Shikhondo - Soul Eater 12+

Shikhondo Soul Eater

I picked this game up on Steam recently and it's been in pretty heavy rotation since, alongside the handful of other top notch bullet-hell games I've picked up over the last few years. And while I wouldn't exactly place it up there alongside Cave's output, it's a very well made and competent shmup. And even with that being the case, I'm pretty surprised that it wound up in the AppStore. Don't get me wrong, iOS is severely lacking in the genre since the 32-bit apocalypse removed almost all of them from the store... but even with the touchscreen being a perfect platform for these games (when they're handled the right way/without buttons, which Shikhondo Soul Eater is), they unfortunately don't seem to sell well.
Now to the game---
The backgrounds are beautiful. The only downside to this is that some of the smaller bullets can get lost if you're playing on a smaller iPhone. I don't have an iPad, but I imagine they'd be easier to keep track of on a larger screen (it's never a problem on my laptop's screen). The enemies aren't really anything too special but the end level bosses that change appearance as you destroy them are outstanding.
The bullet patterns are fantastic, especially in harder difficulties. And the relative touch controls are spot on, even with the 'gimped' speed to keep it true to the PC version. The iOS version also gets an extra Hardcore mode to make up for the lack of co-op, which is a huge plus. The music is also pretty decent too, even though it doesn't really fit the atmosphere.

If you've been hoping to find more bullet-hell titles since iOS 11, this is a game you REALLY should pick up. It's also only $4 (as opposed to the $10 Steam version), making it fairly cheap, even when compared to other titles in the genre in the AppStore.

Thank you, DeerFarm, for porting this over to the iPhone!! It's great having this available in my pocket.