That is it, the primary recreation to just about make me throw my Playdate towards a wall. Angel Pop, a bullet hell shoot ‘em up that landed on the Playdate Catalog final month, is utter chaos. Taking part in as an cute little woman, you have to fend off a nonstop barrage of enemy fireplace over the course of 50-or-so ranges, attempting to clear every stage of all enemies inside a restricted span of time as projectiles bombard you from each path. It strikes at breakneck pace, and at some factors, there could also be as many as 1,000 objects on the display screen. Principally, it’s all the pieces an individual might need in a bullet hell, and I’m fully addicted.
Angel Pop actually exams the boundaries of the Playdate, with a lot occurring on display screen always, however it performs with spectacular smoothness. The sport is about in what developer NNNN describes as “a surreal dreamworld,” and the artwork juxtaposes the cartoonish participant character and enemies with moody backdrops like darkish cityscapes, to stunning impact. It actually nails the arcade really feel of issues.
It makes use of a mix of ever-changing issue and factors bonuses that offer you further lives to maintain issues difficult with out being completely unrewarding. You may begin out a spherical in Regular, however play a bit too effectively and you possibly can quickly end up in a a lot more durable mode. Or, there’s the choice to solely play in Nightmare mode, which locks the sport on the hardest issue setting (Loss of life). You need to use both the crank or the D-pad to manage the path of your bullets, that are limitless, and also you’ve bought a finite provide of bombs you could drop for close-range assaults while you’re in a troublesome spot.
Angel Pop makes an incredible case for shmups on Playdate, and I’m now impressed to go take a look at all of the others after principally taking part in slow-paced video games. It’s lots of enjoyable and lots of frustration — I’ve solely made it about midway by up to now, and there’s been lots of screaming concerned.