Everything about this game is designed to maximally flood the player’s brain with dopamine. The way each bullet turns into a little star you can collect upon bombing, which creates these screen-filling showers of chiming stars ; the particular way things flash and bust apart and explode when you shoot them; the way power-ups make your stream of fire just ridiculously massive; the thrill of dodging through oceans of slow-moving bullets of all shapes and colors and sizes... It’s all just sensory-overload BLISS. (It’s possible that I’m describing literally every bullet-hell shmup out there, but this is the first proper one I’ve played, so it gets credit for all of these genius aesthetic- and design-choices.)