Developer: Mebius
Publisher: United Games Entertainment GmbH
Platforms: Switch, PS4, PS5, PC
Tested on: PS5
Rolling Gunner + Over Power – Review
Remember those days when you would get together with friends in arcade halls to play a lot of different classic arcade games on a physical arcade machine that is rarely seen nowadays? Well, Rolling Gunner + Over Power will definitely give you the same feeling, but then on your own console! Rolling Gunner is a side-scrolling bullet-hell shoot ’em up where you shoot the crap out of everything that appears on the screen while trying to dodge the hundreds of particles that are coming at you.
Story
When a multinational corporation discovers the brand-new metallic element Busterium on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, the world is greatly changed. New “Buster Engines” that use Busterium for energy are developed, along with a central computer called “BAC”. As development progresses, they get smaller and smaller, changing people’s lives in many ways. But then suddenly, The BAC turns on humanity and uses the Buster Engines to create various machines to put Earth under its control. After having relied so much on BAC, humanity had forgotten how to operate even basic transportation, let alone weapons. This led to the human population being reduced to half of what it was. Luckily, a group within the corporation foresaw the dangers of the dependence on the BAC and they started developing an anti-BAC weapon that would render Busterium inert. This weapons is called the Rolling Gun. Equipped with the Rolling Gun, you’re humanity’s last hope.
Graphics
The graphics will give you a perfect arcade experience right from the start. When booting up the game, everything looks as if you’re looking at an arcade machine. If you let the game stay on the starting screen, the game will automatically run a demo mode to showcase its gameplay, just like an arcade machine. After that, local and online leaderboards will show up to see who has made it to the top of the leaderboards. Graphics-wise, you won’t see any pixels here, as everything may look like an arcade game but the level of detail is quite good with smooth edges and detailed structures and enemies. It even features a few cutscenes in between levels that look very nice for this type of game.
Sound
Rolling Gunner + Over Power has an amazing soundtrack that fits the crowded bullet-filled screens perfectly. As you progress through missions, the music becomes more intense, to the point where techno fans will surely start to really get into the vibe. Aside from the music, you’ll be hearing a lot of shooting and explosions throughout your entire gaming session that may make you require some silence after a full run.
Gameplay
Rolling Gunner is your typical arcade side-scrolling bullet-hell shoot ’em up where you just need to blow up everything that finds a way into your screen. Playing this game will really make you feel like you’re going back in time when arcade halls were the place to be for gaming enthusiasts.
The gameplay of this game is fairly simple. You control an aircraft with the special Rolling Gun weapon. The aircraft is equipped with blasters that only shoot straight forward and the Rolling Gun that moves in the opposite direction of your movement. With the first available aircraft, you’ll have a total of three commands you can perform. These are for two different fire modes, Fighter and Gunner. The first is the default mode that utilizes a spread-fire configuration with free movement for your Rolling Gun. Gunner mode narrows down your attack for a more focused trajectory and it also locks down the Rolling Gun to deal some heavy damage in one area. The third is a power-up that massively increases your damage and converts every enemy particle into a medal when activated to rack up a lot of points. The power-up lasts for a limited time until its energy is depleted. This energy will recover over time so you can use it multiple times in each mission.
The Rolling Gun is equipped with blasters and a Buster Beam, which hurls big orbs of energy that destroy all particles along their trajectory. This is useful for finding a way through the hundreds of particles that are simultaneously shot at you. These orbs are automatically shot every second or so along with all of your other shots. This weapon is added to the game via the Over Power DLC.
Whenever you start a level, an arcade-like tutorial will appear, with arcade sticks representing your control sticks and two or three colored buttons that are normally found on an arcade machine with the corresponding input for your controller above them. After you’ve performed each action, you’re ready to go and the tutorial will close and the game will begin.
In this game, you have two versions you can play, the Original version and the Over Power version. In the Over Power version, some things have been improved. The Over Power DLC changed the controls into a twin-stick configuration where you can freely control the Rolling Gun with your right stick, which is a great improvement. It also adds The Buster Beam we mentioned before, and it also adds some minor improvements like color coding the medals, a remixed soundtrack that sounds great, and an adaptive ranking system that changes the difficulty of the game as you play. The game has one major issue, which is the function of the touchpad on PlayStation consoles. When you accidentally click it while playing, you’re immediately sent to the main menu and your whole progress is gone, and you need to start all over again.
Conclusion
Rolling Gunner has become an even better arcade side-scrolling bullet-hell shoot ’em up with the addition of the Over Power DLC. It only adds a few things to the game but sure makes it a lot better. With the improved controls for the Rolling Gun, the addition of the Buster Beam, and all of the minor improvements, this game became even more fun than it already was. Rolling Gunner + Over Power has made some good improvements to an already good game, which is definitely great, but its gameplay may be limited to only a specific target audience who are into these types of shoot ‘em ups. Nevertheless, this is a great game and we’d definitely recommend it to anyone who likes playing arcade shoot-’em-ups. Just watch out for the touchpad on PlayStation consoles!
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