Rolling Gunner

Kudos to Mebius for creating an entry in the genre that does so much to welcome newcomers into the fold whilst at the same time offering a blisteringly difficult challenge with plenty of hidden depth to hardened warriors looking for their next shooter addiction.

If you call yourself a fan of bullet hell shoot ‘em ups then you owe it to yourself to play Rolling Gunner + Over Power. While there isn’t much here for extra modes what is here is an absolute action-packed treat. It’s got challenging gameplay, great art and sound design, and the Over Power DLC makes the game feel completely different to play from the base game. When people talk about what are some of the best shoot ‘em ups, Rolling Gunner deserves to be among them.

If Rolling Gunner was already a title with a good reception and packaging, within its cave of users, this edition with the addition of 'Over Power', what comes is to expand, loosen and satisfy more users of direct action and fast games . Rolling Gunner was already an excellent bullet-hell shmup, more accessible and open than it was a couple of decades ago, although tough nonetheless. And now an edition is released on PlayStation 4 that with this '+' scales even better between casual quick games, all kinds of challenges and settings, and the extreme challenge that those pros of the subgenre demand. The neo retro is not only offering games that polish and tweak past mechanics, but also knowing how to make steps in them so that anyone stays, or goes up, to the one they prefer.

‎If you have finished playing, you can play the game again with, for example, another ship. There are three to choose from. Although you might not be better off doing that right away, because the soundtrack is rather uplifting and intense, which is good, by the way. And it fits this type of game. Real negatives are therefore not present, except for the relatively short playing time. With an hour you can blast yourself to the credits. But hey then you are a beautiful experience richer. Thank you developer Mebius.‎

For shoot ’em up fans, Rolling Gunner + Overpower truly is a treat. Everything about it – from visuals to gameplay – is top-notch, ensuring that you have a big grin on your face from the moment you boot it up until you decide to turn it off. But the amount of difficulty options here, and the features introduced by the Overpower DLC, make this accessible to newcomers, too. We reckon this will be remembered as a classic in years to come.

Don’t let its somewhat drab exterior fool you, Rolling Gunner is worth a look for genre professionals and up-and-comers alike. Its the kind of game that, despite only being six stages long, I can see myself returning to for a long time coming.

Rolling Gunner is a Japanese bullet hell shoot ’em up. The game may have limited staying power, as it only has six stages. The four difficulty levels and three ship variants can certainly keep you busy for a while. If you like going for high scores, it will probably keep you busy much longer. I’ve beaten the game on three of the four difficulty modes, and that took two to three hours of total gameplay. The game is available now on the Nintendo Switch eShop for $19.99. There is also a PC version, but it is only available through two Japanese distributors, which you can find out about on the official website. Can you survive the grueling onslaughts of bullets and stop the BAC computer?

Rolling Gunner features classic arcade shoot 'em up gameplay that's as tight and challenging as its visuals are flashy.

Rolling Gunner is a fairly standard shooter, taking some elements and working on making them polished enough so that players of any skill levels could get used to shooting games, while experts can challenge themselves on the higher difficulties or by limiting themselves to getting as far as possible on one credit. It may not do anything new, but it serves as a fun, solid shooter for score chasing fans who enjoy these old-school games.