Mecha Ritz is an innovative shmup with a uniquely manic pace thanks to its adaptive difficulty system and creative patterns.

MR's big gimmick is that it adjusts the game's difficulty on the fly, according to players performance's, and awards higher scores to higher difficulty runs. This isn't a new concept, having been done many times before in a variety of ways, but Mecha Ritz executes it with a very special flavor. When you play well, the game's difficulty ramps like an out of control roller coaster, providing instant feedback and a dazzling light show of chaos. "But wait!" you might be shouting while raising your finger inquisitively, "doesn't that mean the game must be really really hard? I don't like the sound of being punished for doing well". Well, actually, the games difficulty drops just as fast and as hard as it rises (once again, going back to the roller coaster analogy). This is both a blessing and a curse, because the game does lack the tension of constantly fighting for your existence that is so vital to the genre, but scoring and seeing how far you can push the chaos takes that drive's place, and allows the game to become even more manic (and at times, completely insane) while feeling rewarding and fair.

Beyond the adaptive difficulty, for me, the game's true strength is more fundamental. Even if the difficulty were set in place, Mecha Ritz is a masterpiece of adrenaline fueled pacing and cleverly designed stages and bosses. Stages are filled with unique setpieces and mini-bosses who rapidly jump in and out of the spotlight like over-excited circus performers relishing their time on stage. Bullet patterns and hazards do a brilliant job of forcing you to keep moving at high speed, as opposed to the slow microscopic dodges in most bullet hell games, and make dodging feel thrilling, free, and fun, without sacrificing any of the engagingly mind-bending chaos of traditional bullet hell shooters.

Mecha Ritz is a game that proves just how vital this oldest and purest of game genres still is, and the unending possibility for creativity that lies within it. With its over the top manic gameplay and quirky audiovisual presentation, Mecha Ritz has easily become one of my top 3 shmups ever made. Highly recommended.


PS: If you're on the fence, try the original freeware version. It lacks much of the polish and content of this version, and annoyingly forces you to unlock any level of difficulty beyond easy, but it's fundamental charm is much the same.

Heard this recommended on shmups.system11 as a shmup to not overlook and it was half off on a sale so I took the plunge.
Verdict: Super solid shmup.

While numbers are not everything, I do think they're a big deal in shmups, so here's some quick and dirty stats to entice you, curious buyer:
- There's 6 playable ships, each with two different versions that play almost entirely different (effectively making it 12 ships).
- 5 stages, with completely different alternate versions of stages 2,3, and 4, 2 final bosses, and a true end final boss.
- The game description wasn't lying when it said there's a mix of 40 bosses and mid-bosses. And they're mostly really good.
- Dynamic difficulty system that works surprisingly well.
- Good stage training modes and boss rush modes for practicing.

And it's not just all stats either, it's got the good game design to go along with it:
Some ships function very differently from others and will force you to heavily adapt how you play the game. Bosses are menacing and will not shy away from getting right up in your face, forcing you to leave the comfort zone at the bottom of the screen. Bosses sometimes come in groups and often times have strategic dismemberment.
The dynamic difficulty system affects game speed, enemy attack difficulty, and your own attack power, and will adapt to provide an easier experience if you're struggling, and a tougher experience if you manage to keep up.
The music isn't mind-blowing but it complements the action nicely and some tracks will stick with you.

All in all, pretty great. It's not nearly stellar or stylish enough to threaten Hellsinker's throne, but it's the closest I've seen a shmup get in a long time and you won't want to miss it.

An absolute tour de force. A shmup full of imaginative patterns, chaos, and rapid-fire fun. Magnificently paced, endlessly charming. Mecha Ritz really does earn its spot proudly right next to Crimzon Clover, Eschatos, and Mushihimesama. It is that good.

The rank system slides perfectly up and down, making the game faster and more chaotic, but you stronger, the better you do, and easier the more you take it on the chin. This creates a wonderful risk vs reward metric by making the game more and more intense the better you play. Combine with all the extra lives it gives you (A ridiculous amount compared to others in the genre. I would get 3-5 shields and 3-5 bombs usually each level.), and the game manages to make room for terrible play as well as reward extremely good play with crazier patterns.

Of course, you have to manage a decent rank to get the best ending, but even the bad ending is a rip roaring good time.

But even without the rank system, you have a game that is just brilliantly put together in every way. Do not let this one pass you by if you like shmups at all.

EDIT: The manual is a readme.txt file in the game install directory and explains the various systems. This is old school as can be.

Man this game is rad.

Mecha Ritz is a shoot em up game with a strong focus on its adaptive rank system which increases and decreases the difficulty depending on your actions in the game. As a result of this system, clearing the game is pretty easy. I'm a mediocre shmup player and was able to clear it on my first attempt with several lives left over. However clearing the game is not really the point. The real meat of this game revolves around the scoring system. The scoring system in the game mostly revolves around trying to push the rank as high as possible as well as speedkilling and point-blanking enemies. It's simple, but due to the games excellent use of the ranking system it always creates an exciting scoring experience for all skill levels. Player's will find themselves at a rank high above where they're comfortable and frantically dodging in order to try and keep it for going down. It's an adrenaline rush that needs to be experienced to be understood.

To top it all off the game has excellent visual presentation, fantastic music, TATE support, and a very customizable practice mode that allows you to switch ship types on the fly. My only real complaint is the lack of leaderboards given the game's focus on scoring. Some achievements would have also been nice but certainly aren't a deal breaker.

Regardless, I highly recommend this game to anyone interested in the genre. There's enough here to engage and challenge both newcomers and veterans to the genre making the game very open to all. If you are unsure, there is also a freeware version available online with less features and no translation but still a similar and exciting experience.

*Note: I didn't have internet during the time I played the game so time on record is way off.

This is a fantastic shmup experience right here. Wonderful bullet spreads with gameplay that basically changes the better you are. As you do better, the spreads become harder and move faster, enemies power up, and YOU become stronger. It really gives a good sense of synergy for the player and just makes thing flow until you get crushed by a wall of bullets.

Speed, main attack, special attack, and bomb all differ from ship to ship offering unique playtroughs with each one. You're even given options to change certain color aesthetics of the game to you liking with more options unlocking the more you play. The game can also be customized a bit (manipulating the ranking, etc.) before jumping into the action.

The music, sound, and aesthetics of the game offer some kind of retro/cyber punkish kind of feel to it. The tracks in the game are great, sound effects are pleasing and never get old, and the game is colorfull and full of fantastic designs.

This is definitely a title that deserves to be held up above the droves of other shmups that are rushing into the market. Fans of the genre shouldn't think twice about adding this to their library of games. Even at full price this game is less than a premium fast food meal and tastes even better.

I'm always awestruck when the credits roll and there is a single name listed for nearly every position. I suppose this has happened frequently lately mainly due to the types of games I've been playing. As you may have already guessed, this is the case with Mecha Ritz: Steel Rondo. If it weren't for Hanaji Games bringing Yuki Shouhei's (or HEY for short) game to Steam it's likely I never would have played it, which would have been unfortunate as it's one cool shooting game.

Mecha Ritz: Steel Rondo is a Japanese indie shmup that was formed around the goal of creating an STG that could be accessible to players of all levels. Often this is achieved by having several difficulty settings, but this game takes a different approach. There is a rank that is actively adjusted up and down depending on how well you're playing. The better you play, the higher the difficulty.

One might wager that playing well is defined as avoiding enemy fire, but it's not that simple. The system takes several variables of play style into account such as using bombs appropriately, avoiding bullets, the speed enemies are killed, and also the distance enemies are killed from. Rank is adjusted in real time so the challenge will rise and fall depending on your performance. When starting the game rank is set to zero by default, but it can be increased in order to have a higher difficulty right out of the gate. The fact that the game is generous with extra lives, shields, and bombs combines well with the ranking system. I quickly found myself playing aggressively to boost rank as much as I could handle knowing that there were ample resources available.

Playing aggressively will lead to trying to kill bosses as quickly as possible, and killing bosses quickly will lead to different endings. I've seen three endings and quite a few branching paths for alternate stages. After playing a small amount of time extra Mecha (ships) will be unlocked. The Mechas all have a unique primary fire, secondary fire, bombs, and other assorted attributes such as movement speed. Two Mechas even have an awesome graze mechanic that encourages and rewards riskier play. Mecha Ritz has a large amount of content, but the game doesn't do the best job at letting you know about it.

There is a text file in the game's directory that should absolutely be read before playing. I found myself frustrated by the lack of ability to return to the title screen while playing, but it turns out it's possible and explained in the file. It might have been more logical to simply have a pause menu with a quit option rather than holding three buttons though. There is no notification at all when you unlock a new ship, and I can imagine someone not even knowing that ships beyond the first six exist as they technically don't have icons of their own. The menu initially felt a little strange to maneuver, but works fine once you get the hang of it. Other than that, there isn't much else to say that I viewed as potentially negative.

Mecha Ritz: Steel Rondo is a great shooting game that is easily enjoyable by players at any skill level. Among the things I've already mentioned it also features a decent story, quirky cafe based sense of humor, FM synth soundtrack, and the ability to watch replays of your runs. It would have been really nice to have Steam achievements and leaderboards, but it doesn't actually detract from the game itself. HEY has truly created an excellent shoot 'em up, and it's probably one of the first games that would come to mind when suggesting a game for someone that wanted an introduction to the genre. I absolutely recommend Mecha Ritz: Steel Rondo.

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STG extraordinaire!

Lovely dynamic ranking system ;-)

The game can pinpoint and shave the difficulty as I'm playing, making the experience feel challenging but manageable at the same time. As someone who's not very skilled at shoot-em-ups, this makes all the difference, it never gets too overwhelming, but it's not pandering either.
I haven't played too much, but I'm feeling like later you want to get better at it, so you keep the difficulty high by dying less. It's a pretty neat system.

Also, music is glorious, cranked up bleeps and bloops. Almost nonsensical cutscenes are pretty cute.

Even if shmups aren't your thing, try this one. It's quite accessible in pretty interesting ways.

Vertical shooter with a futuristic AI theme. Intricate gameplay and dynamic difficulty. Various ship types. Super original presentation and lovely sound. Don't be fooled by the screenshots.

Listed on the Shoot 'em up Database

Don't let the rough, low-fi graphics fool you. This game has a soul of cast iron. A fast, twitchy shmup in the vein of Cave's best, but with a focus on branching progression (Clear levels fast and efficiently and more routes poen up) and dynamic difficulty. Stay alive and kill quickly and the game gets harder, with bullet patterns becoming more complex and enemies getting new powers. Thankfully, taking hits, using smartbombs or (ithe absolute worst) losing a life will drop things back down to something more manageable.

Even a crusty old coot like me managed to get the most basic ending after a few tries, although I've barely scratched the surface of what the game offers.

A single playthrough of this should clock in at around 25-30 minutes, but if you want to see all 15 stages and unlock every ship? you're going to have to play this A LOT.