Five angels are all that stand between Gilverado and the forces of Hell. Unsurprisingly, you get to fight the good fight as one of said angels in Deathsmiles. Bullets will fill the screen as you attempt to survive the onslaught, either alone or with a friend, and some of these are apparently… beneficial. I swear, whenever angels and demons fight, logic immediately goes out the window.
That’s not to say this particular bullet hell plays nothing like other genre entries though because it most certainly does. I mean, sure, the rules for survival are a bit different in that while getting hit by a bullet does deduct a full life point, colliding with an enemy only costs half that. And then there are crazy things like ‘counter bullets’, which is where your familiar comes into play, acting as a score booster of sorts. But it is still, at its core, very much a game of ‘dodge stuff flying in your direction while shooting at everything that moves’. Good stuff.
Deathsmiles is CAVE’s bullet-hell shoot-’em-up where you take the role of one of five Angels to defend the magical land of Gilverado from an invasion by Hell itself! Team up with a friend, choose an angel, and eradicate this devilish assault across six different game modes!
On top of that, Deathsmiles seem to divert further from the norm with nonlinear progression through its many different stages. Interesting. Oh, and how about six different modes, including the super challenging Mega Black Label? Plenty of challenge awaits those who seek it, allowing players to crank up the difficulty setting to… rank 999.
Deathsmiles is available from Steam, carrying a $19.99 price tag.