Devil Daggers was fantastic, Hyper Demon is better. The sequel to Sorath’s exquisite wave survival FPS flips a slow-building, protracted struggle into a hyperdense spurt of action that escalates in lockstep with your abilities, thanks to enemies that spawn the moment you’ve dispatched their chums and a score that ticks down with every second you spend not actively murdering.
That structure is also a trap. It’s an invitation to devise an opening dance that dispatches those first few waves as quickly as possible, yet following that dance too rigidly will crash you headfirst into a bonespire. Hyper Demon screams at you to go fast – though when I asked programmer Matt Bush for tips, he suggested I slow down.