by Amr(@siegarettes)

Rolling Gunner feels like it stepped out of a time machine. Starting it up, there was something about the interface that immediately made me feel as if I were playing a doujin shooter from ten years ago. The interface, the very specific pixelated edges its pre-rendered sprites, down to the story sequences and between level transitions–all it felt right at home with my expectations of old doujin works. It was almost surprising to be playing it on the Switch, and in widescreen–if it wasn’t for the sheer density of projectiles this could easily pass for something you’d find on a 4:3 CRT monitor in some corner of a fan event. 

That’s not to say Rolling Gunner feels, outdated. Rather it combines the sensibilities of latter year shooters with their modern design, and feels aware of the way people engage with the genre today. 

Rolling Gunner works with the unusual combination of bullet hell mechanics and horizontal scrolling. In order to cover this wider play field your craft is always equipped with a satellite weapon, which rotates around you as you move to cover the opposite direction. Its angle can be locked by using the concentrated fire mode, acting not unlike the CAVE standard precision laser fire. 

The satellite setup gives Rolling Gunner freedom to play with the entire screen space. Vertical bullet hell shooters can often feel as if the player and enemies each have their own side of the court, with player movement restricted to the bottom half while enemies, and especially bosses, dominate the top. Having omni-directional fire allows enemies to come from every direction in Rolling Gunner, including from behind, and allows bosses more control the screen in different ways to force you out of comfortable positions. 

Rolling Gunner tries to support the multi-directional action with clear, readable presentation. To make sure you aren’t killed by enemies you can’t see, offscreen threats are marked at the screen borders, giving you warning of incoming enemy waves. The option to have the hitbox always visible is also available, giving you a clear idea of how you can sneak by bullets. Backgrounds can even be darkened if they’re distracting. 

The one issue I ran into was that the bullets themselves have a red glow around them, which makes them stand out against the background, but made it harder for me to gauge exactly where the collision box of the bullets were. This hampered me a lot of the higher difficulties, where the bullets are spaced so close together the glow often gives the false impression of creating impassable walls. 

Rolling Gunner is by all accounts a strong, solid shooter, and gives you plenty of options to adjust difficulty for your skill level or mood. It works well as both a casual shooter and an intimidating, intense one. There’s an interesting play with space, good feedback, and a loop that encourages playing close to the enemy to score more firepower. It sticks close to the solid core of modern shooters that keeps them engaging and fun to return to.

But it’s that close hew that makes the presentation underwhelming. Rolling Gunner sticks to the standard military aircraft aesthetic, packed with various military machines rushing through urban settings and eventually ascending into space. There’s some interesting play with the way Rolling Gunner fakes various perspectives, but for the most part it’s very aesthetically standard, but missing the absurd detailing that larger teams can bring in terms of mechanical and industrial design. Rolling Gunner wisely chooses to focus on the spaces controlled by its torrent of bullets, but in doing so it also discards a strength of horizontal shooters–the ability to create a tangible world and setting.

Maybe that’s for the best. Rolling Gunner can get so hectic, so overwhelming, that simply staying alive takes the upmost focus. But despite the continual hell it puts you through, there’s a compelling energy that kept me returning each time.