Is it still a bullet hell without lots of bullets though? 
Also, while the bundle is a really good deal (Crimsonland, Skydrift, Super Cyborg are all cool games) I wouldn’t call any of them bullet hell.
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It’s funny you ask that, I was thinking similar things. I think there are plenty of games that are listed as bullet hell, but is just a hack-n-slash survival game without a lot of bullets, occasional or non…
Game tags are funny some times…
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i think the difference is in the “amount” of bullets/projectiles, that distinguish such from “regular” shmups
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Personally, I’d put the difference at the speed of the projectiles rather than the quantity. When you have fewer, faster projectiles, its more about your reflexes, but with more, slower bullets, the game becomes a lot more methodical.
But at this point, genres don’t really mean anything anymore. Just look at RPGs and roguelikes.
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People are bad and don’t understand things and as more and more people continue to spread their misunderstandings the more watered down a concept gets. Then they start attacking “elitists” for trying to use a word the way it originally was and then out of nowhere without any malice someone suggests that Crimsonland is a bullet hell.
Words have meanings but it’s very hard to keep them used right in this day and age.
Personally I would draw a line of separation between bullet hell and shmups too. Ikaruga kind of balances the divide but falls for me towards bullet hell where as something like Jamestown or Raptor is a shmup. They both have a lot of bullets on screen and you’re traversing a level vertically fighting waves of enemies. But a bullet hell is focused on patterns, the skilful navigation and memorisation of those where as a shmup is more about shooting things down before they can overwhelm you.
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Good distinction, Fraggles. I haven’t really tried to really distinguish them in my head. 
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It’s true. I hear youtubers call shoot-em-ups “bullet hell” more and more as time goes on. It’s not your fault.
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I nominate this post for the “Best Post on the Forums” award. What really gets under my skin is when a game advertises itself as a platformer, but it’s really just a 2D beat 'em up where you can jump.
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and the term RPG is basically meaningless to me these days.
Is it a role-playing game, or is it a FPS with a progression system?
Who knows!? 
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