Asteroids… But Roguelite
The progression/choice is super cool. It captures this feeling I like from games like Asteroids and Galaga, but adds a whole new dimension where score matters (because you get money for upgrades from it), and you’re given meaningful choices.
There’s a couple ways I’ve played it; 1. just trying to get the perfect score streak/multiplier through precision, or 2. brute forcing it with epic upgrades. I am #2 on the leaderboard at the time of my writing, and I felt somewhat godlike with my bombs, shotgun lasers, sniper, shield, max health, etc…
– Real player with 11.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Retro Arcade Games.
I originally bought this game back when it was first released on Itch.io, and it’s definitely had some improvements since. Unfortunately that also means several exploits/cheap tactics I used to use to reach the top of the leaderboard, have been patched. I suppose it was inevitable.
–———————–
Asteroids… But Roguelite is exactly what it claims to be, and it does a damn good job at it. It starts you off as a weak ship, and you find yourself needing to increase your power at a very quick pace to stand a challenge against enemies.
– Real player with 3.0 hrs in game
Retro Classix: SRD - Super Real Darwin
One of the all time table top classics from the 80’s on PC! Shoot your way through enemies with different power ups to repel the invaders from Cokyo. Save the planet and top the leaderboard!
– Real player with 6.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Retro Arcade Games.
Data East 3
– Real player with 0.1 hrs in game
Skycadia
This is by far the most exciting thrill ride of a highscore leaderboard battling game I’ve played in many years.
At the start, you are set to begin unlocking the other pilots and weapons (3 of each). It may seem like a huge hurdle, but once you get your mind past the unlocks and just concentrate on the leaderboard, it becomes all or nothing.
Set in a retro 90’s look with it’s vibrant landscapes and scan lines, you feel right at home. (Well I do).
The chiptune music sets the scene for the 3 stages the game throws at you. First a light tune as the first wave of enemy ships spawn in, then a faster arrangement as the flying centipedes swoop around and finally the boss music kicks, and you know by then, things are gonna go down.
– Real player with 34.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Retro 1990's Games.
“Pixelized, Fast paced, Action packed flight shoot em up'”
The more and more i played the more challenging the game got, keeping me at my toes with it’s rouge-like enemy system, as soon as i had overcome a difficult enemy a new enemy would appear and kill me several more times.
The controls are simple and easy and the smoothness you can achieve once you’ve mastered the plane is awesome. I did have to toggle the inverted vertical controls, as flying felt much better that way.
The daylight cycle makes the game more interesting as the environment changes with the lighting. At night you can watch your bullets light up the clouds and environment as you blast enemies. and vice versa
– Real player with 11.8 hrs in game
Zeon 25
I love very simplistic games and this was one of them. The gameplay, design and soundtrack
give the game that cool retro feeling. And the story is there just to give the
gameplay some meaning, wich works just fine. All in all it was worth my time and investment.
I really hope theres a sequel coming, because I ran trough the chapters really fast without much difficulty.
So a bit more chapters and more difficult ones with maybe some new enemy types would be fun to see.
Also it would perhaps be more logical to have a leaderboard for each blood rain map instead of just one.
– Real player with 29.1 hrs in game
Played the game for 2 1/2 hours, here are my thoughts.
Fairly simple top-down shooter. Minimalistic and easy to get into. The upgrade system is a nice touch, giving your more bullets per shot and eventually more health to survive longer. Has the arcade feel and a difficulty that isn’t too hard. Additional endless modes just let you enjoy the game and try out changes to your build without interfering with your storyline game. The “retro” screen effect option is a nice touch as well.
The enemies are reskins of each other as you progress in levels, so there’s really no variety. Also too a good chunk of the enemies have an effective aimbot on you; they will lock onto you instantly and follow your movements. This can make battles against larger enemies super awkward. The controls aren’t well-defined and you don’t know that you need to hold both mouse buttons to shoot. Controller support is non-existant even though it says fully supported. Also there is no new game feature or a way to overwrite your current game due to the cloud saves, so unless you pull some Steam trickery the game has almost no reply value outside of the endless modes.
– Real player with 2.6 hrs in game
8-Bit Commando
We wanted the best, you know the rest.
A Contra look-alike, that does not stand to its predecessor. But is it THAT bad? Let’s find out! The game greets you with a nice soundrack and pretty good 8-bit graphics. Unfortunately the gameplay is ruined by bad controls especially in terms of jumping. And when you can’t land on a platform becouse of fucked up controls - you know that this game has an issue. A prefect run can be ruined by a single jump and then it’s back to the beggining or nearest check point (THANKS GOD FOR THAT). Also this game has a TIMER. And when such slow-paste game makes you rush the level becouse of the mistakes you made before - it doesnt’t help the situation at all. At least it has decent multiplayer.
– Real player with 18.9 hrs in game
–-
Rather than improving upon Contra / Probotector-games due better tech nowadays, this game just feels cumbersome (I really don’t have more fitting word here).
Main reason why I don’t recommend buying this game due how blatantly unfair this game is.
Note, this doesn’t mean you wouldn’t be able to beat this game. But it is still still unfair.
- First of, and the majour flaw: The checkpoint-system is for the most part pointless / not worth it. In fact, it is just better to restart the the whole stage most of the times since they’re really short.
– Real player with 7.3 hrs in game
AST-Hero
Support us by Wishlisting:
AST-Hero is a top-down space-shooter, with unique graphics and sounds.
Everything was custom-handmade.
It offers a great player experience and is difficult to master although the game learning curve is easy.
AST-Hero is inspired by the 1979 hit Asteroids. It comes with a lot of new and interesting features and answers our main question:
If asteroids would have been done in 2020, how would it look like?
Are you ready to fight through 40 levels and defeat the mighty mothership?
Some of the features of the game:
-
Gamepad compatible
-
Fun to play
-
Quick and reactive gameplay
-
Easy learning curve
-
40 levels
-
5 difficulty levels
-
A tutorial to help new players understand the gameplay
-
Voice-overs during the tutorial and in the shop
-
Subtitles during the tutorial
-
Endless playing environment
-
Mini-Bosses and End Boss
-
Locked screen pre-boss mechanics
-
Multiple weapons to choose from
-
A shop to buy weapons and upgrades
-
Special bonus weapons
-
Amazing and tailored soundtracks
-
Unique handmade design
-
Handmade sound-effects
-
Coded without libraries
Barrage Fantasia
Don’t be misled by its cute gfx, this is the real thing.
I would have liked some pixel gfx a bit less coarse though.
Unlocking all stuff will show you the whole content, and then it will be time to go for the score.
(works fine on a lean glibc/linux distro in the steam runtime)
– Real player with 4.6 hrs in game
Barrage Fantasia is a pixel aesthetic shmup that caters to both beginners and experienced players alike. The music is pretty neat. The different types of familiars and specials depend on whether you want to play for survival or mainly for score. The way the big bullets and big hitbox visually remind me of The Adventures of Ten and Till. Just like Ten and Till the hitboxes seem to be a little bit smaller than they look. Maybe not as extreme as Ten and Till but it’s definitely noticeable.
if you’re looking for a cute shmup and a relatively easy clear this is pretty much the game for you. Not many people will enjoy the type of scoring the game shows but I personally dig it. You pretty much have to “all break” all of the boss’s parts and also cancel OR graze bullets into hearts to be able to refill your heart meter. Once you haven’t been hit for a while (depends what difficulty of life you choose) you will glow a green barrier which will then allow you to get bonus’s each time you extend another life in exchange for already having max life.
– Real player with 4.3 hrs in game
Centipede: Recharged
Fantastic! I’ve loved Centipede since the old days in the arcades and still like to play it occasionally on Mame. There was a good reworking of it on the Xbox 360 and I even occasionally considered digging out the old console just to play it. But this surpasses them all! It’s the best retro-reworking I’ve seen, adding some nice touches (like the power-ups) and taking out some of the nastier elements of the original (fast spiders rushing in without warning from the sides).
This is really well done and I would love to see similar reworkings of some of the other arcade greats (Defender, Robotron, Joust).
– Real player with 37.5 hrs in game
Centipede is my all-time favorite arcade game. I built my own arcade cabinet, with a classic trackball, just to play it. So once I found out about this game, I had to try it. I will admit, I was put off by the large amount of negative reviews, but the game is at a fair price, so I figured I would try it out, and I’m happy I did.
First off, just to be clear, this game is NOT the classic Centipede from 1981 and the game clearly doesn’t try to be. I think the problem the reviewers are having with this game is they are expecting the classic game, but doesn’t make a lot of sense to me because the promotional images and footage make that clear. If you want the classic arcade, go play it. This game is not going to give you the same classic experience.
– Real player with 20.8 hrs in game
Crome: Before Purgatory
I really really liked this game. It’s very enjoyable and keeps your attention :)
– Real player with 12.6 hrs in game
Check out my Steam Curator page, “Minorthreatt Gaming Reviews.” I have the most organized and extensive genre lists on Steam! Be sure to “FOLLOW” for more of my recommendations: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31339849-Minorthreatt-Gaming-Reviews/?appid=257170
The Short of it: Really brought me back to the original Gameboy days of green, back-lit screens and simple graphics. The gameplay is much more modern and responsive though. Great score chaser, and it’s FREE to play =)
What more needs to be said, really? It’s free, so download it and give it a try - hopefully you have as much fun with it as I and so many others have! If not, a quick uninstall ends the process. Sometimes life is so simple and wonderful - we’re lucky to have free, quality software like this being provided to us. Thanks Stumphead Games!
– Real player with 8.5 hrs in game
FORTRESS DEFENDER
Well this came out of nowhere. Paying homage to the shmups of ancient times Fortress Defender will completely chew you up and spit you out..and that’s on Easy.
Not for the faint of heart nor the easily frustrated you will find absolutely no modern day hand holding here so be forewarned! With that said I enjoy a good challenge. Daunting at first glance with broken english for ship descriptions and some not so clear game mechanics one may feel slightly overwhelmed with FD. It took a bit of time but once familiarized with the controls and the game systems things quickly started to click. This shmup feels like a bit of a mash up between Gradius and possibly Gates of Thunder but with it’s own unique subsystems and powerup/shield system. Enemy design and attack patterns are well suited, bosses are challenging to take down, and the action is constant never letting up.
– Real player with 8.7 hrs in game
It’s a good retro shmup.
– Real player with 3.5 hrs in game