Day Eleven: Blue Revolver
I like to imagine the bullets are Christmas ornaments
I’m Having a Blue (revolver) Christmas
Short games were king back in the day. Arcades were founded on them. You’d pop a quarter in, press start, and the game would try its best to grab your attention as fast as possible. You were meant to get on the machine, have fun, and move on so someone else could have their turn. Today’s game, Blue Revolver, aims to recreate that experience, and it hits its mark. Enjoy arcade-perfect gameplay in the comfort of your own home, without getting your ear drums blown out by the DDR machine.
What is it?
Blue Revolver is a vertical bullet hell shoot-’em-up (shmup). This is a real bullet hell, not a Vampire Survivors clone. You pilot a space ship across five levels, dodging hundreds of projectiles arranged in dazzling patterns. Try to make it to the end of the game using limited lives all while aiming for a high score.
The base gameplay is solid. Your ship handles well; not too fast, not too slow. It lets you dodge easily while also allowing for finer control to weave between small gaps. Holding down the shoot button slows you down even further, so you can precisely squeeze through tiny gaps like a cat squeezing itself into a shoebox one third its size.
Besides the buttery smooth handling, you have your weapons. The game gives you two types of shots: the regular bullets and a special, more powerful shot that’s limited by ammo. The regular shot feels nice and powerful, able to clear most enemies quickly. There are three playable ships, each with their own shot type, including the standard regular, wide and specialty shot. In this case the specialty is an aimed shot that follows your movement. They’re all pretty standard, but there’s enough variety between them to give you a fresh experience.
The power shot ties into the game’s scoring mechanic. The power shot is a secondary type of shot that deals more damage, but it’s limited by ammo. When you defeat enemies, they drop ammo for this weapon. If you defeat an enemy using the power shot, they drop crystals, which award you points. The higher your chain, the more points you get, with 8 being the chain’s maximum. The game’s rhythm is to get your chain to eight by taking down regular enemies, and then using your powerful shot to take down larger targets for big scores. This scoring system is simple, but effective, and it gives the game a nice ebb and flow. You’ll need to learn the stages well to find ways to make the most out of your shots and be efficient.
It’s a great, well polished shmup with solid fundamentals and an enjoyable scoring mechanic built on top.
Short
It’s only around 20 minutes long. That might seem short, because it is, but you have to remember this is an arcade-style shmup. That means those twenty minutes are pure gameplay at the highest intensity. You’ll be dodging hundreds of shots every minute. It packs more fun and excitement in its short runtime than most modern triple-A games do in their first five hours.
Blue Revolver is meant to be replayed. It’s challenging, which means you’ll have to learn its stages and get good at it to beat it. Then there’s the scoring system, which will encourage you to replay the game for more points. There are three ships to try out, each with three different power shots that change how you play, three difficulties, challenges and a hidden final boss.
The amount of content on offer is great, especially when it’s all polished to a mirror sheen.
Worse Graphics
Blue Revolver goes for a retro look. It’s not arcade retro. It has a restricted color palette, and arcade games were all about pushing out the fanciest graphics possible, so these are worse graphics by arcade standards. They’re also not done in Unreal Engine 5. It doesn’t even have ray tracing, so the graphics are bad, by modern standards.
The game looks great. Its limited palette is used to great effect. It gives each stage its own unique look, while keeping the visual clutter to a minimum, which is important in this type of game. Enemy shots are always bright and visible, and so are the enemies.
I think the game is going for a specific retro look, but I can’t pinpoint what it is. Maybe someone will enlighten me in a comment and say something like “it’s obviously a tribute to the Wonderswan”, and I’ll probably believe them. All I know is that I love how the game looks. The sprites are nice and chunky, the colors work well together, and the game’s overall aesthetic is very clean and charming. I especially like the designs of the boss ships.
The soundtrack is fantastic, too. Ultra loud, high-energy techno that would fit right in with the rest of the cabinets at your local arcade (assuming you have one. Those aren’t really around anymore, sadly). It’s very bright and synthy, a perfect fit for the visual chaos on screen. It’s like listening to an energy drink.
Made by People Paid More to Work Less
Blue Revolver was made by one developer, Danbo, along with a few collaborators who helped with art and music. The game took around two years of on and off work. Years after the game’s initial release, the developer gave it an expansion/update for free. This was purely a passion project, and it shows.
I can’t find much about the development, but I can say it probably beats working at Activision Blizzard.
An interesting note is that Danbo, the game’s developer, thinks most games, including short roguelites, are too damn long. He’s right in some capacity, but it’s funny to think that someone out there would take some of the games I would put in my short games list, like Synthetik, and say they’re too long.
Conclusion
Blue Revolver is an excellent shmup. If it had come out during the 2000s, or if it had Cave’s logo on it, it would be considered a classic. Its base gameplay is solid, and polished. The movement is smooth, the shots feel nice and the scoring system keeps things interesting. The pacing is great. The first stage on-boards the player a little, but after that it fires on all cylinders.
It’s a great game that everyone should try. Its availability and the fact that it’s a little easier than other shmups makes it great for newcomers, too. It’s still not easy, though. It’s easier compared to some of the old-school games, but it’s still tough. It’s like Mushihimesama, which is considered an entry point into the genre but it’s still a gauntlet for 99% of gamers.
I wholeheartedly recommend Blue Revolver. You can get it for $15 on Steam, or on sale for less. I recommend it at full price. It’s a great game.
