Product Info

Platform

Wii U, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC

Publisher

2Dream

Developer

Hucast Games

Genre

Bullet Hell, Shoot-'em-up

Players

1-2

File Size (Minimum)

1.0GB

Release Date (NA)

Feb 28, 2017

Purchase From

eShop

PSN Store

Microsoft Store

Steam

Ghost Blade is a top down shooter that I would categorize as Space Invaders revamped and on steroids. Ghost Blade is not a game of story, it is simply this: choose a ship (red, blue or green) and prepare to take on the armada as you dodge, duck, dip, dive and…shoot your way to the boss.

The game can get pretty intense as you campaign through each map. The difficulty levels influence the peril pretty dramatically. I went from beating each level and maybe dying once (easy), to beating the game with only a couple lives left while using all my continues (normal); my campaigning ended when I died after a brief run through 3 or 4 levels wondering what I just saw (hard).

Color Madness

Ghost Blade is well put together and is a dynamic, colorful fun game. Projectiles are never in short supply, aside from normal bullets, enemy crafts also fire different colored orbs that move in pattern across the screen. However, sometimes the color is more of a hindrance. On the higher difficulties, the amount of bullets the enemies shoot at you combined with the amount of bullets you are firing can very easily make it all distorted and easy to lose track of which are which. Aside from the cosmic fire, the colored orbs don’t always seem to function properly. I can think of several occasions in my journey that a green orb would kill me once, then the next time pass right through my ship without consequence.

Power-Up!

Each ship offers a different variety of weapons upgrades; from wide screen covering shots to a more concentrated blast that does heavy damage but leaves the edge enemies open to unleash hell.  One interesting caveat to this is that all the ships have the ability to pull in their upgrades for a heavily focused blast, great for big enemies and bosses and best utilized in short bursts to burn what you need when you need. Each ship also comes equipped with a set number of bombs that can be used for multiple purposes, both to clear the screen of enemies and also clear the screen of enemy bullets. The ships are also able to get speed increases to help dodge the barrage of fire you will face from your enemies.

One of the things I found both nice and upsetting was the upgrades with death. Once you die, as in many games your upgrades are lost, but once you come back to life they are very easily retained. As anyone who has played games like this know, the key to victory is upgrades. Few things are as frustrating as having top speed and all weapons and then dying. But to have all of it regained within seconds of dying takes some of the glory out of survival. It makes for an odd mix of satisfaction and slight disappointment.

Boss fights are an interesting matter in themselves. They can be a little daunting when you first start the fight, but after a couple rounds, the bosses generally have a predictable pattern of fire with intermittent “special” shots. This is not to say they are not difficult, boss fights take a fair amount of specific movements to get them right and it can be frustrating. Each boss is different and has weak points to expose before getting to their core.

Overall

In summation, Ghost Blade can overwhelm in the beginning, frustrate during and entertain throughout as you glide through the sky conquering your enemies and freeing the sky of those who stand in your way. Be prepared to die as you learn to navigate this colorful aviation expedition.