PixlBit

There’s one important question you have to ask yourself before bothering to read this review: do you like bullet hell shoot-‘em-ups? If the answer is no, save yourself the trouble and move on. If the answer is yes, or “What the hell is a bullet hell shoot-‘em-up?” please proceed, though the next paragraph might be more than enough for you.

Your basic bullet hell shoot-‘em-up is a standard shoot-‘em-up kicked up a notch, featuring far more enemies and advanced bullet patterns that blanket the entire screen. Players must navigate their vessel through the weaves of bullets, avoiding getting hit and subsequently losing their life and built up score. The games are made in the arcade style, giving players a set amount of life, and forcing a Continue and score refresh upon death.

NeoGeo Heroes Ultimate Shooting falls squarely in this genre, but like most, it puts a small spin on the basic concept to differentiate it from the crowd. Here, players have the ability to choose between ten unique characters, all of which have their own special move and a particular fire pattern that both looks unique and damages those in its path differently.

This is a fairly standard set of features for this type of game, so what truly sets it apart, from my experience, is the ability to taunt enemies on the screen. When taunting, the screen goes red and players both score and damage enemies more, though enemies and their bullet patterns move faster and can more quickly and easily kill you. Since the main goal of these types of games is all about getting the highest score, this ability allows players to post much higher scores if they can handle the heat.

I’m no expert at shooters of this style, but after playing quite a few of them, I’ve gotten at least decent. That being said, taunting is challenging as hell, and won’t likely be an accessible move to any entrant to the genre. As such, the game is truly made exclusively for hardcore enthusiasts, though other aspects of the game are likely to sit poorly with said crowd.

The levels in NeoGeo Heroes Ultimate Shooting are extremely short, and they all conclude with a boss fight that features a different character from the NeoGeo universe. The short levels are also a bit on the bland side until players reach the fifth level tier, which features five unique levels. Unfortunately, this is the last tier, and in order to unlock them all, players will have to replay a number of levels.

The boss fights are very hit or miss, with some featuring well-defined, conquerable patterns, while others are so random and unpredictable I don’t see how even a veteran of the genre could manage to stay alive. The well-patterned bosses are a joy as they allow players to build a strategy for success and replay them until they can be beaten with ease. The more random ones feel cheap and insurmountable, which really puts a damper on trying to achieve high scores because you are likely to die.

While I’ve found myself still enjoying the game anyway, it’s almost solely because I’ve detached any concern about scoring high, and instead focused on completing all of the levels in the game to the best of my ability. It’s likely that most will have to enjoy the game in this manner to truly appreciate what it offers.

One thing I did find really great about the game were the large variety of options available, as well as some of the extra material outside of the main quest. To begin with, players have full access to KOF Sky Stage, which NeoGeo Heroes Ultimate Shooting is a spiritual successor to. The game was released earlier this year in the arcades and on XBLA making for a really nice 10-level addition to Ultimate Shooting. The boss rush mode, known as Challenge Mode is also a nice option to have, specifically for practicing against the toughest parts of the game. Multiplayer online competitions are another included feature, and though they are a pretty cool idea, they aren’t all that exciting.

From the options menu, players can choose to progress through the game either vertically or horizontally; a pretty wild idea for this genre, though it’s handled well thanks to the wide screen on the PSP. Players can also select a flexible control scheme for either screen orientation, as the game allows players to manually set-up the buttons for the game.

While all of these options and extras are great, NeoGeo Heroes Ultimate Shooting doesn’t stand up to others in the genre, like Deathsmiles. Don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t mean it’s a bad game, and unquestionably, it’s unrivaled in the portable market. If you have a PSP and love bullet hell shmups, NeoGeo Heroes Ultimate Shooting is a no-brainer.