Posted in: Games, Review, Video Games | Tagged: Bullet Soul, game review

'Bullet Soul' Is A Perfect Example Of Wasted Efforts

Published Fri, 07 Apr 2017 15:45:37 -0500

I usually don't expect much from top-down shooters, but considering how much effort people put into indie titles these days, I'd at least like a little depth into why I'm in a plane or a boat shooting everything in my way. It gives me a sense of purpose and adventure and makes me want to try again when I fail. I wish I could say the same for Bullet Soul, which seems to have a lot of the first and little of the second.

Originally an Xbox Live title, the game itself doesn't contain a story, or at least whatever story they're trying to tell isn't made clear at all. You play as one of three space fighters with your own jet. One looks like a pirate, one a space police woman, and the third a king. You'll go through five stages, each with their own sets of bosses and mini-challenges to defeat enemies along the way and save our little section of the galaxy from some kind of threat. I'm not making it up when I tell you that beyond killing stuff in your way, the objects isn't made clear unless you speak Japanese and listen to the small cut scene dialog that's provided when you beat the game.

Aside from the graphics of the game itself and the Japan-rock soundtrack, there's nothing here that makes Bullet Soul any different from others in the genre. You shoot things with one of two guns, they drop bonuses. You pick up bonuses, your guns improve, you shoot more things, get more bonuses, your guns improve… and so on. You get three bombs to drop wherever you'd like when things get rough, but usually that's only when you hit the boss levels where you'll need to find a weak point.

The game has one major flaw to it that made the game pretty easy. I can sit at the bottom of the level and hold one of the buttons down and then just shift side-to-side waiting for bullets to go past or die off. If I kill an enemy, they fade away. If I somehow die, I can come right back to where I left off, even on a continue. And all of my bombs are replenished and my bonuses are floating nearby, so it's like nothing happened. That's not a challenge, that's a waste of time. Especially when you see the game has 69 achievements attached to it, which now feels like busy work.

Bullet Soul is just a quick top-down shooter thrown together using new graphics and no new stories. It isn't even good for the genre it's in as its too short and too easy to beat, and going co-op would just make the time go by quicker. Save your money and find a better one.

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