PAWARUMI
Pawarumi is a fantastic vertical shmup and one of the best of all time. Great graphics, great music, three different difficulty settings with the easiest being super easy and laid back for newcomers and the hardest being perfect for those looking for a traditional bullet hell challenge featuring a crazy true final boss encounter at the end w/ a true ending.
Includes an in-game gallery achievement menu, a Practice mode to play individual stages (and being able to go for achievements that can be unlocked on those specific stages). The game’s three color weapon/enemy color system is quick and easy to pick up on and the game implements the system perfectly, allowing you to score more points, refill your health meter (Shield) and refill your bomb meter (Super). Each stage is really well designed and different from one another, with each section throwing something entirely new at you beyond just new enemy ship types. Highly recommended for anyone looking for a fun and challenging vertical shmup with tons of replay value =)
– Real player with 33.5 hrs in game
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I kickstarted this game and haven’t been disappointed. To call it an indie game really doesn’t do it justice - the level of polish is very high. Nice 2.5D graphics that are reminiscent of Radiant Silvergun or Zero Gunner 2, interesting weapon mechanics and a deep scoring system really make Pawarumi stand out among ‘indie’ games, and with just about the right level of difficulty not to scare beginners off. The game has 5 levels each with it’s own unique theme - first level is a snow base, second is a weapons factory set in industry and lava, find the rest out for yourself :-p. With mid bosses and bosses that you can blow bits off to maximize score, anyone who’s played shooters before will be right at home. Only real omission is the lack of a 2 player mode. Definitely worth £12.99 of anyone’s money!
– Real player with 16.8 hrs in game
River Attack
Good game. I liked it. I remembered when I was a kid and played that kind of game.
– Real player with 1.4 hrs in game
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This game appears to be a tribute to the classic Activision game, River Raid. Unfortunately, in trying to modernize the game with added features like a health bar, collectibles, bullet-hell, and side-scrolling, it loses everything that made Carol Shaw’s classic clever and fun. The original game challenged you to survive a gauntlet of ships and planes timed to collide with your plane while you could only bank left-right, speed up, slow down, and shoot one missile at a time, and you could only refuel flying over a tank and lingering as long as possible. The original design was brilliant, unique, and never replicated. The new features make it the same as any other “modern” bullet-hell game with a mediocre implementation, and some backstory scenes that only made me cringe. Instead, I recommend the original Atari emulation, or better yet the Atari 8-bit port that has improved scenery.
– Real player with 0.2 hrs in game
Phantast
no
– Real player with 0.1 hrs in game
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Moose Life
Introduction
Moose Life is an arcade shooter using Llamasoft’s voxel game engine inspired by 80s arcade game Juno First. Looking at gameplay of the original you can see the resemblance but also how much Llamasoft added to make this an instant classic with unique game mechanics.
Gameplay
If you’re familiar with Jeff Minter and the games he designs you would not be surprised your player character is a moose. You fly through a space corridor and you have to battle an array of enemies wave after wave. You can move on the floor or flip around to move upside down from the ceiling. Similar to in Juno First where there’s a sphere with a person inside to rescue in Moose Life each level but the last has a sphere containing 10 sheep for you to rescue. Like in Goat Up the sheep you rescue follow you in a string which you can use to sweep at enemies and they add a valuable bonus to your score at the wave’s ends.
– Real player with 45.5 hrs in game
Possibly the most Llamasoft game ever. Billions of particles. All the colours. Hundreds of sheep. Terrible moose jokes. Mindbending visual effects. And at Moose Life’s core is rock-solid old-skool shooting action that reels you in gently before smacking you down hard with new lessons learned.
Normal mode gives you extra lives and the Llamasoft-standard Restart Best option so you can pick up your game wherever you want and build up a massive high score, Pure mode gives you nine lives and the challenge of getting as far as you can in one go, and if that all feels like hard work then there’s Freeride mode that just lets you enjoy the ride without worrying about lives or high scores.
– Real player with 16.3 hrs in game
Mandala
Mandala in the eastern languages means circle and they are geometric shapes inspired by nature and the world surrounding us. They unfurl from a center and spread out towards the edges, in the direction of infinity. Drawing and coloring a mandala has been a meditative activity since a long time. It lets one explore themselves through an interesting choice of shades which represent a creative stimulation.
Mandala brings forth this experience in a videogame.
Game experience
The game’s rhythm is not hectic, but it requires concentration and reflexes nonetheless: the mandala shoots slow and numerous bullets which move in a rotating fashion. The complex patterns are hard to predict and feel hypnotic. The colors and the music help creating a strong sense of immersion, aided by a steady gameplay rhythm.
Customization
The mandala’s customization is essential: you can choose between various drawings, styles, brushes, tones, themes and music that influence both gameplay and aesthetics. Each game is unique and Mandala gives you total creative freedom.
A linking story
Thin, yet enduring threads link every mandala to each other… like true friendship. Discover the story of Camilla through the pages of a diary; unveil her story by completing all the mandalas in the book.
The editor and social media
When you complete a mandala, it is possible to view your score and be rewarded with various marks, depending on how well you played. There is also an editor in which you can customize the output of your game, export the image in .png format and share it both on social media and online leaderboards.
Main features
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Immersive, hypnotic gameplay
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8 mandalas to color with a pastel-styled book
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32 colors and 8 brushes to unleash your creativity
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In-game editor for sharing your inspiration on social media
Origami Flight
Awesome Side Scrolling Shoot Em Up…LOVE IT….everything is perfect….Highly recommended…Buy this game its so fun :)
– Real player with 3.8 hrs in game
This game is simply wonderful! It has an original thematic, a world of origamis to purify!
I love the art, so colorful and special! There are a lot of different enemies, i want see all! The gameplay is juicy too, you can do combos when you charge your weapon, so its nice to listen the “plop” sound when you kill/purify the enemies.
I’m going to playing more, then i back again to say my final words about this game!
– Real player with 1.8 hrs in game
Super Captain 3D
You are Super Captain 3D: You are sitting at home enjoying a peaceful day on Earth, when the newscaster announces an invasion by pixel invaders. You know instantly it is your calling to save the earth and the universe from the evil invaders and you leap into action. You must utilize all of your hero’s abilities to defeat the pixel invaders and save the universe. You must fight across 8 stages against over 20 types of alien with 4 Epic Bosses. You only get one shot at saving the universe; die and its game over!
– Real player with 5.7 hrs in game
One Hero To Save Them All
Super Captain 3D is a pretty fun little shoot em up game. It was crafted using gamemaker. The graphics run pretty smoothly. The music is diverse enough and fitting. I played with a controller as was recommended and had no issues. You play as a hero that fends off against pixel invaders from outer space. The game is short but it’s got a nice amount of diverse content and fun gameplay stuffed into it to make it a competent title for the asking price. There are four areas that are two levels each giving you a total of eight levels. At the end of each area there is a boss to fight. None of the bosses have a similar attack pattern. If you look hard enough you can find enough golden ships throughout the game to unlock a secret boss.
– Real player with 3.7 hrs in game
Teodoro and the Evil Machines
WHAT IS TEODORO AND THE EVIL MACHINES?
It is an action shoot-em-up, shmup “or schump” type game but with a visual style, history and difficulty adapted for kids with these features:
EASY MODE: Any inexperienced player will be able to finish the game and learn all his mechanics well, allowing him to improve by removing frustration.
MULTIPLAYER COOPERATIVE GAME : Two players can share the same game at the same time, helping each other.
History
TEODORO’s home lived in peace, tranquility and harmony in a perfect balance using the magic and vital energy that emanated from that land.
But one day a door opened from which some very aggressive monsters emerged with horrendous machines that destroyed everything. They installed gadgets to take the vital energy of everything that lived to feed their machines of war and to go to other worlds to continue with their pillages.
TEODORO returned from his adventure and saw all that: “Help us Teodoro” said the sages, “You are the only one who can save the universe from these monsters”.
But TEODORO needs your help! Do you dare to try it?
Game modes
EASY MODE: Designed 100% for inexperienced players to remove frustration and allow training reflexes and abilities.
MIDDLE MODE: Access to all screens in the game on a slightly more difficult difficulty than the simplest mode.
HARD MODE: For more experienced players designed as a more difficult challenge.
Cooperative play
TEODORO AND THE EVIL MACHINES allows you to play in simultaneous multiplayer cooperative mode with another friendly character: GOMINOLO.
Types of gameplay
Phases of the horizontal and vertical type with changes in gameplay:
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Exploration
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Enemy bases
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Bonus
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Escape from enemy bases
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Dodging stage or birds approaching at high speed
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Collection of magic and vital energy
Graceful Explosion Machine
TL;DR: A criminally underated arcade shooter with great feeling weapon mechanics and unusual movement system.
First Impressions: Huh nice vectorish style art. Weapons are solid, some combo’ing here and there
First S Rank: MAN THAT WAZ AWESUM
A high score game where keeping your multiplier up is part of the difficulty. Where slaughtering waves of enemies as efficiently as possible before they body you, turns into you dashing around the map desperately looking for more enemies to keep that combo going.
– Real player with 13.1 hrs in game
This is a sharply designed and good-looking shooter that doesn’t really play like anything else. You can compare it to other games, for sure: the two-way horizontal-scroll looping levels resemble Defender or Astro Tripper, and there are plenty of twin-stick games with a similar focus on combo multipliers that make your score skyrocket if you can continuously destroy baddies without getting hit. But the meat here is the 4-weapon system that emphasizes managing resources. Your general-purpose blaster overheats quickly but cools down when you kill enemies with your 3 sub-weapons: a close-range spin attack, an armor-penetrating laser, and a seeker missile swarm. These sub-weapons, meanwhile, run off energy crystals dropped by enemies. Spend your heat and energy unwisely, and you’ll let the combo drop and tank your score. If that sounds intimidating, don’t worry: I quickly learned to play by feel, reading the situation and applying the right weapon for the job. Juggling enemy swarms to string along a combo for an entire stage feels wonderful when you nail it. I’m not sure gamers who don’t care to play for score will find much to appreciate, given that the most interesting parts of the design revolve around the combo system. Score-chasers, though, should have a blast.
– Real player with 7.3 hrs in game
Simple Sky
Simple Sky is top-down twin-stick space-shooter/score-chaser with some unique ideas. The simple and bright artwork gives the game a friendly appearance, but after I headed into the main game, I quickly realized that it gives the player no quarter. There are 10 difficulty settings, and only two are unlocked in the very beginning. Well, so far, I have yet to unlock another. Please keep in mind that this game is in Early Access currently, and some of my discussion may be outdated by the time you are looking at the game.
– Real player with 1.7 hrs in game