• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.

BLUE REVOLVER is legit one of the best Manic Shooters ever made and everyone slept on it.

Kalmakov

user requested ban
Banned
Sep 10, 2019
1,300

Released in 2016, BLUE REVOLVER is a love-letter to Manic Shooters of the late 90s and early 00s. Featuring several allusions to CAVE games, Blue Revolver features five-stages of bullet-hell bliss, with some tight as hell gameplay and plenty of variety to tackle each playthrough.

Now, I genuinely love STGs, and I consider myself a bit of a connoisseur (my personal favorite being Progear). I've played a expansive number of Manic Shooters over the years, and I can confidently say Blue Revolver is one of the best ever made. You can feel the love for the genre pouring out of the game (the first level itself is a tribute to one of the greats 'DoDonPachi') and the design of the game is sublime. Each second feels tightly constructed and the game is paced perfectly. The music is frantic and insane, perfectly fitting the tone of the game and the pacing of the gameplay. This is up there for me with games like Ikaruga and Radiant Silvergun. It's stupid good.

The art, illustrated by one of my personal art idols Eric Muentes aka woof, is impeccable. Just look at this shit, man.
l9dzRh.png

CugH67MW8AA9mtd.jpg


If you haven't played Blue Revolver, you are actively doing yourself a disservice. You're robbing yourself of one of the best STG experiences ever crafted.

The game currently has an updated version in development called BLUE REVOLVER: DOUBLE ACTION that boasts to offer even more features in what I already consider a perfect game.


Do NOT let this game fly under your radar.
 
Last edited:
bounchfx

bounchfx

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,654
Muricas
I bought it because of the other thread I saw here. It looks awesome but I am not nearly good enough to be able to appreciate the game like it sounds like I should. the art is gorgeous. kind of wish it was on switch so I had more time to play it.

edit: Turns out I was thinking of Zero Ranger, which I also heard amazing things about. Game kicks my ass. I do have Blue Revolver too but I guess I've only put in 15 minutes. Gonna play more now.
 
OP
OP

Kalmakov

user requested ban
Banned
Sep 10, 2019
1,300
bounchfx said:
I bought it because of the other thread I saw here. It looks awesome but I am not nearly good enough to be able to appreciate the game like it sounds like I should. the art is gorgeous. kind of wish it was on switch so I had more time to play it.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Switch port would be incredible but I'm sure the small team of, like, five have enough under their belt with the update and their new game.
 
Jintor

Jintor

Saw the truth behind the copied door
Member
Oct 25, 2017
32,402
I liked Zero Ranger better but Blue Revolver is dope too. I have to finish it at some point
 
OmegaDL50

OmegaDL50

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,653
Philadelphia, PA
Thinking of the title and reference to Cave reminds me of another awesome STG called Blue Wish and it's sequel Blue Wish Resurrection Plus.

Both were Doujin freeware releases from Comiket many years ago. In fact BWRS came out back in 2008 so we are talking more than a decade ago.

Still it's an awesome game and deserves a download, doesn't hurt the fact the game is absolutely free.
 
SoH

SoH

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,733
Where is the lie though?

We've been getting some solid indie STGs here and there the past couple years.
 
OP
OP

Kalmakov

user requested ban
Banned
Sep 10, 2019
1,300
OmegaDL50 said:
Thinking of the title and reference to Cave reminds me of another awesome STG called Blue Wish and it's sequel Blue Wish Resurrection Plus.

Both were Doujin freeware releases from Comiket many years ago. In fact BWRS came out back in 2008 so we are talking more than a decade ago.

Still it's an awesome game and deserves a download, doesn't hurt the fact the game is absolutely free.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I've heard of this but I haven't checked it out yet, now seems like a great time!
 
Naga

Naga

Alt account
Banned
Aug 29, 2019
7,850
It's a great game. Looking forward to the update/expansion to finally be released.
 
eddiemunstr

eddiemunstr

Member
Jan 20, 2019
1,530
I've had this on my wishlist for years but never picked it up usually due to some other shmup (or other games during a steam sale) being on sale cheaper. Recently I have been back in the mood to play shmups and I noticed i just missed Dariusburst on sale for half off by a few days and I'm really kicking myself over that. I had no idea the game had an update on the way so thats pretty cool, it could finally be the push that makes me get the game.
 
nemorrhoids

nemorrhoids

Member
Oct 22, 2018
384
This is an incredibly well made game. I'm terribly impatient with SHMUPs though, so I've never appreciated it to the fullest. Perhaps I should rectify that soon.
 

Deleted member 1190

User-requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
5,663
I have never heard the term manic shooter before, always just heard them called bullet hell's. Is it common?
 

rawhide

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,003
Skab said:
I have never heard the term manic shooter before, always just heard them called bullet hell's. Is it common?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

No, but it's a term that's sometimes used for fast-paced games with lots of bullets that aren't necessarily doing the huge bullet curtain thing, or just by people who don't like the connotations of "bullet hell" or "danmaku".
 
Gevurztraminer

Gevurztraminer

Member
Dec 14, 2017
1,351
Haven't played a STG in a while, will pick this up. Thanks for the recommendation OP, looks like a lot of fun!
 
OP
OP

Kalmakov

user requested ban
Banned
Sep 10, 2019
1,300
eddiemunstr said:
I've had this on my wishlist for years but never picked it up usually due to some other shmup (or other games during a steam sale) being on sale cheaper. Recently I have been back in the mood to play shmups and I noticed i just missed Dariusburst on sale for half off by a few days and I'm really kicking myself over that. I had no idea the game had an update on the way so thats pretty cool, it could finally be the push that makes me get the game.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Please, please do. This game is incredible
 
1upsuper

1upsuper

Member
Jan 30, 2018
5,485
It's pretty good. Looks and sounds great. I'm a huge shmup fan but I'm not too keen on bullet hells. I've been waiting to give it another shot whenever the Black Label update finally comes out.
 

Deleted member 13560

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
3,087
Cyanity said:
Do you die in one hit? If so, no wonder no one bought it
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Do you lose a life for getting hit? Yes. But it doesn't start the stage over. Do you have to start over after continuously getting hit. Yes. Just like with any other genres. But these games have credit feed modes and different difficulty modes to help you get to the end of the game without have to start stages over, but at the cost of have your score not be recorded and or reset. With a lot of these games you are in control of how difficult you make it.

But this seemed like a snarky post so I'm not really answering you. I'm hopefully stopping misinformation from spreading.
 
Cyanity

Cyanity

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,345
Rayge said:
Do you lose a life for getting hit? Yes. But it doesn't start the stage over. Do you have to start over after continuously getting hit. Yes. Just like with any other genres. But these games have credit feed modes and different difficulty modes to help you get to the end of the game without have to start stages over, but at the cost of have your score not be recorded and or reset. With a lot of these games you are in control of how difficult you make it.

But this seemed like a snarky post so I'm not really answering you. I'm hopefully stopping misinformation from spreading.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Sorry if I came off as snarky, I'm just sick of bullet hell style games refusing to evolve past the "get hit once and immediately die" gameplay. There's so much potential for these games beyond pretty bullet patterns, but no one in recent memory has bothered to step up to the plate.

Here's an example of a game that does it, IMO, right:



Tyrian has upgradeable weapons, armor, shields, etc, and almost nothing in the game kills you in one hit. But there are like 6+ difficulty settings that change enemies and bullet patterns up and make the game way harder....all without resorting to the "die in one hit" trope.

I'm not saying that Blue Revolver is a bad game, just that I wish modern bullet hells would step away from the tired genre tropes and make the games more accessible for a less hardcore audience.
 
Dphex

Dphex

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,811
Cologne, Germany
OmegaDL50 said:
Thinking of the title and reference to Cave reminds me of another awesome STG called Blue Wish and it's sequel Blue Wish Resurrection Plus.

Both were Doujin freeware releases from Comiket many years ago. In fact BWRS came out back in 2008 so we are talking more than a decade ago.

Still it's an awesome game and deserves a download, doesn't hurt the fact the game is absolutely free.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...


would rather play a Cave shooter tbh, i remember playing BWR, it has bullet cancelling, when killing the enemy the bullets are gone which is not so great challenge wise.

if someone has no problem with bullet canceling, Shikhondo is fairly decent too, it is also out for PS4(but these games are better played with a stick and a small distance between stick and monitor on a desk anyways)




for Blue Revolution, unfortunately no idea how it is, i have no PC anymore-but from the footage it looks good.

when i want some danmaku action these days i hook up my japanese Xbox 360 and play some Cave stuff or a playthrough of Eschatos which i consider to be one of the beat shmups ever made.
 
PepsimanVsJoe

PepsimanVsJoe

Member
Oct 26, 2017
6,120
SoH

SoH

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,733
I mean if we really want to get into it a lot of shmups give you a health bar of 3 (lives), that can be extended through scoring and secrets. And the good ones are designed to be recoverable by the setback of a death.

If you don't like that design approach that is fine. Presenting it like if your preferences were catered to more then obviously games would sell more is not exactly saying much outside believing your tastes are more popular. Especially considering even general folks on an enthusiast video game forum don't give a shit about that level of minutia in these games in terms of more sales and will buy shit like Sine Mora as the one game they check in on the genre with because it is pretty.

Cyanity said:
no one in recent memory has bothered to step up to the plate.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Raiden V has a shield meter that ticks down on hits rather than instant death and it is about as big budget of a shmup as they come these days.

4uSxv4M.gif
 
SilentStorm

SilentStorm

Member
Apr 14, 2019
1,913
Day one buyer here for this game, and yes yes yes, the game just looked good when i saw some previews of it but actually playing it led to a much more fun game, this game just clicked with me and i have always been sad it didn't get more attention.

Also anxiously waiting for the update, but they are sadly a small team making an update for a game that seems to have sadly flown under the radar, so i can kinda see that dragging the pace a little.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.