One thing I did not have on my gaming bingo card for the year was ‘develop cute aggression toward a sentient spaceship.’ Then I played Minishoot’ Adventures, and the longer I was in the game, the more attached I got to that bundle of pixels. I was quickly invested in the quest to find and take down the Unchosen, because how dare they cause difficulty for a village with the cutest set of spaceships I have ever seen!
Minishoot’ Adventures is a top-down, bullet hell shooter where a god chooses the game’s protagonist to save the land from the Unchosen and its corruption. The game begins with you breaking free of a corruption crystal. Then you discover and explore the world to find the other friendly ships trapped in corruption while taking down a slew of enemy ships.
Along the way, you can participate in races and play through dungeons to power up the world. You can get closer to the unchosen, unlock primordial powers that help in traversal or combat, and even discover secrets.
A Steady And Satisfying Climb
Minishoot’ Adventures might be one of the most well-balanced games I have ever played. Everything in the game is extremely well planned, and it makes the gameplay incredibly rewarding. The Level Design is a key part of this. The game has a cool mix of open-world exploration and tight linear dungeons. A big part of the game is finding your way around the map and uncovering secrets.
Despite being an open world, everything is subtly staggered, allowing the entire world to be part of the difficulty ramp. It is obvious when you think about it, but you don’t notice it when you are playing the game. Every time you hit a barrier, you think it is part of the map and you need to find a different path. It is only after you unlock a power, that you realize something was traversable.
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Dungeons on the other hand are well-designed linear paths that play like a puzzle. They play like the 2D counterpart of a Zelda game, requiring you to find the steps you need to take to be able to unlock that final door and boss. The treasure behind it is always worth it too, whether it is a new power or an upgrade. At no point in the game do you feel like you are wasting your time. The whole world feels like a puzzle instead of just an open map with a few things to explore.
As you move through the map and dungeon, you steadily get practice against enemies, combat scenarios, and puzzles. The next thing you know, you are seamlessly flying through complex dungeons and finding that tiny pathway between curtains of bullets. The climb is steady and thrilling, making this game ideal for newbies as well as gamers who are comfortable with the genre.
Gorgeous Detail With Variety
Part of what makes this game so good to play is its amazing art style. Sure… its very cute and charming. That is just the surface. The game is very well designed with clean character, enemy silhouettes, and a clear color scheme.
Even when the screen is filled with bullets and enemies, you can usually tell each element apart. The developers have built in as many cues into the game as possible to reduce noise in the HUD. Enemy bullets change color to denote range. The enemies change colors to show how much damage they have taken. The Protagonist has their energy meter built into the design so that you can track how much you have used in a boost or with special attacks, as well as the recharge rate.
This is supported by an amazing soundscape. In addition to fun music, you have cues that tell you when you change locations, hit successfully, achieve a goal, discover something, or kill an enemy.
It is necessary because the Unchosen has a lot of minions, with each having a different attack and movement pattern. Mini-boss sections are usually a combination of a few regular enemies in a different spawn grid, which forces you to think and act quickly so that you can stay undamaged. This creates the conditions for tight and tricky combat that is challenging on multiple levels.
The best part is that you don’t have to go into a dungeon to find a boss. You are just as likely to stumble across one as you roam around the map. Every one of them has multiple attack phases and they are incredibly fun to figure out and destroy.
Making It Available To Everyone
One of the more impressive elements of this game is how customizable the gameplay settings are. Note that I am not an expert and do not know how this will score in terms of accessibility. I am simply looking at how it can be applied to different play styles.
If you want the complete bullet-hell experience, you will get it even at normal difficulty at the base settings. However, if you aren’t used to this genre, you can get help with aiming and game speed. In the accessibility menu, you can even toggle invincibility and infinite energy to remove any pressure from the game.
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The Minor Ripples In The Pond
I have almost no beef with this game at all. The longer I played it, the more elements made sense and most of my initial confusions or frustrations were washed away. However, there are a few things to watch for.
Minishoot’ Adventures assumes that you will understand the game’s basics. Thus, except for tutorials that pop up as you unlock powers, you get no additional information. The game requires you to explore and experiment to figure things out. So, you have to use the boost and notice for yourself when the energy reserves on the ship are draining. Just as you have to collect a few energy flowers or shoot at a crystal to figure out that you can speed up energy regeneration.
This lack of information can be really confusing in the first part of the game when you explore beyond the bounds of the map. If you are in a dungeon, the game will simply tell you that you are in an unknown location, or you are truly off the map until you can find the map fragment.
However, as I said, as you play, you unlock the various elements you may need to get more information about the world. You eventually find an ally who can scan the world and mark the map. Another will sell world information, etc. It was pretty impressive to find that anything I questioned was already accounted for. All it needs is patience.
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I only really had one problem with this game: The respawn point is at the center of the map. If you die far from the spawn point, you have to make the trek back through all the regular, respawned, enemies. If this area is beyond the unlocked part of the map and you have a bad memory, it can get frustrating fast. That being said, this is just a respawn, not a reset. Your progress is saved, retaining everything you collected or unlocked before your untimely death.
A Showcase Of Excellence
Minishoot’ Adventures is an excellent game, one that is worth playing especially if you like this genre of charming, cute games. It is also worth supporting, as a duo of developers has made it. Like some of my favorite titles this year, it is a great showcase of what indie developers can do with simple ideas and support.
GamesHorizon recieved a review copy of Minishoot’ Adventures for Steam.
Minishoot’ Adventures is an extremely well-balanced game with brilliant level design and great combat.
The Good
- Well-designed difficulty ramp with balanced, challenging combat, and a carefully planned upgrade system
- Amazing level and world design, great balance between open exploration and tight linear dungeons
- Amazing art style with distinct enemy design and great visual cues
- Wide range of enemies with unique attack behavior
- Unique and distinct bosses with multiple combat phases
- Wide range of customization options to suit multiple gameplay styles
The Bad
- The game has a fixed respawn point which can be frustrating if you die far away from it and don’t remember the way back
- The player is provided with very limit information and needs to explore everything to progress
