Game Journal: Rolling Bird (2 Loop Clear)

I got a 2 loop clear of Rolling Bird, a 2018 tactical run 'n gun game by Hijong Park for the PC.

Rolling Bird is a brutally tense run 'n gun inspired by Namco's Rolling Thunder (1986), with random level layouts and fast and hectic gameplay. It is shocking just how perfectly this combination works; even with only a few enemy types (melee, grenade, gun, gun again but with the ability to proactively crouch) it doesn't just feel like samey sludge in the way that most randomly generated action game stages do, thanks to the game forcing you to heavily rely on terrain to survive. This might just be the perfect run 'n gun for me, and it is easily the most fun I have had playing a procedurally-generated action game since I first downloaded a Spelunky alpha build from TIGSource back in 2008. I cannot overstate how much I love this game.

My only incredibly minor nitpick is that I wish it mixed in some hardcoded setpieces, to make its overall pacing feel a bit less like Tetris / Mr. Driller and a bit more like a regular arcade run 'n gun that happens to have some unpredictable procedurally generated sections mixed in. But when the absolute worst thing I can say about a game is that it makes me imagine an even better game that doesn't exist yet, that's an incredible place to be. This is an all-time classic in my eyes.

It's also free on Steam, so give it a try! There's a paid version too, which is essentially just a way to tip the developer.