather than its indie-game brethren. Like Mommy’s Best’s Weapon of Choice, the game is teeming with vibrant bio-mechanical creations, from gargantuan spiked protozoa to androids with plasma shooting breasts. Of course, there’s also the healthy amount of absurdity- from impaled dragonheads on the end of broadswords to killer whales undergoing extraterrestrial autopsy.