Ever since I saw the announcement trailer I was intrigued by Hell is Other Demons (HOD), because whenever a game with great pixel art is released I gravitate towards it. In HOD, you take to the role of the last hope in the war for the netherworld; it is an interesting setting for a story and I really enjoyed my time with the game because of all the challenge it offers and the different ways to tackle each area.
HOD offers a different approach to the platformer genre, instead of being a run and gun game like Megaman or Contra, the game takes place in self-contained areas with waves of enemies with bullet hell mechanics. On paper that sounds fun and, as it turns out, it’s fun in execution as well. In each area there are three challenges that you can complete before being able to go to the next area. Needless to say, if you don’t complete them, it doesn’t mean that you won’t move forward with the game; just clearing all the waves in each area is enough to grant to passage to the next one. However, once you do complete them you will notice that there are some empty spaces in the area you just beat. You have three challenges in each area, one of them is beating the stage without using your ultimate attack, one is beating the stage without getting hit, and the last is beating the stage without using your weapon. Whenever you finish a challenge a rune appears and for a completionist this adds another layer of challenge and lots replay value. Thanks to the challenges for each stage there are 3 different ways to defeat enemies, using your main weapon, using your ultimate, or just jumping on them a la Super Mario Bros. Whenever you defeat an enemy they can drop gems, hearts to refill your health, or energy to fill your ultimate. While heart and ultimate refills are random the gems dropped are constant, and it’s important that you collect as many as you can because after many of the areas you beat, you’re able to access a shop.
In the shop, you can use the gems obtain to get several useful upgrades, like increasing your health gauge, buy new weapons and equipment like spike boots that increase your stomp damage or even increase the amount of weight your character can carry. This is important because if your character doesn’t have the number of slots required to equip a weapon or ultimate you won’t be able to use them. There are different weapon-equipment combinations so you can find the one that suits you the best.
Graphically the game looks good and polished, I like the different enemies you encounter and the different attack patterns they have. The level design is interesting as well, because even if you are in a self-contained area, sometimes the platforms you stand on will have hazards like spikes that pop out at different time intervals. Sometimes there’s even spikes on the ceiling so you don’t abuse the double jump hover mechanic. If you do a double jump and then hold down the jump button, you can hover and descend slowly, if, while descending, you hit an enemy you can jump again and continue hovering. This means you can be on the air for as long as there are enemies. The music is so good it really pumps you up especially during boss battles, there was never a dull moment during my time with the game.
Bottom Line, Hell is Other Demons, is a great platformer/bullet hell game, with a challenging but fun premise. If you are a fan of platformers this is one you shouldn’t miss; it feels right at home on the Nintendo Switch so I definitely recommend it.
A Review code was provided for this review.