Before modern day "shooters" existed, the term "shooter" referred to games in which the singular player (or occastionally multiple players) destroys hordes of enemies whilst dodging attacks. The player usually takes control of an aircraft (or spacecraft) to do this, and today, we define this sub-genre as the "Schmup" (shoot-em-up). These games were such a staple of gaming's earlier developments that you can see thier DNA now infused with many modern games. The problem is that the more pure form of vertical and horizontal scrolling shooters doesn't seem to surface very often anymore. The more recent release of Radiant Silvergun in the x-box live marketplace makes up for some of this, but the modern shoot-em up world is still barren!

Enter Velocity Ultra-- possibly the most clever evolution of the classic shooter genre, since Ikaruga. This game takes the conventional shoot-em-up, adds an excellent teleportation system, throws you into it's more than fifty mini-playgrounds,
and challenges you to adapt to them while meeting certain requirements. Those that find an affinity with this game, as I have, won't be able to stop until they've gotten a gold medal in every stage.

The graphics are more than adequate, and have a consistent style to them that doesn't confuse the eyes or get in the way of the gameplay mechanic. The comic-like art in between missions is fun to look at, and serves as a throwback to the "barely-there" style of storytelling that most shoot-em-ups adhere to. Why tease the player with too much story when all that'll be needed is very twitchy hands? The comic-frames more than suffice. Music is above average techno (I understand that electronic music consists of multiple sub-generes, but "techno" seems to fit the profile here), and carries the game's pace nicely. Controls are fluid and responsive, with only the occasional failed teleportation to make the player question his or her controller. And even then, practice makes perfect is the bread & butter of this game, and evidences it's tight gameplay. I'm curious as to how the controls feel in the Vita original, and I'm even more curious to see how curve studios might integrate the teleportation controls in to IOS, or other mobile devices.

Buy this game. It's an evolution of one of the most classic genres of video gaming, and it does what it does very well. The price is certainly right, and we need to encourage more development of games in this genre! Oh, and did I mention the game has a built in calculator, as well as the game Mine-sweeper? Does this enhance the experience? No! Is it awesome? Yes!

9.1 / 10

Velocity Ultra is a different spaceship game. The focus here isn't to fight enemies, but solving puzzles and rescue survivors while you run against the clock. You have the ability to teleport, and this adds a nice and refreshing new mechanic to the genre. The controls take some time to get used, and it's a bit hard to master at the start, but with some practice you'll do well. It's important to say that this is not a bullet hell title. If you are looking for a completely new experience, you might give this game a try.

I am a big fan of games with Cartoon Style art in them, and this Game is absolutely amazing in that aspect. But not only does it have great graphics, the music is also amazing, and the game-play is well thought trough. Boosting and teleporting around the world work well and the loot you find helps you out quite a bit.

Would recommend this Game just for the Graphics and the Music alone.

Velocity Ultra is a top down shooter. You control a space ship that can fire at hostile ships and turrets, you can collect items (e.g. weapon power up, restore shield, ...) and you have an unlimited engine boost that can greatly speed up your ship. But the most interesting thing about your ship is its teleport capability: if you can point your cursor to an empty spot on your screen, you can teleport there, no matter how many walls and enemies are between you and that spot.

You will encounter some sort of coloured force fields that you can deactivate by hitting one or more switches of the same colour. Deactivating the force fields is sometimes optional and sometimes necessary to reach the exit. Often, there are force fields and levers spread around the level and you'll need to do some backtracking to deactivate them all, so not every level is completely linear. In those levels, you can usually set three 'points of return' yourself, spots on the level that you mark and can teleport to as much as you want through the map of the level.

There are 50 levels. In each level, there are three seperate goals:

• Collect as much survivor pods as you can (these are items that are spread around on each level)
  
• Score as many points as you can (by destroying things and collecting items)
  
• Try to finish the level as soon as you can

For each of these three goals, there are three target values: gold, silver and bronze. You get an overview of the target values before each level. Example:

• Collect 10 survivor pods for bronze, 20 for silver and 30 for gold
  
• Score 10000 points for bronze, 20000 for silver and 30000 for gold
  
• Finish the level in less than 10 minutes for bronze, less than 5 minutes for silver and less than 2 minutes for gold

At the end of each level, you're awarded XP depending on your results. As your total XP increases, you unlock more levels (up to the final 50th level).

All these mechanics make for an interesting game. You need XP to unlock the next level, so you can try going for a 'perfect run' (scoring triple gold in one run) each time, or take it easy and just get through the level and settle for bronze. But to unlock the highest levels, you will need more XP than bronze provides, so you may need to revisit levels and improve your performance there. After each run through a level, XP is awarded for any goal that you improved upon, so you can take it one step at a time: play a level to go for all of the survivor pods without minding the time, and then play the same level again to do a speed run without collecting all of the survivor pods. So a more casual playstyle is certainly possible, it will just mean revisiting levels, sometimes multiple times until you get enough XP to advance to new levels.

There are several 'secret areas' to be found across the 50 levels. Grabbing an item in those areas sometimes opens up a 'bonus level'. These 'bonus levels' are optional minigames, some sort of arcade game really, that you can tackle if you want.

The Steam Achievements really add extra challenge to Velocity Ultra, and extra motivation to do certain things I wouldn't usually bother with. An example would be the minigames I mentioned. I hate Minesweeper because most of the times it depends completely on luck, but in Velocity Ultra I played it a dozen times until I got lucky and managed to unlock the achievement. There are achievements for die-hards only, like do a perfect run (triple gold in one run) for each level. There are challenging achievements like do a perfect run for one specific level. There are easy achievements and achievements that you will complete just by playing the game. And there are achievements you need to read about in the achievements list because you'd never think of doing that yourself.

Gameplay: Velocity Ultra is a Shoot 'em Up game that doesn't focus on killing waves and waves of enemies or dodging thousands of bullets: it values more the player's ability to play fast and efficiently. Teleporting gives you a nice method of advanced movement, and in many stages a mechanic for puzzle-solving. The controls are easy to understand, but take a while to master.

Replayability: Even after beating the game, you will probably revisit levels to achieve the level-specific milestones for time spent, survivors rescued and score (possibly all in the same run, to get a "Perfect" stamp). Getting all that usually takes about 15h to 20h.

Presentation: Unfortunately the game falls short in this category. The visuals are simple but at least for me get the job done, and the music isn't exactly bad, but gets annoying over time. I mute the in-game music and set my own playlist.

Conclusion: It's a very underrated gem, and deserves your time for bringing fresh ideas to the genre, while providing precise and rewarding gameplay.

Velocity Ultra is a cool shoot 'em up, where you can complete most of the levels at your own pace. You can scroll through the levels at a faster pace with the press of a button. Your ship can also teleport and hit walls without taking damage. It's an impressive spaceship, really. There are many levels, about 50 or so, and completing a level will earn you xp; xp that can be used to progress through these many levels as some of more difficult ones will still be locked at the beginning. And it's not just about navigating levels, you also have to shoot enemies (with upgradeable weapons later on) and collect escape pods. Collecting and shooting these will help you earn a bronze, silver or gold medal and these are tied to your xp. I should've mentioned that a tiny bit earlier maybe, but what the hell. Anyhoo, to make a long story short, or a short story shorter; it's an amusing game with, for me personally, not enough content to keep me coming back for more. Then again, it's a shoot 'em up and I've rarely seen one with tons of content. Still, entertaining. Certainly not bad.

[Rating: 73/100]

What starts as a fun, shooty ships game with only one collectible to worry about, quickly degenerates once the game introducing the telepod and you end up with sprawling levels, back tracking to hit switches in the correct order and get all the collectibles or just be able to finish the level.

Also there is a point system (given based on how well you accomplish three parameters: time, score and survivors collected) that will gate you off from later levels. I never ran into problems with this but I can see it potentially being a hassle later on.

The controls are tight, fun and intuitive at least so if you have the patience to grind this one out it isn't entirely terrible.

Has issues saving graphic options specified on launch. I contacted the developers about it, and they didn't help too much. Turns out some people end up with two config files. When I told them about this, they stopped responding. Pretty lame support for your own game, guys.

Also it's kind of dull.

https://store.steampowered.com/curator/35180752-3-point-play/

Maze + speed runs + teleport = This is not your typical shmup, which makes the game interesting. Teleport to rescue pods and through obstacles to get to the end of the stage while blasting enemies

Fun and challenging arcade game. All it takes is just one more try! (About thousand times.) It feels real good when you finally get a 'Perfect' medal on a level. There are also a bunch of cool hidden minigames for when you need a change of pace.