The developers cite Wild Guns as one of their main influences for this, so of course I’m inclined to like it.

As is so often the case, the first playthrough sort of feels like an elaborate tutorial, able to disregard the utility of certain weapons or forget about whole mechanics for stages at a time (You can hit bullets?). I was ready to say the game had a great deal of unrealized potential, but a few minutes of dabbling in hard mode, where there are no health refills, and suddenly I was weighing the safety of cover versus dodge rolling, trying to find the appropriate niche for each weapon.

Looming over all this is a countdown timer for a bomb, (presumably) detonating if you take too long to finish the game. I say presumably, because the timer only adds up your best time in each stage, meaning you can simply replay old levels for a better time without worrying that you’re frittering away your chance at the good ending. Nevertheless, it’s an ominous feeling, low ranks wounding your pride but also eating away at the amount of time until the city is destroyed. Not sure if it’s an aspect of the game that should’ve been leaned on more or if it’s better served as a bit of mechanical theming- might’ve been too demoralizing to claw your way to the end, only to realize you’ve locked yourself into the bad ending.