I’ll absolutely say that as a vintage arcade gamer this past generation has been a wild ride. Simply getting to revisit so many classics, whether straight up or improved in some way, can be such a treat. Even more fascinating though have been new titles built in that same arcade tradition, and can sometimes play authentically well enough that they would have fit in back in the day. In the case of Silver Bullet though, it feels like something wildly different, and though it can be tough to get used to I’d argue that effort is worth it.

What stands out the most to me is that in terms of its controls and mechanics, it wouldn’t have likely been very playable with a traditional arcade setup. There is an option for arcade controls, and they do work well enough, but I found the twin-stick configuration to be far more effective, even if it can take some getting used to. In some ways it plays a bit like a more bullet hell version of a classic like Cabal, but at the same time featuring far more variety, including some very different skill challenges that pop in pretty well every other level. One moment you’ll be blasting away ghosts or spiders, and the next you’ll be trying to survive an onslaught of magical orbs being lobbed at you by some monstrous boss, finding the safe spots and returning fire in the hopes that you can survive.

What I found tricky at first was getting used to how I needed to move to avoid enemy fire. Moving more normally means you’ll be going pretty slowly, needing to stop shooting to get more fine-controlled side to side movement. The real key is getting better at using your dash for all movement, helping you do everything more quickly but increasing the odds you’ll have troubles when the screen starts filling up with enemy fire. Considering that you’ll use that same dash to deal with enemies who are on the ground, it's definitely the way to go though, and mixing that with all of the bullets flying in both directions the action starts to get pretty intense.

While I’ll admit that this may be pushing the classic arcade formula out of its normal comfort zone, at the same time there’s just something about it that still feels very vintage. Moving between the different stages has an old-school feel of something like Ghouls ‘n Ghosts, and in general each new level throws something different at you, complete with a wide variety of special objectives you can unlock and complete for some extra perks the further you go. In general it’s just a roller coaster of a ride, but given that it feels fresh and different, even while having familiar elements, it’s hard not to really enjoy digging into.