Bullet Witch

"Another average game hits the 360"

Bullet Witch never really interested me beyond the unique game play idea. Everyone thought it was doomed to never leave Japan. To the surprise of a few, it came to North America. Should it have stayed away or is it a sleeper hit? Read on!

Something has happened in the world and only 1 billion people are left alive. You're some hot chick in a black dress. Demons are filling the world and you need to stop them. The plot is alright but nothing special. Actually, it did nothing for me and seemed paper thin.

Graphic wise this game is a mixed bag. Everything is shiny, which may have been a good thing if this wasn't a world torn apart. Character models look alright but enemies are kind of uninspired and they all look the same, except they may have a red hat on. The levels are bland as well and rather empty.

The sound in the game is kind of just there. I don't remember any of the music so that's either a good or a bad thing depending on how you look at it. Sound effects are alright. The heels clicking on the ground, grass crunching, things going boom. Sounds pretty good. The voice work should just not be mentioned. It's horrible.

The control in the game is a little complex at first. R trigger shoots and L trigger jumps (dodge). A is a melee attack. From there you can hit the left bumper and hold it to bring up the spell wheel. Each spell is assigned either X, Y, B and you can hit the L bumper again to change the spells. I believe there are three spell wheels.

The game is made up of 6 levels. If you have Xbox Live you can download an extra level. The levels themselves are fairly long. About 20 minutes or so. They are big, kind of linear but when you do get open areas they are devoid of life and require constant backtracking.

The main idea of Bulletwitch is that you have a broom/gun hybrid and you can cast magic. The magic allows you to heal people, push objects, and call lightning down and a few other things. It's not that it's just there to make it fun; you need most of it to solve the puzzles which aren't really puzzles. See a tank; call lightning to blow it up.

The enemy AI is kind of dumb as it stands there and does nothing but then they will attack. It's amusing that it seems like I'm getting hit but nothing happens to me. Your HP and MP both refill over time. Oh and speaking of AI and combat, your guns sights have a terrible time figuring out if something is an enemy or friend and rarely shows up as a red crosshair.

Most of the time you'll find your path blocked by a colored mist. Find the giant floating brain and kill it to open up the next area. This makes the game feel even more limited than it should.

The game is kind of short when you think about it. There is some interesting and very cheap downloadable content but really the game doesn't have much to offer past harder difficulties and lame achievements. Want to know how lame they are? You can only get the last single achievement point (as in 1 point) by beating the game on the highest difficulty setting. Lame.

It's not that Bulletwitch is a terrible game. It just isn't good in anything that it does. Okay, maybe it has some cool explosions but this isn't a Bad Boys movie. It's a short, simple and not that exciting third person shooter.

Story - 5/10
Graphics - 6/10
Sound - 5/10
Control - 7/10
Game Play - 5/10
Replay Value - 3/10

Final Score - 5/10

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 04/30/07