Cave

So far in the invisible pigeon-holing council, we've looked at some very general genres from the overly general MMO to the unexpected Beat 'em Up. Today, however, we look at something completely different. We're going to be taking a look at the extremely tight niche genre not terribly well known in the United States, referred to as “bullet hell.” Known as 弾幕 or "danmaku" games in Japan (where the genre is substantially more common than it is elsewhere) and alternatively referred to as manic shooters, bullet hell games are an ultimate extension of the shoot 'em up genre. Unlike MMO or Beat 'em Up, one might call bullet hell an "end-point genre" - you learn most everything you need to know about a game simply by hearing that it is a bullet hell game. So what does this mean to us as gamers? Find out after the jump.