Wild Bullets is, to put it simply, your typical arcade shooter with roguelike elements integrated. You’ll fight your way through a series of increasingly difficult levels, shooting and punching foes, collecting coins, and upgrade your weapons.
What’s interesting about it is the control scheme. When you punch, you’ll move forward, and if you want to go backward, just shoot. There are left and right movements for you to dodge incoming projectiles as well. These simple controls are all you have to navigate the treacherous levels of the game, which are filled with bullets, bombs, barrels, and occasionally, chests.
Wild Bullets launch trailer
That said, there are a couple of other mechanics as well. For example, you can get right behind an object to use it as cover and become invulnerable to bullet damage. You can still return fire while in this position and won’t move backward when you shoot like you normally would, but doing so will leave you briefly open to harm.
Wild Bullets is a nice roguelike arcade shooter
When we found out about these hidden mechanics, the game instantly became a lot more fun to play. It’s a full-fledged shooter that you can fit right in your pocket, with everything you’d expect from a game of this genre. You’ll be rushing from one cover to the next, dodging enemy gunfire and returning our own.
On occasion, you’ll come across new weapons that will shake up your usual strategies. There’s a shotgun that can shoot rounds in a wide radius, a gun that fires in 3 different directions, and a lightning gun that damages several enemies at once if they are clustered together.
Upon completing a level, you’ll be able to choose one out of 3 random perks. That is where the roguelike part comes in, as your power will increase significantly over the course of a run, but when you die, it’s game over and you’re back at square one again.
There’s a Campaign and an Endless High Score Mode
That said, you can still spend coins that you obtain during the runs to get certain permanent upgrades such as improved shooting range, more health, and higher damage. Coins can also be spent at shops that you’ll encounter in the middle of a run to get some temporary powerups for that run only.
Wild Bullets features 2 gameplay modes: a campaign in which there are a series of levels to overcome, and an arcade mode where you play through the stages you’ve unlocked endlessly, without the perks.
All in all, we’ve had a pretty fun time with Wild Bullets so far. The entire game is cleverly designed, with tons of things to collect as you play. It’s perfect to play in short sessions whenever you’ve got a short break.