This is the first game that almost made me throw my Playdate against a wall. Pop angelA bullet hell shooter that hit Playdate's catalogue last month, it's complete mayhem. Playing as an adorable little girl, you must fend off a non-stop barrage of enemy fire across around 50 levels, trying to clear each stage of all enemies in a limited amount of time as projectiles bombard you from all directions. It moves at breakneck speed, and at some points there can be as many as 1,000 objects on the screen. It's basically everything a person could want in a bullet hell, and I'm completely addicted.
Pop angel It really tests the limits of Playdate, with so much going on on screen at all times, but it plays with impressive fluidity. The game is set in what developer NNNN describes as “a surreal dream world”, and the art juxtaposes the player character and cartoonish enemies with moody backgrounds like dark cityscapes, to beautiful effect. It really captures the arcade feel of things.
He It uses a combination of ever-changing difficulty and point bonuses that give you extra lives to keep things challenging without making it completely fruitless. You can start a round in Normal mode, but play a little also Well, you might soon find yourself in a much harder mode. Or, there's the option to play only in Nightmare mode, which locks the game at the highest difficulty level (Death). You can use the crank or D-pad to control the direction of your bullets, which are unlimited, and you have a finite supply of bombs you can throw for close-range attacks when you're in a tight spot.
Pop angel It's a good argument for shmups on Playdate, and I'm now inspired to go check out all the others after playing mostly slow-paced games. It's a lot of fun and very frustrating – I'm only halfway through so far, and there's been a lot of yelling.
