Game Review #357: Rolling Gunner (Nintendo Switch)
Reviewer: WoodmanFLG
Developer: Mebius.
Publisher: Mebius.
Category: Shoot ‘Em Up, Arcade
Release Date: 6.20.2019
Price (at time of review): $19.99
Buy Rolling Gunner from the Nintendo Switch eShop here.
Enter the Flow
There’s a screen full of bullets. You move centimeters around the hail of lasers and bullets in a desperate attempt to last a few more seconds against the wall of death coming at you! It’s at this point you feel your mind relax, your reactions become precise. You have entered the flow: the alternate dimension of intense gaming skill that we can occasionally all draw from. We’ve all been there, believe it or not, and shoot ‘em up games are one of the games that really force you to focus that hard; and it’s one of the prime reasons I love the genre!
Intense bouts of concentration that get rewarded with huge explosions and a great sense of success. The JP’S SWITCHMANIA crew knows I love my shoot ‘em ups, so once this game came in, they knew it had to be for me! Rolling Gunner is an exciting shoot ‘em up game that borders on Bullet Hell, in which you—now brace yourselves, this is REALLY unique for a shoot ‘em up—pilot the newest, most powerful ship in order to save the world. Surprising right? But we aren't here for the story, we are here for nail biting action and narrow misses! Let's break down Rolling Gunner for everyone!
Rolling Around at the Speed of Lasers
Every game has to have a shtick, and this game has the titular rolling gunner. The rolling gunner is a bit that essentially rotates around your ship as you move, and it fires along with your main ship shot. There are three different ships that have different shot patterns, and you will have to figure out which one suits you best! Do you want a really narrow but focused fire pattern, or do you want to be able to hit everything in front of you without much care for aiming, but bosses and strong enemies will take a little longer to take down?
When you fire, you can either do your normal fire, where your ship shoots forward, and even while moving your rolling gunner freely rotates around your ship, allowing you to quickly react to the fast enemies coming from any direction, or you can use a focused fire which will lock the rolling gunner in position and switch to a very focused bullet pattern. This is great for either focusing fire on a single target, or if you know you are only having enemies flow in from two positions, this allows you to tackle both of those at the same time efficiently, whereas the other normal firing mode would have you constantly attempting to reposition your rolling gunner.
Knowing when to use which firing mode is extremely important to your success, so don't be afraid to experiment! In your arsenal, you also have a limited-ammo screen-clearing bomb—it's there to save your ass, not kill enemies, remember that! You can also use a bomb to power yourself up briefly and give your shots super power, which will allow you to take down bosses as fast as possible.
Trying to keep you feeling good!
This game has a few quality-of-life additions to it that I really love: when your screen is full of bullets, the game will show you exactly where your hit box is so you can make no mistakes, and if you get hit and still have bombs left, it will use a bomb instead of killing you and taking a life, giving you another chance. This game’s graphics aren’t anything too fancy, just standard 3-D arcade-looking graphics, but the designs of all the ships, worlds, and enemies are awesome and pleasing to look at! I especially enjoyed some of the giant mecha-suit bosses—surprise, surprise… who would have thought that? The music is good, electronic beats for you to make minute adjustments through waves of lasers and bullets too, but I can’t think of any really stand-out songs at this point—but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing!
Wrapping Up
Rolling Gunner is an awesome shoot ‘em up, good for both fans of the genre and newcomers. With its casual mode where you have infinite lives, you can play at your own pace, but the REAL goodness is on normal mode and above, once you get good enough to handle it. There isn’t much else that feels quite as good as taking down a hard level in a bullet hell—it's pretty hard to recreate! I absolutely recommend you put this great shooter in your library!
Score: 8/10
Buy Rolling Gunner from the Nintendo Switch eShop here.
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*Review Code Provided by Mastiff