Rolling Gunner

For more than thirty years, the helper drone has been a shoot 'em up favorite. We saw the useful drone shield bullets in the R-Type series and Gaiares take the idea one step further by having it literally steal the weapons from your enemies. Now the helper drone is being deployed once again in the new game Rolling Gunner by Mebius. It's a fun, albeit familiar, bullet hell shooter that may not be as iconic or memorable as R-Type, but still delivers an intense thrill ride that will keep fans of the genre on the edge of their seats.

Set only a few decades in the future, this is the story of what happens after we discover a new metallic element known as Busterium. This not only allows us to drop fossil fuels entirely, but also create a super-computer to power the Buster Engine. But if sci-fi movies have taught us anything, it's that you shouldn't trust technology, and like clockwork, that super-computer begins to create an army of machines in order to take over Earth. You play the lone pilot of the RF-42R STORK, the one person who has the firepower and knowhow to push back and save the remaining human population from the mechanical overlords. In other words, it's a shoot 'em up.

What's cool is that the RF-42R STORK comes equipped with a rolling gun, a special attachment that will rotate around the ship and fire in other directions. This allows you to take out enemies that are both in front and behind, as well as above, below and everywhere else. The idea is to fly in the opposite direction you want the rolling gun to shoot and then holding it in place with the fire button. In other words, if you want to shoot backwards, you'll need to fly forwards to rotate the drone. This takes a little getting used to, but it becomes an invaluable helper when the action heats up.

And let me tell you, defeating the BAC super-computer is not an easy task. Rolling Gunner falls squarely in the bullet hell variety of shoot 'em up. The good news is that the game gives you a few ways to shift the odds back in your favor, such as a bomb that turns the hundreds of bullets into collectible power-ups. If you're able to collect enough of these to get the ship's power up to 1,000, then you can unleash an even stronger energy blast that will make you practically unstoppable. It's also worth noting that if you find the original and expert modes to be too punishing, you can also bump it down to casual, novice and practice mode.

From a gameplay perspective, Rolling Gunner reminds me a lot of the old arcade game Forgotten Worlds. That was the Capcom shooter where you played a couple of flying super-soldiers that could shoot in 360 degrees. The flying men may have been replaced by a more traditional fighter jet, but the approach is similar. This gave the developers a chance to create levels that aren't always as simple as flying from left to right, as well as offer up bosses that will test your aiming skills.

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The problem I have is that this game doesn't go far enough with its concept. Beyond aiming in 360 degrees and occasionally flying through stages that are more vertical than horizontal, Rolling Gunner doesn't really bring a lot that's new to the concept. It would have been nice to see them create levels that more directly played into the special abilities of the ship. As it is, the rolling gun helps in most situations, but you still would have been able to beat all of these stages using the Vic Viper from Gradius.

And that reminds me of another problem -- there aren't any power-up items. Sure, you can collect the medals to increase the power of your shot, but there are no extra guns to collect or cool items floating by. You get to choose between three nearly identical ships that use the same weapon from start to finish. That's disappointing. I wish the developers could have found more creative ways to add to the rolling gun, because it definitely feels like we're only seeing a part of its potential. I also wish the game would stop crashing on me, but that's a whole other issue.

Thankfully, the great gameplay and cool looking levels go a long way to make up for some of the shortcomings. There's just enough depth to the rolling gun mechanics to make the game fun to master, and I never had a problem weaving in and out of the bullet patterns. I also dig the boss designs and the detailed levels. There's a lot to like here, even if Rolling Gunner ends up feeling awfully familiar at times.