12 Games of Christmas: Xmas Shooting – Scramble!! (PC)

The shoot ’em up subgenre known as bullet hell is certainly a niche one, the screen getting crowded with deadly shots daunting to some due to its high skill requirement. Already working within a space where the audience is somewhat limited, it might seem odd to develop a holiday focused bullet hell, many games based on Christmas aiming for young players or family appeal. However, while Xmas Shooting – Scramble!! undoubtedly contains the subgenre’s expected difficulty and need for precise maneuvering, it might actually be a pretty good entry point, Christmas perhaps being a way of opening the door for people who might not otherwise check out a bullet hell game at all.

 

Set on Christmas Eve, a bunny-eared girl named Aru seems to be this world’s version of Santa in a case similar to Adolescent Santa where it treats Santa more as a role than a specific character. Aru’s Christmas deliveries go awry though when an unknown person steals all of the Christmas presents, Aru relying on the nose of one of her reindeer to guide her to the culprit. Able to fly on her own, Aru seems to identify anyone else with the gift of flight as someone who might have stolen the gifts, so using her ability to fire energy bullets and working with a group of small reindeer who float around her and do the same, she fights her way towards finding the person who truly took all the toys. By talking with the other flying anime girls, Xmas Shooting – Scramble!! tells a cute and silly Christmas tale that matches the adorable art direction. Rather than going up against fearsome foes, Aru fights cute creatures and Christmas toys, the game turning snow bunnies, Christmas trees, and stuffed animals into foes to fight with their own bullet attacks to avoid. Snowmen certainly fit the seasonal theme, but Xmas Shooting – Scramble!! does integrate a few enemies who don’t really match the winter holiday. Sure, putting a Christmas hat on the bat enemy makes it more festive, but there are cases where you can’t really stretch what you consider seasonal far enough to encapsulate things like the flying fortress miniboss. The music definitely works well for the season without containing any recognizable tunes, and the way it works with a gorgeous Christmas tree lined background for the final stage makes for a moment that’s both appropriate for the approaching climax and one that fills your heart with the Christmas spirit.

While not every enemy lines up perfectly with the Christmas theme, they are designed very well for the bullet hell gameplay. Xmas Shooting – Scramble!! is a spinoff of the game QP Shooting – Dangerous!! and carries over many of the mechanics and game design, this almost more of an expansion if it hadn’t been released as a standalone title. Despite this, the Christmas foes are unique to it and even the regular enemies all pack different bullet or approach patterns that ask you to be smart in how you dodge. You only have a tiny spot on your character you need to protect, meaning you can weave around the shots so long as you keep track of your character’s center and don’t let anything touch it, but while many bullet hell games have a heavy focus on dodging while you just hold down the attack button, enemies here can have their attacks manipulated. While killing an enemy to clear its bullets from the screen isn’t an uncommon bullet hell feature, foes will sometimes fire multiple shot types, some of the incoming attacks actually destructible. If you aim your shots to take down the destructible shots, smaller shots will disappear from the screen, giving you more room to maneuver around. Even if you opt not to use this you can technically weave through the onslaught of bullets, but being able to influence how many shots are on screen gives you a bit more control over the experience and incentivizes being a bit more aggressive with movement. Clearing away bullets can often be the better option than dodging, and since you can’t always be in front of an enemy you want to kill, sometimes having other shots to focus fire on still keeps you involved in the fight rather than just waiting for a window of opportunity.

 

There are definitely some creative enemy designs that rely on difficult to dodge patterns that are still easy to pick up on. UFO catchers have an interesting moment where the cranes will drop in from above and scoop up giant stuffed animals to hurl at you, their movements easy to track and the stuffed animals destructible. The game’s first boss begins with cooking themed attacks, blocking your shots first with pots ready to boil over with bullets as she cuts vegetables into crowded bullet clouds. However, you can choose to push these pots aside or destroy them to hopefully shoot apart some veggies before they get converted into incoming danger. Some foes like bells will appear in a ring around you, and trains will first send their tracks in to give you time to move out of their path. Enemies can come from any side of the screen and the game tries to warn you of any unusual approaches rather than just taking the typical approach of coming down from the top of the 2D scrolling play field, but there are a few moments where it doesn’t do so for some reason. The enemy variety keeps Xmas Shooting – Scramble!! moving at a fast pace without ever pushing into unfair territory, maneuvering definitely difficult even on the easiest of the four difficulties but many attacks having clear paths of movement to give you a moment to react and move into position. Some of the incoming attacks are just impressive to behold even if they aren’t too difficult to dodge, one of particular note being a boss attack with what are essentially Christmas lights turned lightsabers.

How enemies attack can change based on the difficulty. Other than foes having more health and there being both more bullets or shorter windows before attacks, the difficulties do contain a few extras like a snow bunny miniboss and a longer fight with the flying fortress to incentivize playing on these higher difficulties for more than just a greater challenge. One of the ways Xmas Shooting – Scramble!! might appeal to amateur bullet hell players though is the choice between Arcade and Conquest modes. Arcade mode requires the player to go from start to finish without losing all their lives, the game being pretty kind in the amount it gives and having enough chances to earn more through scoring well. However, Conquest is the more friendly mode, the game allowing you to save after a stage and start from there to make it more likely you’ll play through all the game’s content, even if you might need to retry a level a few times to get the hang of it. However, there is one downside to Xmas Shooting – Scramble!!’s two modes, and that is there are only three stages to be played. While they are fairly long to make up for their low number, it does mean you can clear the game fairly quickly if you have a knack for the gameplay style. The higher difficulties do make it tougher, but even their extra content can’t really draw too much extra play time out of the experience.

 

One of the odder results of having so few stages is that the many unlockables you can buy by earning points in the main game require a bit too much replaying without being strong enough to motivate repeat visits. They do tie to your shooting and there are definitely some useful ones, but not all are available for purchase off the bat and require you to buy other ones first, meaning you might tire of the small amount of gameplay before you ever have enough points to potentially see these options. In Xmas Shooting – Scramble!! you can set three positions for your helpful reindeer (known as ReBits) before starting a run, and while it might be difficult to get some of them, they do offer some shot diversity and helpful assistance. Sure, the default options are suitable enough for the job, and it is even possible to go through a run on lower difficulties without ever shifting between the three ReBit positions you have set, but they definitely help on the higher difficulties. Whether it be splitting your shot to cover more area, firing behind you or on the sides rather than the usual front-facing bullets, or something gimmicky like placing a reindeer down as a turret that fires on anything it detects, the formations are an interesting addition, just one that isn’t that easy to access. A more accessible customization option is picked before starting a run as well, the player able to pick their Hyper Mode’s focus. By shooting down enemies and avoiding damage you can build up a Hyper Mode where, upon activation, you can receive a big boost to your stats. Orthodox style gives you a strength boost for a decent amount of time, Aggressive style goes for heavy damage in a short burst, and Defensive style gives you a longer hyper mode but with a less drastic power boost. It’s a degree of customizability that can help players with different playstyles but doesn’t feel like it must be mastered to succeed, although a few ReBits like Orbit can be incredibly powerful to the point they override some of the more interesting enemy tactics.

THE VERDICT: By having multiple difficulty settings, a mode with saving between levels, and destructible shots that clear away other bullets to help prevent the screen from getting too cluttered, Xmas Shooting – Scramble!! is able to make a more accessible bullet hell game without sacrificing the important elements of the genre. Success still requires precise dodging and the enemies have plenty of shot types that make them diverse and consistently challenging, but there’s definitely a content problem in this small spinoff title. Few stages and most of your shot types requiring repeated plays to buy mean you’ll likely have you fill of Xmas Shooting – Scramble!! before you can purchase most of them, but it’s a fun and cute shoot ’em up for the short time it lasts. While definitely a stranger pick for a game to play on Christmas day, it’s still a lighthearted and colorful way to enjoy the holiday even though it requires weaving through a screen full of deadly lasers.

 

And so, I give Xmas Shooting – Scramble!! for PC…

A GOOD rating. Over too soon but remaining fresh til its quick end, Xmas Shooting – Scramble!! is a bite-sized bit of bullet hell goodness that makes it easy to whip out and play a run that has a decent chance of ending with victory. While it might not make a convert of someone who doesn’t like bullet hell style games, it contains a few interesting ingredients that can ease in players willing to give it a try. The destructible bullet system, despite being more subtle than difficulty settings and saving, might actually be the strongest, the ability to control how many objects you need to dodge both interesting for experienced players due to the degree of power they have over the fight and friendly to beginners as it helps clear away the sometimes intimidating amount of shots on screen. There are some fun and unique patterns from bosses and regular enemies that ensure the short journey is interesting and the dodging diverse, but it does feel like the game needed a bit more room to ramp up properly. Xmas Shooting – Scramble!! isn’t shallow though, but to better incentivize farming points for ReBits or playing higher difficulties it could have tossed more differences between the modes, with Conquest making these accessible even to players who might struggle with the harder stuff otherwise. Besides little things like a few moments where it doesn’t telegraph the arrival of enemies from odd spots, Xmas Shooting – Scramble!! doesn’t have pronounced problems, it’s simply more of a stocking stuffer than the big present you put beneath the tree. With more content and room to embrace ReBits though, it could be a full-fledged bullet hell game instead of simply a fun Christmas taste of the style.

 

Coming out the end of the 12 Games of Christmas series, Xmas Shooting – Scramble!! is thankfully a good note to conclude with. It competently adapts its genre to the season and manages to succeed at both its game design and Christmas elements even if the full package is a bit light. While it is a bit sad the only other Christmas game that came out better than simply decent was The Grinch, the two at least give something fun to do to celebrate the holiday. Christmas was already less likely than holidays like Halloween or Valentine’s Day to have appropriate games due to feeling more restrictive in what counts as an appropriate game, but Xmas Shooting – Scramble!! and The Grinch are able to ensure there’s still Christmas cheer to be had in the world of video games.