Super Star Path
An incredibly short sort of color-match puzzle on one hand and a SHMUP on the other. Whenever a boss is reached it’s almost as if the puzzle section never existed because of how much of a reflex-incentive game it suddenly becomes. It’s even mentioned on the Steam store page that it’s short and that it’s “more puzzle than SHMUP”.
There’s more control over the movement with a controller than there is using a keyboard. Can’t rebind the controls but instead they only give you 3 keyboard control schemes and only 2 controller schemes. I’ve got more problems with the 2 controller schemes because all that they use and switch around are (A) and (B) which does “Action” and “Cancel” with “Action” being the “Fire” button when in-game. For a game where you can shoot as fast as you press the button I always figured to put that on the left face button (X) but I don’t even get a choice on that matter.
– Real player with 6.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Top-Down Shooter Bullet Hell Games.
For those who want a quick review, there’s a tl;dr at the end if you don’t wanna read all this.
Super Star Path is a half-puzzle, half-danmaku bullet hell game. It inverts the traditional bullet hell formula in that the levels themselves are just as hard, if not harder, than the boss fight at the end, but for different reasons. Having said that, there is only one fixed difficulty, and said difficulty feels just right; It’s not so easy that you can’t pay attention, but too hard as to turn players away in frustration. It should be worth noting, however, that I obtained 100% completion in a mere 93 minutes. The rest of my playtime was spent idling the main menu to obtain the trading card drops.
– Real player with 5.7 hrs in game
AST-Hero
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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:
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Gamepad compatible
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Fun to play
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Quick and reactive gameplay
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Easy learning curve
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40 levels
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5 difficulty levels
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A tutorial to help new players understand the gameplay
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Voice-overs during the tutorial and in the shop
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Subtitles during the tutorial
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Endless playing environment
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Mini-Bosses and End Boss
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Locked screen pre-boss mechanics
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Multiple weapons to choose from
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A shop to buy weapons and upgrades
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Special bonus weapons
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Amazing and tailored soundtracks
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Unique handmade design
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Handmade sound-effects
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Coded without libraries
Read More: Best Top-Down Shooter Retro Games.
Demonizer
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Review by Gaming Masterpieces - The greatest games of all time on Steam.
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How do so many enemies and bullets fit into such a tiny (16 MB) download? This game may not be an ultimate masterpiece, but it’s a damn fine bullet hell shmups with tight controls, really fast bullets and challenging levels. Enemy variety is high, the bossfigts are well orchestrated, the pixel art is rather detailled, and of course the story is cheesy as hell. Capture the souls of your slain foes and transform them into monsters to fight with you. Although there are 3 difficulty settings, I already struggled to finish on the lowest - there are so many bullets on the screen, it is like HELL. Fortunately you unlock the 7 levels permanently and can restart from your last unfinished level.
– Real player with 13.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Top-Down Shooter Bullet Hell Games.
MOM I NEED MORE QUARTERS! This game is fantastic, The game really is the whole package when it comes to a good arcade game, It has great music, Great art and solid gameplay! I have spent almost 3 hrs in it and still have 2 levels left to beat due to the challenging nature of old school shmups and bullet hells. I can promise you that if I saw this in an arcade, I would be feeding it my quarters! For the price of a beer and some quarters you can have a killer game with multiple modes and difficulty settings. Keep up the great work and cant wait to see what the future brings for this game!
– Real player with 6.5 hrs in game
Devileader
A fun, frantic and sometimes frustrating spiritual successor to Sinistar, Devileader delivers that classic arcade fun in spades. I never really got into the ‘original’ a whole lot, but this game has a few more interesting elements that give the game a good depth and the difficulty setting is a nice addition that keeps things approachable and adaptable, especially for people like me who are not already experts at this game format. I would definitely recommend giving this game a try if you’re at all a fan of the original arcade shooters or fast-paced arcade action in general.
– Real player with 124.3 hrs in game
Hijong Park delivers again. This time with Devileader (Sinistar on crack).
So yes, Sinistar… but this time re-imagined with 4 difficulty levels, much larger enemy variety, interesting weapon variety, and online scoreboards. First off before gameplay begins you are given a choice of one of a handful of superweapons to equip on your ship. These are very powerful and will be used sparingly as they require mining crystals to recharge. They are great for getting you out of tough spots or clearing out a path to hit the devileader with devibombs. Careful though as some will also completely wipe out asteroids and mined cystals which have yet to be collected. Next, your primary laser has a secondary rapid fire mode that clears enemies at a much faster rate. On the flip side it heats up quickly requiring a cooldown time after prolonged use. These two core weapon changes alone already make the frantic gameplay in Devileader much more interesting than in the original arcade classic. Now lets add in a larger ever growing enemy and hazard variety as you progress further into the game and you are looking at a truly great arcade experience. Last but not least, there is a lone drop ship that enters the play area every so often to drop either more powerful ammo limited weapons or time limited items such as shields or cloaks. Be sure to check your map periodically for the drop ship as it can be easy to miss the computerized voice alerting you to its presence in the heat of action.
– Real player with 8.1 hrs in game
GUNPIG: Firepower For Hire
Gunpig is a colorful and enjoyable little score attack twinstick shooter, starring an adorable cartoony pig character, that has only one thing on his mind: shoot aliens and rack up as much cash as possible!
The game is divided into several levels, where you have to find the main baddy and take it out, although there are some other objectives sometimes, like shooting barrels under a time limit. While flying through the levels, you might also find cleverly hidden secrets, and special cards that unlock character graphics and concept artworks in the main menu. You can change your weapon by collecting fruits from special dispensers - there are a total of 9 different fruits/weapons, each one also having an alternative fire mode, ranging from spreads to mines.
– Real player with 0.9 hrs in game
This is a very short and very easy top-down twin-stick shooter that seems to be inspired mostly by the 1988 arcade game Gauntlet. It’s only $5 but I don’t think most players will get that much enjoyment out of it (I got it for much cheaper in a bundle).
There appear to be several bugs: None of the Steam achievements unlocked for me even after finishing the game. The store page also lists Steam Leaderboards as a feature, but I couldn’t find any way to view them either in-game or in the community hub. The volume slider for the music (which sounds pretty good overall) resets to zero after each stage. And even though the game uses the left gamepad stick for movement, there is no analog speed control. Meaning that even gently tapping the stick in any direction gives you full acceleration, so I spent a lot of time careening across the stages when all I wanted was to make small adjustments.
– Real player with 0.6 hrs in game
GyroBlade
It’s a well made piece and at a price point
– Real player with 2.6 hrs in game
This is an excellent retro shooter that totally deserves more attention. Fans of Tiger-Heli and Twin Cobra should feel right at home. Tight and responsive controls, solid retro graphics, BGM sounds like right out of the NES.
Fans of #shmups should find it enjoyable and moderately difficult.
I like shooters but hate bullet hell, and this seems to fit somewhere in between. It’s a slow-paced retro shooter that gets a bit more difficult as you go along, providing moderate challenge.. and maybe that’s its charm?
– Real player with 1.5 hrs in game
Hummingz - Retro Arcade action revised
one word, well, two: the s h i t
grab it and enjoy the colorful little rough.
joyfully pump those nasty bees, cause Stefan Preuss saw it the right way:
bees really are hella nasty creatures.
(beware: tough one at “normal level”…)
– Real player with 5.9 hrs in game
Hummingz is a cute little version of the arcade game Centipede.
It has nice colors/design and it´s fun trying to get a high score or beat your own score.
I haven´t come past level 4 yet, so I will continue playing after more than 1 1/2 hours, which isn´t bad if you get it for 3,99.
There are some minor things which could be imrpoved, like a better resolution option (fullscreen) for PC or to turn off automatic fire.
And for the negative commentary concerning the topic of mobile games - It´s a good thing that mobile games are also playable on PC as long as they are good, which I think Hummingz is.
– Real player with 5.4 hrs in game
I, AI
English and Russian
Very good and variable-difficulty scrool-shooter. Has a normal grind which compensated by upgrade system so do not reconsider this as bad side of this game. The price is adequate, especially on sales. Worth to buy and play.
Tip: turn on option “mouse movement” in controls - will make ship control more comfortable
Очень хороший с подстраиваемой сложностью скролл-шутер. Имеет нормальный гринд (переигрывание с целью добычи) что компенсировано системой улучшений, так что не следует расценивать это как плохую сторону. Цена адекватна, особенно при распродажах. Стоит того чтобы купить и играть.
– Real player with 27.7 hrs in game
Works for me (though I admit I waited for a sale), wanting something to fill a few minutes at a time for my work-from-home “coffee-breaks.” The fixed pace of each level ensures I won’t feel compelled to play longer than I intended. The reviewers who pointed out that this game can be a bit “grindy” aren’t wrong, but that’s okay for me, as I’m not playing it for long enough at a time to get bored. A former music major, I recognize the value of practice and getting closer to the next weapon upgrade is a nice reward for putting in the time repeating previous levels. The alleged story is pretty silly, but I don’t imagine the devs spent enough time on it for it to have taken anything away from the rest of the game which feels pretty well polished.
– Real player with 26.9 hrs in game
It’s time to get out from the solar system
This is an extremely low quality vertical scrolling arcade shootemup/bullet hell game. The objective is to fight through waves of enemies, perform limited ship upgrades, and eventually escape the solar system.
While the quality here is very low, the developer didn’t use retro pixel graphics, which makes this immediately better than thousands of games on Steam. The game runs properly in fullscreen and even supports 4K graphics, again better than thousands of games on Steam. The downsides, however, are significant. The graphics are of very low quality and bad to look at. The controls are lethargic and the ship moves like a slug. The translation is too terrible to make the story digestible. It’s just not fun. And what’s with the unskippable intro that replays when you die and goes on for an eternity?
– Real player with 5.9 hrs in game
Back in 2014 this was not the worst shoot em' up on steam for under 5$. It it still not the worst shoot em' up on steam in 2020. There is plenty of other shoot em' ups this generation for the same price. This game is lacking content compared to todays shoot em' up and this game is no longer being updated or supported. So if you are looking for e decently fun game for about this price, this is fine but keep looking they is alot more out there.
– Real player with 4.8 hrs in game
Metal Hunter
Fight For Survival Against Robots
Metal Hunter is a top-down 3D shooter in which you play as a robot that has to fight for his life against other robots. The only way to survive is shooting down all your enemies while dodging the incoming bullets.
What do you have to do in Metal Hunter?
Shoot all your enemies until you are the last one standing
Dodge all the incoming bullets
All the bullets in this game are hostile, even yours since they can bounce off walls. Adjust your movement direction so that you are not in the trajectory of any bullets.
Use your special ability to have better survival chances
Your special ability is slowing down time while you and your bullets still move at normal speed.
Fight Bosses
Show off your skills against the bosses you will encounter
Combine your shooting and movement skills to get cool killing steaks
What is Metal Hunter going to contain at launch?
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Single-player campaign
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Tradeable Items
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Upgrades system
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Character customization