Hellmut: The Badass From Hell (NS)

Badassery. It comes in many forms. From heroes doing heroic things to kung fu masters beating the ever-loving daylights out of gangs of misguided miscreants, and more you'll find that there are many different reasons as to why someone would be considered a badass. In the case of this here twin-stick shooter and rogue-like dungeon crawler known as "Hellmut: The Badass From Hell" though said badassery comes in the form of something rather unexpected. In the short-lived story tease we find a mad scientist looking for immortality. Unfortunately for him he creates a DOOM portal situation opening up the gates of hell, and letting loose into the world the devil and his demonic minions. It results in the scientist being blasted into nothing but the remnants of a Sub-Zero Mortal Kombat fatality ... head, spinal cord, and all that jazz ... and has him resurrected as such by a playful DnD style watcher God who decides to toy with his newly found play thing. This old God known as Ka-Ra basically reanimates the mad doctor's remains, and gifts him the ability to shoot projectiles like a shmup spaceship. That, and the ability to mutate into a select variety of hellish minions with their own unique active, and passive abilities. With these newly gifted powers the mad antagonist must face the demons he's let loose, and survive long enough to fight the devil himself.

Gameplay in Hellmut's two main modes of play are fairly much a straightforward affair. In both the "New Game" and "Gauntlet"modes your goal, with the mechanics you are given, is to survive and clear out stages that are setup a lot like those in "The Binding of Isaac". Floors, and bosses included. As Hellmut (I'm guessing???) you will utilize your given mutative powers to switch forms, and make use of each form's unique active, and passive abilities. One ability for each type of ability. The active ability being the projectile shots, and the passive ability being a support ability that can deal higher damage or offer more supportive ways to deal with the swarms of demons littering each room in a given area. Along with your base abilities you will be able to loot, and purchase weapons of mass destruction as well as armor and healing items, among other things. To loot these rare finds you must open treasure chests, and to alternatively purchase them you must use the coins and soul stone currency dropped from the various demonic minions in portal accessed shops.

The Modes ...

In the "New Game" mode of Hellmut you basically play for bragging rights. For solo record making statistics or Tournament statistics against local pass along players that are recorded in a cumulative compendium that keeps track of just about everything you do before a death occurs. This includes scoring through object/enemy destruction, coins banked, objects broken, time spent, enemies killed, bosses defeated, Beelzebubs defeated, and all sorts of other game related statistics. As you make your way through to initial two floors before and after each boss fight dispatching the damned in closed off and not-so-closed off mini-arenas, shopping for items through found portals, and surviving, your progress will be recorded in the good book or perhaps the "badass" book. In making progress, and facing timed challenges in given dungeon rooms that are offered up for a set price of required soul stones through Ka-Ra's tome that is found lying around you can unlock other mutations that can then be changed between on the fly via an in-game selection wheel. Just know that dying as the floating skull at any time will spell GAME OVER, and will send you wailing and sailing straight back to the main menu screen.

As far as objectives are concerned a playthrough in Hellmut's main mode consists of making it through two dungeon floors after choosing your starting mutation by clearing them of baddies, and looting them for what they are worth before facing off against a boss. The boss battles are proper boss fights where the bosses have different attack patterns, and a beefy health bar to deplete. The lesser enemy types you face before said bosses also have different attacks per type, but don't take as much to kill if you attack efficiently. As you make your way from room to room on a floor via mini-map navigation, and face the lesser mobs of demons that spawn all around you, you will find chests with items, and currency as well as shop portals, and Ka-Ra tomes that can be used to gain alternate mutations. Making use of the shop's stock of arsenal and items is the key to long term survival as you have a very limited health bar that depletes rather quickly. Minding health, ammo, and abilities is also very important to playthrough completion. As far as swapping weapons, and mutations go each has a quick access wheel that you can select from on the go. Single use items can also be quickly applied by simply pressing "Y" when your usage meter is filled around your mutation portrait at the top left-hand corner of the screen. Needless to say survival is the ultimate goal, and progress to the end equally as so.

In the "Gauntlet" game mode, which is the only other mode of play in the game, things are a bit simpler yet vastly more challenging. You are placed at the center of a playing field with a mutation tube that has a health value shown above it that must be defended against constantly swarming demons of varying types. Your goal is to survive for as long as possible while keeping the mutation tube from being destroyed. Should you die, or should the mutation tube lose all health it is GAME OVER, and a swift boot back to the main menu. It should be noted that before being sent to the main menu in either of the game's modes you will be briefly shown your cumulative statistics which can be browsed then and there or at the main menu.

Interesting things to note about Hellmut includes the fact that it has a vending machine in the main hub area where seed codes can be inputted for unlocks, and progression saves. There's also a Space Invaders tribute arcade cabinet in the shop area that can be played like it's own little game, and will reward you with currencies for your high scores. Replay value is also something that's noteworthy. While replay value in the single player regards is very much there, and accounted for the tournament mode which can be toggled on/off at the main menu listing will allow for a 2 player local competition where each player takes turns trying to make it as far into the game as they can in turn amassing the highest or lowest score. In taking turn players will see grave markers with the opposing player's inputted leaderboard name helping you to see how far they made it in comparison to that player.

The Verdict ...

Hellmut is a well made dungeon crawler rogue-like with twin stick shooter combat that is both fast paced, and frenetic. The challenge at hand is real, and the gameplay itself fun. Everything from the mechanics to the modes, and the features are implemented in such a way to be user-friendly. The added tutorial I forgot to mention will help you understand what's going on clearly enough, but I do think the developer left out some of the button functionality in the mechanics breakdown. Thankfully it's not too difficult to figure out. As far as visuals go it harbors that retro pixel appeal with a sort of grotesque demonic theme including blood, and gore effects that can be tweaked or turned off according to player preference. The soundtrack is quite good. Bringing in haunting gothic melodies in an older retro style. Something that compliments gameplay quite nicely. Overall it's a gaming experience with notable replay value, and fun to be had. It gets the Gaming Inferno's fiery seal of approval!