Recent reviews by Reso

NOTE: Steam review system is dumb. I wish I could take a neutral stance rather than having to go with WHOLLY RECOMMEND or WHOLLY NOT RECOMMEND, but I chose to not recommend the game for reasons stated below. However, this review is more positive of the game than negative.

NOTE2: I'm a derp that doesn't know how to look for more megative reviews on Steam.

I typically don't buy side-scrolling shmups, or shmups in general for that matter. I have several reasons for this, three major ones.

First of all, I've already spent years of my life playing Touhou and Mushihimesama, enough that I feel like another shmup just won't give me the same amount of satisfaction.

Second, this is a side-scroller, and having played a lot of Touhou, side-scrolling just felt very... awkward to play.

And the third is that this is a shmup. You play one or two or ten, and you've played them all. I wasn't going to put down money for a shmup that probably have mechanics that aren't new nor fresh. It had to be for a good reason.

And then that reason appeared. Its name is Alexander Thomas Mauer. You guys already know what's happened, so let's keep it short. Found out about the 'situation'. Decided to take a side by choosing to buy this game (and planning on buying more copies of it to give to friends and family) as soon as it reappeared on the Steam Store.

And what did I get from buying this game? Unfortunately, a pretty generic shmup, in my opinion. There's nothing specific in this game that's bad. And I guess you can say that's a good thing. It's just unfortunate that the shmup genre is one that's really hard to innovate. There's a set formula to this genre and it's hard to make better.

There's very little good I can say about this game. It's challenging enough, though probably higher than expected for newer players of the genre. It's visually pleasing. The little bits of voice acting from the pilots are hit-or-miss for, more on the miss side though I guess I can just turn them off. I can't really say anything about the music, because this isn't the original music. While I can say that the current music fits the theming of the game, I can't really call it excellent. And I can't really compare it Alexander's original music either.

The one thing this shmup has going for it is its drafting system. Long story short, every round you use the points collected to in that round to draft a set of pilots for the next round. If anyone here plays Magic The Gathering (not the online version, like the actual cards and booster packs you OUTSIDE to play with other people), this system reminds me a lot of the Booster Draft mode of play, where people don't start with their own decks but rather open up booster packs to form the decks that they will choose to play with. Of course, DSP's drafting system isn't as thought-inducing as MtG's (unless there's that one type of bullet fire that YOU REALLY LIKE AND YOU ONLY WANT TO PLAY USING THAT BULLET TYPE), but this system is really the only thing that separates this game from the other shmups in the market. As with any opening of booster packs, there's a chance of finding a pilot with a new type of bullet fire and acquiring said pilot for the next round will enable the possiblity of using that bullet fire type for any other pilots afterwards (please correct me if I'm wrong). This is enjoyable to me, who has spent a lot of time playing gacha games. Acquiring a rarer character/pilot and being able to employ its nature later is a rush of dopamine to my system. But even with how much I enjoyed the drafting system, this is still a generic shmup.

Regardless of its misfortunes of being a shmup, I still had fun with it. A game doesn't have to be excellent, primo material for someone to be able to have fun with it. I will be returning to this game when I have more free time. Unfortunately, this game just doesn't do enough as a shmup that I can really recommend to anybody personally. While I will recommend to people that I gift the game to play the game, I most certainly can't recommend to those same people to buy it if I wasn't gifting the game to them. Sorry Imagos Softworks.



tl;dr I don't buy shmups because I've already played a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of them, but I bought this one because I wanted to show support for the developers during this Alexander Thomas Mauer debacle. As expected, this game is pretty, but gameplay is generic. It's a side-scrolling shmup. What more are you asking for? The game employs a round-by-round pilot drafting system which really feels like the only thing that separates this shmup from other shmups. I still had fun with it. But the game doesn't do enough as a new entry in the side-scrolling shmup genre, or at least not enough for me to recommend people actually buy this game.

NOTE3: I get that this is Early Access. I would like to reiterate that this is still a side-scrolling shmup. I feel like innovation is pretty hard to come by in any form of shmup because a lot has been attempted. I mean, look at some of Kenta Cho's works (that should still be online) as an example. A lot of things have been attempted with the shmup genre, and thus I'm not expecting Imagos Softworks to be able to whip up something great enough for me to change my mind of not recommending anyone buy it.

While it isn't as good and as polished as Katarmari, The Wonderful End of the World is nonetheless just as quirky and interesting a play through.

This is by far one of the best Metroidvanias that I have ever played.

The music is out of this world. The amount of exploration is endless. The transitiions from one part to the next is seamless. The main character is mysterious and you want to learn more about her. And the world..... is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ amazing.

Please, buy this game for yourself. You are doing yourself a service.sssssssssssssssssssssss

I recommend Spacechem, it goes beyond what you thought of puzzles games. This is the puzzler of puzzle games. This game make puzzle games and your boring chemistry class boring as ♥♥♥♥. And freakin easy as hell too. You will buy this game, and you will gauge your head out trying to beat this game, but it will have been totally worth it.

I've been playing this game before it came out on steam. It's like Torchlight/Diablo except more cartoony (if you can't tell already), and with steampunk elements in it.