About Counter Blox:
Counter blox is a blast to play, in every sense of the word; it plays different than any other bullet hells I’ve played all because of its unique gameplay mechanic, the titular Graze Counter. This game has an emphasis on grazing (i.e. narrowly avoiding) enemy projectiles, but the game is built around it and – most importantly – actively rewards the player for doing so. In most bullet hell games, you only have a limited supply of what I refer to as “bombs”, which are defensive, clear the screen and deal damage to any enemies present; as such, the player is usually encouraged to save them for when they really need them, causing some players (like myself) to end up not using them at all since they only come in limited supply. Graze Counter completely averts this; the “bombs” in this game are actually the titular Graze Counters. Grazing bullets quickly replenishes the Graze Counter bar, and once it’s halfway full, you can unleash a powerful laser attack, destroying any bullets in front of you and scoring more points in the process. Completely filling the graze counter bar to 100% (which takes about 1 whole second, if that) performs the same powerful laser attack, but you’re given an invincibility shield for the duration of the laser attack. The player is encouraged to utilize this Graze Counter very often both offensively and defensively, and the Graze Counter meter is very easily replenished once used. The game has 3 difficulties which suit any bullet hell skill level (even a togglable Pacificst Mode, where your only attack is the Graze Counter), and there doesn’t seem to be any penalties for playing a lower difficulty; however, on Normal and Expert, there is a “Dynamic Difficulty” that adjusts the difficulty depending on how well you’re doing. Bullet patterns on one playthrough may be slightly faster and/or more dense on a different playthrough, but it’s never impossible, nor is the change ever game-breaking. For new players, there’s a Casual mode, as well as “Mission Mode” which is practically a tutorial for both the game’s mechanics as well as simple practice in scenarios that appear in the main story mode. There’s also a dedicated practice mode for each stage as well. This game does have one huge, significant flaw; there is no instant retry feature as seen in every other bullet hell ever. If you want to start over, you have to exit the game completely and restart it again; that’s the fastest way. The alternative is just lose all your lives and get a game-over, but this is time consuming due to the respawn invulnerability period after losing a life. There is a pause button, but there isn’t even a pause menu. The pause button can’t be bound to Escape either since that’s the button to exit the game. In conclusion, I recommend Graze Counter because of its dynamic gameplay that rewards the player for narrowly avoiding enemy bullets in more ways than just “you score more points”; it integrates it into the gameplay itself. There’s plenty of replay value because of unlockable characters that all play differently (e.g. Spread Shots and slower movement vs Narrower Shots and fast movement), and the main game itself – like most bullet hell games – is relatively short with only 5 (increasingly difficult) stages.
