Scaling and Review Notes

Personal Hours Played: 20.1

Review Disclaimer

Every game ranked was played, but also scaled based on research, talking to developers & your feedback. The priority with the scale's initial design was to compare similarity on relatively objective features - so it doesn't claim to include reviews of the depth and clarity you'd get at a games journalism site, nor the intensive time played you might get from player reviews on steam. We try to incorporate and link all of that along with a 'review scale' that checks for bugs. See the heatmap and breakdown! Time played noted so you can take any notes with a big grain of salt! I can't get to high level gameplay in 850+ games so I heavily research every game. Over 80 game creators let me interview or survey them! I Hope to go back and refine. Please argue or submit your own scores and reviews to be incorporated with credit into the notes and score numbers.

Added or last checked on 10/13/2023

This one came out before VS but has been refined throughout the boom. An excellent space shooter (the creator says they're not space ships but biomechanical life) which is themed with leveling like VS and over the top combos, but also does rely on trigger and propulsion and a blink ability which we'll call a dodge in the VS-like rating. The cargo trains essentially fill the treasure chest role. We'll call the ship gears selected on starting the run a "character" select.

So it may satisfy build crafters, but not zen one handed players (though it really got me into its own zone). Not exactly a twin stick shooter - it's a "drift" style game in the vein of Asteroids. Still in early access somehow, will apparently have a campaign too on release. Don't take my lack of notes as a lack of enthusiasm, I don't have many complaints. Try this one!

This is one of my favorite games on the list and unfortunately just doesn't have full review notes because I put in most of my time before it was "research." I fully intend to come back and shove 100 hours into this title, though, so I will make more notes.

I can't believe it's still in Early Access lol but let's let him cook.

Scaling and Review Notes

Personal Hours Played: 3.5

Review Disclaimer

Every game ranked was played, but also scaled based on research, talking to developers & your feedback. The priority with the scale's initial design was to compare similarity on relatively objective features - so it doesn't claim to include reviews of the depth and clarity you'd get at a games journalism site, nor the intensive time played you might get from player reviews on steam. We try to incorporate and link all of that along with a 'review scale' that checks for bugs. See the heatmap and breakdown! Time played noted so you can take any notes with a big grain of salt! I can't get to high level gameplay in 850+ games so I heavily research every game. Over 80 game creators let me interview or survey them! I Hope to go back and refine. Please argue or submit your own scores and reviews to be incorporated with credit into the notes and score numbers.

Added or last checked on 11/14/2023

First impressions on this Early Access arcade style arena shooter are very positive. Honestly I'm super thankful for this resurgence of arcade style games so I can get stuff like this.

It's a top down shooter in a small arena, with "shape" enemies more complicated than you might see in some retro shooters but very much giving the abstract vibe. While the aesthetics are quite good in my opinion, the general direction of them is that you should concentrate entirely on the play and the play so far is worth concentrating on. I absolutely don't mind when an arcade style game doesn't have plot/setting trappings, it can still get a full score for on the review scale categories from me if it feels like the 'world' is still crafted for the experience the player is supposed to have. You know, Tron without all that talking.

I haven't yet encountered what I would really call multiple maps or stages, though the arena changes at different stages through the run. After beating a run once (referred to as "the game" in the guide accessible in the main menu), you unlock difficulty modifiers.

Has both goal based and currency based unlocks. The goal based ones are pretty solid for giving you something to do in a run, as in the best of these games (get a new ship!) and I enjoy how the refundable currency upgrades also include different play or build styles, like deciding to prioritize burn for the burn ship. Some of these games don't really understand that meta unlocks can be like offering the player interesting new puzzles and not just ways to make the game easier. The skill tree luckily isn't too baroque and easy access to it at the death screen made it easy to loop into another run.

Speaking of ease it certainly feels harder at first but I think this is partially the classic arcade style format. I'm not sure how much content actually exists here yet with early access, but in many of the games in this lineage you're not really expected to be beating all the bosses on your first run or very quickly. At least, I tried to tell myself this as I got used to actually dodging boss bullets again.

There is a special move button and dash. It's in no way bloated, but does include some fun stuff like stats. No bestiary, but then again not a lot of enemy variety yet either. I'd love to be able to unlock an endless mode without bosses so I could truly zone out.

It's definitely not a mowing game, with very projectile based attacks. The auto-aim/auto-fire is sometimes off in a way that feels a little bugged, but for the most part does work pretty satisfyingly. I found myself doing up close strafing more than I would in a classic arcade shooter, partially because I'm trying to collect the XP drops as well. In that way, while in an aesthetic wrapping of an older wave shooter, the gameplay can feel very much like a modern survivors-like. You move towards some things and away from others, getting into a fairly zen state interrupted only by quickly selecting from a simple selection of upgrades and eventually only sorely interrupted by the arrival of an often run ending boss.

I'm a big fan of older arcade style shooters (my favorite perhaps being Super Stardust HD) and while this one is a little slower to get started because it has the metaprogression aspect I found it very much tickled that old enjoyment. The music seems to keep on the same theme and the visuals are a very satisfying mix of retro aesthetics and fairly active and busy scenery in implementation. Overall I had a lot of fun with it so far and am eager to see it get more content through Early Access.

Scaling and Review Notes

Personal Hours Played: 515.2 (Adorn)

Review Disclaimer

Every game ranked was played, but also scaled based on research, talking to developers & your feedback. The priority with the scale's initial design was to compare similarity on relatively objective features - so it doesn't claim to include reviews of the depth and clarity you'd get at a games journalism site, nor the intensive time played you might get from player reviews on steam. We try to incorporate and link all of that along with a 'review scale' that checks for bugs. See the heatmap and breakdown! Time played noted so you can take any notes with a big grain of salt! I can't get to high level gameplay in 850+ games so I heavily research every game. Over 80 game creators let me interview or survey them! I Hope to go back and refine. Please argue or submit your own scores and reviews to be incorporated with credit into the notes and score numbers.

Added or last checked on 11/20/2023

This uniquely bright and poppy dungeon crawling shooter has been dominating my steam recommendations for weeks as I browsed survivors-likes, so I sought out an experienced player to help us compare it. Following are notes from Adorn from the Voidigo discord! Adorn's scorecard notes: "A top down twin stick shooter dungeon crawling action roguelike, it becomes more like a Bullet Hell as difficulty progresses"

Auto-Battler/Shooter: "There are powerups(pwus) that give turrets and companions but majority of the input is from players."
Arcade Style: "There is a bit of plot and a relatively lengthy tutorial, but after that's done runs are really easy to start up."
Bullet Heaven: "Follows the heaven format for enemies, which don't fire that much even on higher difficulties, but is closer to a Bullet Hell for the bosses who are relentless on really high difficulties."
No-Aiming: "There are pwus that give the effect of a no-aiming mode but they are not guaranteed on every run of course."
No On-Attack Movement: The game has a sprint and a walk, so firing will stop your sprint, but the walk speed is the same, hence the 0.5.
Endless Mode: "There's no dedicated mode, but the player can "loop" which will restart the run with all of there items and this is only limited by the power of your PC."

Impactful Items: "Some pwus don't change much but most of the pwus can drastically change how you play the game.
Invincible/Broken Builds: You still need to pay attention to progress in the game, but the builds can get really OP especially on high loops."
Temp Powerups on "Ground": "All of the pwus can be permanent if you want but can be traded hence the 0.5."
Many Player Characters: "All of the pwus and weapons are obtainable to you when you play the game so the Player Characters aren't that different in the endgame, but they are pretty unique at the start."
Bestiary/Lore: "There is a list of all of the enemies with descriptions in the tester build but you need tester commands to access this list. The game does have some decent lore but it's not focused on for majority of play."
Secrets: "There are a few easter eggs such as weird noises happening at certain points, and a literally game event called a "secret crack" but nothing too big."
Lo-Fi Charm: "The game has charm for sure, but that charm isn't really because it's a homely indie game. The game genuinely has a very polished and smooth feel to it."
Dodging: "The player will "jump" over attacks and can "stomp" on enemies if they are above them. Stomping will stun some enemies and can be comboed on multiple enemies to extend invincibility frames."

"The player can hold up to 2 a melee or ranged weapons. Melee are generally more risk/reward as they will do a lot of damage but will use a lot of "durability" and have very short ranges, while also being able to block some attacks. Ranged will be safer as they can attack from a distance with a bit less damage and more ammo efficiency, while also being able to "gunslap" enemies for small melee damage."

Difficulty/Fun Ramp: "The games difficulty is pretty reliant on learning and overcoming how certain enemies/mechanics/synergies work. The meta is essentially what works best for the player."
Low Price: "It's $20 which isn't that low, but relative to the content it provides it's a huge bargain. I have several hundred hours and all achievements and I still have pretty different experiences on different runs."
Technical Check: "The game can start to struggle with some frame stuttering when a lot is happening on the screen but this is pretty rare and you'd have to be pushing the game a lot to cause this."

Conclusion: "For VS players that enjoy the horde survival aspect, this game isn't too great since the game is more focused on small enemy groups and a domineering boss. But VS players that are fans of the roguelike aspects will find great enjoyment as this game will have plenty of options to scratch this itch."

Scaling and Review Notes

Personal Hours Played: 8.0

Review Disclaimer

Every game ranked was played, but also scaled based on research, talking to developers & your feedback. The priority with the scale's initial design was to compare similarity on relatively objective features - so it doesn't claim to include reviews of the depth and clarity you'd get at a games journalism site, nor the intensive time played you might get from player reviews on steam. We try to incorporate and link all of that along with a 'review scale' that checks for bugs. See the heatmap and breakdown! Time played noted so you can take any notes with a big grain of salt! I can't get to high level gameplay in 850+ games so I heavily research every game. Over 80 game creators let me interview or survey them! I Hope to go back and refine. Please argue or submit your own scores and reviews to be incorporated with credit into the notes and score numbers.

Added or last checked on 10/16/2023

Third-Person Shooter Rogue-Lite by Shmup Legends Housemarque, might scratch some of the same itches but very bullet hell compared to heaven. Mostly played on PS5.

This sometimes gets suggested and it's a fun one, but very different in many ways.

I haven't gotten good enough at it to see any bullet heaven overclocked builds personally.

Popular game so you can look up youtube videos.

Scaling and Review Notes

Personal Hours Played: 1.4

Review Disclaimer

Every game ranked was played, but also scaled based on research, talking to developers & your feedback. The priority with the scale's initial design was to compare similarity on relatively objective features - so it doesn't claim to include reviews of the depth and clarity you'd get at a games journalism site, nor the intensive time played you might get from player reviews on steam. We try to incorporate and link all of that along with a 'review scale' that checks for bugs. See the heatmap and breakdown! Time played noted so you can take any notes with a big grain of salt! I can't get to high level gameplay in 850+ games so I heavily research every game. Over 80 game creators let me interview or survey them! I Hope to go back and refine. Please argue or submit your own scores and reviews to be incorporated with credit into the notes and score numbers.

Added or last checked on 11/4/2023

Tried this Early Access (at time of review) title out during the steam Bullet Heaven fest. It's different than most of the games in the sale, it's not wave survival format and has a little intro and then drops you into a dungeon crawl format. It's a more tactictical style of game similar to Enter the Gungeon.

Since it's not that familiar and there are so many games to rank, I didn't put a ton of time into this yet but watched videos, read every review and forum post on steam and contacted the dev (as usual) to try and make sure the features are accurate. We'll call the chest choices "level choices". Will check back in for more play time once the game is released.

In the main unique gameplay mechanic you gather up enemy bullets and send them back. While aiming you slow down time so we give it a major -1 in on-aim movement penalty. It's helpful to not die though. It feels like it wants to be a bullet heaven and a bullet hell and maybe it is both.

Dev interview helped clarify and adjust some feature scores.

"There's different types of powerups in the game:
-passive items, which are found in chests and shops
-active items, which are like equipped weapons (chest and shops)
-hearts (closest thing to temporary powerups, different types of hearts that grant different bonuses)
-pets, found in the same places as the other passives"

"All of the loot usually drops at the end of the rooms. Hearts can drop during battle after killing an enemy. There's a shop both in runs and a meta shop in the hub area. There's also a tavern in the first area where you can buy drinks which are temporary effects with positives and negatives.

When you complete steam achievements, you often get an item reward at the end of the run. There's also cursed items that get unlocked in the hub when you complete runs with a certain number of cursed items. I wouldn't say there's any secrets right now in a traditional sense but there are special characters to unlock which you'll have to stumble across or read the wiki to find out how.

Scaling and Review Notes

Personal Hours Played: 3.0

Review Disclaimer

Every game ranked was played, but also scaled based on research, talking to developers & your feedback. The priority with the scale's initial design was to compare similarity on relatively objective features - so it doesn't claim to include reviews of the depth and clarity you'd get at a games journalism site, nor the intensive time played you might get from player reviews on steam. We try to incorporate and link all of that along with a 'review scale' that checks for bugs. See the heatmap and breakdown! Time played noted so you can take any notes with a big grain of salt! I can't get to high level gameplay in 850+ games so I heavily research every game. Over 80 game creators let me interview or survey them! I Hope to go back and refine. Please argue or submit your own scores and reviews to be incorporated with credit into the notes and score numbers.

Added or last checked on 11/15/2023

Ecstatic is more of an oldschool arena shooter which had previously come up in my recommendations since I've been getting so many bite sized top down retro style shooters. It's not a survivors-like, with no meta progression, no giant hordes, and no buildcrafting alternate paths or bullet heaven power fantasy. Just one weapon and character.

But it is a pretty great little arcade style shooter, I think. Fairly simple in design, but it doesn't pretend to be a huge game and I'm satisfied to have tried it since it was in the Steam Bullet Heaven Fest. I think originally designed as a browser game, the controller support (which isn't officially listed) basically just emulates a mouse and was pretty hard to play with. (Dev confirmed: "The "controller support" is actually just Steam emulating mouse inputs, as the game was indeed designed and developed to be played with the mouse")

Playing on Steam Deck, it works quite well with the trackpad as you kind of click to move your little spider around the grid-like arena and hover your target over enemies then click to send missiles their way. One hit will kill you (giving this a -1 on "health on ground") so it feels very much like a bullet hell at first even with the relatively small enemy and projectile count, but a "freeze" mechanic that slows everything down unless you move drastically increases survivability.

Power ups are in the classic arcade style, a limited number of them available and a few levels possible in each. It's unlikely you'll be able to get them all in a play, so in that way there are some build choices. You can target the powerups to change them to a different type, helpful when figuring out your play style.

It took me a bit to truly adapt to the lock on and then fire mechanic for the missles, I admit. I imagine it's more obvious as a mouse game. Aesthetically excellent, from the pixel spider's independently moving legs to the classic arcade beats and synth voice announcing powerups (another thing I love from games like Super Stardust HD).

It's actually priced a tiny bit higher than on average for these games, but before this latest wave most arcade style shooters were around this price range or more (and there were a lot fewer options.) I'm happy with the experience for the price, though I'm not sure I'll really put a ton of hours in. I like these games, but I reach my limit of ability in them at times. It may not be about winning an arcade game, though, I guess, just playing.

Scaling and Review Notes

Personal Hours Played: 1.5

Review Disclaimer

Every game ranked was played, but also scaled based on research, talking to developers & your feedback. The priority with the scale's initial design was to compare similarity on relatively objective features - so it doesn't claim to include reviews of the depth and clarity you'd get at a games journalism site, nor the intensive time played you might get from player reviews on steam. We try to incorporate and link all of that along with a 'review scale' that checks for bugs. See the heatmap and breakdown! Time played noted so you can take any notes with a big grain of salt! I can't get to high level gameplay in 850+ games so I heavily research every game. Over 80 game creators let me interview or survey them! I Hope to go back and refine. Please argue or submit your own scores and reviews to be incorporated with credit into the notes and score numbers.

Added or last checked on 11/4/2023

The default mode is level based, I suppose, with levels based on your songs. This makes it time based, in vibe, more than the average level based shooter. We'll call that a partial positive score.

Collecting the score bubbles feels enough like collecting XP or gold, so we'll call it that. We're mostly concerned with the collecting mechanic in gameplay on that metric. It has unlockables like an arcade game has unlockables, and it's procedurally generated. So is it a rogue-lite? It's an interesting question, and we'll give it a partial score there for sharing some features, but ultimately it doesn't feel like a roguelike because there's no making a build within the game, just arcade style power ups.

It does have waves within the levels, for sure, and they're fairly organic. But it's not a horde nor attempts to be. There are a ton of different ships and weapon stuff and unique customization options, I'm going to call all those menus a bestiary as well.

"Generating a galaxy" looks really pretty and felt cool, but I wasn't really sure if it was more than just a very visually hi fi menu.

This was actually a special experience to review because I directed it to a folder of old MP3s I'd ripped from weird bands my friends were in during college, lofi electronic and experimental stuff that I think worked pretty well. Hearing all my old friends haunted voices over beats was honestly something.

That being said I wish it really synced up the action more and slow songs had little action - perhaps that would feel like you weren't playing the game but with long intros it would have been cool to pick things knowing how they'd amp up. As it is, the very metallic ships that show up can feel pretty off topic with certain twangy folksy vibes. That's honestly a skill issue, though, and we can assume you're going to put on a "beat" for Beat Hazard.

Unfortunately, with the strobing down, which I eventually had to set lower for my eyes, it didn't feel like much really had to do with my music. And due to how much was going on always, I couldn't really tell what upgrading my ships did too easily either.

Honestly I found myself kind of confused in the menus. There are so many game modes, so many options, I didn't really know what to do at any given time. Something I normally like about this genre is how simple it is to get in and out. But I understand the reason for some of the complexity given the music focus. Just don't know if the ship/ability upgrade stuff needs to be too.

The biggest thing that holds me back from playing more is how complicated all the menus and modes are - it seems silly, but I suffer easily from decision fatigue. And the font is too close together and hard to read. It's Early Access so maybe I can hope there's a UI overhaul and much of this is tidied up and hidden away. It's honestly overwhelming.

Scaling and Review Notes

Personal Hours Played: 1.1

Review Disclaimer

Every game ranked was played, but also scaled based on research, talking to developers & your feedback. The priority with the scale's initial design was to compare similarity on relatively objective features - so it doesn't claim to include reviews of the depth and clarity you'd get at a games journalism site, nor the intensive time played you might get from player reviews on steam. We try to incorporate and link all of that along with a 'review scale' that checks for bugs. See the heatmap and breakdown! Time played noted so you can take any notes with a big grain of salt! I can't get to high level gameplay in 850+ games so I heavily research every game. Over 80 game creators let me interview or survey them! I Hope to go back and refine. Please argue or submit your own scores and reviews to be incorporated with credit into the notes and score numbers.

Added or last checked on 11/4/2023

This one was part of Steam's "Bullet Heaven" Fest. Personally, it doesn't seem to be a bullet heaven, rather it's a textbook bullet hell boss rush with some upgrades and equipping between rounds. It has a lot of movement and action controls possible with unlockable and applicable abilities. While it's isometric and a shooter, the gameplay feel and loop doesn't really feel like Vampire Survivors.

It's a little confusing in the menus with the top option being a mode where you can seemingly select any ability you want to challenge yourself, then a campaign mode that seems like a roguelite run, kind of, and then daily challenges and other challenge modes.

I found the menu set up, navigation and way the gameplay loop works unintuitive considering how simple it turned out to really be. Roguelite mode is called "story mode". You can only attempt the daily challenge once which feels sad.

-1 for timed survival since it's all about you running out of time, not trying to run out the clock. Regardless of the mode picked you'll always be trying to defeat the same run of bosses without much in between. Bosses spit out a ton of bullets which I personally found hard to see with the games graphical style. (Edit: Turns out this was because graphics are bugged on my high end gaming PC, it looks different on steam deck.)

While I appreciate "tilt to fire" twin stick controls, it complicates them with a lot of possible special moves, dodge, etc.

Overall it doesn't feel like it gains from these complicated controls, since the boss attack patterns and strategies don't feel that special compared to hundreds of other bullet hell bosses out there. Not memorable cutscenes but won't let you skip them. At this price point, it's hard to say there's a lot here compared to many of the amazing games on this list.

Scaling and Review Notes

Review Disclaimer

Every game ranked was played, but also scaled based on research, talking to developers & your feedback. The priority with the scale's initial design was to compare similarity on relatively objective features - so it doesn't claim to include reviews of the depth and clarity you'd get at a games journalism site, nor the intensive time played you might get from player reviews on steam. We try to incorporate and link all of that along with a 'review scale' that checks for bugs. See the heatmap and breakdown! Time played noted so you can take any notes with a big grain of salt! I can't get to high level gameplay in 850+ games so I heavily research every game. Over 80 game creators let me interview or survey them! I Hope to go back and refine. Please argue or submit your own scores and reviews to be incorporated with credit into the notes and score numbers.

Added or last checked on 11/3/2023

Scale scoring from scorecard submitted by Developer. Once evaluated after a couple hours play and some research, will be adjusted and moved up into the ranking proper.

Like Soundodger+, this one I solicited a dev scorecard on because I was very curious to have more movement focused and especially pacifist games on here. I look forward to doing a whole review soon.

Help us rank this game! [Submit Review]

Scaling and Review Notes

Review Disclaimer

Every game ranked was played, but also scaled based on research, talking to developers & your feedback. The priority with the scale's initial design was to compare similarity on relatively objective features - so it doesn't claim to include reviews of the depth and clarity you'd get at a games journalism site, nor the intensive time played you might get from player reviews on steam. We try to incorporate and link all of that along with a 'review scale' that checks for bugs. See the heatmap and breakdown! Time played noted so you can take any notes with a big grain of salt! I can't get to high level gameplay in 850+ games so I heavily research every game. Over 80 game creators let me interview or survey them! I Hope to go back and refine. Please argue or submit your own scores and reviews to be incorporated with credit into the notes and score numbers.

Added or last checked on 11/3/2023

Scale scoring from scorecard submitted by Developer. Once evaluated after a couple hours play and some research, will be adjusted and moved up into the ranking proper.

This one I solicited a dev scorecard on because I was very curious to have more movement focused and especially pacifist games on here. I think there's a lot of experimentation to do there and this game came out some time ago and could be of interest to players. I've started tweaking it already.

Dev Scorecard Notes: "This is a mouse-only game strictly about dodging lots of bullet patterns, but the games really separate from there, as it was made 10 years ago and with different intentions"

Help us rank this game! [Submit Review]

Scaling and Review Notes

Review Disclaimer

Every game ranked was played, but also scaled based on research, talking to developers & your feedback. The priority with the scale's initial design was to compare similarity on relatively objective features - so it doesn't claim to include reviews of the depth and clarity you'd get at a games journalism site, nor the intensive time played you might get from player reviews on steam. We try to incorporate and link all of that along with a 'review scale' that checks for bugs. See the heatmap and breakdown! Time played noted so you can take any notes with a big grain of salt! I can't get to high level gameplay in 850+ games so I heavily research every game. Over 80 game creators let me interview or survey them! I Hope to go back and refine. Please argue or submit your own scores and reviews to be incorporated with credit into the notes and score numbers.

Added or last checked on 10/29/2023

Scale scoring from scorecard submitted by Developer. Once evaluated after a couple hours play and some research, will be adjusted and moved up into the ranking proper.

Dev Scorecard notes: "While carrying some similarities to VS in basic mechanics, Roboom is something else. In Roboom, core staples of the bullet heaven / horde-survival genre act as a means of storytelling, giving the player the atmosphere and feeling the Robocon story wants to convey."

Help us rank this game! [Submit Review]