Save the world and play as one of three anime ladies with flying suits in this 16-bit styled 2D vertically scrolling bullet hell shooter.  Exo-Calibre is available on most current consoles and PC, but reviewed on PS4 here.

Controls are simple.  Use the R2 button to fire and the face buttons let you use a melee sword attack and boost.  You can play Story Mode or Arcade Mode, but the only difference is that story gives you three hits before you lose a life, and arcade just gives you one hit.  You can also unlock boss rush and time attack modes.  You can select three characters with different shot patterns, and there are three more to unlock as well.

Because of the colorful backgrounds and the fact that you can bounce certain power-ups with your shots reminds me of TwinBee mixed with a bullet hell shooter.  But the power-ups you can bounce just give you money.  You can spend that money at the end of each level to buy more power-ups like stronger shots, more life, and speed ups.  But that means you spend most of the level with no upgrades, making things pretty tough.  And that’s the other main problem I have with this one is that it’s way too hard.  Would’ve loved to have a difficulty selection or something.

Kid Factor:

Exo-Calibre is rated E-10 with ESRB descriptors of Fantasy Violence and Mild Language.  You just shoot spaceships that explode when defeated.  I didn’t notice any bad language, but it’s probably all in the text only.  Reading skill is helpful but not necessary to play.  Younger gamers may find this one too difficult, though.

Tags: Game Reviews