Pyroblossom Review

Pyroblossom is a flash animation vertical flight shooter game submitted to Newgrounds.com by Newgrounds.com user alillm-com. This action game was submitted to Newgrounds.com on November 3, 2009 and features music by AkelixE.

Background

You play as the mercenary Red Rage in an assault helicopter as you fly and fight through multiple campaigns, starting out working for some guy who pays you 20% of the amount you loot, then working your way up to something greater.

Controls

Use arrow keys to move around. You fire automatically.
Press space to go into psycho mode. (details in Gameplay) Releasing the spacebar takes you out of psycho mode.

Gameplay

Like most other vertical shooter games, your objective in Pyroblossom is to shoot down the enemy without dying. In this game, you have about 5 more lives that you can use if you die, and you can add to this life count by purchasing lives after each stage with the loot you have earned.

Unlike most other vertical shooter games, Pyroblossom does not need you to have good aim. In fact, most of the game's emphasis is on dodging. However, because the emphasis is on dodging, it requires a high degree of game-manship to play at a competitive level.

Psycho mode, which can be activated by pressing and holding the spacebar, makes you invincible as well as doubles your firepower. The yellow bar on the right side of the screen determines how long you can use psycho mode. The bar increases as you hit enemies and will deplete when you press spacebar.

To the left of the yellow bar is your score. Below the score is a bunch more bars, one horizontal, and seven vertical. The horizontal bar will fill up green as you attack enemies. Once this bar is full, one of the vertical bars will fill up. As a green vertical bar fills up, you gain an upgrade for you assault helicopter. Upgrades include having little robo-shooters that help you shoot more enemies.

When you die, these helpers will scatter, which will give you an opportunity to collect them before they disappear once you respawn.

Running into enemies or getting shot once is an instant death, so dodging is extremely important.

There is a boss at the end of each stage. The health status of the boss is displayed at the top of the screen.

You can submit your score at the end of the game, or when you die, to a global leader board.

Review

The electronic background music adds to the trippiness of the game, as if the flashy graphics weren't enough. Some players will enjoy this, while others will start spazzing out and quit playing. For those who enjoy the game's graphics, the music will add to the adrenaline rush. For those who can't stand the flashiness and rapidly changing colors (especially during psycho mode), the music will either relieve some of that pain (if you like electronic music) or exacerbate it.

The enemies can get rather repetitive. The only noticeable difference is that the enemies get harder to kill.

Even with the flashiness and repetitiveness, I must say Pyroblossom is quite addicting! Even though the game focuses only on dodging, it does a great job of making the game challenging. The upgrades are also a great addition to the game, as well as psycho mode.

Pyroblossom scores a 10/10 for awesomeness.