Minishoot' Adventures

Just get this game. It really is like Zelda with space ships. Such beautiful art work and great play through. These two developers did amazing with this.

If a crossover between The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and your favorite bullet hell (if you even have one) doesn’t sound like something you’d be even remotely interested in, then let me tell you that I totally understand you because I was once just like you. And then I played Minishoot’ Adventures. And let me tell you: this has to be one of the most fun and one of the most brilliantly designed games I’ve played this decade. You play as a tiny spaceship that has to defend its village from an invasion of bad guys and free its fellow villagers from captivity. And this entails journeying the land figuring out how to restore your world to its former state, how get rid of the bad guys and how to rescue your friends. The core gameplay mix resembles that of The Legend of Zelda a Link to the past. You explore a place until you run into an obstacle that you cannot overcome, so you roam around the land a little more until you learn the skill that’s needed to clear the obstacle, or until you find the alternative path that leads to the other side. The game is designed in a way that makes every bit of progress feel earned, deserved, without being annoying or overly punishing. It rewards you for boldly going where you hadn’t gone before and for looking under every nook cranny you come across. The game’s critical path is linear, just as it is in Zelda, but you have a lot of freedom over where to go and what to do. The game is perfectly o.k with letting you venture into places where you “aren’t supposed to go yet”. Because even if you “aren’t supposed to go somewhere” there’s always a bit of progress to be made wherever you go. Minishoot Adventures has a lot of mechanics but they get introduced gradually, so that you are never bored or overwhelmed. New mechanics are usually presented as new skills and as challenges that you must overcome by using said skills. Every new skill usually makes its first appearance in a dungeon. And you are supposed to use said skill to sort it out. So, again, very Legend of Zelda-like. From then on out, it’s up to you to back to the surface and return to those places where there were obstacles that you couldn’t sort out before because you hadn’t learned the required skill yet. Enemy design also contributes to the fun factor and to the variety of challenges that you face in the game. There is a broad cast of bad guys with different attacks and skills to keep you on your toes at all times. There are even a couple of surface bosses and their fights can be quite puzzley. And if exploration, combat and puzzle solving aren’t enough, there are also race challenges that go from “super easy, barely an inconvenience” to “what the feck is this?” Your village is your stronghold and every villager you rescue, goes back to the village to offer some type of service. One of them heals you, another one reads map pieces that make it easier for you to navigate the land, another one sells items, etc. If you take the time to explore the game’s world, you’ll likely find a way to improve your health and your energy. Health works just as it does in Zelda. You collect heart fragments and every four fragments you gain a new heart. Your hearts work as your life gauge. Collecting hearts usually entails keeping track of where you saw a heart fragment that you couldn’t reach because you didn’t have the right skill, and then coming back to get it when you do. If you are thorough enough in your exploration, chances are you will collect them all. You could make a case that this is a 10 out 10 game. But there are a couple of things that I personally wasn’t crazy about. One of them is character progression. You collect crystals, you level up and you purchase upgrades… improved ranged, improved damage, improved fire rate, etc. And then you can purchase better weapons and learn new techniques… but none of this feels like it’s a part of a build. It’s not like you can choose which type of spaceship you want to build. You just unlock new improvements and that makes your life easier. Which takes us to the second thing that I don’t like. Boss fights are super cool and super creative in some cases, but, because there is no build aspect to the game, there are no tactics and skills that are, more or less efficient, depending on which boss you are facing. It’s just about figuring out their patterns of attack and getting good at not getting hit. This is not a flaw… it’s just a design choice that adheres perfectly to The Legend of Zelda model, and that’s fine, I am just not particularly crazy about it. But those are very, very minor nitpicks. I recommend this game to anyone who’s looking for a fun, good game that’s going to take about a week to finish and that won’t leave you indifferent. I also recommend independent video game developers to pick this one up… and take a minute to analyze it and to ask yourselves whether this small game that was made by just two people is worthy picking in addition or even in place of much bigger games with a much bigger budget. And if your answer to that is “yes” then think about why that is so. Minishoot Adventures made me revise my mental list of top 10 games of the year 2024. I’d say this game deserves to be in the podium of that year, right after Caves of Qud and Dustland Delivery. I give Minishoot’ Adventures a 9.4 out of 10 and a solid “Ye Old Gamer Recommends seal of approval” https://youtu.be/RNxuNQtiUXE

Great little shmup, normal difficulty is not too hard for casual play while still having some fun bosses. I love how you can always change your upgrades around as needed for different challenges - balancing your speed and attack power, or focusing on one or the other upgrade powers.

One of the best games I've ever played. A beautiful, simple, elegant mix of Zelda's adventuring and progression with fully manageable shoot-em-up difficulty. I played straight through Normal sweating and barely beating most bosses. I think immediately started a save on Explorer just to spend more time in this world.