How to play
Move with arrow keys or WASD; fire with Z or J (autofire when held); bomb with X or K to clear bullets briefly; focus mode with shift slows movement for precise dodging. The hitbox is the small dot at the centre of your ship sprite, not the full sprite. Survive bullet patterns; defeat bosses; advance to the next stage.
Game features
- Six stages each ending in an intricate boss pattern fight
- Small-hitbox shooter design rewards practice and pattern reading
- Focus mode (slow movement) for precise dodging
- Limited-stock bomb attacks for emergency screen-clearing
- Continue system: three credits per playthrough
- Local high-score and per-stage best-time tracking
Editor review
Bullet-hell shooters are a niche genre with passionate players, and Bullet Hell — despite a generic name — is a credible browser entry. The small-hitbox design, the focus-mode slow movement, the limited-stock bomb system: every convention of the genre is present and competently implemented.
The six stages progress in pattern complexity. Stage 1 introduces basic spread patterns; stage 3 layers multiple pattern types simultaneously; stage 6 routinely fills the screen with bullets that look impossible to traverse but, on careful inspection, have specific safe paths that the practiced player can recognise. The boss encounters at the end of each stage are the genre's traditional highlight: a single enemy whose attack patterns shift across multiple phases, each phase requiring distinct dodging strategy.
The hitbox positioning is correct — the small visible dot at the centre of the ship sprite, not the full sprite. Players new to the genre often die more than they should because they assume the entire ship is the hitbox; once they internalise that only the centre dot matters, dodging becomes plausible.
The focus mode (shift to slow movement) is the genre-standard tool for precise dodging through tight gaps. The three-credit continue system is generous enough for newcomers to see all six stages while restrictive enough that veteran players take the no-continues challenge seriously. For a free browser bullet-hell shooter, this is genuinely good. Recommended.