''Tell me,do you Bleed?'' You Will.
With that line out of the way and with the incoming lawsuit against me for using it(Sorry WB/DC!). What do you get when you cross classic 8-16bit Contra style shooter and put it in the form of a twin stick shooter? You get Bleed for Nintendo Switch!
Developed by Bootdisk Revolution and published by Digerati, Bleed is an adrenaline fueled fast paced action twin stick shooter platformer in which you take the role as a would be hero aiming to get as many kills as she can in order to gain notoriety among her peers.
In this game you play as a female named Wryn who so badly wants to be as good,if not better,than the heroes she looks up to. When disaster strikes and six of the greatest heroes ever known to the world get turned into evil versions of themselves and become villains, Wryn takes it upon herself to save the world and prove that she is the ultimate hero,above all the rest.
Gameplay:
If you have any pre-conceived notions of how you think a shooter should play like,control wise, then slap yourself in the head because you will be completely wrong. The controls in this game are a bit of a paradox, most platforming shooters require you to jump with an A or B button with the other face buttons acting as a menu,but not this game. In this game you jump with ZR and shoot with the right stick and move your character with the left stick.
Controlling your character and shooting in this game when you first start your adventure feels extremely cumbersome and doesn't feel natural. This might throw people off initially and maybe even discourage them from playing the game further,but I implore you to play on through it and get used to the controls because when you do,the experience is absolutely thrilling and controls start to feel very fluid and natural!
Levels/Weapons:
In this game you push through 7 action packed levels,mowing down poison bubbles,flying monsters,giant mech spiders and many other baddies along the way. Each level has their own variety and design to them,no level feels the same and each level holds their own by adding in a different gimmick,such as: Moving train where you have to maneuver between the top of the train to the passenger section to avoid getting hit,rotating room that rotates and spins objects and other deadly hazards towards any direction you go in.
During your level completions you will slay MANY enemies and gain experience points/credits to use in order to upgrade weapons or acquire new weapons and buffs for your character. For instance you can use credits to purchase upgrades to your health and slow motion bar which lets you slow down time for a fraction of a second to gain the advantage against your enemies or purchase some new weapons such as a flamethrower,mines or lasers,pick your poison!
Replayability:
I mentioned before that this game is only 7 levels long,yes that is indeed true,this game is VERY short and it can be beaten inside an hour on an easy or normal difficulty. However there's multiple difficulty settings that will up the ante for you if you find the first two difficult settings too easy. Look no further than the hard difficulty and very hard difficulties for additional play time for your runs.
If that doesn't tickle your fancy then head over to the extra's menu and give Arcade mode a try. In Arcade mode you have to attempt to play through the entire game only using one life on any difficult you wish to attempt it on. Its a mode that will give anyone,including old school gamers a run for their money and it should add countless hours to the games replayability to beat your best scores and show off to your friends.
Challenge mode is another form of replayability for this game,this one acts more as an endurance mode. In this mode you pick between three bosses you wish to face back to back to back(A,B,C,) and select the difficulty and venue/arena you wish to attempt this in. The further you advance in the main story will determine which set of bad guys will you be able to attempt to fight, so beat the main story to unlock all possibilities!
Lastly there is the character select mode that lets you pick from 1 to 4 different playable characters in the game to play as,but 3 of the 4 can only be unlocked by completing a specific objective
Character #1: Wryn is your default character
Character #2: Unlocked when beating the game on normal mode
Character #3: Unlocked when beating the game on hard mode
Character #4: Unlocked when beating the game on very hard or easy on arcade mode
Environment/Art:
The art style of the game reminds me of a whimsical version of an old NewGrounds game,only extremely well done and super polished. The design and art direction doesnt take anything to new heights or set the world on fire for the action shooter genre,but for what it attempts to do,it pulls off well enough in a simplistic manner.
Overall thoughts:
At the end of the day Bleed doesn't change anything up in the platforming shooter genre and doesn't tread new ground,but what it does offer you is fast paced shooting action that will please any fans of the genre,new or old. With a great soundtrack,great fast paced game play,good replayability,only the games overall story length holds it back. If you're a fan of action shooters, I definitely recommend giving this game a look and a purchase.
Bleed is out now on Nintendo Switch
Pros:
-Replayability
-Fast paced action
-Music
-Level variety
Cons:
-Story length
or
9/10
*Review code provided by Digerati
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