BPM: Bullets Per Minute emphasises playing to the beat of the music. All of the player’s actions, as well as enemy actions are tied to the beat. The game is inspired by retro shooters of the 90s, and features movement options like rocket jumping, bunny hopping, double jumping, and dashing.

The game features randomly-generated dungeons, so no two playthroughs are bound to be the same. Each time the player starts the game, they will get access to random weapons and level layouts.

Ultimately, players have to beat 7 bosses to reach BPM: Bullets Per Minute‘s final boss> Bosses all move and attack in unique ways, and players will have to figure out strategies unique to the boss, while also keeping in mind the weapons they have access to in any particular run.

Aside from the Nintendo Switch, BPM: Bullets Per Minute is also available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

Courtesy of Playtonic’s indie publishing arm Playtonic Friends, BPM: Bullets Per Minute is out now for PS4 and Xbox One, bringing its roguelike rhythm-based adrenaline-fueled action to consoles. Native PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions haven’t been released, but you can, of course, play the game on those consoles via backward compatibility. Check out its launch trailer below.

BPM: Bullets Per Minute is available now on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Here’s hoping it eventually makes its way to the Nintendo Switch as well- and gets dedicated next-gen updates, while we’re at it.

BPM: Bullets Per Minute is about the Valkyries fighting the forces of Hel by traversing to the Underworld. This is done with a variety of weaponry and powers, though everything is done according to the beat. Shooting enemies in the randomly generated dungeons thus takes a bit more work than usual but it’s also more epic.

The console versions will also benefit from the Overdrive update which added five more characters, three new weapons and a new Chapter. Two new difficulties – Practice for newer players and Hellish for experienced ones – have also been added along with a new boss, 20 new items, Trials and much more.

https://twitter.com/bpmgame/status/1438125620173619202

BPM: Bullets Per Minute sees the player choosing one of 10 Valkyries, each with their own unique loadout, and venturing into the underworld to battle the forces of Hel. As a roguelite, the title offers randomly generated dungeons with different enemies to fight, unique weapons and different items to acquire. Of course, the major hook is the beat-based gameplay – everything, from movement to shooting, is done to the beat of an epic rock opera soundtrack.

Along with a normal playthrough, there are also challenge modes that further mix up the gameplay. Stay tuned for more details on BPM: Bullets Per Minute’s console release in the coming months. It could also end up coming to Xbox Series X/S and PS5 down the line as well.

Yooka-Laylee developer Playtonic is celebrating its sixth anniversary, and to commemorate the occasion, they’ve made a pretty big announcement- the opening of a new publishing label, called Playtonic Friends (which is the rebranding they were teasing earlier). Speaking in an interview with Eurogamer, Playtonic boss Gavin Price said that the new publishing label felt like the next big step for the studio.

“About a year ago now, on the back of launching Impossible Lair, there was an opportunity to do some reflection and say ‘Hey, how’re our games going, how’re our processes going, what do want to be doing with our own IP?’ But also as a business as well to think, what else can we be doing?” said Price.

Price also spoke about this next big step for the studio, saying that Playtonic Friends’ purpose is to help smaller titles get the recognition and success they deserve at launch. He remarked that with Playtonic staff (many of whom were at Rare during the Nintendo days) having had experience as first party developers, independent developers, and crowd-funded developers, they are in the unique position of having plenty to offer to indie developers in the industry.

“We like seeing great games come out and achieve success,” Price said. “We don’t like seeing great games come out and not get the attention or love, or the commercial success they deserve. Sadly that’s too common a story in the industry.

“We thought, well, if we can help great games come out and get attention and have that better chance, having given developers this long-term sustainability, everyone wins… We’ve always had people coming to us for advice, but one of the advantages of being old is having all this experience. We’ve had experience of being first-party, being independent, of doing crowd-funding. We have a lot to share.”

Price added that Playtonic isn’t looking for any specific types of games to publish, and that they want to have no arbitrary restrictions in place for the same. Additionally, developers they work with through the publishing label might be considered later for work on games in Playtonic’s own Yooka-Laylee universe.

“There’s no barrier to the types of games and people we went to help,” he said. “It would be arbitrary to say ‘we can’t help you because your game doesn’t have a million different collectibles’. There’s companies we’ll be working with and games we’ll be announcing which will make people go, ‘woah, how did we get from a chameleon and a bat to this over here?’

“But as we’re going to be working with great partners through the Playtonic Friends label, we may find some great people who can help us with content in the Yooka-Laylee universe as well.”

Three developers have already signed on with Playtonic Friends for their next games- Awe Interactive (developer of BPM: Bullets Per Minute), okidokico (developer of OK Golf), and Fabraz (developer of Slime-san).