First: I return. Not triumphantly, alas, like Napoleon from Elba, but more in the manner of a woman emerging from a nursery with spit-up on her sleeve and the haunted expression of someone who has not experienced REM sleep since winter. Baby number two has arrived, and the household has spent the last several months in a state where time is no longer measured in hours but in naps. The blog shall continue, though maybe at the pace of a respectable tortoise rather than that ambitious hare. There are several exciting games waiting in the wings, however, and I am very eager to get to them in due course.
There are games I admire in the way I admire municipal architecture: solid, sensible, and not especially exciting. This is, in my experience, the fate of many Euros. And then there are games that arrive Tokyo Drift-style, skidding sideways onto my table at breakneck speeds, all decked in neon. Bullet belongs firmly in that latter category.
I discussed my enjoyment of the system in my Bullet★ review, so today we are talking about something even more glamorous: a box.
Well, a really nice box.
Bullet: Cubed contains no new gameplay content, although it did come with a few fun expansions and promos (Fan and Orange Plus). Instead, it is a big, blue, beautiful storage solution designed to house the ever-expanding Bullet universe, which is pretty much approaching the point of needing its own zip code. Between Bullet♥︎, Bullet★, Orange, Orange Plus, Paw, Palette, Fan, promos, and the forthcoming Bullet Galaxy line, we’re approaching fifty playable characters and counting.
I feel compelled to mention this every time I discuss Bullet because it points to what a solid game it is: anime is generally not my thing. I just tend to recoil from exaggerated emotion and all the stylized reactions and every other character asking, “Could this battle outfit be at least 30% less outfit?” I know, I know, I’m generalizing here but it is what it is.
Which is precisely why Bullet deserves credit. The game is overcoming a very real aesthetic headwind for me and winning anyways. Despite all my reservations, we have a ton of fun every time it hits the table.
And actually, the arrival of Bullet: Cubed caused me to realize it had been nearly a year since I last played Bullet★ *gasp*. A grave dereliction of duty.
So let’s talk about the box.
The first thing worth mentioning is that it opens in an extremely cool futuristic fashion, which made me feel there should have been a release of steam rising out of it and the Mission: Impossible theme playing in the background. Inside, the top tray stores action/powerup tiles and various gameplay bits, along with dedicated space for each heroine’s character sheets and character information leaflet. The sights and intensity track also fit snugly here.
Lift that insert right out of the box and you’ll find the lower level. Here there’s a central compartment for tokens and bags, including ample room for the deluxe tokens. Flanking either side are two large card-storage boxes containing perhaps my favorite component in the entire package: the dividers.These dividers are magnificent.
Not “slightly thicker than a card” dividers. These are proper, substantial chunks of plastic, with each heroine’s image printed on. THICC, as the scholars would say. They stand upright, separate content clearly, and generally perform the wild function of being excellent dividers.
I currently own most, though not quite all, of the Bullet content. Even so, everything fits comfortably into a single card box while unsleeved, with the entire other card box available for use. Sleeved collections should fit easily as well, with room remaining for future expansions, which, given the trajectory of this series, is clearly in our future.
And that’s really the whole story. Bullet: Cubed isn’t complicated. It simply organizes an enormous amount of content exceptionally well and makes setup dramatically easier. If you’re invested in Bullet and own multiple boxes, this is unquestionably the best way to store it all.
As the Bullet roster marches steadily toward fifty characters and beyond, keeping everything organized was kind of becoming a nightmare. Instead, Level 99 has given us this glorious thing.
Guess we dodged a bullet, you might say.
Thank you to Level 99 Games for the review copy