bullet hell

plural bullet hells · alternative bullet-hell

1. attributivecountableuncountablevideo gamesA (genre of) two-dimensional shoot 'em up in which the playfield is almost filled with a barrage of enemy bullets.

   Mars Matrix is a bullet hell game that is pretty well designed.

   2003, Billy Bissette, “SAY IT AIN'T SO!!!”, in rec.games.video.sega (Usenet)

   2 more examples

   A few of the game cabinets are connected to flat-screen TVs so bystanders can stop and ogle. Grimy VCRs are hooked up to bullet-hell shooting games...

   2008, Brian Ashcraft, Jean Snow, Arcade Mania: The Turbo-charged World of Japan's Game Centers

   The camera is a convenient nonviolent replacement for a gun, a principle perhaps taken most literally by Shoot the Bullet (2005), a bullet hell game in which you clear bullets by photographing them.

   2019 February 25, Jordan Erica Webber, “Point and shoot: what's next for photography in video games?”, in The Guardian