The latest in a long line of homages to the classic 80s arcade era from publisher Flynn’s Arcade, Silver Bullet is a title which recalls games such as Cabal and Wild Guns Reloaded.

You’ll take Van Helsing on a mission through the game’s world to save a set of kidnapped puppies from a vampire (just go with it!), and doing this requires Van Helsing to take down a ton of monsters and bosses on each individual stage, as well as successfully beating mini game stages between each main encounter too.

The control scheme is initially quite awkward, and I really didn’t get on with it; you’ll need to be adept at moving your character out of harm’s way at the bottom of the screen, while performing melee attacks on anything approaching you down there and also moving a cursor to shoot just about everything else on screen.

Though it’s reasonably intuitive, the juggling act of moving, melee, shooting and activating special powers often proved too much for me to cope with, and I didn’t enjoy the game very much as a result. There are plenty of alternatives control methods to try out, but it’s a shame that the default method just doesn’t feel like it’s fit for purpose.

That said, it’s an absolutely gorgeous game, with beautiful, very retro, pixel art sprites and backgrounds, with a wonderfully vibrant colour scheme to boot. The animation is fantastic, plus the soundtrack and effects are excellent too.

The mini games add a good amount of variation as well, though many feel like they’re set at a difficulty level on the wrong side of frustrating, rather than simply challenging.

If you can overcome the control scheme, and the difficulty level doesn’t scare you away, there’s lots to enjoy about Silver Bullet. I personally found it too difficult to have much fun with Silver Bullet, but old school arcade heads will find plenty to enjoy, as well as lots to unlock including a completely new game mode!

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