The folks at Xona Games seem to really like shooting games. Along with their retro-style "Decimation X3", they now offer a very challenging dual-stick shooter in the form of Score Rush, whose name is very apt. There is no storyline, no deep techniques to spend months learning... it’s just you, some power-ups to make your guns better, and a ton of enemies while some metal music plays in the background. It’s definitely an acquired taste, but if you’re the sort of player who already wants to buy the game just from that description then rest assured your money will be well spent; it’s only $1 USD/80 Microsoft Points, and while admittedly short it is quite fun.
Like most dual-stick shooters, Score Rush lets you control one ship from an overhead view; left stick moves, right stick shoots your gun in pretty much any direction. The only other mechanic of note are a few bombs you have on hand, essentially panic-buttons that will clear the play area of bullets if you’re unable to dodge an imminent hit. Beyond that, enemies come in from the top of the screen and shoot a ton of projectiles your way so it’s your job to dodge and shoot them back. Succeed and you gain power-ups that let your gun fire more bullets over a wider angle, fail and you’ll have to scramble to pick up your remaining power-ups on your next life.
While most of your enemies are small ones that can be killed with just a short burst of bullets, bosses show up pretty often. They’re huge, taking up a good chunk of the top part of the screen and spewing bullets in wide, elaborate patterns. This is where the ’bullet hell’ mechanics come in, because your ship is actually only vulnerable in a little dot at the center; every other part of your ship can actually slip through bullets without harm. You’ll need this advantage, because the screen will be absolutely littered in projectiles by the time you get even half-way through the game and slipping even your tiny ’vulnerable dot’ through the gaps will be very challenging.
If that sounds pretty straight-forward, that’s because it is. Score Rush’s learning curve is best measured in dozens of seconds, and a single run through it only takes several minutes... if you can make it that far. Even on its earliest difficulty, Score Rush is a very hard game and this appears to be intentional. The only seemingly unintended difficulty, and honestly the only meaningful problem the game has, is that all the bullet effects are wrapped in a neon-style glow. It gets very distracting at times, especially when done in true bullet hell style.
On the other hand, that flaw is compensated for by support for up to four players simultaneously (only locally, no online play is supported), which brings Score Rush’s simple but frantic entertainment to you and a few friends. It’s short and simple, but definitely a lot of fun. Whether you plan to play alone or with friends, fans of this genre should pick up Score Rush and appreciate its very low price.
