Wish Project

 
Developer: Andrew Willman
Steam Release: Mar 2016
Hours Played: 9.0
Similar To: Bullet Heaven 2  / QP Shooting - Dangerous / Steam & Metal
Rating: 3/5 Parsnips

GAMEPLAY
Words like dainty and delicate are not often associated with bullet-hell games but, with an assortment of fluttering butterflies, innocent looking ladybirds and cuddly teddy bears lining up as enemies, these form part of the vocabulary you could use to describe this game. Add in some nice jolly music, bright pretty colours and a child-friendly manga-esque art-style and you're good to go. Developed by a one-man team, Wish Project proves to be a varied 2D shooter with the character and depth to rival any other. You choose one of six characters - all with varying types of shots (A button), secondary attack (B button) and bombs (X button) - and then jump into a game. You move anywhere around the screen firing with your stream of pale white missiles while picking up little stars and little blue and red boxes.

BALANCE & PACE

Stars add to your score, blue squares help add extra bombs while the red ones add power. The six stages all come with their fair share of mini-bosses and final bosses who figure heavily and who attack in all sorts of interesting and creative ways. It's a good job then, that each display a health-meter in the form of a small circle around them which means your eyes do not have to stray from your target. As well as its fluid and compelling gameplay, the Wish Project's staying power is helped greatly by the different and well-balanced attacks of its six characters. Cogma leaves a cog behind which does the firing as she herself concentrates on the dodging; Kettle can freeze bullets around her; Radius compensates for her weak short-range shots by being equipped with a melee attack, while LC has a bomb that clears a narrow path in front of him.

PRESENTATION & DESIGN
Although clearly made on a budget, Wish Project succeeds both in its gameplay and its solid presentation. From its home-page you generally either branch off into perusing high-scores or start your game. The excellent high-score page is very efficient with filters displayed on the left and scores listed on the right. Starting a standard game takes you through two screens: one to select one of four difficulties and the other to choose your character. There's an extra screen to select a stage if you're in practice mode. A great feature are the simple icons associated with each character so you can identify characters at the high-score chart. A tasteful if slightly quirky soundtrack abounds, written by the developer himself, which you can even access via a music room in the options.    

PROGRESS SYSTEM
There are two modes in Wish Project: a standard game and practice mode. The former throws you in at Stage 1 as you then attempt to complete stage after stage, while the latter lets you try for a best score in one stage. There are four difficulty settings for each mode: easy, normal, hard and harder. There's a bit of a time-commitment on a standard game as it can take upwards of 10- 15 minute so the practice mode is there for those who want a shorter 3-5 minute blast. Score-hounds will definitely appreciate the high-score charts that not only have an online and local leaderboard but will filter scores for each individual character as well. The only issue I noticed was that there are very few people playing this game. That I managed a fourth place out of just six players for Stage 2 indicates ridiculously low traffic.   

CONCLUSION

WP's main strength is its variety not only in the different ways the characters play out but the changing environments. I captured well over a dozen screenshots for this review - all wildly different from each other. The varying attack patterns of the bosses also add to its compelling intensity and the presentation of the character-select screen itself, with just the important information and absence of fluff, was pleasant to behold. The game even throws in two unlockable characters as well. There are just two nitpicks: (1) it was always annoying to have to skip through the story before tackling final bosses and (2) selecting difficulty could have been done on the same page as character-selection - but as I say minor nitpicks. So there you have it; another decent but little-known game getting nowhere near the attention it deserves.