Blue Revolver (2016)

Blue Revolver is an incredibly well made shmup crafted with tons of love that draws heavy inspirations from CAVE's games and manic shmups alike. Being a huge fan of shmups, I'm surprised this went under my radar when it was first released back in 2016. I only just finished my first score run of it about two weeks ago and this isn't really a review so much as why I greatly enjoyed it or even a recommendation.

Generally, shmups only have so much outside of just its gameplay mechanics or difficulty that it's hard to recommend them unless you're already a fan of the genre. Especially bullet hells. Blue Revolver, however, is friendly to fans and newcomers alike, allowing you to choose three difficulty settings: a standard difficulty, an adaptive difficulty that changes based on how well you're doing, and a difficulty that locks itself at the highest possible difficulty at all times. With two characters/ships to choose from, each with three shot types and four special weapon configurations, the game offers plenty of variety for both standard and scoring players in regards to how one will tackle the game's five stages and bosses. Every stage is solidly designed at all difficulties and offer plenty of challenges based on your ship/weapon configuration while boasting incredible and intense soundtracks. A practice mode lets you enjoy or learn any of these stages at any point in time without having to actually clear them in a run to prepare yourself for the one continue clear or a clean score run. Lastly, Blue Revolver has missions that offer challenges that help you get familiar with the games mechanics and teaches you how to "score", a task that so many initially find daunting, yet I think is one of the most incredible aspects of shmups as it really demonstrates an individual game's mechanics and uniqueness in the genre.

It's very easy to tell this game was made with tons of love for the shmup and STG genre and is definitely a gem that shouldn't be overlooked by fans and an easy one to recommend to newcomers who find the genre and difficulty a bit intimidating to get into.