YMMV / Bullet Hell Monday

• Contested Sequel: Black is quite polarizing compared to the original game. Its fans enjoy the game's focus on arcade-style gameplay rather than the campaign-style progression of the original's Chapter mode, more intense stages, the wide variety of special abilities that open up both offensive and defensive new options, and there being two sets of five-stage campaigns with a third set in the Steam port. Detractors who prefer the original game find that the half-dozen special abilities are too overwhelming to keep track of and make the most use of (even moreso in the Steam version due to requiring at six buttons/keys for gameplay, while the mobile version just requires gestures with a second finger) and are put off by the lack of the Chapter Mode that allows players to enjoy the game in smaller doses and enjoy the journey of building up a progressively stronger ship.
• Disappointing Last Level:
  • While True Chapter 5 in Finale has an awesome new music track, not only does it change very little from the original Chapter 5 aside from being harder and the title of the chapter, but there is no True Final Boss or other unique features to give this chapter a sense of finality.
  • Similarly, in the Steam version of Black, Black IF Chapter 5 does feature an extended pre-boss section and it reuses Finale's True Chapter 5 theme rather than just doing a reprise of the title theme, but the Final Boss and true last boss (if playing all stages) play out virtually the same way as in Black Stage 5.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The mobile entries are quite popular in developing Southeast Asian countries (such as the Philippines, Vietnam, and Indonesia) relative to other shmups, due to having a much more affordable barrier to entry; the first game and Finale's Chapter modes can be completed without having to spend any money on the game and the Steam version of Finale is outright freeware, and most gamers there can't really afford games that are not "free-to-play" smartphone games.
• Polished Port: The Steam versions feature extra gadgets and the choice to use mouse controls (thus emulating the touchscreen controls of the mobile versions), as well more traditional keyboard and controller controls, or even some combination of the three. And with a Steam Deck, they're just as portable as the mobile releases! The port of the original game gets a UI and visuals that match that of the later games giving it a more polished look and feel as well as an exclusive True Final Boss, and Black goes above and beyond being a simple port, adding back Homing and Search after they were excluded from the mobile versions, bringing back Extra Mode (and thus allowing for Extra runs with all six SP abilities available at once), and adding five new stages after completing the Black set of stages.
• Sequel Difficulty Drop: In spite of the developer's claims that Black is a high-difficulty version of the original game and the Tagline "Clear rate less than 1%" in the mobile versions, it's regarded as easier than the original game. The new stages are not really much more difficult than the original, and the player has access to six different special attacks, five of which can be used for defensive purposes.
• Spiritual Successor: The use of a dark color scheme with neon-glow sprites and the complexity of the ships' abilities make the series feel like a more comprehendable Hellsinker.
• That One Level: Stages 506-509 in Finale each have a "Defeat enemies quickly!" prompt at the start of the level. A timer shows up and if you defeat every enemy wave fast enough, a boss will appear; otherwise, the stage will end leaving you deprived of a lot of Mission Points and AP. However, the timers are quite unforgiving and you're expected to have fully-upgraded weapons, bomb stocks, and SP weapons and spam all of them generously to blast your way through the enemies fast enough. Often times you will notice you are not advancing in the enemy order because you left a single, minor Mook alive. If you don't summon and defeat the bosses, you will have to complete other, just as difficult objectives in other stages in the same chapter to meet the requirement of 1000 points to unlock Stage 510, but if you're looking to fully complete each stage, these four stages might be the last non-boss stages you top off. And this is one of the few gimmick objectives that is preseved in True Chapter mode, and it's even harder second time around.
• Underused Game Mechanic: The PC ports can be played on a vertically-oriented monitor, provided you've first set your system resolution to match. However, doing so disables gadgets and truncates the leaderboard UI to show only player names and scores, not any of the other details (stage reached, weapons used, multiplier, etc). This is a bit strange considering that the games were originally developed for smartphones held in a vertical orientation.