Fox Dive Studio has been working assiduously on a completely unique top-down SHMUP called Blink: Rogues. The game takes a decidedly different approach to the whole bullet-hell concept by allowing players to blink across two different screens and move around in 360 degrees to dodge enemies, get the drop on squadrons, and essentially blink out of the way of incoming danger.

The concept may sound a little confusing at first, since the vertical scroller allows you to face either the top or bottom of the screen depending on where you blink to, but once you see it in action you begin to understand how the concept unfolds in real-time during actual gameplay.

You can see Blink: Rogues in action with the trailer below.

So the base game features a story mode with 10 different missions for players to conquer, utilizing the dual-screens and the blink mechanic to dodge incoming attacks, get he drop on bosses, and avoid being swarmed by enemies.

If you feel like that’s not challenging enough, there’s also the split-screen co-op and PvP modes, where you can either play locally against another player or via the remote play.

The split-screen PvP is a little more complex than most other games. Instead of simply fighting each other in arenas, the objective is to get the highest score by wiping out as many enemies as possible. If an opportunity arrives, you can also blink into your opponent’s screen and attempt to frag them while they’re busy fighting waves of oncoming enemies.

It seems like a neat little concept that takes the shoot-e’m-up genre in a different direction.

If you were interested in playing the game you can do so by visiting the Steam store page, where Blink: Rogues is currently available for just $7.99. During the first week of release the game is marked down by 10% off, so you can get it for just $7.19.