Psyvariar was a vertically scrolling bullet hell shooter series in the arcades around the late 90s/early 2000s.  It had a sequel soon after, but I’ve never heard of these games, or don’t remember them.  But then, shooters like these were a dime a dozen back then.  And now, more than two decades later, here’s a third game in the series.  Psyvariar 3 is available on current consoles and PC, but reviewed on Switch 2 here.

In the game, you can choose from a handful of characters, each with their own ship and firing patterns.  Move with the L stick and fire with the button.  Another button lets you send out a screen clearing bomb, but you must use those sparingly as they are limited.  Psyvariar 3 does two unique things to the gameplay.  By quickly rotating the L stick or holding one of the shoulder buttons, your ship will spin around and your shots will be more concentrated while you do this.  Powering up also works differently. Instead of collecting icons to power up, your ship will level up and change shape as you defeat enemies and ‘graze’ bullets by you as close as possible.  At the end of each stage is a boss, and depending how well you do, you can choose harder difficulties in the next area.

There are quite a few gameplay modes.  Arcade is the standard game with limited credits to continue, but as you play you’ll earn more credits so you can get a little further each time.  While I’d rather have unlimited continues from the start, this is better than nothing.  Arrange mode has you fully powered up, but with only three lives and no continues.  Mission mode gives you objectives to complete, like shooting down a certain number of enemies. These missions are pretty hard, though!  Caravan has you trying for a high score with a limited time, and Endless has you do one continuous randomly generated stage.  Finally Practice mode lets you do each stage you’ve unlocked.  So there’s plenty to do here.  While these kinds of bullet hell shooters aren’t my cup of tea, this one seems pretty good with nice music and graphics.

Kid Factor:

Psyvariar 3 is rated E-10 with an ESRB descriptor of Fantasy Violence.  You just shoot spaceships that explode and that’s it.  Reading skill is helpful for the menus, but not necessary just to play.

Tags: Game Reviews