RROOTAGE BULLET HELL FOR FREE
RROOTAGE BULLET HELL PC

A great piece of craftsmanship, to be sure, but too cold and too clinical for my tastes. Now, Ikaruga has never done much for me - it's one of those games I appreciate rather than enjoy, and frankly I prefer to watch those crazy videos of Japanese players absolutely rinsing it than play the thing.

IKA mode takes its idea from Treasure's seminal shooter Ikaruga, a much-loved title built around black and white polarities - when your ship is white you can absorb white bullets and vice versa, and you have the ability to 'flip' polarities at any time. I'm about to get a little heretical here, so bear with me. If this was its own game I'd be recommending it without hesitation, but it's only one of the reasons rRootage is amazing. In combination with rRootage's main schtick of 'the closer you are, the more damage you do', it means that PSY mode is constantly veering between a delicate dance, at distance, and then forgetting subtlety in favour of jamming the ship right in the boss's face during the brief period of invulnerability. Once activated, the ship becomes invincible. The bomb in this mode is replaced with a special that increases the grazing radius, meaning you can activate it before picking through a dense cloud of shots and build up power super-fast. This is one of the smartest mechanics ever matched up with bullet hell, and rRootage's take on it is an absolute winner - the ship has a small area around the hitbox at all times, and being near bullets will gradually fill a meter. PSY mode is based on the shooter Psyvariar by Tokyo's Success Corporation (what a great name), where the central idea is 'grazing' through the bullet patterns to build up power. The bosses go through five stages on each level, exploding with an almighty crash after enough damage and giving you a quick breather before re-assembling into a more deadly form. This is the best way to settle into rRootage's central rhythm of dodging and getting close, but it's when the mechanics begin to take on some classic influences that things get spectacular. The modes are like a personal history of shmups filtered through Kenta Cho's unique style, and normal is straight-up bullet hell, where your special attack is a bomb that wipes out all on-screen bullets and damages the boss. This is rRootage in 'Normal' mode, but this is only one of four ways to play through its many, many levels. And there's one tiny, crucial other detail: the closer you are, the more damage you do. The boss ship fires a pile of bullets, and will change form several times throughout each stage, which also varies up the shooting patterns. Every level is one giant ship at the top of the screen and your ship at the bottom, which is in fact just a hitbox with a shell. RRootage is one of Cho's finest (and oldest) games, a vertical one-screen shooter with tons of levels and four distinct game modes, and while modes can often seem like little bonuses in shmups, in rRootage they're the whole focus. In every respect he's a remarkable developer.

RROOTAGE BULLET HELL FOR FREE

Cho's been making games for well over a decade now, mostly shoot-'em-ups, and gives everything he makes away for free it's an attitude that he says comes from making the games he wants to play and having no interest in making money from them.

RROOTAGE BULLET HELL PC

RRootage Online is a version of the original PC rRootage, one of the finest productions from ABA Studios, which has one employee: the brilliant Kenta Cho.

Rrootage bullet hell