Bleed HarderIf you played the first Bleed – it only released on the Switch eShop shortly before the turn of the year – you’ll know what to expect in this sequel, which offers more of the same, both in terms of gameplay and presentation.The twin-stick shooting platformer has you jumping through most levels and floating through others, dodging all kinds of hazards while focusing on pushing the right stick towards the enemies to shoot them. Jumping is done with ZR, and a second offensive move, the katana, is used either by moving the right stick when standing still, or by pushing the R button when on the move and gunning. Don’t worry – that chopper is about to explode into a million piecesThis adds an extra element to the battling – most of the bigger enemies will utilise attack beams in both purple and yellow colours. The katana is only effective against the purple beams, and you’ll have to judge your jumping to be able to reflect it back towards the enemy it came from. The trouble is, you’ll have to continue to watch out for the yellow beams as you’re doing so. You can also slow down time at points using ZL, and that’s particularly important against the bigger enemies which have a more rigid defence system. Bosses are quirky and colourful, but don’t offer the sternest challenge.The action is rapid and the enemies come at you hard and fast, although it felt that the amount of time you spend shooting your way through the levels was almost equally matched by the time spent on boss battles.

There really are a lot of them for what it a quite short game to play through from start to finish (about an hour and a half, provided you don’t come too unstuck against the bosses). Each were quite easy to figure out, mostly involving simply firing in the direction of the boss at every opportunity you get, but all boasting their own slightly differing pattern of dodging attacks. Highlights include a flying robot shooting missiles in the sky, and another set-piece which has you taunting using the A button to get the upper hand. In this battle you’ll make use of taunting to gain the upper hand.The use of health is a bit of an annoyance. You have a set amount as a full bar at the start of each level, but with so many mid-level bosses at play, there’s no much-needed top-up of your health bar after you successfully defeat them. Even the most adept players will take some damage when battling the bosses, so it was often the case that, immediately after that boss fight, I would be killed by a trivially small enemy simply because I only had a minute level of health left.

Thanks for watching on NALYO GAMING. We would love to hear your thoughts in the Comment section below. Gameplay screenshot. Bleed is a platform game that focuses on combat. In the game's story mode, the player must navigate seven levels, each ending with a boss battle. The player can carry weapons that are used to defeat the enemies that populate each level.

Yes, you do get to restart immediately after the boss as the game records its own checkpoints throughout the level, but it would be nice to get a more realistic chance at taking on the full level in one fell swoop.Despite this, I found that the difficulty level was not quite as high here as it was in the first game. Being able to pick off the bosses in a maximum of three attempts probably chopped quite a bit off the play time in comparison with the first game. You can up the difficulty and unlock new weapons, though, so at least there’s content once you play through the seven levels. Bingo caller.

In tagged / / / / / / / byWe reviewed just under half a year ago on its PS4 release and enjoyed it a great deal. Although on the short side the controls were tight and the boss fights required your full attention to best. Bleed 2 has now landed with the same one man team behind it and I have to say it’s an improvement in almost every way.The game continues on from the ending of the first with your character Wryn being the Greatest Hero of All Time. Unfortunately her gaming time is cut short when the city falls under attack and she must get to work defending it. As with the first game the story, although fun, is only there to frame the action. At the end of each level you get a news report talking about what Wryn just did from the people’s perspective but there’s not too much explanation needed. Run to the right, shoot stuff, dodge stuff, kill bosses.

That’s all the need to know.If you’ve played Bleed then you’ll know exactly what to expect. The visuals have had a slight upgrade but the low tech, stylised visuals are still present. They are clear though, you can never complain about being hit by a bullet you can’t see and the variety on show in the environments and backgrounds is impressive. The music is excellent with the rocking soundtrack getting the blood pumping and making every slow motion dodge and reflected shot feel even more epic.You run around on a 2D plane with some light platforming, but mostly shooting enemies with the right stick (no button press required).

On R2 you have a jump, once you’re in the air you can dash up to three times in any direction giving you an incredible amount of mobility. L2 slows time, allowing you to dodge bullets with great accuracy and give yourself a safety buffer. Pistols and katana are the default weapons (more will unlock as you complete the game on different difficulties, you no longer have to earn and spend points to unlock things), with the pistols firing rapidly and the katana swinging when you initially tilt the right stick and with a press of R1 if you’re already firing. Of course the katana can be used to hit things up close but more important is that you can use it to deflect attacks that are purple, doing major damage.You unlock new weapons as I said and also new characters which play differently, but these basics are all you get and they’re all you need. The levels themselves aren’t that long, maybe topping out at around eight minutes if you run through them efficiently, but the variety of the stages and the sheer amount of bosses keep things fresh for the, again, unfortunately short playing time. There are only seven stages but over twenty five bosses so it’s not as simple as one level, one boss, onto the next. The developer obviously understands the genre with stages, set pieces and bosses that were constantly reminding me of classics like Contra and Gunstar Heroes.

Each boss is unique, some testing your dodging ability, some having a basic puzzle solving element, but each are a challenge.You’re graded on your performance in a level, the determining factors being time, damage taken and style. This, along with the extra difficulties, is where the replay value comes in, extending that hour long play time to however long you’re willing to put into it. Higher difficulties mix up enemy placements and boss patterns rather than just upping their damage which is always a nice touch. On top of the Story mode there is an Arcade mode which is the same as Story mode but you only have one life for the entire game.

There is a Challenge mode which allows you to practise boss fights or fight up to three at once if you want to really test yourself. Endless mode tasks you with defeating five randomly created stages, built with enemies from both the original title and this sequel, each with a random boss at the end. These modes also have a difficulty selection and everything can be played in local co-op.Much like the first game the amount of value you get from Bleed 2 will depend on how you approach it.

Play it once and forget about it and you might feel short changed even with the low price tag. If you enjoy the gameplay enough to want to attempt each difficulty and try to beat the game in one life, again on each difficulty, then there’s actually a lot of game here. The controls and level/boss designs should be applauded so if you like your side scrolling, arcade style action games then you need to check this out.