Disclaimer : I'm a friend of half the dev team (read : one person). Although my review is trying to be objective, this should be known beforehand I guess.
Super reaKtor describes itself as a bullet hell focused on difficulty, which is true but also misleading. It's equally important to note that it does [i] not [/i] describe itself as a shoot 'em up, which might be a natural assumption when reading bullet hell and seeing screenshots and trailer looking the part.
For the most part, the game is about surviving patterns after patterns that you could find in a bullet hell shmup, and score as much as possible. There are no enemies or bosses to worry about, nor do you have to manage your shooting or bombs. The scoring system is simple in essence (never get hit, absorb everything), but obviously hard to master. Because the game is quite focused in scope, the devs have refined the core of the game to a splendid level, allowing for depth despite the simplicity of the concept.
There is a good variety in the patterns, which has two benefits. One is allowing the game to offer several difficulty levels, to accomodate for various levels of players (and/or various levels of engagement with the game) ; the other is more plainly a good balance between keeping your runs fresh, but also being able to recognize, learn and get better at overcoming the patterns little by little - which one can do either organically just by playing, or by using a well-designed training mode to that effect.
Another thing I'd like to point out is that game sessions can be as long as you want them to be, and take various shapes. One player might be happy with just doing one run, and upgrading their score or managing to clear a pattern they had trouble with before. Another one might play on and on, and trying to enter "the zone" (which this game definitely allows). Or one could lab using the aforementioned training mode to practice specific hurdles, then try to put that in practice in a run.
I'd like to go back to the game description to conclude with a couple of things :
- Despite the bullet hell label (which is definitely appropriate), I think this game can click with players not especially interested in bullet hells. For instance, players who enjoyed Kuru Kuru Kururin (or more recently Spinfrog) could enjoy the game just by virtue being controlled in a similar way. Or players that spent some time on something like Super Hexagon could also find something to throw themselves into here, albeit with longer runs.
- To be fair, another important word in the game description is "difficulty". While the game does have manageable patterns (and a mode leaning on these easier patterns), it is not a gentle game either. The player is expected to lose and try again, becoming better and better everytime. But if the prospect of losing to a difficult pattern throws you off, this might not be a game for you. But then again, there is a demo, so it's easy to try and ascertain that.
