Heli Hell isn't a bullet hell game. It might look like one, it might even stomp around making noises like one, but don't let that fool you.
Bullet hell games give you a maze of projectiles to weave through. Heli Hell gives you a wall to smash into, over and over again.
It lacks the subtlety of the genre. Where bullet hell games are light, this is a cumbersome thing with an emphasis on grind rather than pattern recognition.
That's not to say there isn't fun to be found here. But it's a fun that never quite sparks into anything more interesting.
Chopped upAs you might have guessed from the title, you play a helicopter. Dragging a finger around the screen moves the chopper. Tapping the screen sends the helicopter dashing to that position.
Your aircraft fires automatically. Unlike other games with a similar control system, it's not blurting out bullets all the time though. Instead it'll only fire when there's an enemy in its sights.
It's an interesting idea, but sometimes it doesn't really work. If a foe has shifted too close to the edge of the screen then you won't target it, and there were a couple of occasions while I played that the copter just didn't fire at all.
There's a set of levels but the real aim of the game is a series of challenges. These involve flying a certain distance, killing a number of bad guys, and collecting a number of coins.
You need the coins to upgrade your weaponry and buy single-equip boosts.
ShootThe violence is swift, but it's clumsy as well. Sometimes you'll find yourself swamped, attacked from all sides and utterly unable to dodge the barrage of death.
It makes for a pretty frustrating experience. And the pace that the game gives you new content means the backdrops and enemies get boring pretty quickly.
Still, the simplicity of the gameplay means you'll soon get stuck into a rhythm of try and retry.
It's a shame that there's such a focus on grinding to upgrade your helicopter. With a few tweaks Heli Hell could have been impressive. As it stands, it's a bit too one-note to wholeheartedly recommend.