Written by Kris Galvez
Title: Bleed 2
Developer: BOOTDISK REVOLUTION
Publisher: Digerati
Price: $14.99
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fighting, Platformer
Also Available On: PS4, XB1, Steam
I never did play the first Bleed so I played this without any previous experience to the series. The story is kind of throwaway like the arcade-like games Bleed 2 seems to have been inspired on. You play as Wryn, the spunky and purple haired super hero of Earth. Having taken advantage of only having one hero, aliens have attacked the planet while the hapless Wryn only wanted to play video games at home. The plot (even as simple and self-aware as it is) also proves to be a strength as the game is focused on being a great shooter and not much else.
The game is basically a charming run-and-gun platformer much like Contra or Megaman. These 2 games are the most apt comparison I can find to describe Bleed 2. You mow down through hordes of enemies while fighting large and humanoid bosses. What differentiates Bleed 2 from both is how fast paced it is and how it focuses more on the arcade-like experience. Through a one-hour campaign, you use Wryn's skills to run through a short stage (much shorter than a Contra or Megaman stage) and battle several bosses. Each level has you guiding Wryn from set piece to set piece until you reach the boss. While the levels themselves are not fun (these can even be classified as filler), the fun in Bleed 2 is experienced battling tightly designed boss fights. These bosses range from giant robots, alien cowboys and even superpowered humanoids like Wryn. Each boss is much like a boss in Megaman or Contra where you have to study their pattern to dodge their attacks while you are attacking them. These boss fights are what I believe to be the core of Bleed 2.
Without forgetting one of the most important things in a run-and-gun is how your character plays. You move Wryn by using the left stick while shooting and aiming using the right stick of your Joy-Con. Wryn unleashes her Katana which deflects purple enemy projectiles (same as the color of her hair) by flicking the right stick once. Jumping is done with the ZR button on your Switch. Pressing ZR button several times will make Wryn glide or adjust her jump several times. As the game also presents you with a barrage of bullets to stop you from killing aliens, your final weapon is the ZL button which slows down time for the low price of consuming an automatically refilling energy bar. Run out, and you will not be able to use the slow down ability for several seconds until it recharges. With this, the game not only plays like a run-and-gun platformer but also much like a bullet hell twin-stick shooter. While this control set-up takes some time getting used to, you need to master them to be able to defeat the onslaught of bosses else let them wreak havoc on Earth.
As said before, the campaign of Bleed 2 itself can be finished in an hour but there are several modes to replay the game with. Story mode is the 1 hour campaign where there are infinite lives which I described above. Arcade mode is essentially playing the campaign with only 1 life. This makes it so that you need to have full mastery of the game's and all the bosses mechanics and patterns. Endless mode places you into randomly generated stages that you try to beat in succession. There is also a Challenge mode where you can fight 3 bosses at once. You can also unlock new characters, weapons and abilities which you can also use in the games co-op mode if you have a friend with you. Add mutators (basically customization to the games mechanics) and you will have an infinite amount of replayablity to the game. I can see myself playing Bleed 2 from time to time to improve my scores.
Gaming has evolved a lot since the days of NES. We can now enjoy games that are much more complex than what we had 30+ years ago. But this does not stop Bleed 2 from returning back to the roots and deliver to us the pure arcade fun that the NES thrived on. Here, you are just a superpowered heroine battling through focused and tightly designed hours of fun. And even though there is not much addition to the Switch experience, the game itself has the heart and soul of old school games that always thrive on Nintendo platforms.
The Good:
- Tightly designed game focused on giving you the pure arcade experience of old.
- Charming and colorful presentation.
- The setpieces are fun and unique for each stage.
- The bosses are varied and fun to fight.
- Highly replayable with different modes, characters and weapons to play with.
- Simple story that is fun and cheeky.
The Bad:
- Soundtrack is not memorable but it gets the job done.
- The stages and moments before boss fights can be considered as filler.
Score: 8/10
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