Graze Counter GM from Sanuk, Henteko Doujin, and Bikkuri Software is a fast-paced bullet hell vertical shoot ‘em up in which you’ll be rewarded for taking risks. Learn more in our Graze Counter GM review!
Graze Counter GM from Sanuk, Henteko Doujin, and Bikkuri Software is a fast-paced bullet hell vertical shoot ‘em up in which you’ll be rewarded for taking risks. A malfunction is causing the virtual reality network EDEN to go haywire, and it’s basically keeping its users hostage. Now 100 million users can’t disconnect from it, and their minds are in a limbo of sorts! You must venture into the virtual world thanks to a hidden route.
You can play either by taking on the whole experience with a variety of stages to beat as you experience the cutscenes and story, or you could play in Mission Mode. As the name suggests, for Mission Mode, you’ll be selecting from 30 missions that will task you with completing specific objectives, such as defeating enemies using the Graze Counter, Grazing 300 times, deleting 20 enemy bullets from the screen, defeating all enemies, getting a specific score, or surviving for a set period of time, to name some examples.
You’ll be playing through Graze Counter GM as one of two pilots that will be taking control of the state-of-the-art Divider Type attack programs that are able to absorb enemy fire to convert it into energy for its weapons. Choose between Uzuki Ginyose or Satsuki Furuyama, with each one having a different attack pattern for its regular shots. You can then select a skill card, which will help you with an extra ability that can make a big difference. Having an autoshield card will have your ship automatically generate a new shield every 15 seconds if your shield is down, and you can imagine how that could be very useful! Or maybe you’d like to equip the Break Booster skill card, which can allow the Break Gauge to charge up twice as fast while also being able “Half Break.” Another option is the Safety System skill card, which will make you invulnerable when you counter at a 70% filled gauge.
This one can be played either in the Standard setting, which offers a normal level of challenge, or you can spice things up by going into the Unlimited setting. As expected, Unlimited increases the overall challenge by adding more of something, which in this case is having enemies emit bullets when destroyed. You can also choose from a series of difficulty settings, going from Novice all the way up to Extreme, with enemies that are much stronger and way more aggressive.
You’ll control your ship with the left analog stick or the D-Pad, shooting at anything that moves with the B button. The A button is for activating the Graze Counter once you’ve filled up the Graze Gauge. This will unleash a mighty attack that will deal considerable damage to enemies and bosses while also destroying enemy bullets. The Graze Gauge can increase by getting close to enemies and their attacks. The Y button is for Break Mode, which can be used when the Break Gauge is full. You fill it up by collecting stars, which will pop up when you destroy enemies and destroy bullets with the Graze Counter.
Once you activate Break Mode, all bullets on the screen will be destroyed, and you’ll be made stronger for a bit. You can use this moment to destroy a ton of enemies as you boost your overall score since your score modifier will decrease at a slower pace. Speaking of which, you can slow down by pressing the X button, which will allow you to have a better chance of dodging incoming attacks. You could also go into settings and change the button layout to the Include option. What this does is slow down your ship as you shoot with the B button while mapping a rapid shot ability to the X button.
As you progress through each level, you can collect power-ups to boost your score modifier so that you can increase your score at a faster pace, collect a shield to protect you from attacks, or grab one that will increase your Graze Gauge and Break Gauge to be able to use the Graze Counter at a faster pace. If you’re the type of gamer who likes to get a huge high score, you’ll be inclined to always select the score modifier booster, but don’t neglect to collect the shield or the gauge boost every now and then if you want to survive!
Beat a boss to complete a stage, and you’ll be given a chance to select from the different route options that will take you to different stages for the next phase. This is a good way to increase replay value since you won’t be able to play through all sections in a single run. If you want to 100% this one, then you’ll have to play through all of Graze Counter GM’s story mode at least twice.
Speaking of being able to 100% Graze Counter Gm, you should know that this one features an in-game achievement system for you to work your way through. You can check them out under the Archive Mode section, which also gives you access to the leaderboard, the tutorial demo, and the character bios. As for the achievements, you’ll unlock them by, for example, completing the game with the Type-1 ship, defeating each of the bosses in the game, clearing the game while playing in Unlimited Mode, beating the whole game without using any continues, or beating the game without dying – good luck with that one!
Graze Counter GM is a fun bullet hell shoot ‘em up on Nintendo Switch. While it’s a vertical shoot ‘em up, the game does something interesting since it uses the whole screen to show how some enemies are about to enter the scene from the left or right side, which gives you a chance to prepare for it. The game offers two different gameplay modes, branching mission paths and even an in-game achievement system to increase replay value. Graze Counter GM is out on Nintendo Switch with a $14.99 asking price.
Disclaimer
This Graze Counter GM review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by Sanuk.
