Silver Hunter is a 2D Action game that has us playing as a nameless white-haired Hunter. She is in search of a monster and will travel through five stages to find it. Upon starting our journey, we come face to face with a skeleton. It nearly looks cute thanks to its aloof expression and pudgy body. If we hadn’t read the store page, we could have even believed this was a joke tutorial enemy. The truth is that this is a boss rush title, and that calcium-rich fiend may as well be our arch nemesis. Dodge roll like your life depends on it. If you didn’t notice what the button bindings were on the main menu, then I’m afraid there will soon be two skeletons in that graveyard.
Joking aside, it’s hard to miss it. The Xbox controller uses Y to roll, A to jump, and X to attack. This simple control scheme allows nearly anyone to get right into the action. One of the first things you’ll likely notice is how ineffective launching multiple attacks is. Every enemy has insane blocking abilities. You will not be able to penetrate their defenses until you discover the brief instances when they drop their guard. In those cases, we’ll only be able to get a single shot in. Combos are not a thing in Silver Hunter. Our battles are won by slow attrition of their health and frame-perfect dodge rolls against the incoming retaliation. With only three hit points compared to their seven, any mistake puts us at a greater disadvantage.
Perfection is necessary in Silver Hunter. Your most important asset will be memorization of the enemy’s mannerisms. You have to know what they’re doing before they do it. With a quick reaction time, it is possible to avoid all attacks but not to breach their defenses. Only by knowing where to position our character beforehand do we gain that chance. This required pixel perfection makes it feel closer to a Rhythm title than being in the Action genre. There is no slack given or a sense of the battle being dynamic. It is more akin to a choreographed dance routine. Whether this is a positive or a negative depends on the individual. What I can say is that after it took me nearly an hour to beat these five stages, going back to do it in just a few minutes was incredibly satisfying.
A well-appreciated feature is that pressing Start will reset back to the beginning of the fight. If things look too grim, press that button, and you’ll be back at it within a split second. That makes these impossible-seeming battles a lot more tempting for us to take the time to master. Things can go from fine to death in the blink of an eye. It is mainly due to Silver Hunter not having invincibility frames after taking damage. You will get nailed by every consecutive attack if you don’t dodge roll out of the way immediately. Every moment matters. Say what you will, but there is never a dull moment here. You’ll be under constant pressure, with nothing thrown your way feeling cheap once you learn. We will eventually adapt to being the Hunter our character is said to be.
After you’ve gone through hell and finally taken down the big baddie, then congrats, that was the tutorial done. Hard Mode is now unlocked. The five bosses become faster, gain upgraded attacks, and will make us respect them all over again. That massive difficulty bump will provide a ton of extra playtime to complete. Sadly, there is nothing to gain other than bragging rights from doing so. Regarding the hentai content, each boss has a unique sex animation as they take advantage of defeating our character. It is a brief event with a few different phases before the climax. Completing the campaign also unlocks a Gallery Mode, which is underwhelming. You can’t even change where the animation is displayed. It is locked to the left side of the screen, so this offers little benefit, given we’ve already seen them countless times after dying.
Once you’ve taken two blows and find yourself on your final hitpoint, our character’s clothes will rip. It is highly erotic but not something you’ll want to focus on when half dead and being approached by a man in a bird mask. In a scene of irony, there is a God mode cheat where we don’t take damage for those simply here for the H content. This means we won’t see the cloth-ripping animation or any hentai content until unlocking the Gallery. With how briefly the bosses have their guard down, some skill remains involved in reaching that point.
Silver Hunter doesn’t state that it supports the English language, and its store page is entirely in Japanese. That made it all the more surprising when I found most of the in-game text was in English. Aside from a small section explaining the controls in the main menu, the game is fully translated. I’ve experienced no crashing or other manner of technical issues. I particularly like how it features a level select and an excellent auto-save system. We can shut our computer down upon besting a foe, then continue when we’re ready for the next. Silver Hunter can last you two hours or twenty. It depends on your skill. I’d recommend giving the demo a go to get a sense if it’s up your alley. If it is, this tiny five-dollar game will likely hook you until you can proudly proclaim that you conquered it.
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