Who doesn’t love a good Shmup, right? For anyone who doesn’t know what I just said, that’s actually shoot-’em-ups for you, because before we had a special type called Bullet Hell, the first one was the one that opened this type of title first.
And since the 1960s, a near-endless list of shmups has occasionally switched gears with hybrid subgenres such as run-and-gun formats, side-scrolling, roguelikes; you say it. Presentation is also important in these games to help them stand out, and with the shoot-em-up I have for you today, it really deserves to be highlighted in this regard.
The 50 Best Indie Games of All Time
Forget the blockbuster AAA games! We want plucky little indies!
Gunboat God is a sleek and stylish side-scrolling shmup. While it won’t be the busiest time, it delivers where the genre needs to succeed in several ways—bringing a huge dose of fun along the way. So if you have a few minutes, allow me to take you through this fun yet bumpy and short ride I had with Gunboat God this past weekend.
More Than Your Ordinary Boat
In Gunboat God, you play as an unnamed person who is banished from the ascended Citadel, one of the last remnants of humanity. Ultimately, this gives you a one-way ticket straight to the pits of the world below.
And just when you think you’re lost, you find yourself in a special raft, or should I say, a gunboat. This is from Yeti the Crocodile, who quickly introduced himself to the bag of meat like us with his sudden appearance.
Yeti cuts a deal with us; help him slowly build his gunboat with different pieces of debris around the world, and we, too, can use the heavily armed weapons on his boat to help us punch a ticket back to the Citadel. It’s funny how this immediately reminded me of the collaboration between Max and Chumbucket in Avalanche Studios’ Mad Max video game.
I was surprised at how lovely and playful the writing is throughout this roller-coaster ride. There are several quips and one-liners thrown in here, with a slight twist if you pay enough attention to Yeti the Croc’s words of wisdom. At one point during this journey, you even get to help this lowly but cunning reptile find and rescue his trapped son.
A nice welcome feature, although the main appeal, or rather, the meat of a title piece like this, lies in the gameplay. But I wanted to get this one out of the way since…well, the gameplay left some painfully mixed signals for me.
15 Best Runner Games
Endless runners: some are cruel, some are good, and some make you question your life choices. Let the mayhem begin!
More Guns, Lesser God
Before I start running, let it be clear that I try to enjoy the “thing” as much as possible. I mean with any media consumption, but it comes down to my point, like any normal person. In my case, that’s called pure tilting annoyance. And it pains me to say it, but God’s Gunboat game just didn’t do it for me.
Let me just get the good stuff out of the way first here; Gunboat God has a huge variety of guns and abilities, as well as various world designs that include new enemies based on the world’s creation and theme. But the execution and general progression is where this game can make you feel, well, conflicted.
Now, I’m not saying that the gameplay itself is difficult. Gunboat God does a great job of making you feel the adrenaline rush in a shoot-’em-up title. You need to constantly damage and defeat enemies to fill your character’s gauge. And as you progress a bit, you get to unlock skills with a different gauge that you need to manage to clear the levels.
So, where does the problem start to appear? Yes, from the beginning, actually. The introductory stages or hours of any game are very important for the average gamer. They really can be make or break points for any buyer. Although I really believe that this cannot account for all the existing games, such as Crimson Desert, where you need to spend several hours to enter, I did not believe that Gunboat God failed to attract my attention even after removing most of the first world.
The fluidity of the shooting elements and the arsenal you are given is amazing. But where does it start to fall apart? For one thing, most of the game’s categories are clearly unbalanced. In a game that emphasizes movement from the opening gates, it likes to throw hordes of enemies at you with no room to breathe, especially with absurdly patterned mob designs.
But the execution and general progression is where this game can make you feel, well, conflicted.
I don’t mind the fact that you can protect the snowball mechanic with a power gauge refill, but what’s the point if you have a million dangerous obstacles every step that can degrade my HP? Like seriously, forget all the enemies or change weapons. Your health is probably the most important thing here, as you can easily let go of the many obstacles that come your way. Not to mention the Gunboat itself is very smooth to operate, especially underwater.
I like that the game gradually makes you find all the skills and guns yourself in all the major stages of the world, but to clear it for the first time, it can be difficult to beat some of these levels, no matter how high your weapon damage level is or how your individual guns are upgraded. The numerous enemy mobs become increasingly annoying to deal with during the end-game stages of each level, to the point where I’m fighting for my life just to avoid being touched by a pixel from the next melee.
10 Best Run & Gun Platformers
From Cuphead to Metal Slug and everything in between, Contra’s legacy is clear.
A Shmup With Three S Ratings in the Style Department
With all that being said here, I’m not too much of a bad Nancy to admit that the overall visuals of this game are simply stylistic. And seriously, tell me I’m not the only one who thinks the art direction of this game reminds me of the Patapon games from the PSP. The background and lighting within them also changes in each world’s stages, going beyond the hostile factions they inhabit.
All the visual identity and writing aspects of this game do not have the right to carry as much weight as they do here, but the fact that they stand out so much next to the gameplay is an act of appreciation. You can undeniably point out imperfections, but at the end of the day, Gunboat God is still a shmup that will give you a temporary dose of excitement when you need it. And once you reach the endgame stages like Atomic Ruins or the Citadel itself, you won’t feel that nagging feeling from the beginning since at least you’ve accepted the way the game works.
With all that being said here, I’m not too much of a bad Nancy to admit that the overall visuals of this game are simply stylistic.
This makes a ton of difference when I’m frantically trying to complete each main level, versus having more freedom at the end with more weapons and abilities at my disposal. But that didn’t help my sour taste from the boring parts where I had to defend the Yeti for a certain amount of time or complete a nasty obstacle course.
Admittedly it spoiled my enjoyment a lot, but again, don’t let my harsh judgment make this seem like a brutal experience—a help mode is also there if you need it, and for all the highscore min-max tryhards out there, you can also unlock and jump into a game difficulty called Dread Mode.
But the question remains: will the current shortcomings affect the game in the long run? I would say no. I feel like consistent updates or reworks would generally improve the overall game flow, but despite those setbacks, it’s still a great shoot-’em-up that leaves a lasting impression with its smart writing, fluid gameplay design, and stylish art style.
Gunboat God feels like a game caught between moments of brilliance and moments of frustration. It perfectly encapsulates the things that make shmups so addictive: fast-paced gunplay, a strong sense of style, and an incredibly fun story that gives every adventure more personality than you’d expect. But that enjoyment is often hindered by its poor measurement, and (occasionally) high-quality design, especially in the beginning. Still, there’s a solid, fun shoot-’em-up underneath it all, and the more you unlock and explore, the more it comes together. It’s not a completely smooth sailing, but for players willing to stick with it, there’s enough charm and excitement here to make the journey and struggle back to the Citadel worthwhile.
10 Best Bullet Hell Metroidvanias
Metroidvanias don’t usually mix well with Bullet Hell, but this list of games is full of great examples of the combination.
