Wildcat Gun Machine – Review

Our Score: 8/10

Wildcat Gun Machine is a bullet hell dungeon crawler in which you fight swarms of revolting flesh animals with a range of firearms, enormous mech robots, and adorable cats.

Clawing Your Way

Wildcat Gun Machine is a twin-stick shooter. Because this is a game that throws everything at you, it can also be put nicely within the “bullet hell” genre. It comes from all directions. At the same time. In a nutshell, if you’re searching for a hard shooter, this is the game for you.

There is no plot, which is typical of many games in this category. I’m assuming you’re a female bounty hunter onboard a spacecraft mowing down horrible-looking aliens based on the environs. It doesn’t really matter; the gameplay keeps you on your toes the entire time, leaving little opportunity for a story.

Gun Game

The controls are practically self-explanatory as a twin-stick shooter: control the character with one stick and the pistol with the other. Then fire at anything on the screen repeatedly. There’s also an element of discovery at work. Each of the four chapters in the game begins with a tiny space surrounded by multiple closed parts. When you reach the conclusion of each region, you’ll have to face a boss to advance to the next sector.

You’ll find a lot of hand cannons on your quest to liberate the cosmos (or whatever our mission actually is). Each new gun is more powerful and visually appealing than the one before it. They also differ in terms of speed and damage, so you can find the right balance for you. At any given moment, you can assign two blasters, one ordinary and one special. Standard weapons come with an unlimited amount of ammo, allowing you to shoot as much as you like. Special weapons may be more powerful, but their ammo supply is limited. Thankfully, there are refills all over the site, since you’ll need them.

Getting Gritty

The aesthetics are excellent. Wildcat Gun Machine features a vibrant isometric universe filled with monsters of all forms and sizes. Your character’s sprite has a cartoonish appearance, with a huge head. She respawns using a cat power – which sounds bizarre but isn’t – and this is where the game gets at least part of its name.

To say the least, the foes are hideous. They come in a variety of sizes and forms, frequently like monsters from a heavy metal video: picture burning skulls, green gargoyles, and other monstrosities. They’re everywhere, and they’re not scared to fire at you. Or it may blow up right next to you. Alternatively, I could spit on you.

With some good guitar sounds and an industrial mood, the music takes its cues from the visual tone, giving it an ominous, fast-paced sci-fi feel that keeps the pulse flowing. It goes well with the graphics, although a tad repetitious at times.

Final Verdict

Wildcat Gun Machine lives up to its name quite literally. It’s an addictive twin-stick shooter that throws a lot of enemies and cool weapons at you. While it does lack a story, the gameplay more than makes up for it.