A well-balanced breakfast is the perfect start to a productive day. But what happens when nobody in your inner circle is having their daily dose of iron and minerals via a nice bowl of cereal? Naturally, they turn evil and fill the vacant space around them with a bevy of colorful projectiles.
Hazelnut Hex, developed and self-published by Chunderfins, is a colorful and hectic shmup that uses its pastel art style to instill the values of a hearty breakfast. Or rather, a breakfast filled with sugar-laden cereal and colorful mascots. Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily. While the healthiness of colorful oats is up for debate, Hazelnut Hex, thankfully, has more going for it than just empty calories. And don’t worry: that’ll be the end of the food puns. Probably.
A Part of a Balanced Bullet Hell
Hazelnut Hex is incredibly straightforward. A strange curse has befallen a colorful world, causing its many different forms of breakfast to vanish into nothing. You play as Nat, a heroine who takes it upon herself to investigate the goings-on, fight off a horde of malevolent evildoers, and ultimately save her breakfast-deprived friends. Nat takes flight aloft a comically large spoon with her squirrel friend, Sam, at her side.
First things first, Hazelnut Hex is absolutely gorgeous to look at. A playful color palette comprised of bright pastels accompanies adorable character and enemy designs. Simplistic backgrounds provide a beautiful yet non-distracting mood for each individual stage. Each stage’s theme is both memorable and varied, making their unique challenges stand out when compared to one another. Given that there are only five stages in total, this is a fantastic accomplishment. And the music — absolutely incredible. Composed by Chunderfins, it’s bombastic, energetic, vibrant, and a perfect accompaniment to the action going on in front of you. It’s the kind of poppy soundscape you’d expect from this game’s perpetual Saturday morning universe.
Being a shmup, Hazelnut Hex thrives on not drawing itself out. Each of the game’s five stages can be completed in a single sitting, staying true to its arcade roots by prioritizing your score and rank above all else. In fact, playing Hazelnut Hex to just beat it once is a fool’s errand. Scoring and the pursuit of a “perfect” playthrough are the main goals here, emphasizing the need to finish each stage without taking damage and racking up as many point bonuses as possible via a handful of separate means. While length may be a sticking point for those who want the most value out of their purchase, the game does thankfully lend itself well to its replay-friendly design.
Playing Hazelnut Hex
Make no mistake: under its cutesy presentation, Hazelnut Hex doesn’t hold back when it comes to its bullet hell gameplay. Granted, it may not be as difficult as other games in the genre, but things start off intense right from the word “go.”
Bullets in bulk fill the screen, whizzing by in a series of colorful effects and prominent explosions. Collectibles, power-ups, and your own projectiles clash with the enemies on the opposing side of the screen. Enemy sprites and projectiles are surprisingly big (and full of fun detail), allowing for a great deal of visibility to weave through complex patterns and inflict your own significant punishment.
But what’s most interesting about Hazelnut Hex is its focus on scoring. Nat is equipped with one of three types of magic — aka, your type of projectile — that you pick at the start of the game. By destroying enemies and grabbing power-ups, you can increase the strength of your magic to widen your bullet spread and improve your overall damage output. The benefits of these are obvious. Should you not fire your weapon at all times, however, you’ll activate your charge shot: an ability that fires an incredibly powerful shot that not only deals heavy damage, but also pierces enemies, racking up an additional point modifier. The charge shot is essential for netting a coveted high score, and as you play the game more and more, you’ll find the best opportunities for using the charge shot in tandem with your regular attacks. It can even destroy enemy projectiles, giving you some breathing room in the right circumstances.
As a plus, you also have access to a screen-clearing bomb attack that recharges as you defeat enemies. On top of dealing an incredible amount of damage to anything in front of you, the bomb also effectively “cancels” all bullets on-screen, granting you additional points based on how many you cancel at once. You’re encouraged to save these bombs until they’re absolutely necessary because of this, as they can not only save your skin in a tense situation, but also give you another efficient boost to your overall score.
Boss battles even have their own unique scoring incentives. From not taking any damage to purposefully never using your charge shot, these goals make already challenging bosses even more exciting to fight against. They’ll be the main area where character interactions take place as well, with Nat talking to each and every one before and after they’ve been defeated. The dialogue is charming but quick to the point in another homage to classic arcade games.
Oh, we didn’t even mention the most important role of scoring — it’s the only way to refill your health, granting you an additional hit point after you cross a certain threshold. That’s right: you start out with three hit points, and when they’re all gone, that’s it. Game over. Though you’re more than free to pick up where you left off after you perish, each continue will wipe your accumulated score to zilch. Thankfully, if there’s a section you’ve been having trouble with or just want to practice specific areas, you’re more than free to pick specific portions of a stage to play at your own leisure. It’s a drastic change from its arcade inspirations, but it’s one that feels welcome for those who want to pursue the game’s bigger challenges.
Should You Play Hazelnut Hex?
Is Hazelnut Hex ultimately worth playing at the end of the day? Or is this piece of crunchtastic code ultimately full of empty calories? We’d like to think that Chunderfins himself has the answer. Per an interview with GameRant, he described several key design decisions that went into Hazelnut Hex and where his initial inspirations came from. One particularly insightful comment came from his experiences with Metal Slug X:
“The challenge of the game wasn’t ‘can you beat this level,’ it was more ‘how well can you beat this level.’ You’re not playing a level over and over again to beat it, you’re playing it because you’re having a blast. That’s what I was aiming for with Hazelnut. I don’t know if I was able to nail it, but that’s the experience I was shooting for.”
Suffice it to say, we think he nailed it.
For a shmup enthusiast, Hazelnut Hex may not provide the ample challenge with which the genre has since become synonymous. For everyone else, however, a fun balance of genuine challenge and satisfying gameplay justifies its price. Plenty of options exist to tailor your experience to your heart’s content. Incredible presentation on all fronts pleases all the senses. Most importantly, Hazelnut Hex is just flat-out enjoyable to play.
Hazelnut Hex is available on Steam, itch.io, and Nintendo Switch. The game’s soundtrack is also available on both Steam and Bandcamp.
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