There is no more appropriately named genre than bullet hell. Known in Japan as Danmaku – or barrage shooters, this sub-genre of shoot’em ups is known for throwing hundreds of bullets at the player, to the point of the hardware slowing down. Everything, from the pace, to the blood pumping music and the incoming curtains of enemy fire, gets turned up to eleven in these frenetic titles.
For a niche genre from the arcade era, bullet hells have remained a prominent influence on games as diverse as Nier: Automata, Undertale and Returnal. Beginners play to survive, pros play to achieve high scores and mythic 1CC status (through feats such as clearing the game with a single credit and no continues). As misunderstood as they are relatively unknown (some are Japan-exclusive), this list seeks to demystify bullet hells for newcomers and to highlight the best we can still access.
10/10 Ikaruga (2001)
Ikaruga hasn’t spawned a worthy contemporary. The closest thing to a new Ikaruga is Ikaruga mode in Treasure’s recent port of Radiant Silvergun. Ikaruga’s polarity mechanic gives players the ability to switch between white and black bullet types, nullifying enemy bullets of the same color. This, alongside the game’s chaining system, provides depth without bloating the classic shmup formula too much.
Ikaruga has, however, since been surpassed by newer games. Its most recent port looks distinctly barebones in comparison to the fully featured ports of old shmups that have come out since. That’s why Ikaruga at the bottom of our list.
9/10 Touhou Project: Unconnected Marketeers (2021)
Graphics aren’t everything, and the Touhou Project fanbase and staying power are a testament to this fact. Unconnected Marketeers is the eighteenth danmaku-style Touhou game, and the best looking in the series, but graphically there have only been incremental changes since the 1995 series debut. Nevertheless, the Touhou fanbase singularly dwarfs the communities of arcade shooters, even if it perhaps doesn’t boast the depth of some entries.
Unconnected Marketeers is the follow up to 2020’s fantastic Wily Beast and Weakened Creature. This danmaku cute’em up has a rainbow theme, with candy colored bullets coming at you in the mesmerizing patterns Touhou is known for.
8/10 Blue Revolver (2016)
With a color palette so blue even the reds are a little violet, Blue Revolver is a rare indie that lives up to the graphical splendor of its arcade inspirations. The aptly titled stage Dream could be used as a mood board, with the colors it scrolls players through. Every sprite and sound is in place for this love letter to old games.
The “flourish” scoring multiplier encourages players to explode juicy targets with their special shot, and this comes alive at parallel difficulty (and the game’s Arrange mode). An outstanding debut game from Stellar Circle, if it had a more fleshed out mission mode it would rank up in this list.
7/10 Danmaku Unlimited 3 (2017)
This Touhou-influenced shooter encourages players to graze dangerously close to enemy bullets to fill up the well-named trance meter, which can obliterate enemy ships in a rain of stars. Danmaku Unlimited 3’s quick pacing puts players in bullet hell sooner, with very appealing and esoteric-looking bullet patterns.
The game succeeds in synergizing its gameplay systems. It will teach new players to bomb through attacks properly, by depleting their entire stock if you let the game bail you out with one autobomb. That’s good design. This is a great game for Shmup fans and pro scorers, but doesn’t offer enough to others to be placed higher.
6/10 Mushihimesama (2004)
The ethereal and wondrous Mushihimesama has no peers when it comes to taking the player on a journey. The game unfolds in untouched jungles, where the player can blast apart swarms of giant bugs and carnivorous fauna. The enemies here are huge, spanning multiple screens and alive with ornate details.
These large hurtboxes help this CAVE title stand out, and the usual arcade difficulty curve is softened here. This, it seems, was a deliberate effort to achieve broader appeal. Why they decided to dress this attempt up in insect hairs and exploding exoskeletons is anyone’s guess. Many prefer the game’s sequel, Mushihimesama Futari, so why not play both?
5/10 ESP Ra.De (1998)
This is the second CAVE game in a row on the list, and the setting couldn’t be further removed from Mushihimesama. ESP Ra.De is a gritty cyberpunk story that takes place in the near future. It sees the player character shooting ESP bullets at mostly human enemies, many of whom explode like blood bags when shot.
When a mecha is blown up in ESP Ra.De, a pilot’s body falls out of it. The gleefully destructive scoring mechanic involves using the piercing shot to attach bullets to your enemy and then using standard fire to detonate them like sticky bombs. This one-two is extremely satisfying and keeps every encounter engaging. Not many bullet hell titles top this one.
4/10 Jamestown+ (2011)
Fans of 16-bit style shmups rejoice, Jamestown+ is the fleshed-out console shmup you’ve been waiting for. This is a re-telling of historic events, but set on Mars. It all comes together in the game’s amazing art direction and soundtrack. Jamestown is ranked so highly alongside classic arcade games because it is very “post-arcade” feeling.
Jamestown+’s campaign is danmaku difficult, but it allows players to play each level with three continues. It asks fans to incrementally raise the difficulty to unlock the final levels of the campaign. This is in addition to non-trivial unlocks in the store, that players will want to grind levels to unlock. The game also has a gauntlet-style classic mode for those who want the 1CC. It may be a little too outlandish for some, however, and isn’t the most approachable.
3/10 Battle Garegga (1996)
Battle Garegga still stands sandwiched between newcomers because it remains unique. When released, Garegga’s hidden ranking system was intended to keep the game profitable when arcade players had gotten so good at the genre they could beat games with one credit.
Firing shots, defeating enemies or even moving the arcade stick around will increase the player’s rank, thus speeding up and intensifying enemy attacks. There will be a contrast between cautious players who won’t grab an item drop and gamblers who’ll grab them all, but maybe crash their plane later to bring their rank down. All these ways to play, and we still haven’t mentioned its soundtrack: which is one of the all-time best. Only a couple of truly exemplary titles top this.
2/10 Crimzon Clover (2011)
This game was made by Clover-TAC, a world record holder for many CAVE titles. His expertise as a player shines through in Crimzon Clover’s excellent level design. From a gameplay standpoint, this title surpasses many of the games that inspired it. As chaotic as the bullets can get, they never seem ambiguous. The animations are stellar, serving to keep the game readable despite how busy things can get (Crimzon Clover’s first level feels more like a second level in terms of the sheer amount of enemies on the screen).
The first boss is iconic, seeming to want to dance with players: It denies them one side of the screen with a curtain of suppressive fire while asking them to weave through timed shots on the other. Solutions feel both clearcut and open-ended, with the game nudging players in obvious directions while daring veterans to try something of their own. It’s tough to push the genre any further than this, and our last game barely pips this one to the post.
1/10 Ketsui Deathtiny -Kizuna Jigoku Tachi
Playing this one is a huge adrenaline rush. The genre often wants you to concentrate on dodging attacks, but this game wants the player to get right up in the enemy’s face before blasting them. Point-blank kills yield the most points, rewarding aggressive players with extra lives.
Ketsui Deathtiny -Kizuna Jigoku Tachi is extremely intuitive and fun, in a way only the best action games are. Its incentives to keep players close to their foes keep the experience fresh. Even with its reputation as a difficult game, its abundance of modes, including the great “Bonds of Growth” practice mode, teaches new players how to handle the challenge and see everything Ketsui has to offer. It’s a shooter truly crafted to near-perfection.
