If you’re just a casual consumer of arcade shoot-em-up games, you’d be surprised how deep and complicated the mechanics in these games can be. Sure, it’s easy to pick any one up, hold down the shoot button while you dodge bullets and spam Continues, then finish it in 2 hours and just kind of move on. They’re kind of the ideal game for turning your brain off and wasting a little time… if you play them like that. Lots of bullet hell games, though, bake in extra mechanics that might incentivise you to really strategise the way you play, or care about the score points you’re racking up for more than just bragging rights. Psyvariar 3 is one such game, with a core mechanic built around one of the most unique takes on bullet-grazing I’ve ever seen in a shmup.
Yes, this is Psyvariar 3, but don’t worry about the number in the title too much. We’re following Fallout 3 rules here. Besides, narrative and story are very rarely a major concern in an arcade shooter, and that really isn’t the case here. Despite opening with a lore-filled text crawl that’s so long it makes the background music loop back for a 2nd play, the meat of Psyvariar 3 is in the gameplay. Steering clear of projectiles is the goal to survival, but the Buzz mechanic encourages you to get as close as possible to the very edge of enemy bullets without being hit by them.
Do that enough and you’ll trigger a Level Up, and each time you do that a shield will temporarily envelop your ship that makes you invincible. So, your combat loop consists of constantly hovering near enemy fire, chaining together rapid Level Ups, and using the shields they provide to survive bullet swarms and get closer to enemies for the kill.
It’s thoughtful, and exhilarating, and challenging. It really reminds me of the kind of multi-mechanic ballet that you grapple with in a game like Doom Eternal. You’ve got a lot of specific actions to perform, but when you’re in the zone and Buzzing past beams and lasers it feels incredible.
There are 7 different characters to play as, and each one modifies the flow of gameplay with unique abilities and weapons. Standard starting character Naomi has a pretty basic all-rounder kit. Maeda, meanwhile, is fully Buzz-focused – he earns more points from Buzzing, and his super-powerful Bomb attack is actually just a bullet magnet that reverses bullets back at the enemies, letting you trigger more Buzz on them as they whizz by you. Then there’s V.M.O, who has a shield-focused kit that keeps you focused on constantly chaining together enough Level Ups to keep said shield activated.
As fascinating and inventive as this mechanic is, one major gripe I have is that the game does absolutely nothing to tutorialize you on it or introduce it to you. Now, this is something that a lot of older and mechanically dense arcade shooters do. No tutorial, just tossing you in and expecting you to learn from practice and word-of-mouth. For a proper console release in the big 2026, though, it feels a little absurd that the most the game does to tutorialize you is with a very brief mechanic-explainer pop-up window you only see if you happen to press a specific button at the character select screen. Sure, there’s also a character-specific Mission mode that’s tailored to mastering each pilot’s techniques. That ends up feeling more like a fun score-chase series than proper onboarding, though.
If you’re in the mood for a simpler shoot-and-survive kind of vibe, there’s also a really fun Arrange mode available in the game. In this version of the campaign, there are way more bullets, but you’re also at max power the entire time. No need to worry about Buzzing and Level Ups, just shoot and dodge and die a lot. I don’t always understand what the difference is between Arrange mode and standard mode in some shooters, but the mechanically dense nature of Psyvariar 3s main mode made me especially appreciate the differences and changes they put into the Arrange mode.
Overall, Psyvariar 3 is a really fun and really unique arcade shooter experience. It has mechanics that are tough to learn, but incredibly fun to master. While the presentation and UI design can be a little basic at times, and it’s absolutely lacking in proper tutorials, I still had a great time Buzzing my way through every level.
