Bullet hell (弾幕,danmaku; literally "barrage" or "bullet curtain"), also known asmanic shooter,^[1] is asubgenre ofshoot 'em up video games with large amounts of projectiles the player is required to dodge. Introduced in 1993 withBatsugun and initially limited tovertically scrolling shooters, bullet hell elements were later added to other genres. Pure bullet hell games remain a niche genre due to their high level of difficulty.

The origin of the bullet hell genre is attributed toToaplan, a now-defunct Japanese video game studio that developedarcade shoot 'em ups. In 1993, the studio releasedBatsugun, an innovative game that, after the first level, featured increasingly complex and hypnotic bullet patterns. In order to make the game more fair to players, only a small part of the player's ship served as thehitbox, rather than the entire vessel itself. This remains a tenet of bullet hell shooters, allowing players to navigate through seemingly impossible swarms of bullets. The company collapsed soon after, but former employees started a different studio,Cave, that continued to develop bullet hell games.^[2]

The 1995DonPachi added more twists to the formula that continue to be reflected in the genre going forward. It added afighting game-stylecombo system that forced the player to defeat enemies quickly or lose score. Around this time, theTouhou Project, the most well-known and prolific fan-made shooter series as recognized byGuinness World Records, was also conceived. Largely the work of a singledoujin soft developer,ZUN, he had begun developing the games to showcase hismusical compositions. The second game in the series, the 1997Story of Eastern Wonderland, was its first bullet hell shoot 'em up. The 2002Embodiment of Scarlet Devil marked a large step forward for the series, and, due to itsWindows release, gained massive popularity with a new Western audience.^[2]

In 2001,Ikaruga gained significant attention outside of Japan due to its release on theGameCube. It was many Western players' first experience with bullet hell, and gained a respected place in gaming culture. In the modern day, more bullet hell titles have been released on mobile platforms than ever before. While it is still a heavily Japan-centric genre, there have been some Western-developed exceptions, such asJamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony.^[2]

Some games began incorporating bullet hell elements despite being different genres, muddying definitions of what exactly the genre is.RPG/bullet hell hybrids includeKnights in the Nightmare (2008),Undertale (2015),Nier: Automata (2017) andDeltarune (2018–2025) which have combat systems featuring bullet dodging.Enter the Gungeon (2016) is atwin-stick shooterroguelike with "smart" bullets.^[3] Due to the high difficulty of pure bullet hell games, such hybrids open the genre to a new audience who might not have considered trying them otherwise.^[4]

The competitive bullet hell scene is defined by hyper-fast reflex gameplay with a focus on achievinghigh scores. Game scholar Alexandra Orlando claims that it has not become anesport due to a lack of human drama, as well as a belief that highly-skilled Japanese players are "gods" of the genre, causing fewer Western players to pick them up.^[5] Approximately 90% of records are held by Japanese players.^[6]

Bullet heaven or reverse bullet hell are terms for games in which, rather than attempting to dodge enemy projectiles, the player's character or vessel generates the bullets, typically in the manner of an auto shooter, in order to take out waves of enemies while the player moves. These games often have the player choose power-ups from a random selection to improve attack and passive abilities. Such games became popular with the release ofVampire Survivors in 2022, and include games likeBrotato,20 Minutes Till Dawn, andHoloCure – Save the Fans!.^[7] A common term for the genre, "survivors-like", stems from the popularity ofVampire Survivors.^{[8][9][10][11]}

• Bullet hell video games
• Video game genres

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