Minishoot’ Adventures review

It’s not uncommon for a video game to wear its inspiration proudly on its sleeve, and with so many iconic games of the past to learn from this often leads to something great. I find this especially exciting when a new indie game aims to follow in the footsteps of one of my all-time favourites, like when Cassette Beasts took everything I love from Pokemon and evolved it into something truly special. Well even more exciting than that is making a game inspired by classic Zelda games, and that’s exactly what Minishoot’ Adventures has gone and done – with a twist.

That twist is that instead of playing as a little elf boy you’re playing as a tiny spaceship, equipped with laser guns instead of a sword. This means that Minishoot’ Adventures is a twin-stick shooter instead of a top-down slasher, but with loads of upgrades that unlock new areas and full-on Zelda dungeons to dive into. It’s wild how few games try to crib from Zelda games, and because of this these familiar elements manage to feel both fresh and nostalgic at the same time.

Moving with one stick and aiming projectiles with the other may be nothing new, but Minishoot’ Adventures implements it perfectly. Even in the first few hours of the game, you’ll be presented with rooms full of robotic baddies that fill the screen with bullets. You’ll need to get used to weaving between lines of glowing death balls if you want to succeed in combat, and nothing feels better than skillfully making your way through a particularly tricky pattern of bullets coming from every angle and blasting the baddies that fire them.

Every time you destroy an enemy you’ll absorb some gems from their remains that will help level up your ship. It doesn’t take long at all to build up enough shiny shards to gain a level and a skill point, which you can put into a variety of stats. Raising your gun’s power and fire rate will likely be the first thing you do, but you also have the option of choosing to improve your speed, boost or critical hit chance and will notice the difference immediately.

These stat boosts are a tiny change though compared to the game-changing upgrades you’ll find in various caves and dungeons across the world. The boost will enable you to launch off ramps to cross gaps for example, which opens up a whole host of new areas and new upgrades to collect. There’s nothing better than getting a new core ability and realising how many previously blocked paths can now be explored.

From the moment you leave the short tutorial cave at the start of Minishoot’ Adventures you’re given the freedom to go in whatever direction you choose. There are a couple of markers on your frankly lackluster starting map that will lead you to your main objectives and friendly spaceships in need of rescue (who will reward you by upgrading your weapon or filling out your map with landmarks) but if you’d rather just wander into caves and see what wonders await you then you’ll end up even better equipped when you do finally enter one of the main dungeons.

Just like in any of the classic Zelda games you know and love, each dungeon in Minishoot’ Adventures is a maze of rooms that are full of enemies, keys to unlock deeper rooms, and a new ability that you’ll need to use to make your way to the boss. If you thought you were dodging a lot of bullets in the fights before then the bosses will be a rude awakening, and beating them is as satisfying as you’d expect.

What really elevates Minishoot’ Adventures above being an imitation of the classics is the amount of care that has been put into filling its world with secrets. Behind every corner, you’ll find new items that buff your power, pieces of heart, and even races to compete in, and it makes spending an hour exploring instead of heading straight to the next story marker feel so worthwhile.

A special mention should be made regarding the audio and visuals of Minishoot’ Adventures, because they are delightful. The tense tunes that play in big arena fights or against badass bosses really elevate the encounters and the colourful crisp visual aesthetic just looks lovely, especially in motion. It would’ve been so easy to just go with a retro pixel art style for a game that feels so gloriously retro, but I much prefer the bolder cartoon visuals.

Minishoot’ Adventures is a wonderful game that I struggled to put down, but I can’t deny it has some issues. One of these is the map, which especially early on before you find some upgrades is just not very helpful. Caves and dungeons don’t have any map at all either, and it makes navigating them a real chore sometimes (especially if you take a break and come back later, from personal experience I don’t recommend that).

The game is also a bit too punishing when you die, because when this happens (and it will probably happen a lot) you’re spawned back at your base in the centre of the map and expected to wander all the way back to where you perished. This is especially problematic because you rarely find hearts to bolster your health between big fights, and when a tricky arena of baddies appears and you’re already low on hearts it feels particularly miserable to be punished so harshly. Later in the game bullets that kill you in one shot only exacerbate this issue, and even if you’re given a rare checkpoint it’s never fun to get wiped out instantly.

Minishoot’ Adventures is one of the most compelling games I’ve played in months, with high octane twin stick combat, cracking Zelda-style dungeons and so many reasons to explore every inch of the world. It has some issues with its map and is a bit too punishing when you die, but these issues didn’t stop me from devouring every drop of content from this glorious game as fast as humanly possible.