Developed By: 1CC Games
Published By: Chorus Worldwide Games (Digital), Strictly Limited Games (Physical)
Categories: Shoot Em Up, Retro
Release Date: 08.05.21

Star Hunter DX is hard. I mean it’s really hard. I turned the difficult down all the way to the easiest and still struggled. That’s ok, I like a challenge.

You do like bullet hell games? Star Hunter is totally one of those, but with more of a 70’s-80’s kind of vibe. It feels campy in a great way. As a whole, I loved the presentation. Great art, great sprites with lots of neon colors, and energetic music. I say it, possibly too often, but if you’re making a shootemup, gotta have great music. And thankfully, Star Hunter DX does.

So I mentioned earlier, but Star Hunter DX is definitely one challenging game. That is, if you don’t know how it functions. It took m me into playing multiple times, and getting just a bit deeper each time to discover you have a bullet time ability. This can and most definitely alleviate that bullet hell chaos for a tad. This is still a hard game, but it’s not unfair. Unlockable characters can help a tad too…if you unlock them. The default character Luna is your average stats character, with spread shots and straight lasers being equal. The others are better at one or the other. CAT-99 might be a good beginner character due to his homing shots, which definitely helped me.

You have a limited number of bombs to use, which to my knowledge are useful for making a safe ring around your ship, eliminating the bullets coming towards you. Those bullets getting destroyed by the bomb refill your bullet time too. Grazing near bullets can refill the bombs, and looks really cool on top of that. There’s a little tutorial menu that does explain these mechanics, but I learned more by experimenting and with the experience of playing more.

Star Hunter DX definitely goes for that retro style. It digs really deep into too, no shallow imitations. There’s an incredibly bright and colorful game on display. Things can get busy, but it’s never distracting.

Shootemups are made for replaying, they’re points games. Star Hunter DX has more reasons to replay the game though, with the previous mentioned characters to unlock and replay the game as. It also has achievements that I feel are a tad smartass. There’s an achievement for getting a continue on the first level, which I will admit I got my first playthrough.

I wasn’t feeling the gameplay at first with how punishing it was, but then I actually started to get used to all of my abilities and it gelled with me better and I got hooked. It’s still maybe a bit too hard for my taste, but not every game needs for everyone and I’d most definitely recommend this for anyone looking for a tough shooter.

4/5

Buy Now: $14.99

(Physical release is sold out)

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*Game Download Code graciously supplied for the purpose of review