Rise and Shine
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Developed by Super Mega Team and published by Adult Swim Games, Rise and Shine is an absolute bullet hell, in the truest sense of the words. Combining 2D platforming with punishing battles, gun-based puzzles and a completely tongue-in-cheek world, to say this game is unique would be an understatement. Rise and Shine is set on planet Gamearth, home of all classic video game characters. Players take control of a youngster named Rise, who comes into possession of a deadly, talking gun called Shine. Shine bestows upon its bearer infinite respawns and ludicrous firepower. Good thing too, as Gamearth is being invaded by the Space Grunts from planet Nexgen.
From there, Rise and Shine begin walking the bullet-strewn road of eliminating every last enemy in their path.
The story present here is an absurd one but it works. Almost every single scene is packed with references to other games, including but most certainly not limited to a Marcus Fenix lookalike, Shine making tired complaints about the stuffing of zombies into games, enemies that look like Goombas and many more jabs or shout-outs that I refuse to give away. There’s plenty of comic relief to be found, which works well to ease your tension after particularly grueling sections.
Cutscenes are shown in the style of a comic book, still-image by still-image with speech bubbles but no words spoken aloud. There is one issue with this; because the game forgoes traditional cinematics, you will find yourself constantly pressing buttons to get through the comic-style cutscenes or even conversations between characters. Even worse, this sometimes occurs right after a save but before a place where it is easy to die, so you’ll find yourself being forced to manually skip the same lines over and over and over. 
Rise and Shine uses a distinct art style, with beautiful attention to detail in every single scene. The color range favors a strong, bright orange glow, helping to foster a sense of light-heartedness that eases the gloom of destruction imposed by the war-torn landscape in the background. The resolution never became pixelated or blurry, so the detail was always crisp. The framerate was also fine, as it ran extremely smooth for the majority of my playing time, with one brief instance of slowdown in a puzzle section towards the end of the game. The soundtrack has great references to older games and usually helps maintain the tone of a particular scene, whether its guns-blazing action or a spooky tunnel. That said, I do wish there was a tad more variety, as it never particularly stands out as something unique or memorable either, preferring to play on nostalgia.
The controls you use to guide Rise are fairly simple. You can move backwards, forwards, double jump, take cover behind rubble and fire off your talkative weapon, Shine. Shine has a wide range of combat options available, different ammo for different foes or puzzles, as well as combat modules that sometimes have to be used in unusual ways. My personal favorite, the guided bullet, is a great example. Taking careful aim, players can manually fly a bullet to a target so long as it stays within range of a radio. This feature is used for some of the game’s more ingeniously tricky sections and boss battles.
The wonders of Rise and Shine’s design don’t stop there. No two puzzles or boss battles are even remotely similar, so just when you think you understand how to cruise through with no problem, you’ll die. Wide varieties of scenarios are present and thrown at you in quite rapid succession. It can definitely feel overwhelming, because in addition to quick problem solving skills you’ll also need quick reflexes in order to progress, as the amount of meathead soldiers, projectiles, rockets, lasers, killer robots and the like is ever-increasing, in some cases reaching a point with literal walls of enemies or firepower blocking your path.
The only other real issue present is the length of the game. Admittedly, your reflexes and adaptability will determine just how long it takes for you to complete the various stages. However, even with my innumerable deaths I still completed Rise and Shine in just under three hours. So if you are not a fan of short gaming experiences then that is something you should definitely take into account.
The final verdict? A resounding yes. Rise and Shine is brutal, even excruciatingly difficult at times. It is also an absolute blast to play, with incredibly engaging combat, a wide variety of levels and gameplay sections, consistently funny jabs at other games and itself. No, it may not be a particularly lengthy game and yes, skipping the cutscenes panel by panel is most assuredly annoying. For $15 though? It’s well worth it. This is one title that most definitely both rises and shines.
