Bullet hell games often fill the screen with spectacle and chaos, your ship nearly overwhelmed in the sheer color and amount of incoming projectiles. Flatshot aims for something different, stripping down the bullet hell action to minimalist boss rushes with simple controls. That doesn't mean developer Rosalila Studio is making an easy game, but quite the opposite. From minimal simplicity comes laser-focused tests of evasion and combat, where tense risks are key to faster victories.

Flatshot's stages are David versus Goliath battles of you versus increasingly fearsome bosses; the boss' shape never changes, but its bullet patterns do, from swirling whirlpools of bullets to shifting rectangles that offer minute spaces to dodge between. Initially, your moveset seems paltry in comparison, only able to move up, down, left, right, and shoot straight. But Flatshot adds a surprising layer of fast-paced strategy.
Do you hold your fire to build a charge shot that creates a temporary bullet-cancelling barrier" It'll offer you some time to catch your breath and unleash on the boss at the expense of being defenseless beforehand. Should you hang back and pick apart the boss's health, or move in dangerously close since your bullets grow more powerful the nearer you are to your foe" Do you have the timing to parry bullets back at the boss, or pull off a parry dash that lets you rush through incoming bullets and grant you a few moments of invincibility" By combini...