This is a very charming, beginner to mid-level shoot 'em up game with a strong "steam punk" theme to it, and offered a fair challenge to a bullet-hell novice such as myself. I am not good at bullet-hell shooting games at all, so for me it offered a good challenge and I managed to complete the game on normal difficulty in an hour. If you are advanced in this genre of game and are looking for a major challenge, this is probably not the game for you. Personally I loved it, especially the dialogue between the characters at the end of the stages that was both clever and funny.

I am 32 years old.

My ex-wife and I have a daughter together, and we adopted our son together. Both are now 4 years old.

When we were going through our separation, I felt lost and unhappy. I was self-destructive. One day, I was so angry with everything spiraling out of control that I punched a concrete wall in a moment of overwhelming emotion. This resulted in breaking my fifth metacarpal in my right hand—the hand I worked with, played games with, and used to carry my children to bed—the hand I desperately needed to ensure I could continue providing.

Upon learning the severity of the self-inflicted damage, I became almost suicidal. Keep in mind that just a few months before this, I was the happiest man, with no history of depression or anxiety. I had never experienced anger outbursts, nor was I the type to break down and cry, but I was in a tough situation that truly prevented me from seeing the light on the other side.

With nothing better to do, I looked for a game I could play WITH ONE HAND while recovering. Somehow, I stumbled upon this game and read some of the comments. I decided it was worth a try... I must admit I didn't beat the game, nor did I play as much as some of you. In fact, I may have played this game for only a day or two. That being said, after doing so, I had a new joy and hope for life. I managed to leave behind the pain and suffering that had been thrust upon me. I could experience the joy and happiness of other people. I relaxed for 5 ♥♥♥♥ minutes listening to this music, long enough to realize that I would be okay.

After realizing this, I turned off the game and went back to work. My hand hurt a lot, but I was motivated. I stopped feeling so sorry for myself and became the father I needed to be at that moment, not the weak boy I was behaving like.

Today, I am close friends with the mother of my children. We don't fight, argue, or say hurtful things to each other. We are parents and friends.

Now I have 3 children. My third child is, wait, ALSO 4 YEARS OLD. The woman I am with was going through a very similar situation at the time of my separation, and we just unexpectedly stumbled into each other's lives. We have been dating for a year and are very happy together.

Moral of the story: you never know what life has in store for you, and if I had given up when all odds were against me, I wouldn't be where I am today. This silly little game helped me realize that.

Thank you.

Steam and Metal

10/10

A GREAT bullethell game!

FIASCO

have a fun

A cute cross between 1941 and Steel Empire. I thought that this game would be an easy achievement hunt but the difficultly massively increased on the second level. I only ended unlocking 50%, and I'm sure some of them are bugged. The graphics are nice and cartoony and it seems like it would be a lot of fun to play to the end, but it's just too hard, and level 3 kept locking up again after I had unlocked by finishing level 2. Worth buying in a sale and if you are good at bullet hell shooters. If the devs made a patch to make the game easier I'd like to give it another go. Otherwise, a mild thumb up at the moment.

An enjoyable bullet hell game, not unduly hard on the normal setting, with aparodic, self-referrencial steampunk setting/plot. The dialogue is outrageously histrionic and hilarious--whomever wrote this has a great command of the English language and 19th C. style. there are eve nods to shoot-em-ups like Zero Wing and Star Castle and some referrences that I know I'm not getting. Graphics get the job done nicely; there's even a stylishly illustrated intro and ending sequence.

The biggest frustration is the controls, and I'm kind of miffed at the developer for not giving us the option to reassign keys. Space bar is always shoot, and on a lot of laptops, whether you use the arrow keys or WASD, at least one will be on the same circut as the space bar. In other words, you can simultaneously move up left, you can move up and shoot, and you can move left and shoot, but if you try to move up-left and shoot the keyboard won't acknowledge the last key you pressed. The simple solution would be to use the mouse, only this game's mouse movement feels imprecise, sluggish and then erratic. The best way to play it, then, is use WASD/arrow keys to move and the mouse button for your primary weapon. You'll loose the odd life by accidentally moving the mouse, is the only downside. I imagine playing it with a gamepad would be fine.

This isn't hardcore bullet hell, and if you've played some shmups you'll probably beat the game within one to two hours. Steam and Metal aims for the style and length of old arcade or console shmups, with the intent that you want to periodically replay them. I would say the gameplay is fun enough and the dialogue funny enough that you will. Certainly worht a dollar, and I wouldn't mind seeing a sequel.

As shmups go this is way on the easy side. I got it on sale for a buck and I think you can get 2-3 hours of fun out of it. I can recommend it for beginners to the genre if you can find it on sale again ^^

Nicely detailed colorful sprite graphics work. Controls great, good achievements and the steampunk setting is pretty cool too.

Steam and Metal is a pretty good game for what it is, now its story time.

You play as Judith the daughter of a brilliant professor and inventor who sadly after making his plans/draft for his new differential steam engine or DSE for short is killed and his plans taken by a terrorist.

Soon Judith finds her father and with his last breath begged his daughter to make sure his invention was not used for war. So it’s up to the young girl to get her farther work back and to see it used for good.

Okay now what I liked. The opening scene it was nice, I loved the anime art it had. Combat was fun hard but fun. Story was good I liked how it did not take it self so seriously, like with the dialog.

The only bad thing it’s a bit short you can beat it in an hour or more if you’re going after the achievements and price is a bit high for a short game like but not too bad.

So with that out of the way, this is pretty good game and I love to see a sequel of this game someday. Now if you want a good Shoot 'Em Up/Bullet Hell this could be a game your looking for.