A legendary SHMUP influential to the best makers in the genre, Hellsinker is now available on steam in its most advanced form! Gameplay, story, graphics, and even music all united into one cohesive and highly dimensional Shoot-em-up!
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100% achievements.
November 6th, 2023, marks the day I would begin my journey of playing Hellsinker. 5 months and a day to be exact. With interest spawning from a stray suggestion by a friend of mine, this would quickly result in an obsessive play-through which then graduated to an obsessive achievement hunt which would THEN go on infiltrate my personal life via absolutely wreaking havoc on my sleep schedule, even hijacking my dreams.
And I couldn't be more thankful.
Quite honestly, I'm not sure where to take this review, I'll let my fingers glide along the keyboard and post whatever crops up.
At 89.1 hours, Hellsinker sits comfortably at my #5 most played game on Steam. Despite this, I've only gone on to engage with the game in its entirety through the lens of 1 character. The game features 4 characters, 1 of which has 4 "Ordinance Packages" which change up their loadout. Essentially, this 1 character is 4 though their endings remain the same between loadouts. This leaves me with a staggering 1/7 true completion. In addition to this, each character does have a unique ending depending on their TLB progression, not viewable within the game's text sequence viewer. Though I've already gone ahead and watched a video showing their contents (SPOILERS (DUH!)), I'd still love to play the game to experience them firsthand.
Alright, what more is there left for me do? Surely after that I would have completed EVERYTHING there is to this game... right?
WRONG! THERE'S SO MUCH! THERE'S QUITE FRANKLY TOO MUCH! AND I THINK THE FUNNIEST PART HAS TO BE HOW ABSOLUTELY UNINTENDED MOST OF THE EXTRA STUFF IS!
I'll start by introducing this game's older sibling, Radio Zonde. Yes, I have played the game before, but I haven't really completed in a manner I find acceptable, so there's still this entire game for me to play. Much of the ideas regarding design both graphics and gameplay are very much seen within Hellsinker. 1CC for Radio Zonde TBD.
Following this game would then come Hellsinker but in the form of a demo, kinda? Colloquially the build is known as Hellsinker 0.95. This build is quite.... special. There's a bajillion changes from this version of the game to the Doujin and Steam releases and although I'd like to talk about them all day I'll spare this "review" the word count and cut to the main thing. This game, although presenting itself as a demo, actually holds within itself the entire game but more importantly the final stage(SPOILERS(AGAIN(DUH!))) accessible through dropping in some files graciously provided by the original poster. In a non-patched version, only stages 1-4 are playable. The cut special stages also feature 2 versions from what I understand looking at the channel. One version would then go on to become the Shrine seen in the Doujin and Steam release. The other version cut from the final releases feature something adjacent to a dungeon crawler style level (not spoilers).
Okay so. That's it right? Nothing more? There couldn't possibly be more?
But there is! All of these are from the game's Doujin release era (so like 2007-2011?) I'll tally up everything here:
>Doujin release (PURCHASED)
>Completion of said Doujin release (unsure if I'll do all characters TLB but I'll cross that bridge when I get there)
>Buying the fanzines (warning the page probably has some Not Safe For Work Ads so please use an adblocker <3 ) and then reading said fanzines (currently studying Japanese primarily for that)
>A 3D Hellsinker Railshooter fangame (Completed)
>A Puyo Puyo styled Hellsinker puzzle game (Completed)
>Another Hellsinker fangame though I don't really know what to compare this one to, check the IGDB page for more info (Completed)
...and that's it. At that point, I'll have fully exhausted myself on every possible official and unofficial expression of love for this game. Have I made it obvious enough how much I love this game?
I'm currently in ownership of pretty much every version of the game out there with their fan-patches in addition to the fan-games so if you'd like any of that please contact my either on Twitter or Discord @strawhatcanti. Thank you for reading. Until the next "review" goes up,
Keep your dignity.
November 6th, 2023, marks the day I would begin my journey of playing Hellsinker. 5 months and a day to be exact. With interest spawning from a stray suggestion by a friend of mine, this would quickly result in an obsessive play-through which then graduated to an obsessive achievement hunt which would THEN go on infiltrate my personal life via absolutely wreaking havoc on my sleep schedule, even hijacking my dreams.
And I couldn't be more thankful.
Quite honestly, I'm not sure where to take this review, I'll let my fingers glide along the keyboard and post whatever crops up.
At 89.1 hours, Hellsinker sits comfortably at my #5 most played game on Steam. Despite this, I've only gone on to engage with the game in its entirety through the lens of 1 character. The game features 4 characters, 1 of which has 4 "Ordinance Packages" which change up their loadout. Essentially, this 1 character is 4 though their endings remain the same between loadouts. This leaves me with a staggering 1/7 true completion. In addition to this, each character does have a unique ending depending on their TLB progression, not viewable within the game's text sequence viewer. Though I've already gone ahead and watched a video showing their contents (SPOILERS (DUH!)), I'd still love to play the game to experience them firsthand.
Alright, what more is there left for me do? Surely after that I would have completed EVERYTHING there is to this game... right?
WRONG! THERE'S SO MUCH! THERE'S QUITE FRANKLY TOO MUCH! AND I THINK THE FUNNIEST PART HAS TO BE HOW ABSOLUTELY UNINTENDED MOST OF THE EXTRA STUFF IS!
I'll start by introducing this game's older sibling, Radio Zonde. Yes, I have played the game before, but I haven't really completed in a manner I find acceptable, so there's still this entire game for me to play. Much of the ideas regarding design both graphics and gameplay are very much seen within Hellsinker. 1CC for Radio Zonde TBD.
Following this game would then come Hellsinker but in the form of a demo, kinda? Colloquially the build is known as Hellsinker 0.95. This build is quite.... special. There's a bajillion changes from this version of the game to the Doujin and Steam releases and although I'd like to talk about them all day I'll spare this "review" the word count and cut to the main thing. This game, although presenting itself as a demo, actually holds within itself the entire game but more importantly the final stage(SPOILERS(AGAIN(DUH!))) accessible through dropping in some files graciously provided by the original poster. In a non-patched version, only stages 1-4 are playable. The cut special stages also feature 2 versions from what I understand looking at the channel. One version would then go on to become the Shrine seen in the Doujin and Steam release. The other version cut from the final releases feature something adjacent to a dungeon crawler style level (not spoilers).
Okay so. That's it right? Nothing more? There couldn't possibly be more?
But there is! All of these are from the game's Doujin release era (so like 2007-2011?) I'll tally up everything here:
>Doujin release (PURCHASED)
>Completion of said Doujin release (unsure if I'll do all characters TLB but I'll cross that bridge when I get there)
>Buying the fanzines (warning the page probably has some Not Safe For Work Ads so please use an adblocker <3 ) and then reading said fanzines (currently studying Japanese primarily for that)
>A 3D Hellsinker Railshooter fangame (Completed)
>A Puyo Puyo styled Hellsinker puzzle game (Completed)
>Another Hellsinker fangame though I don't really know what to compare this one to, check the IGDB page for more info (Completed)
...and that's it. At that point, I'll have fully exhausted myself on every possible official and unofficial expression of love for this game. Have I made it obvious enough how much I love this game?
I'm currently in ownership of pretty much every version of the game out there with their fan-patches in addition to the fan-games so if you'd like any of that please contact my either on Twitter or Discord @strawhatcanti. Thank you for reading. Until the next "review" goes up,
Keep your dignity.
This might be one of the best games ever made and I'm not kidding.
Meu novo shmup favorito, de inicio parecia a coisa mais louca do mundo e extremamente difícil, mas com o tempo se tornou extremamente satisfatório de se jogar, fazer a run completa desse jogo é como efetuar uma dança, de forma graciosa e bela depois de muito tempo treinando seus movimentos ate conseguir bons resultados e dominar aquilo. A OST nem se fala, simplesmente divina uma das melhores do gênero, além do jogo inteiro ser sincronizado com a música, todos os ataques, fica ainda mais aparente no Final Boss. Simplesmente uma obra prima, com várias e várias maneiras de se zerar, é um jogo desafiador mas que fisga o coração de qualquer um que se disponha a mergulhar na gameplay de HellSinker.
Keep your Dignity...
Keep your Dignity...
I play a lot of shmups and I honestly still have no fuckin clue about this game
HellSinker. is and probably will continue to be my favorite shmup I've ever played.
At its core, HellSinker is a seriously convoluted mesh of tight mechanics and even tighter gameplay that has kept me glued to my chair for numerous hour long sessions of excitement, anger, disappointment, humiliation, and awe.
Everything about the game is so engrossing. Music, aesthetics, gameplay, lore, you name it. Throwing bits and pieces of lore at the player for overcoming the impossible and, even in unlikely cases, tossing something your way for ragequitting.
Reaching new areas kept my heart pumping in anxiety for what challenges could possibly come next, with each completed stage seeing a measureable improvement to my skill.
It's hard to recommend this game to anyone who's a newcomer to the genre of shmups but for those already familiar with the gameplay of shmup titles, more specifically those who are fans of the ZeroRanger game, I implore you to drop what you're doing and play this game. You won't regret it.
Over the course of about 2 weeks and then some days I couldn't think of any other game. Genuinely keeping me up at night for having not completed the 1cc.
But in the end, on the 16th of November, my journey had come to a close...
... or so I thought.
See, in addition to the innumerous mingling of mechanics and systems, the game actually has one more oddity to throw at you for the ending. And after concluding my 3 hour session which I believed to be the ending of the game, I don't think words could relay the humiliation I felt for what I had thought was the ending of the game.
It was not until after a 2 day hiatus from the game where I had actually gone on to 1cc the game, start another hiatus, and then complete the post-game content (relatively) far thereafter.
In spite of its cruel difficulty, discouraging gameplay, and brutal mockery it makes of your failures, I have persevered and completed it. And I couldn't be more proud of myself for doing so.
I have a lot to thank this game for, first and foremost as the beacon which brought me back into the world of shmuping. Reigniting a flame which I assumed had spewed its last embers long ago. And second for kindling and sparking conversations with an aquantiance turned friend of mine.
Please play HellSinker. please. I think it's criminally underloved and I'm seriously so surprised how little fanworks I can find online. If you HAVE played HellSinker. I'd suggest playing the only known fangame SHAFTDIVER, it's an interesting experience to say the least.
At its core, HellSinker is a seriously convoluted mesh of tight mechanics and even tighter gameplay that has kept me glued to my chair for numerous hour long sessions of excitement, anger, disappointment, humiliation, and awe.
Everything about the game is so engrossing. Music, aesthetics, gameplay, lore, you name it. Throwing bits and pieces of lore at the player for overcoming the impossible and, even in unlikely cases, tossing something your way for ragequitting.
Reaching new areas kept my heart pumping in anxiety for what challenges could possibly come next, with each completed stage seeing a measureable improvement to my skill.
It's hard to recommend this game to anyone who's a newcomer to the genre of shmups but for those already familiar with the gameplay of shmup titles, more specifically those who are fans of the ZeroRanger game, I implore you to drop what you're doing and play this game. You won't regret it.
Over the course of about 2 weeks and then some days I couldn't think of any other game. Genuinely keeping me up at night for having not completed the 1cc.
But in the end, on the 16th of November, my journey had come to a close...
... or so I thought.
See, in addition to the innumerous mingling of mechanics and systems, the game actually has one more oddity to throw at you for the ending. And after concluding my 3 hour session which I believed to be the ending of the game, I don't think words could relay the humiliation I felt for what I had thought was the ending of the game.
It was not until after a 2 day hiatus from the game where I had actually gone on to 1cc the game, start another hiatus, and then complete the post-game content (relatively) far thereafter.
In spite of its cruel difficulty, discouraging gameplay, and brutal mockery it makes of your failures, I have persevered and completed it. And I couldn't be more proud of myself for doing so.
I have a lot to thank this game for, first and foremost as the beacon which brought me back into the world of shmuping. Reigniting a flame which I assumed had spewed its last embers long ago. And second for kindling and sparking conversations with an aquantiance turned friend of mine.
Please play HellSinker. please. I think it's criminally underloved and I'm seriously so surprised how little fanworks I can find online. If you HAVE played HellSinker. I'd suggest playing the only known fangame SHAFTDIVER, it's an interesting experience to say the least.
1cc with TLB, Dead Liar, Full Sequence Order. Both extra stages cleared.
I absolutely adored this game. It's constantly, wildly inventive as an action game. It's pristinely paced and structured, taking advantage of its nature as a PC game without losing its arcade immediacy. It even works in some really out-there moving story beats.
If you like great shmups, hard recommend. If you're not too familiar with shmups at all, but you love weird edgy arty action games like NieR Automata or LUCAH: Born of a Dream, I think you'll find a whole lot to love here. And if you already love other shmups that aspire to tell moving stories within the context of great action -- games like RefleX or ZeroRanger -- absolute highest possible recommendation.
I absolutely adored this game. It's constantly, wildly inventive as an action game. It's pristinely paced and structured, taking advantage of its nature as a PC game without losing its arcade immediacy. It even works in some really out-there moving story beats.
If you like great shmups, hard recommend. If you're not too familiar with shmups at all, but you love weird edgy arty action games like NieR Automata or LUCAH: Born of a Dream, I think you'll find a whole lot to love here. And if you already love other shmups that aspire to tell moving stories within the context of great action -- games like RefleX or ZeroRanger -- absolute highest possible recommendation.