Bullet Hell Artistry #9: Unorthodox Firepower

Contestant: Asthmagician
Judge: Loann Fox

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My English is weak! Please be aware of that.

My judging criteria has been posted in the #judging-criteria channel in BHE.
 
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=========== General Score ===========
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1. Game Design: [22/25]
2. Game Experience: [41/50]
3. Game Aesthetics: [20/25]
4. Bonus (if present): [0]
Result: [83/100]

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============= Comments ==============
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1. ---------- Game Design: ----------

	Simple ideas almost guarantee a successful result and there's no reason to avoid that. I respect such decisions. Changing attack type depending on movement direction is also a very simple and practical idea for a shmup, since you have to constantly focus on dodging bullets. But attacks doesn't feel unique enough to make a decent difference nor the boss give you opportunity to make use of some attacks.

2. -------- Game Experience: --------

	All patterns are solid and balanced. Learning boss weak phases is also very simple: Patterns help you to memorize them by being repetitive, which is good.

A big problem I experienced was trying to figure out how to use the attack button. For some reason it wasn't easy to activate attack; it wouldn't shoot despite fulfilling requirements. As a result I figured a new way to generate a successful attack each time: You have to hold attack button and then free it once the attack is charged to shoot.

3. -------- Game Aesthetics: --------

	 Pretty sweet, but I'm not a fan of some design choices. If there's no idea on how to design one thing or another, it's always safer to go with the minimalistic design. One detail I love A LOT is being able to choose a skin for a player that changes the outfit and player bullets. I think I have never seen something like that in a shmup before.