In 2024, a twin-stick metroidvania was released to not a great deal of attention, despite being one of the most superb games of the year. Thankfully, Minishoot’ Adventures (and that is the last time we shall be legitimizing its ridiculous misplaced apostrophe) has been given a second life with a port to consoles, and most especially the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, where I’m so delighted to report that this elaborately crafted Zelda-meets-Gradius now shines even brighter.
In a game that gets absolutely everything right, it’s impressive for one aspect to still stand out, but Minishoot Adventures‘ controls are this brilliant game’s highlight for me. Twin-stick games, in which you move with the left analogue and shoot in the direction you’re pointing the right analogue, usually take a bit of getting used to. You need to find where the game has its center of balance, learn the nuances of its sensitivity, and gradually master things until you feel fully in control. But in Minishoot, it’s sublime from the first moment.
You play as a teeny little spaceship, in a top-down 2D world that has been corrupted by some sort of evil purple force, with buildings turned to ruin and many of your fellow craft trapped or even corrupted themselves. Which is to say, the start is a very traditional metroidvania opening, you the lone hero who must gain a growing number of abilities in order to access cut-off passages and farther reaches, all in the name of recovering your home. Doing so is going to involve shooting at an enormous number of invading enemies who will fill the screen with their cascades of bullets, which means you need to be the nippiest little ship there ever was. And that’s where those genuinely perfect controls have your back. Even if the term “bullet hell” immediately fills you with a desire to run away and hide in a corner, please believe me when I tell you this is the game that will win you over.
Our ship (Minishoot is a primarily wordless game, and as such our little ship has no name, but this is too awkward—let’s call it Shipi) Shipi begins with a fairly weak little attack and little else, but a big screen full of spaces for upgrades suggests a lot to come. However, from the opening moments you’re already so deft at twitchy swerves that you’ll quickly find yourself weaving in and out of firework explosions of enemy bullets, lasers and blasts like a seasoned pro. Yet you’re going to get so much cooler pretty quickly, as you gain boosts, dashes, more powerful weapons, faster attacks, longer-ranged attacks, and even the ability to briefly slow time for the busiest bullet-hell frenzies. And it’s all in the name of rescuing your chums, reuniting everyone at the central village, and then taking advantage of the upgrades and extras they can offer.
Exploration works very much like in a 2D Zelda, with your range limited by the rocks you cannot yet break, the surfaces over which you cannot yet fly, and most importantly, the dungeons you’ve yet to complete. And as I mentioned at the start, this is the rare game that gets everything right, so this too is nailed perfectly. Minishoot gives you a huge amount of space to explore from very early on, letting you pick directions in which you want to go, and never really making you feel like you’re being overly restricted—it’s just that you can see areas just out of reach and know they’re soon to come. There is so much to do, in so many areas, that you can pick away at one particular path until perhaps you meet a boss that’s just a bit too tough, or an obstacle course of bullets that you don’t feel entirely ready to conquer, and so move on to one of many other places, gain a bunch more levels and improve your attacks, then head back an hour or two later for another try. And, like in the best metroidvanias, you get the enormous pleasure of later sauntering through areas that previously were super-hard, but are now a cinch to fly right by.
Minishoot' Adventures
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Back-of-the-box quote:
"Zelda meets Gradius in a twin-stick metroidvania that nudges on perfection."
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Developer:
SoulGame Studio
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Type of game:
Top-down twin-stick metroidvania.
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Liked:
Perfect controls, frantic battles, rewarding exploration, Shipi the ship.
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Disliked:
Um, er, give me a moment...nope, I've got nothing.
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Platforms:
PC, Xbox Series X/S, PS5, Switch, Switch 2 (version played).
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Played:
From start to finish in about 11 hours, and then back in to 100-percent the rest.
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Release Date:
Out now
Wordless protagonists are nothing new, but a completely wordless game (save for some scene-setting poetry that very rarely appears) is less the norm. But Minishoot still manages to convey a world bursting with personality despite this. Other ships might not speak, but they wiggle adorably, send out bursts of hearts above their heads when pleased, and demonstrate fear in the most adorable, shivery ways. Enemies are all distinct in their movement styles and attacks, and while it’s fair to say that perhaps there could be a bit more variety in terms of locations, there’s always this strong sense of once-hallowed halls having fallen to ruin, made worse by the invading forces of The Unchosen.
Having finished the game when it came out on PC in 2024, I wondered if it would grip me the same way a second time. It turned out to grab me even more than before, perhaps thanks to my decision to play the game on Hard this time—something I’m not usually proficient enough to be able to do in bullet hell games. But oh my goodness the game impressed me so much more for it, as the gating revealed itself to be even more precise, and the challenge so eminently fair. As someone who’s rarely a fan of boss fights, I found myself enjoying these even more for the extra degree of difficulty, precisely because Minishoot‘s are so reasonable. As someone who’s fairly inept at the best of times, learning the stages of attack patterns felt like an achievable challenge, rather than something I need to eventually fluke my way through. Every failure was my fault, so my wins felt magnificent.
Were I not to have met the challenge, however, the game would have had me covered. Minishoot not only has the three difficulty modes you’d expect, but goes a stage further with a set of accessibility options designed to let absolutely anyone enjoy the game. There’s a meter for changing the overall speed of the game in five percent increments, should your reflexes or physical mobility not match that of the base game, as well as a toggle to give Shipi infinite energy (making it able to move at a higher speed and fire more powerful weapons indefinitely), and even one that switches on invincibility.
Goodness me, it’s so rare to not be able to think of a single criticism for a game. There’s surely something I can be annoyed by? Funnily enough, two years ago I was annoyed that the boss fights had five or six stages to them, but playing on Hard this time I’ve enjoyed them all the more for that. And I’ve yet again adored Shipi and its pals, the delightful art, the excellent sound, and the long, elaborate dungeons filled with battles and puzzles. I adore how the game escalates as you progress, with challenges becoming not only tougher but much more involving, while enemies step up with attacks that don’t just do more damage but are more interesting to deal with. Few games get this close to perfect.
Minishoot Adventures is just ideal for the Switch, too. It feels so natural to play in handheld mode, joy-con attached or detached, and the Switch 2 version’s improved resolution and fidelity looks beautiful on a big screen. This feels like the natural home for the game, as much as I loved it on PC. It’s all the more gobsmacking to learn this exceptional game is the work of just two people, a pair of French cousins, which also explains why the console ports have taken two years! It’s out on Xbox, PS5, and both Switch and Switch 2 with bespoke editions, both priced the same at $16. (There’s even a free upgrade pack if you bought the Switch 1 version and then upgraded.) It’s also on Game Pass, so you have very few excuses.
