Publisher: SoulGame Studio
Developer: SoulGame Studio
Medium: Digital
Players: 1
Online: No
ESRB: Not Rated
I have to admit, the thing that drew me to Minishoot Adventures before playing it is that I saw it described as a “Zelda-Inspired Bullet Hell Metroidvania.” To me, those seem like wildly different genres, and I wondered how one game could bring them all together.
And then I played it, and you know what? It really is a Zelda-Inspired Bullet Hell Metroidvania.
Mind you, that description is missing one key descriptor. Minishoot Adventures is all of those things, but it’s also a twin-stick shooter. And even if you wouldn’t think you could easily mesh all those ideas into one game, when you see it in action, it all fits together nicely.
To be sure, some of those influences are more obvious than others. The Zelda part of the description comes from the fact that it’s sort of a dungeon-crawler, and if you squint just right – and, I guess, picture Link as a spaceship instead of himself – you can see how it borrows from the original Zelda games. You have a simple overworld with some enemies, and you use that to uncover and explore dungeons, each of which contains a treasure. It’s hardly a Zelda-specific formula, but the moment you enter the first dungeon, you can’t help but be reminded of the classic NES games with how it’s all laid out.
The Metroidvania aspect is a little more straightforward. The map is large enough, but you have to slowly build up your abilities in order to access all of it. It’s definitely a little frustrating to see parts of map and not be able to reach them, but at the same time, it constantly gives you something to work towards, in the tradition of the very best Metroidvanias.
And, of course, there’s the fact that Minishoot Adventures is a bullet-hell twin-stick shooter. You don’t have to look very hard to see that aspect of the game at all. Right from the get-go, you’ll find yourself dodging bullets from all angles, and the moment you unlock your own weapon not too long after, you’ll start firing back. Thankfully, the game makes both dodging and moving very easy, so it won’t take long for you to get into the rhythm of the game.
Obviously, all of this means that Minishoot Adventures doesn’t break any new ground – even if all these genres aren’t usually together, they’ve all been around long enough that it all feels familiar. But that’s also Minishoot Adventures’ biggest strength: it all feels so familiar that you can’t help but feel like you’re playing an old classic. Time will tell, of course, whether the game has the anything close to the same kind of staying power as its influences, but based on what’s on offer here, I don’t know that I’d bet against it.
SoulGame Studio provided us with a Minishoot Adventures PC code for review purposes.
