Nex Machina
Having never played a twin-stick shooter in my life, Nex Machina posed quite an enigma. But one thing was clear to me - shoot things before they shoot you. And so I did, and immediately fell in love with the flow of the game.
I need a hero!
There isn’t much to say about the story. It’s your typical humans invent AI, AI sees they are idiots and decides it’s time for spring cleaning on Earth, so a decked-out hero is sent to stop it.
But who cares about the story when you literally fight a robot version of Donkey Kong. It’s all about the gameplay my dude, as that’s what stole the show; The swift, extremely tight and responsive controls, fun and challenging boss battles, varied enemy design, and just the overall flow of the game. All of it is simply outstanding.
– Real player with 38.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Action Bullet Hell Games.
I’m writing from just 15h of playing it, but I believe I can say what this game is about. It want to give us game “that used to be”. Coming from over 20y old studio Housemarque that made too many PlayStation arcade exclusive games and teaming up with one of the biggest names from days of the arcade, Eugene Jarvis who made in 80’s for Williams Electronics games like Defenders and Robotron 2084. And what this is is Robotron for 2017.
Gameplay
Controlling is basic twin stick shooter. Other then that there are just 2 more buttons - special weapon and dash which are quite self explanatory. Shooting is rapid and constant, so while aiming direction might seam most important stuff to worry about, your positioning and maneuver are what makes you win..
– Real player with 27.4 hrs in game
PixelJunk™ Shooter Ultimate
Despite the deep hues, this game feels more approrpriate for the Spring season than Autumn. I’m not sure why that is, but I correctly trusted my gut. I ended up finishing this well into the summer, mostly due to IRL obligations and my desire to find every gem & scientist.
I love this game because there’s less emphasis on killing organisms and more importance placed on navigating the environments to save humans from perishing. I have to commend Q-Games for that direction, something that I wish wasn’t so rare in the contemporary videogame landscape.
– Real player with 21.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Action 2D Games.
★★★★☆
PJSU is a great coop experience, but weirdly enough you’ll notice a bunch of levels seem to be made with the mindset of a singleplayer game, as some levels felt too cramped and tight for the double action. Luckily, these levels appear a view times, mostly only in the second half of the game. This half happen to be my least favourite part, because the first half just had slightly better level design in overall.
I’d like to point out again how much fun the game is with a collabortive partner. Most levels are kind of boring by yourself, but are more intense and interesting with another player next to you as he or she can harm you too by accident. Nevertheless, while hunting down the last achievements by myself (because of a specific tracking bug), I still did enjoy the music (when it works 60% of the time) and the water mechanics. It’s always satisfying to shoot open a hole where the water bursts out of and negates the magma below.
– Real player with 20.9 hrs in game
Renegade Ops
Top down game Like no other.
I would say that renegades ops is one of those games that come once in a very long while and go unoticed, I remember purchasing it with a bundle with other games and never played it, until one day I was really bored and starting checking the games that I havn’t played, and so I clicked on it and was ………. pretty impressed!.
with it’s cartoonish simple catchy story line to the amount of details and physics in the cars and combat, everything is well done and goes along together well.
– Real player with 54.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Action Arcade Games.
Renegade Ops is a classic styled vehicle-based top-down twin-stick shooter, where we have to defeat enemies coming at us in overwhelming numbers through mission by mission, while successfully completing objectives, such as rescuing civilians or collecting certain items. Unlike its predecessors the game does a good job simulating 3D by using slopes and elevation differences. The game is a successor to the Jungle Strike games from 1993 to an extent that at some points we can even switch our vehicle to an attack helicopter. The game is enjoyable, but comes with some very annyoying bugs. It was part of a free SEGA bundle at some point (with both DLCs included, so I’m going to mention those as well).
– Real player with 37.1 hrs in game
RIVE: Wreck, Hack, Die, Retry!
tl;dr: Great audio, great visuals, great controls, great variety, ok writing, solid voice acting, solid price, bit unfair at times, will kick your butt heartily but it feels mighty rewarding to succeed.
So, after spending most of my day playing this game, I feel I ought to give it a review:
I felt that six hours was a bit high of an estimate from the developers. I’m reasonably good at games, but I’m pretty weak at sidescrolling shooters; even still, I managed to complete the game in about four (and then beat the game again in just over two hours). Before I go much further, I would like to say this: RIVE is excellent - its presentation and gameplay are highly well-thought-out and extremely polished - but it’s a game that begs to be replayed. Its greatest flaws are, for the most part, ones that wash away within a single playthrough, but if you’re not so into the level of challenge RIVE puts out (or how quickly it ramps up), then those issues may really hurt the experience for you.
– Real player with 31.3 hrs in game
Dutch developer Two Tribes was one of the early Humble era developers to support Linux, and after having a good time with Toki Tori, RUSH, Edge, and Toki Tori 2, I found myself eagerly looking forward to RIVE.
I’d previously helped pull together some love from the Linux community and lent a hand with testing a few things for Two Tribes, and over the years, I’d formed at least a passing friendship with a few people there. I’d been aware of the company’s financial struggles and the ups and downs of the company’s downsizing/reboot after filing for bankruptcy in 2013.
– Real player with 10.7 hrs in game
Alien Death Mob
This is one of the fastest and most relentless twinstick shooters I’ve played! There are a lot of levels, powers ups, and enemy types. I especially dig that each level looks very unique and has its own layout.
Staying alive can be difficult, but the game doesn’t penalize you much for dying. Scoring is way more important than surviving, and you are encouraged to collect score multiplier items as quickly as possible even if you have to die to do it.
I love that the power ups get dropped out of little cars that drive across the screen.
– Real player with 5.9 hrs in game
Alien Death Mob is a brutalist construction of the twin-stick masterworks before it, which it smelts and reforges into a true arcade experience recontextualized for the home computer.
It asks you not to “win”, but to “shoot”. It asks you not to “finish the level”, but to “get points”. When you get points, you collect stars. With stars, you can play new levels. That’s the foundation of Alien Death Mob, a lovingly crafted showcase of the purest, hardest, most transparent materials with which a game should be made.
– Real player with 5.8 hrs in game
Bubblegum Zombie Hunter
BUBBLEGUM ZOMBIE HUNTER
Welcome to Gloomhaven, home to**Kaylee Bu33le**, the towns most iconic streamer.
Gloomhaven has been attacked by a zombie outbreak and the shambling hordes have knocked out the internet!!!! Enraged that she can’t hit her daily donations goal, Kaylee heads out, armed with her Gumball Gun and vows to take on the zombie hordes save her friends and the internet!
Gridform
Gridform is a fast-paced action arcade game restricted to a square arena. Action is fast with predictable enemies with exploitable interactions. Like your own ship, enemies die in a single hit.
Campaign
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Gridform’s primary campaign features a large, interconnected grid of over 75 levels. Each level is designed to test your skills in a unique and exciting way by presenting you with unique win and fail objectives.
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Unlock additional weapons to complement your strategy.
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Fight against huge bosses that break the rules.
Gridform is designed to be a challenging game. You will die, but you will learn.
L’Onza the Bounty Hunter
Pure bullethell in which everything is available from the start. Pick your mode -arcade, campaign or challenge - and fly mode -vertical, horizontal and arena- and try to survive as long as you can while dodging enemy bullets and shooting them with a machine gun, shotgun and laser beam. The last two have limited number of shots that recharge over time. As your screen gets filled with enemy bullets, you’ll need to use your only special power - slow mode. But even that won’t help you get far. Enemies just keep coming and always get to fire at least one shot at your position. If you don’t hurry up and take them out fast, you’ll be dead before you know it. Bosses might take a cheap shot at you (unblockable lasers) and they gain extra attacks as you cause damage to them.
– Real player with 0.4 hrs in game
Didn’t seem fair for a game not to have a review
Well There isn’t much but it is made buy Built in a Day Games so I can’t really be mad at that now can I.
Pros:
It is a bullet hell in the sense of I dare anyone to actually beat it.
Spacebar slowing down time in a bullet hell is a new one for me but it doesn’t last forever
Right click does a more powerful shot but again it doesn’t last forever
The soundtrack sounds like something I would hear on the Super Nintendo
Cons:
One song and no sound effects so far. Again “Built in a Day” but maybe just one other song for boss battles perhaps?
– Real player with 0.1 hrs in game
Messier111
Messier 111 is a twin-stick shooter that will test your skills.
Continue to take down enemies that are endlessly coming at you and try to survive longer.
You must avoid all attacks. Getting hit means the end.
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Use two different shots to destroy the enemies.
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Survival time is everything: 30 seconds of estimated time per play to as much as you want.(depending on you!)
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Avoid flying bullets and enemies with tact and reflexes. One hit is fatal.
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There are more than 10 different types of enemies that will attack you.
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Gain experience orbs dropped by enemies to strengthen your ship. Quick reinforcement gives you a survival advantage.
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You have a buddy who can be used to follow and cover you, or place in a fixed position to use as a turret.
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Release the overdrive energy and wipe out enemies.
Neckbeards: Basement Arena
Easy to get in to, but hard to master. Fun and fast-paced, especially so with the local co-op!
I haven’t seen anything quite like this on Steam before. A blend of challenging gameplay, creative level/enemy design, a variety of awesome characters to choose from. Not to mention the daunting task of 100 levels to conquer.
I’m not great at the game yet but I am slowly improving, fighting each cleverly designed boss as I go along.
I look forward to continuing to best the basements!
– Real player with 67.4 hrs in game
I’m so ZZWized right now. This is one of the best games I ever played. The music and the memes just come pouring through your screen like butter dripping off of a hot tub. Very cozy game and fun to play.
– Real player with 1.0 hrs in game