Deathsmiles is an all-around excellent horizontal shoot-em-up. Its gameplay is straightforward and easy to get into, with a range of difficulty possibilities and modes to appeal to different skill levels. The flexible level order and difficulty, different combat options, multiple endings per character, and more make for a game that’s super fun to replay over and over—been doing just that this week and definitely plan to continue.

The game’s anime-witch-gothic-Halloween aesthetic situation is a great one, with cool (and occasionally absurd) enemies and bosses, and a solid variety of memorable levels. There is quite a bit of memorable art here, and the music is great too. The bullet hell chaos never really feels excessively hard to read or messy, even on a higher difficulty, with clear visual language and colors. Some 3D animation definitely hasn’t aged amazingly and would have been better as sprite art.

The Steam version includes Deathsmiles Mega Black Label, which brings additional content, balance changes, an extra playable character, and more. This is probably my favorite mode overall, since that added character is strong and fun to use, and the added optional level is good. The Normal mode based on the Xbox 360 version and the 1.1 update mode are both a blast as well with their own unique quirks.

The minimal story stuff that’s here in-game is nothing amazing, but surprisingly coherent compared to similar games I’ve played. There is definitely a liiiittle bit of weirdness around how some underage girl characters are portrayed. While it’s not extremely inappropriate, it’s worth noting as something potentially off-putting.

This game is instantly fun and leaves lots of room to keep going after your first few clears. Its quality stays consistent throughout, and its relatively easy baseline difficulty makes it an ideal game for those interested in bullet hell shooters.