If you read the site regularly, you’ll know that I am a big fan of schmups like Galaga or Gradius or my personal favorite, Darius Twin. Oddly enough, when I got Big Bang Mini, I didn’t expect it to be a schmup; it didn’t really click in my mind for some reason. I definitely didn’t expect it to be a really good schmup, but so far that’s exactly what it is.
The game feels like a fresh take on your traditional "bullet hell" style game; you’ll drag the stylus upward to fire ammunition at whatever angle necessary (independent of your ship), and you’ll also use the stylus to move your ship around and dodge enemy fire. As an interesting effect, when you miss with one of your fireworks, it explodes and the sparks rain down on you, so the overall effect is you dodging lots and lots of attacks while trying to take out some ridiculous enemies, like monkeys or balloons. When fighting a boss, the bullet hell effect is especially pronounced.
This could have been a problem if the game controlled badly, but everything seems to be very well done so far. The only annoyance I’ve had is accidentally grabbing and moving my ship when I’m trying to shoot off fireworks, but that hasn’t killed me yet, so it’s alright. I’m expecting to give this game a positive review once I get finished with it.
