My initial encounter with the arcade world happened when I was just 6 years old. It took place in the cozy confines of my local video shop which housed iconic games like Pacman and Space Invaders . These captivated my young mind but I found myself drawn to the allure of shoot 'em up games, with their pulse-pounding action and excitement. I vividly remember my fascination with the compact, sit-down cocktail cabinet Space Invaders game.

They've always held a special place in my heart as once the enemy patterns are learnt and memorised you can look like a boss completing a game. I have a vivid memory of playing R-Type at Heathrow Airport and getting to level 3, that huge base ship. I bought the game on the Amstrad CPC 464 and felt like a bad-ass as my little ship took down a warship that was bigger than a screen, in fact it was a whole level in and of itself. Over the years I bought R-Type again on the Master System and then progressed to the Megadrive where I continued my love of shoot 'em ups with the Thunder Force series.

However, with time, bullet hell games took over. I liked them as I felt zen when I played them but they were not the same as the shoot 'em ups I grew up with. Bullet hell games made their way West in larger numbers during the reign of the Xbox 360 Live Arcade and included games like Deathsmile and Akai Katana (both of which I owned and still have). They have a place in my heart but, according to aficionados of the genre, they were stagnant compared to Dodonpachi and Ikaruga, the true exciting innovators of bullet hell. Luckily, I was able to buy Ikaruga on the Switch and recently purchased DoDonPachi Resurrection. It is a brilliant game and rock hard are Cave shooters usually are. Anyways, here are screenshots of my playthough.