Bang Bang Barrage is a chaotic roguelike shooter developed by Monkey Bread and published by Spiral Up Games. It throws you onto a small raft in a treacherous sea, where you must survive relentless waves of Cthulhu’s minions, not by traditional movement, but by mastering a unique recoil-based mechanic. This core design choice ensures an often hilarious experience, especially in multiplayer.
Instead of using keyboard or a joystick to move, every shot you fire propels your boat in the opposite direction. This means that aiming isn’t just about hitting enemies; it’s also about strategically positioning your boat to dodge incoming projectiles, avoid enemies, or even line up your next shot. In singleplayer, this is a unique challenge that demands constant awareness and quick thinking. In co-op, with up to three friends sharing the same (or sometimes separate, connected) boat, the chaos escalates exponentially as everyone’s shots contribute to the boat’s unpredictable movement.
The game is structured as a roguelike, meaning each run is unique. You face progressively harder waves of enemies, culminating in boss fights. As you survive waves, an in-game shop boat periodically appears, allowing you to spend collected gems, a currency dropped by defeated enemies, on upgrades. Bang Bang Barrage offers a variety of impactful perks that can fundamentally alter your playstyle. You might get upgrades for larger bullets, ricocheting projectiles, reloads causing explosions, or enemies dying on impact.
“You face progressively harder waves of enemies, culminating in boss fights.”
Beyond just enemies, the sea itself throws spontaneous buffs and debuffs at you, adding another layer of unpredictability. Environmental changes, like nighttime reducing your field of vision, or the removal of screen barriers where you teleport from one side to the other, constantly break your rhythm and demand adaptation. The replayability is one of the biggest features this game has to offer.
Bang Bang Barrage features both in-run progression through its shop upgrades and a meta-progression system. While the demo allowed for coin purchases, the full version introduces a new progression system where you unlock characters and weapons through gameplay, rather than grinding for currency. Coins in the full release are primarily for unlocking cosmetic skins and boat customizations via a “sticker system”. There are also 40 Steam achievements to unlock, providing additional long-term goals.
This title is incredibly fun. However, I’m not a fan of everything. Not all of the characters are useful, and there’s a big difference in how effective certain weapons are. For example, shotgun doesn’t feel as useful as laser gun or pistol. This disparity is even more obvious between singleplayer and multiplayer. In multiplayer, you can use a wider variety of items, but in singleplayer, your success depends almost entirely on your reload speed and damage output.
“The entire game is focused on a unique combo system.”
In fact, the entire game is focused on a unique combo system, the bigger the combo is the larger damage radius is. This is a very interesting idea that makes the small map not so annoying as it helps you to destory multiple enemies at once. Bosses are also quite fun and the game has two stages of them, meaning once you complete one, the more difficult version of the same boss arrives.
The game also features a leaderboard where you can compete with players worldwide by besting their high scores through a combo system. For online multiplayer, keep in mind there are no open lobbies; you’ll need to share a code with others to invite them to your game. Local multiplayer is also available and only requires one copy of the game, though other players will need their own controllers. The game works great with controllers, by the way.
Beyond its fast-paced, chaotic combat, Bang Bang Barrage is a very cute, cartoonish game that’s truly a pleasure to look at. I’ve enjoyed watching it evolve from a simple demo into something special. This is a must-have game if you have someone to play with, because it’s best with friends. The singleplayer mode is also fun, but it’s more reliant on your individual skill. Either way, you won’t be disappointed as Bang Bang Barrage is perfect for relaxing evenings.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Beautiful graphics. | Not every weapon and character is properly balanced. |
| Unique recoil-based movement. | Singleplayer might not be fun as multiplayer for some. |
| High replayability. | |
| Chaotic multiplayer fun. |
Review copy provided by the publisher
