It's not easy being a solo, independent developer in this wild world full of heavy hitters and merely putting together a coherent product can be a challenge all on its own. Blazing Arc - Magical Shooting Game by Russ Kumro is the latest release from the developer of Stackster and in this horizontal shooter you'll help 'Blaze' as she travels through time to find out about her mysterious mother.

To move around players need only touch and swipe the screen. Doing so will position Blaze directly underneath your finger and while this would ordinarily obscure your view, the only part of the character that can take damage is her tiny lantern. Once you start your journey you'll be thankful for the tiny hit-box as Blazing Arc attempts to match other bullet-hell style games with oodles of projectiles flooding the screen and large explosions that result in huge bonuses. Collecting gems helps to increase your firepower, though there aren't any alternative weapons or bombs to add to the gameplay.

Unfortunately, as a shoot'em-up Blazing Arc has several issues that prevent it from being as exciting as it could be. Notably, while many enemies and bosses can spew forth many bullets, there seems to be a hard cap on the limit of bullets on screen and as a result your weapon will no longer fire at its full rate while avoiding large attacks. Also, while the game features simply amazing background artwork and effects, the game is cut short to a mere three levels at this time (albeit with an apology from the developer), but without more to do you'll be finished in a handful of minutes.

Blazing Arc - Magical Shooting Game has some great potential, but its release seems premature and unless you're willing to invest in the potential for future updates it's not an easy game to recommend at this time.