Don't Shoot Yourself! Review

It’s not very often a title that first arrived on iOS makes its way to Windows; unless it’s a port being dumped on the Microsoft Store. In the case with Silverware Games’ Don’t Shoot Yourself! It made its PC debut on Steam via Greenlight, but does its transition from mobile puzzler to a full on PC title worthy of your time?

Don’t Shoot Yourself! is a top down puzzle shoot’em up with a twist. The twist being something you don’t usually hear in a puzzle game - In Don’t shoot yourself! you are your worst enemy. If the classics Snake and Asteroids had a baby; that baby would be Don’t Shoot Yourself! You take control of a small flying ship that is continuously firing bullets from its rear end; your little ship fires a total of 100 bullets and your job is to avoid your own bullets! Your shots will bounce off the walls in all directions in levels of variety that come in different shapes and surprises. Simple, right? Well from the start it may feel that way, but as you progress through the game’s fifty levels, you’ll soon realise you’ve got to put some thinking into it.

The first set of levels start off with simple shapes, but they soon become more varied and well designed. As you progress the levels become far more challenging and devious the levels, they’ll tease your brain and require you to use lateral thinking to solve. From ricocheting walls to black holes redirecting your shots back, this will test your timing and reactions, and there ain’t no stopping. Stopping means your shots will reverse, so you have to keep on moving firing all 100 shots to break through and complete the level with your last blue shot.

Completing a level on Normal earns you a star, Hard two stars and Impossible gives you five. Difficulty has a big impact and truly puts your hand-eye coordination to the test, your bullets fire faster, making them all the more difficult to avoid. You can casually play through on Normal with no worry with minimal self shooting, but once you start collecting stars to unlock the higher tiers, you’re practically forced to take on Hard and Impossible stages some of which can be damn near impossible but is a lot more rewarding.

Don’t Shoot Yourself! is a quirky little puzzler which is worth a go if you want a fun time killer, the sound is simple and the game’s music is reminiscent of Super Hexagon. Problem is, on PC it’s too much of a mobile title to be worth sitting in front of your PC to play. Its place is still better on a smartphone or tablet. It is currently £3.59 on Steam, which will put some off considering it’s free on iOS. Although an added bonus to all PC gamers is you get Steam Workshop support, so you can avoid shooting yourself on other players creations.