Welcome to our review of Hundred Bullets, a small yet satisfying puzzle game, exclusive to Xbox.
Hundred Bullets is a twist on a SHMUP, it’s Don’t Shoot Yourself Up. In this re-invention of the SHMUP genre as a puzzle, dodge a hundred of your own bullets and encounter your own actions as the enemy. You control the bullet pattern, can you outsmart the walls that surround you? Navigate through your own inner conflict with this minimalist brain teaser. Survive to find that one piece of the puzzle that will help you break through the barrier.
Both incredibly inventive and highly frustrating at the same time, Hundred Bullets does its name great disservice as it should really have been called Hundred Bullets From Hell. It is by far one of the most inventive approaches to a puzzle games I have ever seen as you maneuver your way through your own freshly created bullet hell. Luckily you are faced with some options as to make life easier or not.
Three different level settings, from rather easy to rather easily dead, Hundred Bullets does sing the song of the perseverance loving shmup over, but do not despair, as this game is often much easier than you would think, there really is a pattern in this self created madness of a game. The bullets do die out over time and if you time things right, that circle you are in, it is actually your way out of the level. Just stay to the sides and do not go full speed. Letting those bullets die so by the time you have gone ’round the block, the road ahead is empty again, allowing you to fire off your remaining bullets into the void you have behind you.
At times, you need to go fast, the surroundings will move around you and you need to get from one side to the next in order not to get stuck in a small corner with a few dozen bullets coming right for you, this game really takes some planning and when that does not work, pure luck is always handy. Personally, I think this is an amazing game and it is kind of sad this is an Xbox exclusive, I would love this game on Switch for example, and play it on the go, it just screams portability to me.
Hundred Bullets is a really fun game to play, be it may be a little repetitive for very long periods. In the end, regardless of how your surroundings change, the principle is always the exact same, but that is fine.
In conclusion, Hundred Bullets is an amazing bullet hell shooter turned into a puzzle! I just love it. If this game had not been 2 years old already, this could have been my pick for Indie of the Year.
