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Bullet Hell: Difference between revisions
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|[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v{{=}}oGAjtr8Cujw YouTube commenter] on ''[[Touhou]]'' [[Fan Work|Ultra mode]].}}
'''Bullet Hell''' (called ''danmaku'' or "barrage" - literally "bullet curtain" - in Japanese) shooters are a subgenre of [[Shoot'Em Up]]s that test both your dodging skills and your resistance to seizures. To put it simply, they're vertically scrolling shooters where all the enemies have ''[[More Dakka|lotsa (but not enuff) dakka]]''. They often feature extremely elaborate and beautiful patterns of bullet flows, especially for bosses, with hundreds and sometimes thousands of bullets on the screen at once, requiring constant weaving and pattern memorization in order to get the elusive [[Rank Inflation|S++ ranks]]. Not so [[Painfully-Slow Projectile|painfully slow]] when they ''cover the screen'', eh, tough guy? These games also tend to have [[True Final Boss]]es.
However, the genre is not always as [[Nintendo Hard]] as it seems. The player's [[Hitbox Dissonance|hitbox is often very small, sometimes only one pixel]]. In addition, [[A-Team Firing|the majority of enemy bullets are sprayed wildly and have no chance of actually hitting the player]]. Finally, the player is almost always given some variant of the [[Smart Bomb]], which will remove bullets from the screen. Most modern bullet hell games give the player another way to avoid being killed, such as hypers in ''[[Do Don Pachi]]'', ''[[Touhou]]''{{'}}s deathbombs, or ''[[Giga Wing]]''{{'}}s [[Attack Reflector]]. Though by no means easy, a bullet hell game can be cleared without memorizing patterns or continuing. In fact, Bullet Hell games tend to be just as difficult as older, less bullet-intensive games.
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{{examples|Known Bullet Hell shooters:}}
* ''[[Recca]]'', the [[Ur Example]]. On NES. And it goes even more hellish in the [[Harder Than Hard|Zanki Attack]] mode, where enemies explode into four or so [[Taking You with Me|suicide bullets]] when destroyed. But wait till they come in waves of ten to twenty...
** The main difference between Recca and most of the examples in this page, is that the bullets fill the screen ''
** You could cancel the bullets with your ship's bomb as it charges though...
* ''Batsugun'', one of [[Toaplan]]'s last games before they closed in 1994, is the [[Trope Maker]]. In fact, several members of Toaplan formed these companies after their closure: Cave (formed from the ''Batsugun'' team), [[Eighting Raizing|8ing/Raizing]], Takumi, and Gazelle.
* Almost anything ever produced by [[CAVE]], including ''[[Don Pachi]]'', ''DoDonPachi'' (the [[Trope Codifier]]) and especially later sequels, culminating in ''DoDonPachi Daifukkatsu''. Cave shooters typically have two loops. The first loop will look feasibly beatable. To get to the second, you usually have to not die and not use more than a couple bombs (or some variation on that). The second loop will be [[No One Could Survive That]]. At the end or after the end of the second loop (depending on the game), you ''finally'' go up against the [[True Final Boss]] who makes the ''entire rest of the game'' look like a cakewalk. And naturally, in most of these games, you have to beat the true boss to even see the "good" ending.
** Cave is almost infamous for creating its own niche of [[Nintendo Hard|hard games]], even by
*** Driving this point home is that shortly after ''Dai Ou Jou's'' release, the Black Label version was released (allegedly in response to some complaints from high-level players), and the notable changes were being able to keep your extra lives after the first loop and being permitted to continue on the last stage of loop 2 (both of which do NOT occur in the original release, which means running out of your initial stock of lives to Hibachi is a game over). They also added a separate 1-loop mode which ends with Hibachi (with continues permitted at any time) just so the veterans could actually get some practice against it.
** Behold a terror like nothing you have seen before. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsWhVhgEEV4&annotation_id=annotation_111728&feature=iv DoDonPachi Daifukkatsu Black Label Hibachi]. This is
*** Now Presenting: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4ca8RPBwOs&feature=watch_response ZATSUZA], [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHqN_fH2S7k&feature=related And in his Arcade Difficulty].
** On special content for Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu Black Label Retail Disc, comes a return of the Ketsui boss Evacaneer DOOM now known as HIVAC for this encounter, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH3pbDY5Khk and he's not happy to see you].
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** ''Guwange'', unique in that it uses a true [[Jidai Geki]] setting (compared to series like [[Touhou]]).
** ''ESP Ra.De'' and its [[Spiritual Successor]] ''Espgaluda''.
** ''Progear no Arashi'', or its [[No Export for You|Barely Any Export For You]] localized version ''Progear'', for Capcom?s CPS-2 arcade system. It has a [[Steampunk]] setting. It is also slightly unusual for the
*** Now we have its [[Spiritual Successor]] ''[[Akai Katana]]''.
* ''[[Ketsui]]'', and its DS [[Boss Rush]] port, ''Ketsui Death Label'' have bullets that will curve, multiply, pause, and perform all sorts of other behavior, as if they're organic bullets. ''Death Label'' is perhaps notable for being one of the first danmaku games to grace a portable system, something that one [[YouTube]] user describes as "bullet hell in your pocket."
* The ''[[Touhou]]'' games are perhaps the best known example of
** Even worse in that Yukari is generally considered one of the easier bonus bosses, especially compared to the likes of Flandre or Koishi.
** There's also [http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Touhou_Danmakufu Touhou Danmakufu] which allows you to create your own Touhou-style danmaku games, including bosses with custom-made spellcards.
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* The bosses of ''[[The Red Star]]'' all fit into this category, despite the fact that the game is a side-scrolling Beat'em Up.
* Some of the more.... ''[[Nintendo Hard|insane]]'' levels of the Gummi Ship sections in ''[[Kingdom Hearts]] 2'' get like this; [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEm1hsvo4vs&feature=related for example, this one], especially when the boss comes in.
** Of course, using the [[Game Breaker|Drain cannon]] turns half the bullets into ammo, letting Hunter-X feel the wrath of
* ''[http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/509592 Frantic 2]'' is basically a flash version of ''Touhou''. With bonus multipliers for grazing bullets.
** On the topic of Flash Games, if you play your cards right in [[Upgrade Complete]], you can inflict this on the opponent. Sweet, sweet, revenge...
*** [[Upgrade Complete|Upgrade Complete 2]] (yes, there is a second one)'s way of upgrading the ship makes it very easy to achieve [[More Dakka|all]] [[Beam Spam|three]] [[Macross Missile Massacre|kinds]] of projectile hell.
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* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100528083433/http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258550405/?bt=0&sb=1&mt=32&gu=66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258550405&p=1&of=0 You Will Die] is an indie game shooter for the Xbox 360 that consists of nothing but killing a boss over and over [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|until you die]]. Every time you kill it, it adds more parts and weapons onto itself and becomes stronger. The game starts out fairly tame, but quickly reaches bullet hell levels of difficulty if you can survive long enough.
* In [https://web.archive.org/web/20131010015817/http://bossrushgame.com/bossrush/ Boss Rush], you [[Perspective Flip|are the main cause of this]].
* ''[[Beat Hazard]]'' mixes
* ''[[In the Hunt]]'' is normally a shooter that doesn't give the player too many bullets on screen, and [[Shoot the Bullet|most of which can be destroyed]]... until you see the [[Final Boss]]'s "[[That One Attack|Indestructible Red Mines Attack]]" (starts at 1:11 [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCc8yyVwvPU here]). Coupled with the fact that your hitbox is kind of large, and you'll see why it's [[Nintendo Hard]]...
* ''[[Prismatic Solid]]'' will literally bombard the player with ridiculous storms of bullets that really only be defended by using the [[Attack Drone]] to shield your ship from enemy fire.
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