Terror Squid review for Nintendo Switch, PC

For what it is, Terror Squid is fine. It?s a bullet hell shooter with one gameplay mode that looks like it could?ve come out on early arcade machines, and…well, that?s pretty much all there is to it.

On some level, that simplicity is admirable. Given how games often try to shoehorn in multiple modes or needlessly extend the amount of time you spend playing them, it?s kind of neat to play a game that doesn?t do any of that. Terror Squid does one thing, and it does it very well. You fly around a planet, bullets flying out the back of your ship, and as they circle around the planet forever your navigation gets harder. You can explode some of your bullets, but, obviously, as soon as you pass 15 or 20 seconds, and the bullet patterns start getting more complex, the screen becomes a non-stop cascade of bullets coming at your ship in all directions.

That?s literally all there is to the game though. There are high-score leaderboards where you can track your progress against other people, but there?s just the one way of playing the game. To be fair, it?s not as if arcade bullet hell shooters lend themselves to all kinds of different gameplay styles, but it still makes the game feel a little lacking in content.

Of course, if you just want some retro-y arcade bullet hell action, then that?s not going to bother you too much. Terror Squid may not have variety, but as I said, it does one thing very well — which is one more thing done well than many games can muster.

Apt Games provided us with a Terror Squid Switch code for review purposes.