This game is an absolute gem. You can really see the love that went into making it, in the art, the music, and especially the incredibly tight mechanics. The score system is really intuitive and fun (rack up an eight kill streak, then fire your special weapon for a 'flourish' and watch points roll in), the movement is fluid and the bullet patterns are challenging but fair. When I die, and I've died a lot, it's never frustrating because it's always clear to me what i did wrong and how I messed up. The exuberance of the VA yelling "game over!" also helps. Shes just so psyched to see me dead that I can't be mad.

the variety of weapons and setups is really cool, i've spent a good amount of time fooling around with different arrangements and characters. There are two characters, each of whom has similar (but not identical) main attacks, but a range of powerful special moves that are mostly unique to them. Some special moves are defensive, some spray missiles across the screen, while others are just a single powerful missile that fires straight ahead or a mega-laser that wipes out everything in your way. You get to pick a single special gun for each run and it really changes up how I play.

I'm disastrously bad at the game, but it's got an easy mode (normal) that I'm struggling though and every run is a blast. I've also played a fair amount of Hyper mode, where i am ashamed to say I can't even beat the second boss. Hyper mode is the default difficulty, and is a very clever difficulty level that adapts to how well you are doing: die a bunch and it's indistinguishable from normal mode, but rack up a bunch of great combos and flourishes, and the next thing you know you're in full on hard mode. speaking of which, the hard mode (called parallel) starts you at the max-combo difficulty right off the bat, and I'm sure it's more than enough to satisfy actual shmup players.

I really like this game and i hope to someday not suck at it. I recommend it to anyone who likes videogames.

This game is an absolute gem. You can really see the love that went into making it, in the art, the music, and especially the incredibly tight mechanics. The score system is really intuitive and fun (rack up an eight kill streak, then fire your special weapon for a 'flourish' and watch points roll in), the movement is fluid and the bullet patterns are challenging but fair. When I die, and I've died a lot, it's never frustrating because it's always clear to me what i did wrong and how I messed up. The exuberance of the VA yelling "game over!" also helps. Shes just so psyched to see me dead that I can't be mad. the variety of weapons and setups is really cool, i've spent a good amount of time fooling around with different arrangements and characters. There are two characters, each of whom has similar (but not identical) main attacks, but a range of powerful special moves that are mostly unique to them. Some special moves are defensive, some spray missiles across the screen, while others are just a single powerful missile that fires straight ahead or a mega-laser that wipes out everything in your way. You get to pick a single special gun for each run and it really changes up how I play. I'm disastrously bad at the game, but it's got an easy mode (normal) that I'm struggling though and every run is a blast. I've also played a fair amount of Hyper mode, where i am ashamed to say I can't even beat the second boss. Hyper mode is the default difficulty, and is a very clever difficulty level that adapts to how well you are doing: die a bunch and it's indistinguishable from normal mode, but rack up a bunch of great combos and flourishes, and the next thing you know you're in full on hard mode. speaking of which, the hard mode (called parallel) starts you at the max-combo difficulty right off the bat, and I'm sure it's more than enough to satisfy actual shmup players. I really like this game and i hope to someday not suck at it. I recommend it to anyone who likes videogames.