BLUE REVOLVER
If ever a game could be called a love letter to a whole genre, that game is Blue Revolver and the genre is maniac shmups. Anyone who has put much time into CAVE, Raizing, or Psykio’s classics will find themselves in familiar, yet fresh and unexplored territory. This sense of familiarity doesn’t come from superficial or visual similarities but the nitty-gritty design of the game, especially and most obviously the boss bullet patterns. These are varied and novel: you won’t see anything you’ve played before but you will see things that riff on classic patterns, changing the dynamic with new elements. BR’s patterns are down-home, working-class patterns; they mostly do without flashy razzle-dazzle bullets that add to the spectacle but not the threat. Every element was added because it constrains your movement, or forces it, or confuses the safe path, or…
– Real player with 28.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Indie Bullet Hell Games.
Blue Revolver is my new danmakuwaifu
Very nice surprise as I didn’t expect it to be this good.
Gameplay
1. Introduction
Gameplay is simple but satisfying and gives room from playing survival or scoring. Difficulty has 3 different modes : easy, rank dependant and maxed rank. I’m far from being a good shmup player but I think it has enough options to be satisfying for the complete newcommer to the genre as much as for the veteran player.
2. Character, ship, and weapon selection
– Real player with 22.6 hrs in game
REVOLVER360 RE:ACTOR
achievements
the game is fine for achievement-hunters, but don’t expect easy 100% completion. some achievements are quite tough; and players, who are not used to shoot-em-ups, or who don’t like games with precise timing/reaction might have hard time with 100%ing that game. there are no multiplayer-only, time-based, or broken achievements. in other words, if you want challenging 100% completion, then you will not be disappointed
– Real player with 40.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Indie Action Games.
Revolver 360 is an STG (or “Shmup”) that is innovative in its mechanics whilst remaining respectful to the classics and fundamentals of the genre. To summarise, Revolver 360 is a 2.5D STG taking place in 4 stages, with branching paths and bosses at the end of each level. The player shoots enemies and objects coming from all directions in a 3D plane whilst moving within a rotatable cylindrical playing field. Bullets can be rotated-around and cancelled through abilities which use up constantly-recharging resources. The scoring system is based around cancelling bullets and enemy chaining (although the chaining is not nearly as strict as games like Dodonpachi, which is notorious for its perfection-demanding enemy chaining). There are also 50 short challenge levels which test the player’s knowledge of the different game mechanics, as well as their memorisation.
– Real player with 13.7 hrs in game
Glorkian Warrior: The Trials Of Glork
This is a fine Shm’up (or a Shoot & Jump’em up?) if you like it wacky. The gameplay is a bit random, but it’s fine if you are after some casual fun. Sometimes you get really strong weapons and easy enemies, the next time you get a lot of rocks and astro litter (yes, the game is wacky).
To be honest, I really glork this game and played it quite a bit. However, the randomness, or the lack of balancing, makes it impossible to take this game seriously or play it on a pro-level. There are some tactics
! like waiting before you collect crackers and weapons/upgrades - avoid certain weapons (like the Flarf) using flame spitters to generate gold crackers and get energy out of not needed equipment, and such - but ultimately you cannot fully control your own fate and you will struggle with the weak design (like angrymons take too many hits, often you get big waves of them that deplete all your energy and weapons - and then you have to start from scratch, meteor/tetris storm often break your killing spree and deplete your energy, etc, some guns consume energy too quickly, like the Flarf, or too week like the Twisty gun) and even bugs/inconsistencies (e.g. the camera view is very often not perfect, and a lot of things happen off-screen, sometimes a hit takes more or less of your hearts (but maybe the invaders are also using weapons with power mods, who knows). I am rambling because I would like to see this game in a line with some of the great invaders-like Shm’ups - but it just does not have what it takes.
– Real player with 31.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Indie Retro Games.
As a fan of James Kochalka’s comics and records, I had to get this and I am glad it turned out to be be pretty good.
Glorkian Warrior is Space Invaders style shooter with autofire and a jump button. Instead of fixed levels, the games randomizes the successive waves of aliens as well as various other elements such as the ground you stand on or side challenges handed over by a pair of bossy sisters.
Enemies drop power-ups as expected and they are sorely needed as your default laser is slow and weak. The rare moments when you’re stuck with your default with no upgrades in sight feel a bit underwhelming.
– Real player with 9.8 hrs in game
SATAZIUS
In case you didn’t know, I love SHMUPs. Not like I’m especially good at them, but man, I love the genre. When it’s about SHMUPs, though, a lot of developers make a very common mistake. Like… a lot of them. See, a lot of people believe that SHMUP is a very simple genre and all you need to do to make a successful game is to make a small plane that shoots stuff. Obviously, that’s wrong. And the guys from Astro Port get it totally right.
SATAZIUS is pretty much our typical horizontal SHMUP. Like DARIUS and GRADIUS (hence the “US” in the title, developers wanted to make it very clear what this game is). Sure, SATAZIUS is not the most original game out there. It’s pretty clear that this game is a tribute to the old school titles, but when it’s about SHMUPs… I don’t think it’s important to be original. Such games also don’t need a proper story. Which is good, since clearly, this game doesn’t have one. The story comes only in manual (right click on the game in your Steam library to find it) and… it’s not even interesting to read (not like it’s a long reading, but whatever). Long story short, pirates wanted to steal a cool and shiny battleship from transport, on which it was loaded. They didn’t get much luck, since you’ve boarded that ship and is now on your way to destroy all pirates and their base. Because screw them, they’ve asked for it. That’s pretty much it. Kind of sucks. But again, who cares? All we need is an excuse to kick some ass. We’ve got it. So, enough talking about it.
– Real player with 13.7 hrs in game
What Ether Vapor is missing - power ups and upgrades - does exist in Satazius, and its this game’s main advantage for shump fan. Graphic is way behind, but the gameplay makes up for it. Featuring the same element, both, bullet hell, and makes shumps real fun. Also the OST is kind of lackluster in my opinion - Ether Vapor’s much much better with its ambivalent sound and gives the real feeling of Japanese game (which I prefer for this genre).
You select main and sub weapons before the stage starts, during the progress you’ll find up powerups and upgrades for the weapons. The more you collect, the better. The ship you control is one hit dead if you touch any obstacle or enemies' bullets, although you can find rather common shield kit to give you one chance to survive.
– Real player with 11.0 hrs in game
Syder Arcade
Designed by these people http://www.studioevil.com/
I didn’t think I would like this game, but the developers at evil studio have done a fairly decent job. 6 levels on campaign (story mode) with 4 difficulty levels accompanied with 3 extra survival levels which just spawns a constant wave of enemies at you and you have to see how long you can survive overall. There are also various retro filters you can play with, so that you can see how the game would have looked if you still had a c64, amiga or spectrum. The game is fairly fast paced, the story was script up by crayon, it basically consists of here’s the enemy go blow things up. Relatively bug free, though I have myself experienced some comical glitches in the game, like the storm on the last level sometimes has a mind of its own and can even go through the warp gate with you.
– Real player with 18.2 hrs in game
This is like the secret child of R-Type and ProjectX - ‘nuff said.
If any (or even both) of those games ring any bells and you like those bells, you’re gonna love this one!
It even has options to simulate the graphical look of many 8 and 16 bit machines. Lovely.
So, what exactely is this, you still ask?
It’s a 2D sidescroller, scrolling to both sides (you can flip and change direction at will) with lot’s of spacey weapons.
All you need to do is to shoot everything that moves and if something doesn’t move, shoot it anyways.
– Real player with 17.4 hrs in game
Sine Mora
Sine Mora and I have a pretty unique relationship. I first played it just before I really started to get into shmups, and a lot of the unique mechanics really hooked me, despite the incredibly high difficutly. However, after having broadened my horizons to a greater variety of traditional shoot ‘em ups, a lot of the fondness I once had for it isn’t there anymore. That isn’t to say Sine Mora is a bad game–not at all, I still find it to be quite a unique, enjoyable game–but it doesn’t convince me its time-manipulating mechanics are as refined as they could have been, or provide as much a benefit to the gameplay as they could be.
– Real player with 6.3 hrs in game
This is a spoilerfree review of the game played on the easyest difficulty.
This was easyly the best shmup I have ever played.
The story contains time manipulation so it is rather hard to follow, after you beat the game you get an encyclopedia though that gives informations about the game world. that kind of makes it easyer, the wikipedia article on the game erases any questions that should have remained.
Anyway, aside from time being part of the story it is also a game mechanic, as you can slow down time when the hell the bullets put you in is to big. it has a meter though so you cant just slowmo yourself through the game. There is also a limited amount of time you have before dying that gets a few extra seconds every time you kill an enemy and that gets reduced when you are hit, so its also kind of your health.
– Real player with 3.9 hrs in game
Revolution Ace
IN A WORD: MAYBE
IN SHORT:
WHAT TO EXPECT: Solid top-down vertical shooter. Numerous game modes. Fluid combat. Repetitive gameplay. Decent range of weapon upgrades and abilty perks. Experience/Levelling. Basic graphics, art, ui and audio. Quite a few stability issues. Solid controls. Online and split screen multiplayer. No one online.
ACHIEVEMENTS: DIFFICULT 100%.
STATUS: COMPLETE.
WHEN TO BUY: IF YOURE A FAN OF THE GENRE OR WANT A SIMPLE INDIE SHOOTER.
– Real player with 17.1 hrs in game
In the future, humanity uses AI driven machines to wage war, but this backfires when the machines turn on their masters. To combat this threat, your elite pilot takes to the sky in an old jet to retaliate. The machines are dominating the land, sea and air so your battle will not be easy.
At first I thought that Revolution Ace didn’t even bother with a story as the explanation for why you are piloting an old jet against futuristic foes is only revealed a few levels into the game. It doesn’t matter though, as no excuse is needed to engage in some old school, horizontal shooting action. Despite the Unreal Engine powered visuals, Revolution Ace looks like it was ripped straight out of a nineties arcade machine. It is clear that time has been spent on making the ground look interesting with effects like trees swaying in the wind and mountains that rise up into the screen but the overall effect is a bit underwhelming. It could just be my personal preferences, but the realistic style visuals just look a tad too drab for an over the top style game like Revolution Ace.
– Real player with 12.3 hrs in game
Super Killer Hornet: Resurrection
I think the verdict on this one is save your money.
It plays and looks very much like a student’s term project, rather than a fleshed out game.
As a bonus addon to a groupees bundle, it’s right at home. But charging $7 for this, on sale, just seems unethical.
Boasts full controller support, but there’s noticeable input lag with a 360 controller on movement and bombs. Bombs don’t go off immediately when used, so you can still die after bombing (and it’ll still use your bomb). It’s also not clear what level of enemy they destroy, some will survive the bomb and instantly KO you, as there doesn’t seem to be hit invuln while bombing. Maybe chalk that up as a “feature”.
– Real player with 7.9 hrs in game
Super killer hornet is a shmup game with a unique mechanic, that mechanic is having to do math while trying not to die to all the bullets flying around, you pick up numbers and the answer to the equation (they’re simple don’t expect functions or stuff like that) and each time you get the answer correctly your multiplier goes up, when you reach 3 and 6 correct you will get a firepower upgrade.
Also firing all the time actually hinders you, using normal fire makes you move slower and using your main fire power slows you even more, at times the bosses are creative coming at you from behind and the only way to defeat them is with MATH!…. yes really.
– Real player with 5.6 hrs in game
A Western Drama
Wow! A completely unique experience! A Western Drama is a game played completely by sound cues, it’s truly immersive. Simple mechanics with arrow keys for direction and space bar for getting your bearings/shooting. I look forward to playing more games from this company!
– Real player with 0.5 hrs in game
An Audiogame with a classic Western story line. Reaction based controls with bite sized chapters.
Graphics, none, it’s and Audiogame, close your eyes and open your ears.
Sound is where it is at, Western tune, fully voice acted to a high quality with decent sound effects. Great immersion.
As someone who is Visually Impaired it fills me with happiness that games of this type are appearing on Steam, hopefully there will be more to come!
– Real player with 0.4 hrs in game
C-RUSH
C-RUSH is a sci-fi 2D shooter with a couple cool ideas, game gives the option to double your firing space so you can hit two enemy units at the same time, and a normal one fire shot which is more powerful. There is a blaster fuel bar, which you will have to maintain to keep it on the highest damage level by constantly recharging it with passing the special stations on the go. The controls are your old buddy WSAD or arrows and any button to shoot, but you will have to setup it first, since it’s not comfortable for the user by default. You are tasked to do a normal type of fly and shoot missions with constant obstacles on the way and the epic boss at the end of it all. Might feel a bit hard at the beginning but practice do the wonders. The graphic is surprisingly high. A game will be a new addition for gamers who r into 2d shooters to test their skills, though any gamer might find in it something special for himself to enjoy.
– Real player with 15.7 hrs in game
I’m not sure why this game gets as many negative reviews as it does. It’s not a great game, for sure, but it’s not bad either. It’s nice and solid ‘okay.’
The first time I played this was on a keyboard - other than the menus the game has no mouse support - and admittedly, even with rebinding the keys, I found the controls to be a bit on the clunky side and not as responsive as I would have liked. I recently added an x-box controller and came back to this game and using the controller instead of keyboard is a world of difference.
– Real player with 0.7 hrs in game