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
Read More: Best Shoot 'Em Up Relaxing Games.
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
Vampire Bloody Star X
Really great, shmup/bullet hell game with great style and gameplay. Would highly recommend.
Gameplay vid:
– Real player with 0.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Shoot 'Em Up 2D Games.
That’s funny, I don’t remember smoking DMT tonight.
It’s hardly the game of the year, but this is the type of unique, experimental oddity I always hope to find in the Steam bargain bin trash pile, yet rarely do. Weird and intense and loud and pretty good.
– Real player with 0.3 hrs in game
Gridrunner Revolution
excellent shump
it looks weird as hell, and it is.
but….
the control scheme is a work of genius and its one of those games where when you get in the zone your score flies, you end up playing on instinct picking up visual and aural queues that get you through the bullet hell of the later vindaloo and phaal levels. (yeah the dificulty levels are named after strengths of curry!)
– Real player with 10.3 hrs in game
If you’re of a certain age, then the name Geoff Minter and Llamasoft with bring back memories of bonkers games played on the Commodore Vic20, C64 and beyond. Full of sheep, graphics that induce LSD type trances and later, hypnotic trance music, Llamasoft games are an experience beyond just merely shooting things, you find youself zoning out and playing with your subconscious. Gridrunner Revolution is classic Llamasoft at its best and the bonus Vic20 mode unlocked after completing the first level set (all levels named after increasingly strong curries) will take you back to your misplaced youth.
– Real player with 5.0 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
Return Home
The reactive difficulty keeps the game challenging as you improve.
Great game, and very replayable.
– Real player with 17.0 hrs in game
Blinding little score attack game with a great soundtrack and a devious auto difficulty mechanic.
Check it out.
– Real player with 6.2 hrs in game
Space Giraffe
If you say “Space Giraffe is bad, you can’t see what you’re doing, you just die for no reason!” then you are bad at the game and don’t understand how it works. It’s really as simple as that. Everyone who takes the time to learn how to properly play this game ends up loving it, because it’s a beautiful, satisfying, addictive game and there’s nothing else in the world like it.
That being said the PC port, at least on Windows 10, is inferior to the XBLA original. There’s a bug I’ve noticed where after a while of play, certain important sound effects start dropping out, making later levels in the game more difficult than they would normally be. It also lacks the vibration feature of the XBLA version which was extremely useful (your controller would vibrate every time your multiplier went up, so you’d easily know if you’ve bulled enough enemies off at once) so I would recommend you grab the original if you have access to a 360 or Xbox One.
– Real player with 85.0 hrs in game
Just friggin awesome!
Have been playing for years on the 360 but bought the PC version recently as my ancient Xbox is having issues.
The PC version is way better (and I love the 360 version) playing in 1080p makes everything so much clearer.
As for the actual game, well it’s one of the greatest twitch games of all time.
At first it can be really daunting with all the effects and deliberate obstructions but when it all starts to flow there’s nothing like it.
It’s all about the sound effects! In most games SFX are there as punctuation to the gameplay to just have something to accompany the explosions. With Space Giraffe the effects blend with the gameplay to really immerse you.
– Real player with 36.0 hrs in game
Space Moth: Lunar Edition
This game has a complex scoring system with lots of different ways to score and a focus on risk versus reward. The bullet patterns are interesting and the gameplay is good! It also works with my Saturn USB pad without issue.
However, this is NOT a beginner’s game. I’ve played a lot of shmups, and this one is quite difficult. There is only one difficulty level, and the the only way to make the game easier is to ignore the scoring system altogether.
Star Hunter DX, by the same developer, is another good game with an interesting scoring system, but it’s a little easier for beginners (but still pretty hard).
– Real player with 3.3 hrs in game
I’ve just started playing the Lunar Edition of Space Moth and it is a top tier indie shmup in my opinion. The scoring system is super simple and engaging for beginners and the skill ceiling seems high enough for most die hard fans of the genre. It also has a tate mode for us vertical monitor users (I do wish the game supported portrait resolutions, but thats only a slight inconvenience).
– Real player with 3.0 hrs in game
Journey to Moonray
Journey to Moonray is a hypnotic, top-down twin-stick shooter featuring silky smooth visual FX and intense combat.
Dive into the same universe as our upcoming Souls-like hack-and-slash Moonray, Journey to Moonray takes you on a voyage through the astral fluid on the way to the planet It-Ao.
Dash through 35+ gorgeous dynamic levels and watch enemies, bosses, bullets, and bombs all disturb the cosmic liquids of the hyperspace battlefield to create a striking visual treat. Plunge into wave after wave of enemies amidst 700 high-tech fluid shaders and unlock the ability to customize the space shooter with your favorite liquid looks.
Designed to take full advantage of the latest GPU technologies and power, Journey to Moonray offers beautiful shaders built on fluid physics. Each is generated from a blend of liquid blow mechanics and models of random patterns occurring in nature, such as how spots form on leopard fur. Real-time gameplay input from intense battles results in a responsive feast for the eyes.
Reach a target score within a set time limit in Deadline, or within a limited number of lives in Survival mode. Rack up points while battling waves in Traversal to hit a target score by the end of the level. Take on extra deadly enemies in Boss mode, dealing with the toughest challenges before time runs out.
Blorks: The Quest for Magnesium
Blorks: The Quest for Magnesium is an intense bullet-hell shooter with psychedelic aesthetics reminiscent of late 90s console titles.
Face dozens of waves of fierce foes (including rabid video cards and 8-bit Commodore computers), rescue humans, and gorge on magnesium for incredible weapon power-ups.
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Unleash your fury at rogue CPUs, fuming archaic computers, and irritable mushrooms
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Take out mighty battleships and deranged boomers
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Enjoy a swanky chiptune soundtrack by Blackbella
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Collect numerous power-ups to bolster your firepower and manage your Blork’s overheating
EXPOSURE, a game of camouflage
A game of camouflage where you can’t see yourself. Change colors to hide, dodge predators, and survive intense bosses in the abstract wilderness of stealth non-bullet hell. Lose the ability to see where you are, and learn to feel and know where you’re going.
EXPOSURE and CAMOUFLAGE
Being out in the open is unsafe. Avoid detection to survive. Switch between light and dark forms to camouflage, but careful: you won’t be able to see yourself either.
Entrancing World
Begin defenseless, but evolve into something greater. Progress through different branching paths across 11 procedurally generated areas. Disappear into the psychedelic minimalist design and atmospheric soundscapes.
Intense Bosses
Each area introduces new predators and parasites. Everything is much more powerful than you, but everything has a weakness.
Features
Collect all the Fieldnotes. Beat the Daily Challenge. Discover the fastest routes. Shoot ‘em up without shooting. Bullet hell without bullets. See without looking. Die and evolve.
