While Kain’s moves and attacks are strong and flashy, Abel’s moves are more than capable of going toe-to-toe against his older brother’s power. Finally there are the passive skills, waiting for their chance to be useful when their requirements are met. The two magic abilities are divided between Active Skill, which releases a large aura draining the entire gauge in a single use, absorbing bullets to use their power in various ways, and Secondary Attack, which is a ranged burst of magic that’s a little more economical on the power usage. The standard run, jump and slash are available, of course, plus a limited-range dash that lets you zip horizontally through enemies and projectiles, and different dash that sends you plummeting safely to the floor no matter how far down it may be. Abel has a good number of moves, two special attacks that draw off a magic gauge and passive items of varying effects. Most of the gameplay, on the other hand, is right out in the open. Something has gone very wrong in the ruined version of Abel’s world, but what that may be is a mystery for the full game to reveal. This leads to an epic face-off where Abel has to use every power at his command to survive Kain’s bullet-hell onslaught. Arriving back at the start again he’s finally greeted by this world’s version of Kain, who promptly jumps into a swirly purple portal. Abel is in an decrepit alternate world where Kain has disappeared for years, but with the trial still undone in this world he runs through it again, except this time there are more traps to deal with. As an experiment he sends a piece of paper into the past only to find Carter wasn’t quite so accurate in his description of the key’s powers. After a brief tutorial Abel goes through a short dungeon area, only to be greeted by the mysterious stranger Carter who reveals that a mysterious silver key grants Abel the ability to send things through time.

Abel is the younger one you play as, and the game opens with Kain waking him up to get ready for a trial in a monster-infested castle. Kain and Abel are brothers, which is always a recipe for disaster. Kelipot (a variant on the Hebrew word for husk, or evil/impure spiritual forces) is aiming to add a little bit of bullet-based madness to its action-platforming, and while the game is still incredibly early, it’s already got a distinctive look and solid gameplay feel. Sure, there’s the occasional RPG like Knights in the Nightmare, and platformers have had a crack at the genre before in the form of Rabi-Ribi, but these are rare exceptions. Bullet hell is for everyone, but classic arcade vertical or horizontal shooters tend to get the lion’s share. It’s not fair that shooters get almost all the fun.

Kain classic pocket tank