 Steam Drunk? Long time viewers of this channel know that I love run and gun shooter games like this, so of course I had to check out Bleed. What makes this game stand out from the rest? The major thing is the controls. On an Xbox 360 controller, for example, you use the left joystick to move around and the right joystick to shoot, while using the right trigger to jump and the left trigger to activate bullet time, otherwise known as super sweet slow motion. So yeah, in other words, Bleed is a run and gun 2D action platformer that plays like Geometry Wars. How cool is that? It's a good idea for a game and it works really well. And as you can see, the bullet time effects are what make this game fun. You only get a limited amount of time to use it, of course, but it builds back up quickly. What really adds to the action, however, is the ability to double and triple jump, because it allows you to reach just about anywhere and dodge just about anything. It really gives off the same sense of freedom you get from playing stuff like Rocket Knight Adventures. So yeah, running, jumping, double jumping, and triggering bullet time while juggling weapons and shooting at everything that moves, your brain might feel a little overloaded. But hey, that's kind of the idea, right? It's the archetypal example of the run and gun shooter where your character is overpowered to the gills. You have so many abilities at your disposal that you might actually forget about a couple of them. A long while back I did a video on Intrusion 2. This game is similar to that, but with even more bells and whistles, and even another player, as this game is 2 player co-op. That's pretty sweet. You also accumulate money as you play and you can buy weapons and upgrades in between levels. There are a few things that hold back Bleed from being great. One is the level design. It's pretty good. Don't get me wrong, the enemy design and especially the boss battles are well thought out and well done, but the layouts of the levels themselves are just okay. The train stage sans out is pretty cool, but that's about it. I'm just saying don't exactly expect Mega Man 2 or Gunstar Heroes kind of game here where it comes to that particular aspect. Also, as you might expect, this game is really, really hard. This is a trial and error, pick up and die kind of a game. So it's going to be tough to progress until you learn certain patterns. It's certainly not impossible, though. There's three game modes here. The usual story mode and no death mode, where you only get one life. And a boss run, where you have to fight multiple bosses at once. I will say the story here is actually pretty funny. You play as Rin and her dream is to one day be inducted into the Hall of Heroes and become immortalized for her badass skills. But to do that, she has to eliminate all the current living heroes who have all let their fame go to their heads. So hey, they got it coming, man. I know nobody plays these kinds of games for the story, but what's here is pretty amusing. So yeah, Bleed is terrific fun. A dual stick 2D side scrolling shooter with all sorts of features and craziness. But bear in mind, this game is very short, only seven levels. So I'd recommend just keeping it on your wish list and waiting for it to go on sale if you want to get it on Steam. It's also available on Xbox Live. As of this writing, it's like $3. And at that price, I'd say it's worth picking up.