DN8 is an excellent shoot-em’-up by Squize on Newgrounds.com! This fast-paced shoot-em’up will bring you through a multitude of levels, each one granting you with a new ability for your ship, empowering or better protecting your ship! Each level will pit you against many enemies and bosses in a Frantic or Bullet Heaven fashion, bullet-hell in fact, would classify it best! Dodge and fire bullets as you continuously upgrade your ship, keeping the game fresh every level, and make your way to the final boss! Different awards and challenges are awarded and completed throughout the game as you complete specified events!

DN8

This game was actually pretty difficult once you got further in the game. I died a lot on the last couple, or several, levels. I actually think that it wasn’t my bullet dodging skills that were interfering, come on, I completed Bullet Heaven will A-Rank, but more likely, and one of the biggest faults of the game, were the backgrounds. The backgrounds didn’t make any sense to me, sure they were flashy and extremely cool looking, but I found it extremely difficulty to concentrate on the game at hand. The enemies themselves were fairly simple and many shot only one or two bullets on their go-around. What I was disappointed about, was that the enemies weren’t very difficulty I could annihilate most of them without getting close to hit! Bullets weren’t well spread out and most bullets were targeted to your current location, instead of where you might go next. I’d love to see some randomized/bad accuracy shots from the enemy units to shake up the game.

I loved the customizability of the game and the different paths that you could choose to upgrade your ship were many! I loved how each level allowed you to have a new power-up or upgrade! Sometimes it would be hard to choose which upgrade to choose! The thing is, there is no way to experience all of the upgrades and their awesomeness without going through the game a couple of more times! That lead to a lot of replay value and overall, just made the game even more fun. I haven’t explored the lower path yet, I took the upper path and mainly focused on attack and power. My guess is that the lower path is more defensive based and that the upper path, that I traveled, has more offensive based abilities or upgrades. One thing that I loved about the battle parts was that you could see where the enemy was going to travel. I loved that ability because some of the enemies can move rather fast and you definitely don’t want to be in their way when they come!

DN8

The art was really impressive! I loved the retro style and work put into the art department. The pixel work was pretty blocky but it looked nice that way. Bullet design was also very nice and some of the upgrades, such as the drone (upper path) were also well drawn. The backgrounds, which I’m not sure of whether they are used with permission, or made by the developers (of the game) themselves, were fantastic and many of them had a brilliant three-dimensional perspective. I also liked the multiplier and how it popped up on the screen. The animation for DN8 was fantastic, as it popped up and then bounced down. Explosion animation was well done.

The sound in DN8 was fantastic! I loved the music in the game and in the menus. The music in-game, which played during the battle, the very fast-paced and action-packed. Although it had a seemingly short loop it sounds great when mixed with the over-voice of the multiplier and in the chaos of guns firing and ships exploding! I loved the explosion sound effects which were plentiful, especially in levels where there were many enemies. Guns also had their own sound effects and contributed to the chaotic sound you heard when playing the game. Menus and all buttons had their own sounds. The menu music was quiet mellow and proved a great contrast between the battlefield and the menu.

All in all, DN8 is a fantastic shooter, currently on Newgrounds and a couple other portals/sites. DN8 focuses strongly on its upgrade system so if you enjoy tearing your enemies apart, or using shields to block all the bullets, with a multitude of upgrades, then you’ll love DN8. In review, the difficulty was pretty good but I didn’t start struggling at the least till the end of the game where many of the funky backgrounds messed me up. Most of the enemies were easy, but some of the bosses were exceptionally difficulty to defeat! I loved the upgrade system which continuously kept the game fresh and fun! I also liked the ability to see where the enemies were heading – this allowed you to prepare for them and hopefully take them out before they take you out! The art was sublime and I loved the retro style. Animation was also well done! The music, which contrasted between the calming, mellow, mood of the menus and the action-packed action music in the battlefield both sounded great! Sound effects were used wisely and contributed to a roaring, chaos, war-scene in-game! In conclusion, DN8 is an innovative, new, shooter that all fans of Frantic, or the more recent Bullet Heaven will love!

Play Dn8 on Newgrounds!